Half of the about 200 residents of Rakhine State’s capital rounded up by junta troops in a midnight sweep on Saturday were released on Monday after relatives paid ransoms at junta military bases in the city, which is under siege by the Arakan Army, residents of Sittwe told The Irrawaddy on Tuesday.
They said about 100 people were released from detention at military bases and allowed to return home after relatives paid ransoms of about 700,000 kyats (about US$ 225) per detainee on Monday.
About 200 people, some as young as 15, were detained when junta troops swept through Sittwe’s Mingan ward at about midnight on Saturday. The junta troops claimed they were inspecting households to determine whether the people in them were registered at the ward’s administrative office in either census data or on overnight guest lists, but the arrests were arbitrary, Sittwe residents said.
They said that those rounded up on Saturday were trucked to military bases and told to call relatives to pay ransoms for their release.
Ko Lu Hman told The Irrawaddy that only four women were included in the about 100 detainees released on Monday. “They had to pay about 700,000 kyats each to be released,” he said.
Other residents of Sittwe said the detainees were told to call relatives and tell them to bring money to the bases they were detained at to pay for their release.
Ko Lu Hman said junta officers have threatened to charge those who have yet to be ransomed with violating the Unlawful Association Act. They are being accused of being connected the Arakan Army because their ransoms have not been paid, he said.
Junta officers are also threatening to force detainees into military service if they do not find cash to pay their ransom. “Officers threatened to conscript one girl for military service if her family refused to pay 700,000 for her release,” Ko Lu Hman explained.
The Arakan Army has said that junta troops in the state have weak leadership and are increasingly demoralized by the severity of their defeats on the battlefield.
The Arakan Army has steamrolled through Myanmar’s westernmost state since launching a coordinated assault on junta positions there on November 13 last year. It began in northern townships of the state where, during an unofficial ceasefire with the junta, it gradually took administrative control over most rural areas.
The ethnic army is now targeting the last strongholds of the junta: Muangdaw Township on the border with Bangladesh, Ann Township, home to the junta’s Western Command Center, southern Rakhine, and Sittwe.
Sittwe is surrounded by the Arakan Army, which controls all land routes to the capital and has announced that it will eventually take it.
As the junta’s military collapses in Rakhine State, its troops are increasingly targeting civilians.
They are accused of massacring 76 villagers detained on May 29 during a raid on Byian Phyu village in Sittwe township. Junta forces also killed about 10 residents of Singaung village near Ngapali Beach in Thandwe Township and incinerated 200 homes when the junta’s army, navy and air force unleashed a joint bombing campaign on the fishing village earlier this month.
The Arakan Army has repeatedly provided evidence that Myanmar’s military is committing grave war crimes in the state. These include shelling hospitals and places where civilians gather, like markets, as well as gang rape and murder. The ethnic army has urged residents of the state to flee junta troops and areas where regime forces are fortifying their positions.
The Arakan Army now fully controls 11 of Rakhine’s 17 townships.
