Junta personnel are kidnapping and holding small and medium-sized business owners to ransom in villages, according to the Human Rights Foundation of Monland (HURFOM), a local human rights organisation.

It said that according to local sources villagers running small or medium-sized businesses in their villages are being targeted by the junta. They are arbitrarily abducting innocent business owners who have committed no crimes and demanding ransoms to release them.

A 30yr old male villager who talked to HURFOM said: "This is a form of income generation for the junta. When we see unlawful arrests, we know most villagers are being detained for no reason. In most cases, they end up paying ransoms. They seem to know who can pay & targets them.”

This happened recently in Dawei District’s Yebyu Township. On 26 September at about 2:30 p.m. junta forces arrived in the village of Hnan Kyae and searched the houses in the village. Daw Tin Khaing, 50, U Nyi Nyi, 30, and U Tun Naing, 45, were arrested with no reason or warrant.

According to a local they will have to pay two million kyats each to be released.

They seem to have been targeted because the junta thought they would be able to pay ransoms.

Daw Tin Khaing owns a market at the top of the village, U Nyi Nyi owns a shop on the corner of the main village road and U Tun Naing was a former Chairman of the Village.

A local said they were just ordinary villagers.