Narinjara News, 21 February 2022

The family members of Tinma village under Kyauktaw township in Rakhine State urge the government officials toinvestigate the disappearance of18 villagers who have been missing for the last two years.

Among the missing individuals, 10 hail  from Tinma Gyivillage and 8 from Tinma Thitvillage, which is close to Paletwa township of Chin State.

They all went  missing after the security forcesabducted them on 13 and 16 Marchin 2020, claimed the family members.

Daw Khin May Win, wife of the missing villager U Tun Maung Win, said, "I still feel as if it happenedyesterday only. I want the know the truthabout my husband's fate. If 18 people are still missing, it’s a serious issue and we deserve properinformation about them.”

The missing Tinma Gyi villagers are identified as U AungNyunt, U Tun Maung Win, U YinMaung, U Than Maung Tun, U Maung Win (aka) U Maung Win Gyi, U Maung Win Chye, U Maung Kyi Lin, U Maung Sein Win,Maung Tun Tun Wai And Maung NayLin Oo.

Similarly, eight missing villagers from Tinma Thit villageinclude U Kyaw Win, U Hla KyawGyi,  U Maung Than Soe, U Saw Shwe Than, U San Thar Maung,  Maung Mya Aye and Maung Tun Sein.

The StateAdministrative Council (SAC) earlier released 46 persons onUnion Day (12 February), but manyare still behind bars.

Among the missing villagers are a young student (eighth-grade standard),  a 29-year-olddeaf man and a 70-year-old man,stated the family members.

They also submitted a memorandum to the Myanmar NationalHuman Rights Commission throughthe Rakhine Human Rights Defenders’ Association in October 2020 demanding a probe into the matter.

U Myat Tun, director of Rakhine Human Rights Defenders’Association, said, “We have allthe evidence that it is a human rights violation case. There are some elder people also among the missingindividuals.”

In December 2020, the family members were  interrogatedat Mrauk-U district policestation, but nothing came out of it.

More than 3,500 people from Tinma Thit village in upperKaladan river were forced to fleetheir villages due to heavy fighting between the Arakan Army members and the Burmese army personnel in March2020.

After the villagers left residences, the some soldiers set 132 of the 585 houses on fire. Another 93 houses werepartially destroyed. The bombingsdamaged pagodas, ordination halls, monasteries etc, claimed the villagers.Presently the Tinma villagers are taking shelter in KyauktawIDP camps and they are not beingallowed to return back to their villages dueto the presence of military troops near the village.