By Irrawaddy
NAYPYITAW — The Union Solidarity and Development Party
(USDP) said it has nothing to do with a man detained by police last week for
allegedly funding the Arakan Rohingya Salvation Army (ARSA).
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| Aung Zaw Win. / Myanmar Police Force |
Aung Zaw Win, 55, the owner of Yangon-based Shine
Construction Co. Ltd., was arrested at the Yangon International Airport on
Wednesday on his way to Thailand.
He was a USDP lawmaker representing Rakhine State’s
Maungdaw Township in the Lower House from 2010 to 2015, during the government
of U Thein Sein.
According to two suspects arrested in connection to the
violence in northern Rakhine State in 2016, the Nga Khu Ya police station in
Rakhine had opened a case against Aung Zaw Win for murder and causing grievous
harm and other offenses under the Public Property Protection Act, the Arms Act
and the Unlawful Associations Act.
USDP spokesman U Nanda Hla Myint said Aung Zaw Win had
resigned from the party before 2015.
“Aung Zaw Win and [Rohingya rights activist and former
Lower House lawmaker for Rakhine State’s Buthidaung Township] U Shwe Maung have
already resigned from the party. When I took my post [as USDP spokesman], they
had already left the party,” he said.
At Naypyitaw’s request, Dhaka handed over two suspects
receiving medical care in Bangladesh who reportedly told investigators that
Aung Zaw Win had funded ARSA, said U Zaw Htay, director-general of the
President’s Office.
“Based on their testimony, the judge issued an arrest
warrant for Aung Zaw Win. But he was at large and finally arrested on Feb. 28,
when he tried to go to Bangkok,” U Zaw Htay told The Irrawaddy.
He said police were still investigating Aung Zaw Win and
had yet to hand him over to the court. The Maungdaw District Court issued the
arrest warrant in 2016 and declared him a fugitive last year.
Ethnic affairs analyst U Maung Maung Soe claimed that all
the necessities for the more than 700,000 Muslims in Maungdaw were being
delivered directly from Yangon, though he was not sure whether ARSA was
involved.
“According to the information I’ve gathered; trade in all
necessary goods for all the Bengalis over the past six years since 2012 was
controlled by Yangon. The government should conduct an in-depth investigation
to find out who was involved and to what extent they were involved,” he said.
Many people in Myanmar refer to the Rohingya as Bengali,
implying they are not a distinct ethnic group with legitimate ties to Myanmar
but illegal immigrants from Bangladesh even though many families have lived in
Rakhine State for generations.
U Tun Kyi, a Muslim and a former political prisoner, said
he denounced any form of violence and any individual, organization and religion
that supports violence.
“I grew up in this country and have decided to protect
its independence and sovereignty at the cost of my life. So I accept no
terrorist organization,” he said.
Though Myanmar enacted a Counter-Terrorism Law in 2014, U Tun Kyi said it has
rarely been applied. He cited the January 2017 assassination of prominent
Muslim lawyer and NLD legal adviser U Ko Ni at the Yangon International
Airport, in which case the alleged gunman, Kyi Lin, has been charged with
murder but not under the Counter-Terrorism Law. https://www.irrawaddy.com/opinion/commentary/prepared-myanmar-counter-terror-attacks.html
He also criticized the recent arrest of Arakan National Council executive
committee member Ko Naing Soe over a bomb attack that injured a police officer
in Rakhine State in late February. https://www.irrawaddy.com/news/burma/arakan-group-says-7-arrested-sittwe-bomb-attack.html