Burmese Army Soldiers Raping Ethnic Women With Impunity

Kachinland News, January 10, 2014

Burmese army soldiers led by Major Thaw Zin Naing from 298th Light Infantry Battalion (LIB) gang-raped a Kachin woman who is travelling from Myitkyina as a passenger on a bus on Jan 8. A local source says Major Thaw Zin Naing himself raped Roi Awng (last name withheld) followed by his soldiers. The commander of 298th LIB is Major Tun Nay Win.

Roi Awng and two other Kachin women were pulled aside from a bus on Myitkyina-Sumpra Bum motor road by 298th LIB soldiers who were on security duty for Daru Yang bridge. Two Kachin women later run away from the soldiers but Roi Roi was brutally gang-raped by 298th LIB soldiers led by Major Thaw Zin Naing. The two women who escaped from the soldiers are now in the custody of KIO’s Daru Bum County office in Sut Ra village.

Despite receiving supports from European Union and other international donors for reform and peace process, Burmese government’s army continues offensive operations and its soldiers continue to commit gang-rapes and grave abuses in ethnic areas. Most sexual assaults and rapes committed by Burmese army soldiers went unpunished in reformed Burma.

In the past few months, there have been a number of reported cases of rapes committed by government soldiers in Kachin and northern Shan State.

An 8-year-old Kachin girl was raped by a Burmese army private Win Htwe (Personal No. 337076) from 323rd Light Infantry Regiment under Theinni-based 16th Military Operations Command (MOC-16) at Hka Lum village on Nov 11, 2013.

Three Burmese army soldiers under Major Soe Naing Linn of 286th Light Infantry Regiment gang-raped a 29-year-old Kachin woman who has three young children (age 2, 4, and 7) on Nov 2, 2013.

Sumlut Roi Ja, a 15-year-old girl, was gang-raped by Capt. Thet Hpyo Aung, also known as Capt. Zaw Htet Aung and two other Burmese army soldiers from 116th Light Infantry Regiment (LIR) at Lu Htawng village, located between Sadung and Mau Gyam village, on Oct 30, 2013.

In Sept 2013, Burmese army’s 137th LIR soldiers gang-raped a 29-year-old mother of an infant baby at Nhka Ga village in Machanbaw.

Ah Noh of the Kachin Women Association of Thailand (KWAT) testified to the US congress in last February that 64 women and girls have been raped by fourteen Burmese army battalions in seventeen townships in Kachin State since the renewed war began in June 2011. “Among these, there were many cases of gang-rape.” said Ah Noh. “About half of these victims were also killed. Burmese soldiers told villagers that they had been ordered to rape women.