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Pregnant woman miscarries after arrest by junta in southern Shan State

The victim, a resident of the Danu Self-Administered Zone, had fled to the town of Pindaya following military and pro-junta militia raids on her home village in 2022

A woman living in Pindaya in southern Shan State’s Danu Self-Administered Zone had a miscarriage after being taken into junta custody in late September, local advocacy organisations and other sources said.

After coming to a home in Pindaya’s Sin Gaung ward in search of a man named Win Kyaw, military forces arrested his 30-year-old wife, Poe Eu, also called Poe Poe, on the afternoon of September 29.

Poe Eu, who was three months pregnant at the time of her arrest, was interrogated at the Ywangan police station for one night. By the time of her release the following morning, she had miscarried and had to be sent to the Pindaya Hospital for emergency treatment, according to Ying Leng Harn, a spokesperson for the organisation Shan Human Rights Foundation.

“The patient was already bleeding out when she was released, so we sent her to the Pindaya Hospital. They then found out she had had a miscarriage. We have been told that she was detained instead of her husband,” the spokesperson told Myanmar Now.

She added that, according to the information available to her, the military came to arrest her husband on suspicion of belonging to a resistance group.

Junta forces and Pyu Saw Htee militias had carried out raids on Pe Yin Taung, Ywangan Township and other nearby villages in March of 2022, resulting in the execution of nine villagers. 

The raids on the villages, located in the Danu Self-Administered Zone around 30 miles south of Ywangan, had displaced Poe Eu and most of her village’s inhabitants to Pindaya.

According to a local man personally connected to Poe Eu, her family was also displaced.

“The military came to arrest Win Kyaw but he got away and his wife, Poe Eu, was taken in his place. I heard that she miscarried out of shock when she saw other people being tortured at the interrogation centre. I’ve heard she also has a heart condition,”  the local man said.

Myanmar Now is still trying to reach the victim for a first-hand account. 

Various resistance forces and ethnic armed organisations—including the Ywangan Township People’s Defence Force (YPDF), Ywangan Urban Guerrillas group (YUG), Shan Nationalities Defence Force (SNDF) and Taunggyi Township People’s Defence Force (TPDF)—have fought back against junta forces carrying out offensives and arson attacks in the Danu Self-Administered Zone since the coup. 

Several anti-junta groups active in southern Shan State have since combined to form the Hmaw Bayin Column (Wizard King Column) and the Danu People’s Liberation Front (DPDF). Resistance forces commanded by the publicly mandated National Unity Government, including People’s Defence Force (PDF) Battalions 1001 to 1009, have also joined armed groups based in southern Shan State to fight junta forces on the border with Karenni State.

The junta-backed Pa-O National Army, the armed wing of the ethnic political group Pa-O National Organisation headed by Aung Kham Thi, is also fighting for control of the area.

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