The 68-year-old father of the former chair of the All Burma Federation of Student Unions was arrested on Sunday after a pro-junta Telegram channel called for his arrest, and provided his home address.
“This is how the regime pressures dissidents, by arresting families and friends of those fighting the military dictatorship,” former student leader Ko Kyaw Ko Ko said. “This is how the regime forces its opponents to surrender,” he said.
A group of men in plain clothes arrested U Kyaw Aye, 68, from his home in Yangon’s Tamwe Township. His whereabouts remain unknown.
The retired schoolteacher is suffering from a number of health conditions, Ko Kyaw Ko Ko said. His father has high blood pressure, had eye surgery, and was recently injured in a fall, he explained.
Ko Kyaw Ko Ko was arrested during an anti-regime protest following the military coup in 2021. However, he escaped from a prisoner transport vehicle. He currently serves as general secretary of the Social Democratic Party, which opposes the regime.
Pro-junta Telegram channel Han Nyein Oo called for the arrest of his father in the second week of September.
“I think he was arrested in connection with me. The Han Nyein Oo [Telegram] channel provided [personal] details, including the house address and a screenshot of the Facebook profile of my father,” Ko Kyaw Ko Ko told The Irrawaddy.
