Handful of detained Mrauk-U Twsp residents released

By DMG 08 Oct 2022

DMG Newsroom
8 October 2022, Mrauk-U

A local philanthropist and some other residents of Mrauk-U Township, Arakan State, who were recently detained by Myanmar’s military regime have been released, family members told DMG.

U Kyaw Nyunt, who volunteers for Mrauk-U’s Yadanarpala charitable organisation, was released on October 7, a day after he was detained by military and police personnel, the 54-year-old said on Saturday.

“I was sent back home at about 8 p.m. yesterday. I don’t know where I was taken because I was masked. They [regime officials] asked me whether I have any links with the Arakan Army. I replied to them that I have no links with AA and am a philanthropist,” U Kyaw Nyunt told DMG.

Ko Than Tun, chairman of the Nang Yeik Garuna Oxygen Association and his elder brother Ko Kyaw Than Naing from Arakan State’s Mrauk-U town, who were detained by the military on September 25, were also released on October 7, according to family members.

“The two brothers were freed at about 8 p.m. yesterday. I don’t know how they were interrogated,” said a family member.

U Kyaw, a 67-year-old pharmacy owner from Mrauk-U’s Myoma Market who is also a member of the Yadanarpala social foundation and who was arrested by the regime on October 1, was released on October 4.

At least 140 people in Arakan State have been arrested on suspicion by the military regime in the three-plus months from June 2022 to September 21, of which more than 60 people have not been released to date, according to a tally by DMG.

Dr. Win Naing Soe — a physician from Nga/Pa Thone cottage hospital who was detained by three men in plainclothes from the Public Health Department in the Arakan State capital Sittwe on September 27 — was released on October 5.

Among the civilians arrested by the military council on suspicion are several local leaders, philanthropists and civil servants.

Last month, the well-known social activist Ko Ann Thar Gyi was travelling to Mrauk-U as part of a trip to provide relief supplies for internally displaced people (IDPs) when junta troops fired shots at his vehicle at a Mrauk-U checkpoint on September 16. He managed to escape but the regime subsequently opened an incitement case against him under Section 505(a) of the Penal Code.

Civilian arrests have been on the rise in Arakan State and neighbouring Paletwa Township, Chin State, amid renewed conflict between Myanmar’s military and the Arakan Army.