On November 27, the Tatmadaw spokesperson announced that the families could open a case at the relevant police station and that if the police reported any suspicious information, the Tatmadaw would decide whether to conduct its own investigation. No updates came until June, when a Tatmadaw spokesperson denied anyone had been arrested in the two villages. Letters were also sent to the Myanmar National Human Rights Commission and the offices of the commander-in-chief, president, and state counsellor, calling for an investigation. On March 23, a group of family members of the missing, now scattered in different displacement camps, filed a case regarding the disappearances with township police. Myanmar’s police forces sit under the Ministry of Home Affairs, which is under the jurisdiction of the Tatmadaw. Villagers blame the Tatmadaw, which has denied responsibility. Shortly after the villages were deserted, the houses were razed. Zaw Win, a local advocate helping the families of the missing to seek justice, told Al Jazeera that three elderly men stayed in Tinma Gyi to watch over the monastery and have also not been seen since. At the time, the soldiers didn’t give any reason … 10 people were tied and beaten with guns in front of me.” “I don’t know why we were arrested by the Tatmadaw. “Tatmadaw soldiers went house to house, calling the men,” said Tun Hla,* who was among those arrested and released. The arrests in Tinma Gyi and Tinma Thit occurred following two weeks of intense clashes near the villages. Since conflict escalated in late 2018, nearly 1,000 civilians have been killed or seriously injured in violence including indiscriminate air raids, gunfire, and landmines and more than 230,000 have fled their homes.
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Frustrated with political marginalisation and perceived domination under Myanmar’s ethnic Bamar majority, increasing numbers of Arakanese have in recent years joined the Arakan Army (AA). Four bodies were found floating down the river last March Īll of the missing are Arakanese, also called Rakhine, a predominantly Buddhist ethnic group thought to make up the majority in the state. The villages of Tinma Gyi and Tinma Thit are along the Kaladan River. The three other bodies were never identified.
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The family told local media that soldiers shot at them when they approached the body, which the US-government funded broadcaster Radio Free Asia reported was riddled with bullet holes. One of the bodies was identified by family members as among the missing villagers. On March 18, four bodies were seen floating in the Kaladan River near the villages. Al Jazeera has used pseudonyms for the three witnesses to protect them from possible reprisals. The missing include a 16 year old, three people over the age of 65 and one person who is deaf. Most of those arrested were released the same day, but 18 were not. 55 went door to door arresting dozens of men it suspected of having ties to the Arakan Army, an ethnic armed group seeking autonomy. Three witnesses, whose testimonies align with those published by other media, told Al Jazeera that on March 13 and 16, uniformed soldiers wearing the badge of the Tatmadaw’s Light Infantry Division No. Ten months later, they are still looking for answers – and justice.
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Their families’ relentless search for information has been met with silence, rejection and threats. He is among 18 people from the neighbouring villages of Tinma Thit and Tinma Gyi in Rakhine State’s northern Kyauktaw township who were arrested in March and have not been seen since. It was Maand the last time she saw her husband. “I feared they would shoot me, so I held my tongue … I felt like they were the most brutal people in the world.” “At the time, I could only cry,” said Ma Nway, an ethnic Arakanese from Myanmar’s westernmost Rakhine State, who prefers not to reveal her identity for fear of reprisals. According to her account, they blindfolded him, took out their guns and beat him in front of her. One evening, as Ma Nway* and her family were having dinner, soldiers from Myanmar’s armed forces, known as the Tatmadaw, came to her house and asked for her husband.