FORMER ROHINGYA MP, AUNG ZAW WIN, ARRESTED IN MYANMAR
Arrest seen as military
sending signal to Rohingya community that they are under threat from further
attacks.
A former Rohingya MP
has been arrested in Myanmar, in move that has been condemned as a further
escalation of the attacks on the Rohingya community, reports The Guardian quoting a statement by Myanmar
government.
Aung Zaw Win, a
major property tycoon and former MP for the Union Solidarity and Development
party, was arrested at Yangon international airport on Wednesday as he was
about to leave on a business trip to Bangkok.
A government
statement said he has been accused of financing the Arakan Rohingya Salvation
Army, the Rohingya military group.
Aung Zaw Win remains
in custody in Mingaladon police station, near Yangon airport, but despite being
held for five days has undergone no questioning.
Rohingya activist
Nay San Lwin said “the government and military [is] sending a signal to all of
the Rohingya living and working in Yangon that they are also under threat, that
they want to destroy the whole Rohingya community, not just those in Rahkine”.
Since August 2017,
thousands of Rohingya have been killed and more than 700,000 fled to
neighbouring Bangladesh after a military-led campaign of violence which Yanghee
Lee, the UN special rapporteur for human rights in Myanmar, recently said had
the “hallmarks of genocide”.
Aung Zaw Win is one
of the most prominent Rohingya businessmen in Myanmar, with a vast property
empire which includes hotels in Yangon and and Naypyidaw, as well as numerous
construction companies. He was also MP for Maungdaw in Rahkine until 2015.
Mark Farmaner,
director of Burma Campaign UK, said: “It’s extremely worrying that he has been
arrested like this. This is just how the old military dictatorship acted.”
Aung Zaw Win’s
arrest has come as a surprise to many, for he is well known for his close ties
to the military and is a divisive figure among the Rohingya. His involvement in
politics was mainly for business purposes and he steered clear of making any
political statement regarding the plight of the Rohingya in Myanmar.
As an MP he was even
among those who pressured the Rohingya community to accept Bengali identity, a
proposal which reinforced the idea that they are not native to Myanmar but immigrants
from Bangladesh.
Nay San Lwin said
that the timing of the arrest, against the backdrop of the attacks against the
Rohingya, was “a clear threat to all the Rohingya in Yangon. That no one is
safe from arrest, even if you have big business or are close links to the
military.”
He said it was
“extremely unlikely” that Aung Zaw Win was involved in funding ARSA because “he
has never been an activist and as a businessman with billions in property, he
would never engage in this kind of activity – he only cared about his
business”.
Some have
controversially suggested that ARSA was in fact a proxy of the Myanmar
military, created to give them a legitimate reason to step up their attacks on
the Rohingya. “He is the military’s man and if he did finance ARSA, it’s my
view it would only have been because of pressure from them,” added Nay San
Lwin.
Another source who
preferred to be unnamed for security reasons, echoed the view that “average
Rohingya have long distrusted [Aung Zaw Win]. Many believe he’s connected to
the military, and some believe he was instrumental in fomenting violence in
2012, after which he was rewarded land in Yangon and Naypyidaw.
“Some believe he
worked with the military to create and instigate Al Yaqin [ARSA], creating the
conditions for a military takedown of all civilians. And now they’re taking him
down.”
SOURCE: The Guardian
SOURCE: The Guardian
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