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ABSDF: Burmese Troops Rape Woman an



Media Release
October 6, 1998

Burmese Troops Rape Woman and Her Mother in Front of Husband

Burmese soldiers raped a woman and her mother in Karen State in
eastern Burma in front of the woman's husband, according a
villager from Engyi village in Kawkareik Township.

The crime took place in the morning of August 17, when four
soldiers from Light Infantry Regiment 546 arrived at the house of
Ma Myint Khaing in Engyi Village in Kawkareik. The soldiers
arrested and bound Ma Myint Khiaing's husband for no apparent
reason.

The four soldiers then raped 23-year-old Ma Myint Khaing and her
51-year-old mother Daw Aye Sein in the presence of Ma Myint
Khaing's husband. The victims dare not report the crime for fear
of retribution from the army.

The four soldiers are Corporal Zaw Latt, Private Maung Soe, Win
Naing and Than Hteik.

Ma Myint Khaing had given birth to a baby only two days before
the crime. As a result of the ordeal she went through, Ma Myint
Khaing became mentally ill. Latest reports indicate she is still
receiving medical attention in Kyondoe. 

All Burma Students' Democratic Front (ABSDF) Foreign Secretary
Aung Naing Oo said that Burmese troops consider rape to be a
"special privilege" of military service.

"In addition to killing innocent villagers and pillaging
villages, Burmese soldiers and officers alike gang-rape helpless
women, often in the presence of their husbands or relatives. We
have never known a case in which the violators are charged and
brought to justice."

On the same day of the rape of Ma Myint Khaing, Major Tin Aye and
four other soldiers from the same regiment also raped Naw Saywa
and one other woman at Nophado village. Naw Saywa's husband was
killed by being stabbed with a bayonet fourteen times for
resisting arrest.  

Regiment 546, which is based in Kyondoe and is under the command
of Burma's Southeastern Military Region, is notorious for various
forms of human rights abuses in the area including rape, killing,
looting and confiscation of private property.    

Earthrights International, in its 1998 report "School for Rape",
described rape by the Burmese Army as an institutionalised
practice.  "In Burma, rape serves as gratification for the
Burmese soldiers' desire for revenge against the ethnic insurgent
fighters."

All Burma Students' Democratic Front

For more information please contact 01-253 9082, 01-654 4984