Junta steps up security checks on buses in Waw Twsp on Yangon-Mawlamyine road

By DMG 11 Dec 2021

DMG Newsroom
11 December 2021, Bago Region 

Junta forces on Saturday morning reportedly tightened security checks on buses and other vehicles outside the Waw Township police station in Bago Region, which is located along the Yangon-Mawlamyine road. 

The stepped up inspections have been heavy-handed, the driver of a bus line running between Yangon and Mon State’s Kyaikto and Kyaiktiyo told DMG. 

“They opened fire if a bus did not stop to accept their checking. All passengers were told to get off the bus and walk. They also checked phones. We do not know if anyone was arrested,” the driver said. 

Security checks are not unheard of in Waw, a resident of the township said, while adding that the inspections of Tatmadaw troops on December 11 were notably more aggressive. 

“I do not know why they tightened the security check. They checked the toolbox of my motorbike,” the resident said. 

The junta-appointed chief minister of Bago Region, U Myo Swe Win, was sanctioned by the US government on Friday. The US Treasury department said at least 82 people were killed in Bago Region on April 9 in a particularly brutal crackdown on anti-regime protesters. 

On November 30, Ko Sai Mon Zaw from Chan Mya Tharsi ward in Waw Township died after he was released from interrogation in junta custody the month prior. 

He was arrested in April for handing out pamphlets during an anti-military protest. He died at Swedaw Special Clinic in Bago while receiving treatment for injuries reportedly consistent with torture under interogation.