By Thu Thu Aung

(Reuters] – Win Hlaing at 66 says he only wants to know if his son, who was nearly a full year ago taken by Myanmar junta forces, is alive and well.

A neighbour called him last night to report that Wai Soe Hlaing (a young father, who owned a Yangon phone shop) had been taken into custody in connection with the protests against Feb. 1. military coup.

According to Win Hlaing, and the Assistance Association for Political Prisoners(AAPP), which is a non-profit organization that documents arrests and murders, they traced him to a local station.

The trail was then cold. He had vanished.

Reuters called police but couldn’t find Wai Se Hlaing or his relatives.

The junta spokesperson did not reply to email requests for comment or answer calls for comment.

Wai Soe Hlaing was one of the many missing people activists and their families claim have been since Myanmar fell into chaos after Aung San Suu Kyi, the elected government overthrew by the military, was ousted.

According to the AAPP, more than 8,000 are held in interrogation and prison centres. Suu Kyi is included as well as most of her cabinet members. Nearly 1,500 people have been murdered. Reuters could not independently confirm the AAPP figures.

They claim that hundreds of people have been killed after being held. According to the junta, the numbers are exaggerated. They also claim that false information is being spread by the AAPP. The number of persons in detention has not been revealed by the junta.

    SEARCH FOR LOVED ONES

While the military doesn’t notify family members when an individual is being arrested, prison officials don’t often inform them when they are in prison. As a result, families must search tirelessly for their loved ones by visiting prisons and calling police stations or using accounts obtained from local media outlets or human rights groups.

Human Rights Watch reported that they sometimes send food packages and use it to signify their relative is being held, if accepted.

    In many cases, AAPP co-founder Bo Kyi said, the organisation has been able to determine someone has been detained but not where.

   Tae-Ung Baik, chair of the United Nations’ working group on enforced disappearances told Reuters the group had received reports from families in Myanmar of enforced disappearances since last February and was “seriously alarmed” by the situation.

Aung Nay Myo is a 43-year old activist who fled from northwestern Sagaing. Aung Nay Myo said that his family was taken by junta forces in mid-December.

    He believes they were detained because of his work as a satirical writer. His father, a stroke-disabled 74-year old, is one of them.

    “There is nothing I can do but worry every moment,” Aung Nay Myo said.

    Two police stations in the town of Monywa, their hometown in Sagaing region, did not answer phone calls seeking comment.

Some areas have seen resistance to the government junta spiral into violence, with fighting leaving tens or thousands homeless. According to U.N. reports, many people fled the country to India and Thailand.

VIRAL IMAGAGE

Banyar Khun Naung (director of the Karenni Human Rights Group), said that at least 50 were still missing in the Kayah region, which has seen fierce fighting.

Families can use the group’s help to find their loved ones by asking recent released inmates for any name they may remember.

He stated that “the families of the missing are in great pain,” especially because it’s exhausting to not know where their loved one is.”

    Myint Aung, in his mid-50s and now living in a camp for internally displaced people in Kayah, said his 17-year-old son Pascalal disappeared in September.

    The teenager told his father he was going to travel to their home in the state capital Loikaw to check on the situation, but never came back, Myint Aung said.

Myint Aung, a phone operator, said that he was instead detained by security force, and that he had been told by local villagers. He ran off after he saw soldiers protecting the area when he went to the station to collect food.

Myint Aung never heard from his son since then. However, the rights group informed him that he wasn’t at the station anymore, citing conversations with several recently released people. Reuters couldn’t independently verify the information.

Banyar Khun Naung was the director of Karenni Rights Group. He said the teenager made the “Hunger Games” salute, which protesters used, while being held down by protesters kneeling at the side of a road. The soldiers attached rope to the image, making it widely spread on social media. He was confirmed by his sister via phone.

This photo was shared virally by an account that seemed to be belonging to a soldier of high rank. The caption read, “While they let them do whatever they like before we put bullets in their heads.” It was later deleted by Reuters and the account’s owner was never reached for comment.

His father Myint said that he was an unmarried boy who did nothing wrong.

    Police in Loikaw did not answer phone calls from Reuters seeking comment.

    In Yangon, the family of Wai Soe Hlaing tell his four-year-old daughter her father is working somewhere far away. Win Hlaing stated that she sometimes murmurs about her father: “My papa is gone too long.”