Bodies of Two Missing Arakanese Fishermen Found With Throats Cut

By Min Aung Khine 20 December 2018

SITTWE—The bodies of two Arakanese men who went missing in Rakhine State’s Maungdaw on Monday were recovered with their throats slit on Thursday morning.

U Maung Tun Aye, 56, of Maungdaw’s Upper Pyu Ma village, and U Maung Maung Than, 51, of Rathedaung’s Ohn Chaung village, went fishing in Pyu Ma Creek on Monday evening. When they had failed to return by the following day, their families reported them missing to Nga Khu Ya Police Station.

Police and locals searched for the two, and found them dead with their throats cut near the creek, Maungdaw Township administrator U Myint Khaing told The Irrawaddy.

Police are still investigating the crime, he said. “We don’t know yet who killed them. But throat-slitting is ARSA’s usual method of killing,” he said, referring to the Arakan Rohingya Salvation Army.

“One group searched along the creek by boat, and another group used motorbikes to search the road that runs along the creek,” Kyein Chaung village administrator U Ko Ko Aung told The Irrawaddy.

In another case, two ethnic Maramagyi men, U Saw Tun Oo and U Maung Hla Oo, were reportedly attacked by Rohingya while fishing in Pyu Ma Creek on Monday evening.

U Saw Tun Oo managed to get away and call for help. U Maung Hla Oo was hit in the head with an oar and seriously injured. He was transferred to Maungdaw Township Hospital from Kyein Chaung Hospital on Thursday.

On Dec. 16, a 13-year-old girl from Thit Taw village in Maungdaw Township was found dead with her throat slit some 2 miles from the village. She went missing the previous day while tending cattle.