RFA
Myanmar’s human rights body said it will not investigate the case of 17 villagers allegedly abducted by the government military nine months ago in war-torn Rakhine state, angering family members of the men who say they were lied to and given the runaround by authorities.
Hla Myint, chairman of the Myanmar National Human Rights Commission (MNHRC), said his office has declined a request by concerned lawmakers from the area where the villagers were abducted because he and other members of the body accept as truthful a Ministry of Defense statement on Oct. 22, denying that the military had arrested and detained the civilians.
RFA
Family members of villagers kidnapped by government soldiers in Myanmar’s Rakhine state were turned away by police this week after trying to file a missing persons report, their second attempt to call for accountability following the villagers’ disappearance in March.
The 18 captives, residents of Rakhine’s strife-torn Kyauktaw township, were arrested in mid-March, when Myanmar troops entered the region amid fighting with the ethnic Arakan Army (AA) and burned down dozens of homes in the 500-home ethnic Rakhine tract.
Eight of the group went missing from Tin Ma village on March 13, with the other 10 disappearing from Tin Ma Gyi village three days later.