Following the military council’s intensified forced porter recruitment across the country, four young men, including one with mental illness, have gone missing in Hlaing Tharyar, Hlegu, Taikkyi, and Myawaddy townships, according to their family members. U Saw Saw Aye, age 48, who suffers from mental illness and lives in Shwe Bon Tha 2 Street, Shwe Lin Ban Ward, Hlaing Tharyar Township, disappeared around 10 AM on September 12 while sleeping in a car in front of his house. Originally from Bago Region, he had been brought to Yangon for medical treatment after experiencing physical weakness and mental instability following alcohol withdrawal, his family members stated.
In Hlegu Township’s Phaung Gyi village, 27-year-old Ko Soe Thu Min Wei left his home on the morning of July 14 with only the clothes he was wearing and has not made contact for over two months. Additionally, in Karen State’s Myawaddy town, 29-year-old Maung Zeyar Maung Maung disappeared on July 31 after telling his family he would return home and taking a motorcycle taxi. Following his disappearance, there were demands for money from people claiming to be from the military council’s Infantry Battalion 135.
In the most recent case, on September 14 at 2 PM, eighth-grade student Saw Nay Bel Aung, son of U Aung Myint Oak from Hlan Lan Kyu village in Taikkyi Township, Yangon Region, went missing from his home. The military council opened its 17th military service intake on September 14, and many young people who were forcibly recruited as porters across the country have been compulsorily sent into the military, according to family members of those who were arrested.
