A Kachin youth died after Tatmadaw soldiers beat him following his arrest in Putao Township, northern Kachin State.
According to his family, Ye Naing was arrested in late August as he passed a checkpoint near a military camp on the road between Zeeon and Lang Dawng villages.
After he was released, “he suffered from severe injuries. His lungs were damaged and he couldn’t sleep at night. When Ye Naing coughed, blood came out of his mouth,” a family member told KNG.
Capt Htet Aung and his subordinates beat his head, chest and back with their rifle butts, he said. The youth suffered from headaches after the beatings, but before his arrest Ye Naing was in good health, she said.
After a gruelling month of severe pain, Ye Naing died on 19 October in his village of N’robot in Zeeon village tract.
According to locals, 10 soldiers guard the checkpoint on the road connecting Zeeon, Lang Dawng and Nawng Khai villages and Machanbaw town in Putao. Everyone is afraid to pass there because the soldiers sometimes arrest villagers and beat them. However, Ye Naing is the first person they killed.
