Regime detains activist in Kyauktaw

By DMG 21 Jun 2022

DMG Newsroom
21 June 2022, Kyauktaw 

The Myanmar military detained Ko Zaw Win aka Ludu Zaw Win, a political and social activist in Arakan State’s Kyauktaw Township, on Tuesday morning. 

Ko Zaw Win, 42, was arrested while having lunch at his home in Kyauktaw’s Pyidawtha ward, said Ko Kyaw Hla Myint, a Kyauktaw resident. 

“The news is true. He [Ko Zaw Win] was arrested at his home while having lunch with his family. I don’t know the cause of the arrest and it is very difficult to know the details,” he told DMG. 

Ko Zaw Win is a local philanthropist who assists internally displaced people (IDPs) in the area, and his whereabouts remain unknown, Ko Kyaw Hla Myint added. 

The military’s detention of Ko Zaw Win comes after the Arakan Army detained three policemen from Kyauktaw Myoma police station on June 20. Military raids of households in the area of the police station were reported following the police officers’ detention on Monday night. 

Junta personnel raided the home of U Kyaw Maung aka U Nyunt Maung, a former administrator of Kyauktaw’s Pyidawtha ward, after the incident Monday, but the ex-administrator was not home at the time, according to Ko Kyaw Hla Myint . 

“Junta soldiers came to the house of the former administrator of Pyidawtha ward and stormed the door with guns at around 12:00 last night. The junta soldiers also ordered the former administrator’s wife to open boxes,” Ko Kyaw Hla Myint added. 

“I have gone into hiding since yesterday as I received a tipoff in advance. I didn’t know exactly what was happening in downtown Kyauktaw,” an unnamed ward administrator said. 

Junta soldiers were conducting security checks and interrogations of passersby, motorbikes and vehicles in Kyauktaw on June 21, according to locals. 

Maj-Gen Zaw Min Tun, spokesman for the regime, and Colonel Kyaw Thura, Arakan State minister for Security and Border Affairs, were not available for comment.