National League for Democracy (NLD) MP Myo Kyaw has died due to torture during interrogation, according to family members and political colleagues.
“We have learned through a reliable source that Myo Kyaw, State MP from Mohnyin No. (2), who was arrested on August 24, at the 21-mile gate of Myitkyina township, died during interrogation due to the junta’s torture,” Win Naing, a member of the NLD party in Kachin State wrote on his Facebook page on Thursday morning.
“The body was not returned to the family, and we don’t know which day he died and where he was buried. Therefore, we don’t know the exact date of his death.”
Myo Kyaw was arrested on Aug. 24, at a Myitkyina township junta checkpoint, along with Sai Maung, the leader of Hpakant township’s anti-regime protesters. Myitkyina is the capital of Kachin State in northern Myanmar and Hpakant is a township in Mohnyin district.
When Myo Kyaw was arrested images of NUG treasury bonds and photos linked to People’s Defense Forces (PDFs) were found in his mobile phone.
A political colleague, who is close to the family and declined to be named for safety reasons, told RFA they learned he had died during the interrogation after the family contacted the police and military authorities at various levels, as the family had not heard from the authorities since his arrest.
“I heard that Myo Kyaw died in the first week of September,” the colleague said.
“Normally, if [someone is] arrested, we would get the information about where he has been interrogated. Now, no information at all and no one informed the family of where and when he died.”
Maj. Gen. Zaw Min Tun, a military council spokesman, said at a press conference on September 20, that funding the NUG Committee Representing the Pyihtaungsu Hluttaw (parliament), which represents lawmakers ousted in the Feb. 1, 2021 coup, or funding People’s Defense Forces (PDFs), or buying the NUG’s bonds, lottery tickets or donating money online would be a political or terrorist crime. He said it would come with a maximum sentence of the death penalty.
According to the Assistance Association for the Political Prisoners a total of 2,303 anti-regime activists have been killed and 12,456 have been arrested nationwide in more than 19 months since the military coup.