The wife and children of the commander of Myanmar's insurgent Arakan Army have been granted asylum in Switzerland after being detained in Thailand since December.
Ms Hnin Zar Phyu, who is married to Major-General Tun Myat Naing, was detained in the northern Thai city of Chiang Mai, along with their 11-year-old daughter and 11-month-old son on Dec 4 by the Thai authorities. Officials said then that she was being probed for illegal entry after her passport was revoked.
Human rights groups lobbied for Bangkok not to deport the mother and children to Myanmar, where they would likely be persecuted amid the Myanmar military's bitter war against the Arakan Army in Rakhine state.
Rakhine state in western Myanmar was the site of a controversial military crackdown in 2017 that drove over 700,000 Rohingya Muslims there to neighbouring Bangladesh. Naypyitaw is now embroiled in a world court case over whether it committed genocide.
Meanwhile, fierce clashes in recent months between Myanmar's military and the Arakan Army - which wants autonomy for ethnic Rakhine people - has displaced thousands from their homes in Rakhine state and made erstwhile popular heritage site Mrauk-U off limits to tourists.
Tun Myat Naing's brother Aung Myat Kyaw is now on trial in Myanmar for allegedly breaking the country's counter-terrorism law and faces life in prison if convicted.
Meanwhile, Tun Myat Naing's sister and brother-in-law were arrested in Yangon in October last year and are similarly on trial for flouting Myanmar's anti-terrorism law.
Switzerland's Ambassador to Thailand, Ms Helene Budliger Artieda, declined to comment on Ms Hnin Zar Phyu's case when contacted by The Straits Times.
But Human Rights Watch, a non-governmental organisation, confirmed that the European country had granted her and her children asylum.
The organisation had opposed the Thai authorities' original plan to hand them over to the Myanmar authorities and raised serious concerns about possible persecution.
Contacted yesterday, Arakan Army spokesman Khaing Thuka told ST that the trio had already reached Switzerland.
The Arakan Army is part of a coalition of ethnic armed groups in Myanmar called the Northern Alliance which are not signatories to a nationwide ceasefire agreement sealed in 2015.
Representatives of the groups that make up the coalition have met Myanmar government officials several times in China for peace talks, which have so far not been fruitful.
Mr Khaing Kyaw Moe, a youth leader in the Rakhine state-based Arakan National Party, told ST yesterday: "From a humanitarian perspective, (Hnin Zar Phyu) should get protection.
"From what I heard, she has nothing to do with the violence in Rakhine state. She's a mother with two children. It's a good sign for the future peace process."
On Feb 18, independent experts appointed by the United Nations Human Rights Council raised concerns about the mounting civilian death toll and displacement in Rakhine state amid an information blackout caused by the suspension of mobile Internet services in key townships.
They said: "We are gravely concerned that children are being killed and injured, that reports suggest weapons are being used indiscriminately, and precautions are not being taken to protect civilians and civilian objects such as schools and monasteries, in violation of international humanitarian law."
