Mandalay woman arrested for online post about resistance fighters who were burned to death

Myanmar’s military junta has arrested a Mandalay woman for posting comments online about a video that showed two resistance fighters being burned to death in Magway Region. Yun Sandi Maung, 18, was beaten as she was taken from her home in Mandalay’s Chanmyathazi Township on the evening of February 8, a source close to the victim told Myanmar Now. “All she did was share news about the [immolation] case and pray for the deceased to never reincarnate again in this tormented country and she was arrested for it,” the source said, speaking on condition of anonymity. Last week, horrific video footage showing the final agonising moments of two members of the anti-regime Yaw Defence Force began circulating widely on social media after being published by local news outlet Khit Thit Media on February 6. The victims, Phoe Tay and Tha Htaung, were both captured alive before being tortured to death by a military-backed Pyu Saw Htee group in Magway’s Gangaw Township last November. The incident occurred in the junta-controlled village of Myauk Khin Yan, where the military reportedly forced one member of each household to witness the gruesome killings, as the victims were suspended from chains and burned alive. After the video of the torture and murder of the two men, both aged 20, began appearing on various social media platforms, pro-junta accounts started issuing warnings that anyone who shared information about the incident would be arrested. The day after Yun Sandi Maung’s arrest, the same accounts began posting a photo of her in handcuffs. Pro-junta social media pages have also been calling for the arrest of another young woman from Mandalay who changed her profile picture to a blank page to mourn the victims. It has not yet been unconfirmed, however, if she has been arrested. “They are going to keep making arrests like this in urban areas where they dominate just to instil fear in the public. Their cruelty always leaves me speechless,” remarked a Mandalay man who did not want to be named. The junta has denied the authenticity of the video showing the killings in Myauk Khin Yan, calling it “fake news.”

Mandalay woman arrested for online post about resistance fighters who were burned to death

The regime has moved to suppress all news of the horrific killing by pro-junta forces, revealed in a video that began circulating last week

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