ARSA abducts five local men in northern Arakan 

By Admin 09 Dec 2024

DMG Newsroom
9 December 2024, Buthidaung

Family members said they are worried about the safety of five local men from northern Arakan State who were abducted by the Arakan Rohingya Salvation Army (ARSA) last week.

The abductees have been identified as Ko Maung Maung, 22, Ko Ye Ko Ko, 26, and U Oo Hla Win, 39, from Buthidaung Township’s Hsin Swel Ya Village, and U Hla Yay Maung, 58, and U Nyo Thar Sein, 57, from Kontan Village in Rathedaung Township.

A video clip of the five men being arrested by ARSA members went viral on social media on December 8. ARSA members are seen in the video beating the detainees and pressuring them to tell the Arakkha Army (AA) to stop fighting with the Muslim armed group and withdraw from Maungdaw District.

ARSA members were seen holding guns around the detainees, and the two Rathedaung residents appeared to have suffered injuries to their heads and faces.

“Family members have been searching for them [the five men] since their arrest. Now, the five of them are in a video posted by ARSA, showing blood and bloodshed as they are beaten. I don’t know exactly whether they are alive or not. We have not been able to contact them,” said a family member of one of the detainees.

A group of about 10 ARSA members reportedly entered Hsin Swel Ya Village at around 10 p.m. on December 4, firing guns and beheading 16-year-old Ma Khin Win with a knife. ARSA members also abducted Ko Maung Maung, Ko Ye Ko Ko, and U Oo Hla Win that night, and set fire to five homes in the village.

The two Rathedaung Township residents were on their way to buy goods at the Bangladesh border when they too were abducted by ARSA while briefly visiting Hsin Swel Ya Village.

Four days since they were detained, the five men been have not been released and their families are worried about their well-being.

“We don’t know their whereabouts. We are trying to contact them, but we are not sure whether they are alive. We are concerned for their safety. We want to meet them alive,” said another family member of one of the detainees.

Muslim armed groups such as ARSA, the Rohingya Solidarity Organization (RSO) and the Arakan Rohingya Army (ARA) are active in Maungdaw and Buthidaung townships and along the Mayu mountain range, where they are known to arrest, kill, abduct, shoot and extort local residents.

A man from Aungzeya Village, part of Arakan State’s Maungdaw Township, was shot dead by ARSA on December 4.

“Muslim armed groups have taken up residence in refugee camps in Bangladesh and are robbing, abducting, and killing local people from Arakan State. Such incidents are not new, but have happened in the past. The Bangladeshi government and the Myanmar authorities need to deal with these issues seriously,” said a politician in Arakan State.

While the AA currently controls essentially all of Maungdaw District, ARSA, RSO and ARA are active in pockets along the Mayu Mountain Range, where they have been reported entering villages, and detaining and killing locals.