Local residents reported that the military council forces have forcibly recruited 18 young people, including a novice monk named Thawbita, for military service in Thonze and Minhla towns of Bago Region. On March 19 at approximately 10:30 AM, military council troops and Pyu Saw Htee members arrested 17-year-old novice monk Thawbita (also known as Maung Thet Paing Yay) from the football field monastery in Sanshwe Ward, Thonze Town, Thayarwaddy Township. According to local residents, Thawbita had only been ordained as a novice monk for about two months when soldiers and Pyu Saw Htee members arrived in vehicles to forcibly take him away from near the football field monastery.
Similarly, in Minhla town’s No. 6 Ward, military council forces arrested nine young people. On March 18, military troops arrested six waiters at May Restaurant in No. 6 Ward over a dispute about serving alcohol. The restaurant owner had to pay 20 million kyats to secure their release. Additionally, two Hindu brothers who are nephews of No. 6 Ward administrator Bun Toe were arrested for failing to show tax receipts for their scrap metal trading business. They were released after paying 5 million kyats. The military council’s practice of arbitrary arrests and demanding ransom has become increasingly common in the area.
A resident from North New Town Street 4 in Minhla’s No. 6 Ward was also arrested by military council forces at Kokkyawetan village while returning from Sharpinkwe village where he had gone for business related to beans and rice. Furthermore, the military council troops have posted warnings in front of the General Administration Office in Minhla town prohibiting travel between 11 PM and 3 AM. These incidents demonstrate the military council’s ongoing campaign of forcible recruitment, arbitrary arrests, and extortion targeting civilians, including religious novices and ordinary citizens going about their daily business. The practice of demanding large sums of money for the release of detained civilians has become a systematic form of extortion by the military forces in these areas.
