Arbitrary Arrest of Two Villagers by Burma Border Guard Force in Mong Yawng, Eastern Shan State

Update by the Shan Human Rights Foundation | March 27, 2017

Two villagers were arbitrarily arrested by Burma Army Border Guard Force (BGF) troops in Mong Yawng, eastern Shan State, during March 13-18, 2017.

On March 12, at 8 pm, a group of troops from BGF no. 1008 came to the house of Loong Narn Oon, aged 54, in Wan Htin, Wan Tap tract, Murng Yawng township. They broke down his door, and searched his house, but could not find him.

The troops kept searching for Loong Narn Oon, and found him in the monastery of Wan Pann, two miles south of Wan Htin, at about 1 am on March 13. They took him to the Burma Army Battalion 335 base at Mong Yawng town. There they interrogated him, and accused him of collecting taxes for Shan troops. They locked him up in a room for three days, and then forced him to go out on patrol with them. They made him carry a gun.

At 11 pm on March 16, some BGF troops went to arrest another villager, 48-year-old Sai Noi Sarng Hseng, at his house in Wan Ho Yang, west of Wan Pann. They took him to the Battalion 335 base in Mong Yawng, but luckily his relatives and the village headman followed him to the base, and after giving assurances that he was just a villager, and not a member of a Shan armed group, they were able to arrange for his release on March 17 at 4 pm.

When the BGF troops went to arrest Sai Noi Sarng Hseng, they also took Loong Narn Oon with them. On March 18, when the BGF could not find any evidence that Loong Narn Oon was linked to the Shan army, he was released and sent home. There he found that money and valuables worth 20 million kyat had been looted from his house. Two years earlier his son had been killed by Burma Army troops of LIB 573 at his house.

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Sai Hor Hseng +66: (0) 62- 941-9600 (English, Shan)
Ying Lawnt Lieng +66: (0) 63-838-9029 (English, Burmese)