Military detains Sittwe man during nighttime checks of household registration papers

By DMG 25 Nov 2022

DMG Newsroom
25 November 2022, Sittwe

A resident of Kathae Ward in Sittwe, Arakan State, was abducted from his home by junta soldiers on Wednesday night, locals said.

The arrestee has been identified as 53-year-old U Aung Tin Maung aka Mrauk-U Chay. About 50 junta soldiers and police personnel took him away for questioning, said a resident who declined to be named for security reasons.

“Junta soldiers and police arrested him at gunpoint at his home at around 10 p.m. on November 23,” the unnamed resident told DMG. “Security personnel also raided our home and conducted checks on our household registration card and ID cards. Junta soldiers confiscated the mobile phone of the wife of the detainee. She [U Aung Tin Maung’s wife] locked up her home and left in the morning.”

“The couple has no children or relatives in Sittwe. She left home in the morning after her husband was arrested,” another resident said.

It is not known where U Aung Tin Maung is currently being held. Junta soldiers conducted checks of other local residents’ household registration cards on the same night that he was abducted.

Dozens of junta soldiers and fully armed police have been conducting interrogations of local residents and passersby at junctions and elsewhere on the streets of Sittwe in recent months.

DMG was unable to obtain comment from the regime spokesman Major-General Zaw Min Tun or Arakan State Minister for Security and Border Affairs Colonel Kyaw Thura.