Myanmar’s military disappearing young men to crush uprising

JAKARTA, Indonesia – Myanmar’s security forces movedin and the street lamps went black. In house after house, people shut off their lights.

Huddled inside her homein Yangon, 19-year-oldShwedared to peek out her window. A flashlight shone back, and a man’s voice ordered her not to look.

Two gunshots rang out. Then a man’s scream: “HELP!”When the military’strucks finally rolled away,Shweand her family emerged to look for her 15-year-old brother.

“I could feel my blood thumping,” shesays. “I had a feeling that he might be taken.”

Acrossthe country,Myanmar’s security forces are arresting and forcibly disappearingthousands of people, especially boys and young men, in a sweeping bid to crush a three-month uprising against a military takeover.In most cases,the familiesofthose takendon’t know where they are,according to anAssociated Press analysis ofmore than3,500 arrestssince February. UNICEF, the U.N. children’s agency, is aware of around 1,000 cases of children or young peoplewho have beenarbitrarily arrested and detained,manywithout access to lawyersor theirfamilies.

It is a technique the military has long used to instil fear and crush pro-democracy movements.The boys and young men aretaken from homes, businesses and streets. Some end up dead.Many are imprisonedand sometimes tortured.Many more are missing.

“We’ve definitely moved into a situation of mass enforced disappearances,” saysMatthewSmith, cofounder of the human rights group Fortify Rights, which has collected evidence of detainees being killed in custody.“We’re documenting and seeing widespread and systematic arbitrary arrests.”

The AP is withholding Shwe’s full name to protect her from retaliationbythe military.

The autobody shopinShwe’s neighbourhood was a regular hangout for local boys.On the night of March 21,herbrother had gone there to chill out like he usually did.

AsShweapproached the shop, she saw it had been ransacked.Frantic,sheand her fatherscouredthe building for any sign of their beloved boy.

But he was gone, and the floor was covered in blood.

Ever since Myanmar’s military seized control in February,faces of the missing have flooded the Internet. Recently, photos of young people detained by security forces also have begun circulating onlineandonmilitary-controlled television,their faces bloodied, with clear markings of beatings and possible torture.

At least3,500 people have been detained since the military takeover began, more than three-quarters of whom are male, according to an analysis of data collected by the Assistance Association for Political Prisoners, which monitors deaths and arrests. Ofthe 419 men whose ages were recorded in the group’s database, nearly two-thirds are under age 30, and 78 are teenagers.

Nearly 2,700 of the detainees are beingheld at undisclosed locations, an AAPP spokesman said.

“The military are trying to turn civilians, striking workers, and children into enemies,” says Ko Bo Kyi, AAPP’s joint secretary. “They think if they can kill off the boys and young men, then they can kill off the revolution.”

After receiving questions from the Associated Press, the military, known as the Tatmadaw, called a Zoom press conference, during which it dubbed the AAPP a “baseless organization,” suggested its data is inaccurate, and denied security forces are targeting young men.

“The security forces are not arresting based on genders and ages,” said Capt. Aye Thazin Myint, a military spokeswoman. “They are only detaining anyone who is rioting, protesting, causing unrest, or any actions along those lines.”

Some of those snatched by security forces were protesting. Some have links to the military’s rival political party. Others are taken for no discernable reason.They are typically charged withSection 505(A) of the Penal Code, which, in part, criminalizesany comments that “cause fear.”

Myanmar human rights activist Wai Hnin Pwint Thon is intimately acquainted with the Tatmadaw’s tactics. Her father, famed political activistMya Aye, was arrested duringa 1988 uprising against military rule,and the family waited months before learning he was in prison.

He was arrested again during this year’s military takeover.It was two months before his family discovered he was being held at Yangon’s notorious Insein prison.

“I can’t imagine families of young people who are 19, 20, 21, in prison… We are this worriedand we’re used to this situation,” shesays.“I’m trying to hold onto hope, but the situation is getting worse every day.”

The military’s scare tactics have provenenormously effective.Across the country,residentsregularlytake turns holding night watches, banging pots and pans or yelling to neighbours from the streetif soldiers or police are spotted.

“I am more afraidof beingarrested than getting shot,” says one 29-year-old man who was arrested, beaten and later released,and who spoke on condition of anonymity to avoidretribution.“I have a chance of dying on the spot with just one shot. But being arrested, I am afraid that they would torture me.”

Backin Yangon,Shwetried to convince herself the blood on the floor of the shop wasn’t her brother’s.

He and three other young men from the shophad been hauled away.Neighbors said security forces may have targeted the boys because they spotted someone inside the shopwith a steel dart slingshot.

At 2 a.m., a police officer called to sayShwe’sbrother wasata military hospital and hadbeen shot in the hand.

Shwesays her family told the police that her brother was underage. But on March 27, they learned that her brother and the three others had been charged withpossession of weapons, and sentenced to three years in prison.

They were allowed one brief phone call with him when he was first hospitalized, and nothing since. Shweremembers hearing her brothertell their anguished mother,“I am OK.”

Shwehas no idea if that is still true.Sheworries forher brother, a quiet boy who lovesplaying games.She worries, too,fortheir mother, who cries and cries, and fortheir father, whoachesfor his only son.

For now, they can do little more than wait and hope: That he won’t be beaten. That he will get a pardon. Thatthe people ofMyanmar will soon feel safe again.

“Even though we are all in distress, we try to look on the bright side that at least we know where he is,” she says.“We are lucky that he was only abducted.”

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Gelineau reported from Sydney.