BANGKOK: Myanmar security forces have arrested a prominent democracy activist and protest leader in a nighttime raid in commercial hub Yangon, a member of his protest group said on Thursday.
Paing Phyo Min was arrested late Wednesday after authorities entered a residence in east Yangon’s Thaketa township, Nan Lin of the “Anti-junta Alliance Yangon” protest group said.
Paing Phyo Min had not been heard from since, he said, adding, “We are very concerned about his life and safety.”
Amnesty International said it understood Paing Phyo Min and Shein Wai Aung, another activist, “were arrested on 9 October and sent to an interrogation center.”
Shein Wai Aung and his father, mother and sister were all uncontactable, Amnesty said.
Junta authorities in Yangon were not immediately reachable when contacted by AFP.
In 2019, under the quasi-civilian government of Aung San Suu Kyi, Paing Phyo Min was jailed for six years for performing a satirical poem criticizing the military.
The sentence sparked criticism from rights group Amnesty International and he was released in 2021, according to the watchdog.
Following the military’s 2021 ouster of Suu Kyi’s government, Paing Phyo Min helped organize pro-democracy demonstrations in Yangon that were later crushed by security forces.
The junta maintains a widespread network of informants and undercover police in Yangon and has largely squashed open challenges to its rule in the city of around eight million.
“The Myanmar military must urgently account for the whereabouts and wellbeing of Paing Phyo Min and of Shein Wai Aung and his family,” Amnesty’s Myanmar researcher Joe Freeman said.
“Unless they can be charged with an internationally recognized crime, they must be immediately and unconditionally released.”
More than 27,000 people have been arrested by the junta in its crackdown on dissent since the coup, according to a local monitoring group.
“Protesting in Myanmar today is not the same as it was before the coup. Anyone involved in any kind of dissent against the military faces long jail terms, torture and other ill-treatment, and even death in custody,” Freeman said.
Security forces have used torture and sexual violence in their crackdown on dissent, according to rights groups, and the United Nations rights office said in 2022 at least 290 people had died in custody.
