"...Women are doubly at risk due to their gender and their ethnicity. Whenever the SPDC troops arrive in a village and demand laborers, they often suspect the men of collaboration with rebel groups and many men will flee their village before the soldiers arrive. So the women left in the village are then forced to work for their soldiers as porters and are often raped by those soldiers at night and sometimes killed..."Shattering Silences", a new report just released by the Karen Women's Organization (KWO). It documents 125 cases of sexual violence committed by the Burmese army in Karen State from 1988 to 2004. Half of the rape cases documented were committed by high-ranking officers, 40% were gang rape and in 28% of the cases, the women were killed after being rape. Many women and girls are raped in front of their families. In two of the 35 detailed cases in the report, one woman was raped in front of her children and the other in front of her father. This is a very shameful action committed by the SPDC troops and it is difficult for the women to speak out. Some have suffered severe depression and even committed suicide.