The family of a man taken from his village by soldiers in southern Rakhine State’s Taungup Township last week say they are worried for his wellbeing and have been unable to contact him since his arrest.
Maung Hla Shwe, 47, was detained at around 9pm last Thursday after soldiers from Light Infantry Division (LID) 55 arrived in his village of Pauk Inn, his wife Aye Pyone told Myanmar Now.
“Eyewitnesses told me that he was taken by the LID 55 column,” she said. “We don’t know where he was taken and we can’t contact him. Our relatives are still asking around.” Maung Hla Shwe suffers from hypertension and heart disease, she said: “I’m especially worried about his health.”
The LID 55 column, which reportedly contained around 50 soldiers, arrived at Pauk Inn on Wednesday and called a meeting with the village elders to ask if any residents there were affiliated with the Arakan Army (AA), a local woman said.
“They asked if the villagers had connections with the AA and if we had been funding them,” she said.
The administrator of Pauk Inn, Maung Hla Myint, said he had not received any information about Maung Hla Shwe’s arrest. “It’s true that he was arrested but I was away when it happened, so I don’t know the exact details. I only heard about it from the others,” said the administrator.
Maung Hla Shwe’s brother said he had heard a rumour that his relative was being held at the military’s No. 544 Base in the nearby town of Taungup.
“He was taken after 9pm, I heard that the LID 55 column from Ngapali and Thandwe, and another one from No. 544 Base in Taungup were in the village that night,” said the brother, who asked not to be named.
Shortly before being detained on Thursday evening, Maung Hla Shwe was leaving his village with his brother-in-law, Ko Ko Htwe, the brother said.
But Ko Ko Htwe remembered he had left his slippers behind, so he left Maung Hla Shwe waiting at the village entrance while he went to fetch them. Then the soldiers arrived.
“Ko Ko Htwe then ran into the soldiers who pointed their guns at him and asked what he was doing outside so late at night, and he told them that he was looking for his lost chickens,” the brother said.
He added: “Ko Ko Htwe’s wife is a nurse and he was released when he told the soldiers about his wife being a nurse. But he did not go back to my brother and nobody even knew my brother was taken.”
Pauk Inn sits in the Pada village tract, which contains three villages and a total of 320 households. Last week was the third time that soldiers had come to the village, Maung Hla Myint, the administrator.
“No one was interrogated in person but the village elders were summoned and told to warn the villagers not to associate with armed groups,” he said.
Several locals have reported that soldiers in Taungup and Manaung townships have been warning residents against associating with the AA recently.
Fighting between the rebel group and the military came to a halt in November 2020, and since last year’s coup Rakhine has been one of the few places in the country where the junta has not faced armed resistance.
But in recent months tensions have risen between the two sides in Rakhine, leading to sporadic clashes.
