Yangon's Commerce Minister and Mayor are detained by Myanmar's Junta

[ASEAN NOW Content Team]

 

On Wednesday, Myanmar's junta arrested Yangon Region commerce minister U Aung Than Oo and Yangon Mayor U Bo Htay for awarding land permits in the commercial city.

According to a Yangon Region government officer who spoke on the condition of anonymity, U Aung Than Oo was jailed for granting land to former chief of the general staff Hla Htay Win's family at Thamada Beach in Dala Township.

 

"I heard there was a difficulty with the retired general and his family receiving land," he stated.

As U Aung Than Oo gave permission for U Hla Htay Win's family to utilise farmland near the beach for other uses, Mayor U Bo Htay and the head of the land department from Yangon City Development Committee were jailed as accomplices.

After purchasing farmland and applying to use the land for other purposes, offspring of military officials and family members of the military proxy's Union Solidarity and Development Party (USDP) acquired land at Thamada Beach.
As Yangon Region's trade minister, U Aung Than Oo awarded land grants.

 

"I heard there was a difficulty with the retired general and his family receiving land," he stated.

As U Aung Than Oo gave permission for U Hla Htay Win's family to utilise farmland near the beach for other uses, Mayor U Bo Htay and the head of the land department from Yangon City Development Committee were jailed as accomplices.

After purchasing farmland and applying to use the land for other purposes, offspring of military officials and family members of the military proxy's Union Solidarity and Development Party (USDP) acquired land at Thamada Beach.
As Yangon Region's trade minister, U Aung Than Oo awarded land grants.

 

"There has been a struggle between Gen Nyo Saw's group and ex-Gen Hla Htay Win's cronies," he explained. "The arrest of Ko Aung Than Oo and Ko Bo Htay implies Gen Nyo Saw's group has won the upper hand."

 

Former Lt. Gen. Nyo Saw was the commandant of the Defense Services Technological Academy and the Defense Services Academy, as well as the commandant of the central and southern commands.
As an assistant to Min Aung Hlaing, he remains chairman of military-owned MEC following his retirement as the quartermaster general.

Under the previous military dictatorship, U Bo Htay, a former military officer, was appointed head of the YCDC's technical section.
After reaching pension age, the officer retired in 2015.
Following the coup last year, he was named mayor of Yangon.

 

U Aung Than Oo is the chairman of the Myanmar Rice Merchants Association and a member of the United States Democratic Party.
He is known to be close to U Khin Yi, the regime's immigration and population minister and former police commander.

When U Khin Yi organised rallies against the Union Election Commission after the National League for Democracy was declared the winner of the 2020 general election, U Aung Than Oo allegedly paid individuals to participate in the marches, purportedly paying each participant 5,000 kyats or more.

U Aung Than Oo was elected to Thanlyin Township in Yangon in the 2010 general election, but lost both the 2015 and 2020 elections to NLD candidates.