Myanmar Forces Arrest Two Village Officials For Alleged Ties to the Arakan Army

*A Myanmar police vehicle drives down a street in a town in western Myanmar’s Rakhine state in an undated photo*~*RFA file video screenshot*

Two village administrators in Myanmar’s war-torn Rakhine state are being charged under the country’s Counter-Terrorism Law for allegedly having suspected ties to the rebel Arakan Army, relatives of the men and officials said Wednesday.

The arrests come as Myanmar’s military is increasingly using the country’s Counter-Terrorism Law to prosecute civilians and local officials for alleged ties to the rebel force. The army has been stepping up its offensives a 17-month-long campaign to crush the AA’s armed drive for greater autonomy for ethnic Rakhines in the state.

Military and police forces detained and charged Maung Zaw, administrator of A-ngu Thit village, and Kyaw Myint, administrator of Ywathit Kay village, both in Myebon township, May 30 after being summoned to a meeting, their wives and Pe Than, a lawmaker from the township, told RFA.

They have been charged under sections 50(j) and 51(b) of the Counter-Terrorism Law, Pe Than said.

Section 50(j) pertains to offenses regarding financing terrorism and carries a prison sentence of 10 years to life, with the possibility of a fine. Section 51(b) pertains to offenses regarding unmarked plastic explosives and carries a five-to-10-year prison sentence, with or without a fine.

“The tactical commander of the military troops stationed in the region took away the two for a conversation,” Pe Than said. “They have searched their houses while the officers were interrogating them.”

The pair was charged the following day and remanded by the court on Monday, he said.

Hla Thein Kyi, wife of Kyaw Myint, said she does not know why her husband was arrested, but surmised it had to do with accusations of ties to the AA, which the Myanmar government has declared an illegal association and a terrorist organization.

“He hasn’t come back home,” she told RFA. “They rummaged through the whole house. They went through all the documents related to his work, but they couldn’t find anything. We don’t know why he was arrested.”

“We can’t think of any reasons for the arrest,” she said. “They don’t have any evidence against him. … It is acceptable if he was arrested for some kind of evidence that pointed to having connections to AA.”

RFA could not reach the commander of Myebon Town Police Station or Zarni Kyaw, administrator of Myebon township, for comment.

Myanmar military spokesman Brigadier Gen Zaw Min Tun said the interrogation of the two men revealed that they had ties to the AA.

“The authorities found through the interrogations that two village administrators have connections to AA, and the government attorney decided to charge them under the Counter-Terrorism Law based on the findings,” he said.

AA spokesman Khine Thukha told RFA that the charges are false.

“The two village administrators in detention have no connections to the AA,” he said, adding that they are ordinary civilians.

“It is unacceptable that the Myanmar military has consistently used the same law to charge innocent village administrators,” he said.

Officials consider quitting

Local residents said Myanmar soldiers have been posted to the police station and have been conducting search operations in the area since May.

Many administrators resigned in 2019 from their positions in other northern Rakhine townships, including Kyauktaw, Rathedaung, Mrauk-U, and Minbya, following the arrests of other administrative officials amid the armed conflict.

Additional administrators say they are terrified that Myanmar security forces will arbitrarily arrest them on the same accusations, and some are planning to resign.

“In my opinion, it would be best to resign,” said one village administrator who declined to give his name out of fear for his safety. “If they charge us, we can’t do anything. It could happen to us.”

Pe Than said the military should be more understanding of the delicate situation of village administrators who have to deal with all armed forces operating in their areas.

“They might have helped the members of insurgent groups out of concern for their own safety, while they have had to do the same when the military shows up in the villages,” he said.

“The government and military should understand their precarious situation between a rock and a hard place,” he said. “If the authorities keep arresting and charging the administrators, it will drive them into a corner, and they all might resign. Then, the administrative mechanism in the region will collapse.”

It remains unknown who the plaintiff is in the cases against Maung Zaw and Kyaw Myint.

Military spokesman Zaw Min Tun dismissed concerns that administrative mechanisms in Rakhine state could collapse if many administrators resigned out of concern for their safety.

“Many people will line up to replace the ones who quit,” he said.

AA raids on police outposts in late 2018 and in early 2019 triggered the conflict in northern Rakhine state — a region already devastated by the Myanmar army’s campaign to expel 740,000 Rohingya Muslims in 2017.

More than 100 civilians have been killed and hundreds more injured since 2019, caught by mortar shelling, landmines, and other explosives, while the fighting has displaces more than 160,000 others, according to the Rakhine Ethnics Congress, a local relief group.

The military and Myanmar government have charged civilians and journalists under the Counter-Terrorism Law.

In May, five ethnic Rakhine men who were videoed while being beaten by soldiers on a naval vessel were charged under the country’s Counter-Terrorism Law for having suspected ties to the AA, though their relatives and friends said the charges were false,

Journalists Thar Loon Zaung Htet of Khit Thit News and Khine Myat Kyaw of Narinjara News were charged in March for violating the Counter-Terrorism Law by interviewing members of the AA, forcing them to go into hiding.

Similarly, police arrested Voice of Myanmar editor-in-chief Nay Myo Lin in Mandalay the same month for the publication of an interview with the AA spokesman, but prosecutors later dropped the charges.

Reported by RFA Myanmar Service, Translated by Ye Kaung Myint Maung. Written in English by Roseanne Gerin.