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Dozens of civilians in Dawei rounded up for arrest after soldiers’ deaths, locals say 

Soldiers and police reportedly detained around 50 civilians for questioning on Monday afternoon after two regime soldiers were beaten to death in Dawei, Tanintharyi Region, according to local residents.

By Tuesday afternoon, most of those taken into junta custody in the incident had been released, one of the local sources said. At the time of reporting, Myanmar Now was unable to identify the identities and number of people still in detention. 

The issue began on Sunday night, when two men in plainclothes drove a motorcycle down No. 4 Road in the Wea Kyun area of Dawei at around midnight, locals said. Civilians were keeping watch over the area, a regular practice adopted by locals nationwide in response to the nighttime raids that have followed the February 1 military coup. 

After the night watchmen tried to stop the motorcycle, the men intentionally drove into them and hit them, according to eyewitnesses. Local residents then confronted the men on the bike, which escalated until they had beaten one of the men to death. 

A card on the body of the deceased man indicated that he was a soldier, and residents learned that both men on the motorcycle were members of the military. The civilians then called for help from an emergency rescue team to transport the surviving man to a military hospital. He reportedly died of his injuries the next day. 

“[The night watchmen] tried to stop the motorcycle because [the two men] were strangers, but they drove the motorcycle intentionally to hit the night watchmen. Then they drove off into the neighbourhood,” a local told Myanmar Now. “The residents in that neighbourhood surrounded them. Then the people beat them up, and one of them died. The other one was nearly dead.”

On March 22, the following day, the military junta retaliated by showing up to the area with troops, police, and 10 military trucks. They proceeded to arrest around 50 people from the area, according to two local sources. 

“People on three streets were taken away for questioning. Both children and adults were taken away,” a resident said. “They were looking for the [male] heads of each household, but they also took away some women because those houses did not have a male head of household. They even took away a two-year-old child.”  

A source who witnessed the arrests on one street said she saw around 20 people arrested by the armed forces. 

Local news outlet Dawei Watch reported that around one dozen people were arrested on Monday at an area near the same neighbourhood. The report, however, did not specify a link between the arrests and the death of the two soldiers. 

 

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