Journalist and writer Tu Tu Tha, two of her relatives and a family friend were arrested by the regime’s troops in Yangon’s Thanlyin township on Saturday night, according to a source close to her family.
She was detained at her home along with her 18-year-old son, Nyan Lu Thit, her younger brother, Ye Naung, and her son’s friend, Thiha Tun, said the source, who asked not to be named for security reasons.
“Ward administrators, police and soldiers came to her house with cars around ten thirty last night, saying they needed to check overnight guest registrations, and then arrested them,” he told Myanmar Now.
“We have not had contact with them since then,” he added.
Tu Tu Tha, 49, is writer and a former editor at The Irrawaddy’s Burmese edition. She also worked as the editor-in-chief of the Thanlyin Post and as a part-time journalism trainer.
The reason behind her arrest is still unclear.
The coup regime has been pressuring people to register overnight guests at their ward administration offices. It has also ordered its ward-level staff to open new offices in a bid to enforce its authority at the local level across the country.
Many are refusing to comply with the order to register guests, but others have flocked to the ward offices to do so out of fear of repercussions.
The reporting system, which is based on a clause in the Ward and Village Tract Administration Law, was abolished by the NLD government in 2016. But it was revived by the coup regime soon after it seized power on February 1.
Thirty nine journalists, including Myanmar Now’s multimedia reporter Kay Zon Nway, are now in the regime’s custody, according to the Detained Journalist Information Facebook group.
They are among at least 3,389 people being detained for their opposition to military rule, according to the latest tally by the Assistance Association for Political Prisoners.
