EBO “Burma News” 23 January 2003

News Summary:

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1. Burmese Army defectors testify to continuing impunity for rape

2. Soldier charged for rape of Kareni Refugee Girls

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Shan Women's Action Network (SWAN)

Press Release by

January 20, 2003

Burmese Army defectors testify to continuing impunity for rape

Three soldiers who defected from the Army of Burma's junta, the State Peace and

Development Council (SPDC), at the Thai-Burma border on January 17, 2003,

have testified to Shan Women's Action Network members that their commanding

officer boasted to them about raping women.

The soldiers, aged 17, 19 and 26, who had defected with their weapons from

Company Two of Light Infantry Battallion 226 across the border from Piang Luang

in Northern Chiang Mai province, testified that their commanding sergeant Myint Htay

had boasted to them last month about having raped "five or six" women in Shan State.

The three soldiers, all forcibly recruited into the SPDC Army within the past year,

had been stationed at the border for only a few months, after undergoing training

near Kengtung.

"If officers feel comfortable boasting to their troops about raping women, it is clear

that the culture of impunity for sexual violence in the Burmese Army is still in place,"

said Hseng Noung of the Shan Women's Action Network.

The soldiers, one of whom was only 16 when arrested at a bus station in Central

Burma and forced to enlist, also said that there were child soldiers as young as

twelve stationed at the SPDC Army camp opposite Piang Luang.

For further information, please contact:

Nang Hseng Noung at: 66-9-851-9510

Nang Charmtong at 66-1-885-4347

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Soldier charged for rape of Kareni Refugee Girls

Asian Tribune

Date : 2003-01-23

The military court in Chiang Mai charged one soldier for rape this Monday.

He was one of those three soldiers who were brought to the military court on

charges of raping two Karenni refugee girls in Mae Hong Song.

The court charged him with 4 years and 6 months sentence and to be served

in the military prison.

In March 2002, two Kareni girls, considered refugees, went to the forest to find

vegetable. The two girls – one 15 years and another 20 years old, according to

allegations, were raped by the three soldiers on their way back to the refugee camp.

The perpetrator who raped the 20-year-old girl pleaded guilty during the court

hearing on 15 of this month. However, the other two soldiers did not plead guilty

and the next court hearing is fixed for 11 March. Reporters are not allowed inside,

while the court is in session.

Earlier, on 4th of this month, a thirteen-year-old Karenni girl was also murdered

in the refugee camp-5. On the following day, her body was found lying in the bank

of a stream, running near the refugee camp. She was believed to be strangled to death.

However, according to authorities, the alleged murderer of the thirteen-year-old girl

is still at large.

It was reported that even last year, there was a murder in the same refugees’ camp.

Subsequently, perpetrators were charged, after human-right groups expressed

grave concern over the mysterious death. Later, details of the case appeared

in the Amnesty International’s human-rights year book 2002.

Refugees camp in Mae Hong Song, which house some twenty-five-thousand

refugees, mostly Karenni, is under the administration of KNPP (Karenni National

Progressive Party), one of the ethnic groups in exile.

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