Interview
- My name is Sandar Win.
- I am 38 years old.
- I stayed in Kyaing Chaung as an internally displaced person for 4 months.
It’s only been 5 days since I returned to our place in NKK (2). I have a son who is at home. When we arrived home, people came and asked, “Are you all staying around here?” Yes, we are living in this area. house has been completely destroyed. Some acquaintances came to ask about us and then left. Around 2:00 PM, my son went to Shwe Taung with his father to fix a car. When they reached Shwe Taung, his father’s friend sent my son back home.
After getting home, he said he would go along with his uncle. His uncle had invited him to go gather some vegetables. I also have an older son. The older son, younger son, and Uncle Than Hpay all went to pick water spinach. By the time they came back from gathering water spinach, it was late afternoon. When they got back, the younger son was covered in dirt, so the three of them the two sons and I took a bath.
After taking a bath, my younger son said he wanted to eat a coconut, so we cracked one open and shared it. After eating, he wanted to go play. That was probably a little after 4 PM. His older brother was taking a bath inside the monastery. He teased his older brother and threw small stones at him before heading out to play. I also went out for a while. When I came back, his older brother said, “Mom, Arr Oo Chay hasn’t come back yet.” The name of the child who passed away is Phone Myat Aung. At home, we called him Arr Oo Chay. He was 10 years old. My older son said, “Mom, Arr Oo Chay hasn’t even come back to eat yet.” I had gone out around 5:30 PM, and he had gone out around 4:30 PM.
So, we started saying, “Where could he have gone?” and began looking for him all around. But we couldn’t find him. Then my older son said, “Mom, three people from AA came to the house. They said someone had gone missing and came to check if that person was here.” I said, “That can’t be. Maybe they didn’t know the way and took my son to guide them.” I ran to the gate and said, “Didn’t someone go missing? You people took my son, didn’t you?” I told them, “You need to help us search.” They said, “Yes, yes,” but they didn’t actually help search. I truly lost my son. I came to inform you because you have a responsibility you should help me search. But they didn’t.
They didn’t help search. It was around 7 PM when I went and told them again. I said, “You haven’t helped search up to now. Can you at least try just once?” Then three of them came out from inside and headed toward the Muslim quarter. Thinking he might be somewhere nearby, me and my older son followed them on a motorbike. I asked, “Hey, have you found my kid? I heard one of your soldiers went missing. Didn’t your missing soldier take my son?”
And they replied, “We’re also searching. If we find him, we’ll bring him back.” So, I thought I didn’t need to search in that area. Then we moved on to another area with some villagers, but still, nothing was found. We had been searching since around 5:30 or 6 PM, and it was already past midnight. We searched around the Muslim houses too and found a phone inside one of them. My son hadn’t said anything earlier… he didn’t know anything.
He accidentally kicked something with his foot and said, “Oh! Is that a phone?” Then he picked it up. One of the people who had gone with my son is believed to be a member of the AA militia. His name is Chit Oo. I believe it was Chit Oo and maybe one or two others. My son said, “I picked up the phone,” and put it in the pocket of his pants. He didn’t know whose phone it was. He told me, “Mom, this phone has no battery can you charge it?” So, I did.
He didn’t even say that he picked it up from the Muslim house. Since the phone was locked, my son tried various ways to unlock it.
Eventually, we discovered that it was an AA (Arakan Army) phone there were AA-related photos inside. When we said that this was the phone belonging to the person who killed my son, the authorities at NKK (2) came and took the phone away. The father was also filled with anger after losing a child, how could any parent not feel devastated? Whether or not to call it a murder clearly depends on the evidence. And the evidence clearly points in one direction.
When one of the officers came, my father showed him all the images of how the killing happened.
This isn’t just some random act of killing this was done exactly in the same manner as the military’s procedures. When a phone was recovered, we asked where the owner of that phone was. They told us he was inside the military compound.
So, if the phone owner is in the military compound, shouldn’t they let us meet him? But they didn’t let us. Then they said: “The person who killed the child took the phone. They had a fight and killed each other. After the killing, the phone was stolen. The culprit is now on the run he went to Na Kha Kha 5, then to the Muslim village, then to our village, then to Ma Kye Kone and it’s been more than 20 days.”
So, I asked: “If that’s the case, why haven’t you arrested him yet?” This is a murderer we’re talking about, and they know who it is. So why haven’t you arrested the culprit if you already know who it is? Are you afraid the truth will come out? They said: “No, it’s not like that.” After the child died, the police chief from Bu Thi Taung came, along with a doctor. So many people showed up that I didn’t even know who who was anymore. The police chief said: “We’ll take care of this case. We will handle it,” he said. Okay, since they’re also busy with other responsibilities, we agreed to give them some time. The chief police said: “No matter how busy we are, we all have our responsibilities. We will catch this culprit.” But until now, they haven’t arrested anyone. We even went to talk to them again. After losing our child, we can’t even speak about it openly anymore. Does the police chief not have any children of his own? Sometimes I get so angry. Would he stay quiet if it were his own child who was killed?
Even if it’s just a fight between civilians, the AA (Arakan Army) would come and arrest them immediately. But because the AA was involved in this murder, no one is pursuing justice. No one is being arrested. We believe they’re not arresting the culprit because they’re afraid that if he’s caught, the person who ordered the killing of the child will be revealed. Everyone knows this. We meet everyone, and everyone knows: this child was killed by the AA. And they even admitted it. Even after admitting it, the case hasn’t been opened. No one is being arrested. And when we meet them, they say “We haven’t been able to catch them yet.”
So, the one who died just dies, and the AA gets away with no consequences. That’s why we said: If the AA kills someone, it’s as if they have the right to kill anyone. They kill and then face no punishment. No one holds them accountable. Only the civilians suffer. Only the civilians lose. This wasn’t just a regular death it was a brutal killing using many methods. A child was raped and then murdered. What did the child do wrong? He did nothing wrong. He just went missing for about half an hour. Someone gave the order to kill the child, so he was killed. We went to the senior commander and asked that the killer be exposed. We requested that justice be served to satisfy the public and the grieving parents. If justice can’t be served like this, does it mean I have to take matters into my own hands and kill the person who murdered my son to get revenge myself?
