ALD member abducted by unknown gunmen in Sittwe

By DMG 28 Jun 2021

DMG Newsroom
28 June 2021, Sittwe

U Zaw Win Tun, chairman of an interim organising committee of the Arakan League for Democracy (ALD), was abducted by an unidentified group of armed men on Monday in Sittwe, with family members expressing concern for his well-being.

“We don’t know who took him, so we don’t know where to file a complaint,” said Ko Tun Lin, the younger brother of the abductee. “At the moment, our family is worried about his safety. I want him released as soon as possible. It is unknown at this time what prompted the kidnapping.”

U Zaw Win Tun was abducted at about 1 p.m. on June 28 by six people in civilian clothes, who bundled him into a white car in front of an elementary school in Sittwe’s Oh Tan ward after the ALD official dropped his daughter off at the school.

U Zaw Win Tun’s motorbike was also taken away by the armed men, said an eyewitness in Oh Tan ward who did not want to be named.

“At first, I thought the motorcycle had overturned, so a man from a house near our shop went to get it. I don’t know if the gun was real or fake; we did not go near him because the kidnappers were holding a black pistol. All students’ parents saw this scene,” the unnamed source said.

U Zaw Win Tun is a father of two, with a fourth grade daughter and a 1-month-old son.

He has been active in Arakan State politics for years, with roles on committees for the ALD and the Rakhine Nationalities Development Party (RNDP), as well as time spent as a member of the Arakan National Party (ANP) before resigning from it to form the Arakan Patriotic Party (APP).

U Zaw Win Tun disbanded the APP in 2019, however, and is currently serving as interim chairman of the Sittwe Township organising committee of the ALD.