Maungdaw GAD employee arrested for allegedly financing Arakan Army

By DMG 05 Dec 2022

DMG Newsroom
5 December 2022, Maungdaw 

Police have detained a civil servant from the township General Administration Department (GAD) in Maungdaw, Arakan State, according to reliable sources. 

The detainee has been identified as Ko Saw Thiha Aung, a 34-year-old clerk for the township GAD who is a resident of Ward-3 in Maungdaw. 

Personnel from the district police force arrived at Ko Saw Thiha Aung’s home in four civilian vehicles and took him in for questioning on November 26. 

“He was reportedly arrested for providing financial assistance to an unlawful association. The head of the district police force was among those who arrested him for questioning,” a source close to the matter told DMG. 

Around 10 men in civilian dress raided Ko Saw Thiha Aung’s house and took him away, a family member confirmed. 

“He was abducted by security personnel in plainclothes. All family members were sleeping in the morning as his wife was sick on that day. He was taken to the car without being handcuffed,” the relative told DMG, adding that Ko Saw Thiha Aung’s wife is pregnant and distressed due to her husband’s arrest.  

“We are worried about his safety; his wife is pregnant and is sick,” the family member said. 

DMG attempted to contact officials from the Maungdaw Myoma police station as Ko Saw Thiha Aung is reportedly being detained there, but they could not be reached. 

DMG phoned U Kan Tun Aung, the administrator of Maungdaw Township, to seek comment on the matter, but he declined to take questions. 

According to reliable sources, starting in the last week of November, the military began hunting down more than 100 local people in Maungdaw Township whose names are on a wanted list for allegedly providing monthly financial assistance and collecting food items for the Arakan Army (AA). 

Dozens of Maungdaw residents on the list went into hiding to evade arrest, according to locals. 

Clashes between the military and AA were a regular occurrence in Maungdaw District and elsewhere across Arakan State over recent months, prior to the two sides reaching an informal ceasefire on November 26. The truce was brokered by the chairman of Japan’s Nippon Foundation, Yohei Sasakawa. 

A total of 324 innocent civilians were detained during the fighting and only 85 of them have since been released, the AA spokesman said at an online press conference on November 28.