Seven striking educators detained in Thayawady Twsp since coup

By DMG 04 Dec 2021

DMG Newsroom
4 December 2021, Thayawady (Bago Region) 

Up to seven educational employees have been arrested by the military council for joining the Civil Disobedience Movement (CDM), according to the General Strike Committee of Basic Education Workers (Thayawady). 

The regime is pursuing CDM schoolteachers in Thayawady Township, and arresting their parents and other family members if they are not found, said a member of the General Strike Committee of Basic Education Workers (Thayawady). 

“The junta soldiers are forcibly arresting the CDM teachers. They [the soldiers] sometimes take some people as hostages if they don’t find the CDM teachers. Similar incidents are happening everywhere,” he said. 

Junta troops raided the home of U Tezar Min Aung, a CDM schoolteacher in Thayawady Township’s Nga Phyu Kalay village, for the second time and took his father as hostage. 

Regime forces also searched for Daw Thuzar Myint, a CDM teacher in Hlanlelku village, and abducted her nephew as hostage as they didn’t find the teacher, family members said. 

U Aung Ye Htut, another CDM teacher, was arrested by junta soldiers at his home in Thonze Township on November 30 when he returned home from a location where he had been hiding out, a family member told DMG. 

“He joined the CDM after the military coup as he didn’t want to work under the military council. He was forcibly arrested by the junta soldiers and police when he returned home after he went into hiding,” the family member said. 

Three residents of Phalankon village, including U Aung Ye Htut, were taken from their homes, a local said. “The CDM teacher was arrested along with two other residents,” the local added. 

In addition, the junta troops arrested U Hla Myo Tun, a CDM teacher from Nga Phyu Kalay village at around 11 a.m. on December 1, according to the CDM teachers in Thayawady Township. 

A total of 527 educational employees in the eight townships of Thayawady District had reportedly joined the CDM from February to early December.