University student, taxi driver detained at Maungdaw checkpoint face charges under Unlawful Associations Act

By DMG 07 Dec 2022

DMG Newsroom
7 December 2022, Maungdaw 

A university student and a motorcycle taxi driver who were detained on November 1 at the Kyeinchaung security checkpoint in Maungdaw, Arakan State, have been charged under Sections (1) and (2) of the Unlawful Associations Act, according to family members of the accused. 

The accused have been identified as Ma Aye Mya Sandar, 24, from Pyainetaung Village in Minbya Township, and motorcycle taxi driver Maung Maung Kyaw from Aungthaphwe Village. 

The pair were charged under Sections (1) and (2) of the Unlawful Associations Act on suspicion of having ties to the Arakan Army (AA) and were held on remand for the first time on December 5, family members said. 

“It is impossible for her to have connections with unlawful associations. She [Ma Aye Mya Sandar] was grappling with school and training courses. She has been unfairly accused of having contact with an illegal organisation,” a family member of the university student told DMG. 

Ma Aye Mya Sandar was visiting her relatives in northern Maungdaw Township’s Mingalarnyunt Village at the time of the encounter with security personnel. She had hired Maung Maung Kyaw to take her to Maungdaw town after visiting her family in Mingalarnyunt Village, and the pair were arrested at the Kyeinchaung security checkpoint. 

They have been detained for about a month and their families are worried about the safety of the accused as the pair have not been allowed to meet with family members, said U Oo Chit Tin, an elder brother of Ko Maung Maung Kyaw. 

“I don’t know where they are detained. We were denied the chance to meet with the detainees when we went to the Kyeinchaung security checkpoint to inquire about them; they [junta soldiers] told me that they were not there,” he explained. 

DMG continues to attempt to contact officials at the Kyeinchaung security checkpoint and Arakan State Minister for Security and Border Affairs Colonel Kyaw Thura regarding the matter. 

At least 46 people were arrested on suspicion of having ties to the Arakan Army and charged under the Unlawful Associations Act and/or incitement under Sections 505(a) and (b) of the Penal Code during some four months of heightened military tensions between the military and AA in Arakan State, according to a DMG tally. 

The military and AA agreed to an informal ceasefire on November 26, following months of renewed hostilities that began in earnest in August.