Myanmar regime arrests former deputy speaker of Mon State parliament

A former member of the Mon State legislature who resigned in protest following the 2021 coup was arrested by military authorities in the state capital Mawlamyine on Wednesday, according to sources close to him. Authorities detained Dr. Aung Naing Oo, 54, at the exit from Mawlamyine as he was setting out to render aid to civilians displaced by recent clashes in Mon State’s Kyaikmayaw Township. “I heard they knew the number plate of the car he was traveling in,” a source close to Dr. Aung Naing Oo said. “They knew the car belonged to a monk. They accused Dr. Aung Naing Oo of funding resistance forces, and they took him and his entire team.” The former lawmaker was leading efforts to help internally displaced persons (IDPs) who had fled their homes in Dhamma Tha and other Kyaikmayaw Township villages impacted by junta airstrikes and shelling since March. “He was going there to provide food and necessities for the IDPs. He had nothing to do with resistance forces like they claim,” the source said. As of Thursday, it is not yet known where authorities are holding Dr. Aung Naing Oo and his team. “He has not been released yet,” another of Dr. Aung Naing Oo’s friends said. Myanmar Now attempted to reach Dr. Aung Myat Kyaw Sein, the spokesperson for the junta’s administration in Mon State, but received no response. Dr. Aung Naing Oo won three consecutive elections to the Mon State Hluttaw—meaning parliament—representing the Chaung Sone Township 1 constituency as a member of the Mon Unity Party (MUP). He became deputy speaker of the legislative body in 2015. Shortly after the February 2021 coup, Dr. Aung Naing Oo and other MUP members resigned their memberships when the party’s leadership agreed to cooperate with the coup regime and approved its members’ acceptance of posts in the military council. Since leaving the party and stepping down from the Mon State Hluttaw, Dr. Aung Naing Oo has been engaged in community service as well as literary and cultural affairs. Earlier this year, members of another Mon ethnic organisation—the New Mon State Party (NMSP)—broke away from the group to form the Anti-Dictatorship New Mon State Party (NMSP-AD). In 2015, the NMSP was one of the ethnic armed groups that suspended hostilities with the Myanmar military by signing the Nationwide Ceasefire Agreement. The NMSP-AD, however, does not recognise the agreement and has fought alongside anti-junta forces such as the Karen National Liberation Army since its formation.

Myanmar regime arrests former deputy speaker of Mon State parliament

Dr. Aung Naing Oo, a former Mon State lawmaker, was still in junta custody as of Thursday morning, according to his personal associates

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