A/HRC/39/CRP.2 231. In nearly all accounts, Tatmadaw soldiers were identified as the perpetrators of arbitrary arrests and detention.405 The Mission also received credible accounts of militias participating in arrests and detention alongside members of the Tatmadaw.406 Accounts were also received of the SaYaPa intelligence officers being responsible.407 Lack of compliance with procedural safeguards 232. The Mission amassed a consistent body of information drawing a pattern of civilians being detained in locations not officially recognised as places of detention, both in the context of forced labour and because they were suspected of links with ethnic armed organizations. Detained individuals were often kept in military bases or camps, 408 sometimes in makeshift lock ups,409 and in SaYaPa offices.410 Other places of detention included houses411 and monasteries412 or in multiple locations in forest areas for example during forced labour portering.413 In some cases, victims were initially held in the location where they were arrested and then moved to military camps or SaYaPa offices. 414 233. The Tatmadaw also systematically detained individuals in these unofficial places of detention without compliance with procedural safeguards. Victims consistently told the Mission they were not informed of the reasons for their arrest. 415 For example, a female victim reported how she was arrested, together with her two children, without being given reasons, in Mogaung Township, Kachin State, in August 2017: There was fighting between the Tatmadaw and the KIA. We ran away and when we came back to the village there were soldiers everywhere. I was arrested with my two children. I was taken to a primary school and put in a classroom with a guard. They did not give us any reasons, they just locked us in all day. In the evening they took us to the forest, and two days later they let us go.416 234. Most victims were held incommunicado without being able to inform their families of their location, had no access to a lawyer and were not brought before a court. 417 235. In some cases, individuals arrested and detained for suspected links to armed groups were eventually brought to court and charged, usually under the Unlawful Associations Act.418 However, in these instances this was after a period of being detained incommunicado in unofficial places of detention. 419 For example one individual from Waingmaw Township, Kachin State, reported how her relative was arrested and held on a farm before being transferred to a Police Station: In 2016, my relative was on the way to farm crops when he was arrested by the Tatmadaw. A friend told me they saw him tied-up with guns pointed at him. The soldiers were saying that he was a member of the KIA and my brother was denying this. The soldiers asked for 3,000 Kyat in exchange for his release. We tried to gather the money but they said it was taking too long so they took him to a farm nearby. Then 405 406 407 408 409 410 411 412 413 414 415 416 417 418 419 PI-006, PI-011, PI-020, PI-021, PI-026, PI-062, PI-068, PI-074, PI-089, PI-096. PI-054, PI-056, SI -004. PI-052, PI-055, PI-056. DI-067, DI-058, DI-060, PI-006, PI-020, PI-061, PI-062, PI-066, PI-067, PI-068, PI-078, PI-079, PI-084. DI-064, PI-011. PI-052, PI-055, PI-056. PI-053, PI-075, SI-004. PI-056, PI-074, PI-076, PI-111. PI-047, PI-080, PI-085, PI-095, PI-096. PI-035, PI-052, PI-056. PI-011, PI-019, PI-047, PI-054, QI-080. PI-047. DI-067, PI-006, PI-035, PI-044, PI-077, PI-080. See this chapter, section A.C: Lack of recourse. PI-022, PI-052, PI-055, PI-056, PI-109. 59