Two women and a teenaged girl were arrested in Rakhine State’s Thandwe Township on Wednesday and charged one day later with allegedly financing the anti-junta People’s Defence Force (PDF).
Theint Aye Tun, a 17-year-old high school student, 28-year-old Tin Sandar Win and 35-year-old Nyein Ei Phyo Kyaw were all charged with violating the Counterterrorism Law.
Ward administrators and police officers arrived at Theint Aye Tun’s house at around 8pm and took her in for questioning, her aunt told Myanmar Now on Thursday.
“They said they just had some questions for her. We only learnt of the allegations of associating with the PDF when we got to the police station,” she said. “How could she financially support the PDF? She’s just a kid. I believe they will release her, because it’s obvious that she’s innocent.”
Theint Aye Tun’s aunt explained that all three of the accused were being held at the Thandwe Central Police Station at the time of reporting.
Locals said that four people were initially arrested but one was released on Thursday due to “inadequate evidence.”
Several arrests have been made by the military council in Rakhine State in recent months, particularly of locals accused of involvement with the PDF, the chapters of which are active across Myanmar but not in Rakhine, where the primary armed group is the Arakan Army (AA).
Among those arrested last month were Thandwe-based Arakan Frontier Party parliamentary candidate and activist Sein Chit, 42; Ye Naing Oo, a 24-year-old who did volunteer work with Sein Chit; and Min Dipar, a young writer from Mrauk-U.
Pe Than—a former Arakan National Party parliamentarian from Myebon Township elected in 2010 and 2015—described the arrests as unfair.
“It doesn’t make sense that they’re arresting people regarding the PDF in Rakhine State as we all know that there are no PDFs in this state,” he told Myanmar Now. “I don’t know if they’re mistaking other organisations for PDFs as there is no transparency at all.”
He added that further information on the cases would likely only become known once the accused are granted court hearings.
For years, the military arrested, tortured and killed several locals suspected of being involved with the AA when they were fighting the group in Rakhine and southern Chin states prior to entering into a ceasefire in November 2020.
Although some of the more than 200 locals charged with violating the Counterterrorism Law in connection with the AA were freed, more than 160 remain in detention, according to data compiled by Rakhine civil society organisations.
Thandwe, a known National League for Democracy stronghold—the party ousted in Myanmar’s February 1 military coup—has not seen mass anti-junta demonstrations similar to those occurring in other parts of the country, although some protests were held in the township immediately following the army’s seizure of power.
