In Zi Phyu Thaung village of Ye Township, Mon State, inhumane torture and killings continue to occur on fishing rafts, with village administrator Aung Lwin accepting bribes to cover up these incidents. A recently circulated video shows an elderly man being brutally tortured on a fishing raft by raft supervisor Soe Paing, while the raft owner is Htun Naing and the business owner is Thein Lwin, according to local residents.
There are approximately 1,000 fishing rafts in Zi Phyu Thaung village, with each raft requiring four workers, creating a demand for around 4,000 workers annually. Workers are recruited from across Myanmar through brokers, and they must stay at sea for six to nine months, earning only between 130,000 to 180,000 kyats per month. Workers face torture, poor living conditions, and lack of healthcare on the rafts. Those unable to work are reportedly beaten, killed, and thrown into the sea, with dead bodies frequently washing up on Zi Phyu Thaung’s shore.
The fishing raft owners and operators provide financial support to village administrator Aung Lwin to conceal these human rights violations. When workers die from injuries after returning from the rafts, the village administrator arranges for bodies to be cremated without investigation and pays brokers to settle with families. Law enforcement is virtually non-existent in Zi Phyu Thaung village, where the administrator’s authority is supreme. Under his permission, drug trafficking flourishes and murders on fishing rafts continue unabated.
The situation has reportedly worsened in the three years since the military coup, with workers returning from rafts bearing severe injuries from beatings and knife wounds, sometimes with maggot-infested wounds. The village administrator, who carries a firearm, maintains power through intimidation, preventing villagers from speaking out against these atrocities. The fishing raft business operates without proper licenses or oversight, with owners from Phyapon area taking advantage of the lawless environment created under the administrator’s protection.
