18 Mon women were raped by
the troops of Burmese Army in 2004
Independent Mon News Agency
The witnesses from the local villages reported that about 18
Mon women have been raped by Burmese Army’s commanders and soldiers during they
lunched military operation against a Mon Splinter group that was active in
southern part of
Most women victims were the family members or relatives of
the soldiers in splinter group, as some women were raped at their houses after
threats of killing by the soldiers while some were raped during they forced to
work in the military camps.
Mi Aye Lwin, 20, a pregnant woman,
was gang-raped by Burmese Army’s Light Infantry battalion No. 586 soldiers, and
she also delivered her baby in the military camp in February 2004. She was arrested by the soldiers after her
father was accused as rebel-supporters.
“Rape or the sexual violations against the Mon women who
they (the Burmese soldiers) believed as rebels is a serious punishment of the
Burmese Army. They have not only
punished the Mon women in the rural community where war is happening, but they
also raped many women in other ethnic areas.
Very sorrowfully, very few Burman people in cities and in central part
of Burma knew how terrible of Burmese soldiers toward ethnic people”, said by Nai Kasauh Mon, the Director of
Human Rights Foundation of Monland, which has
documented about rape cases on a regular basis in their monthly report.
During a year military operation against the Mon splinter
groups, the Burmese soliders did not make much operations in the jungles where the Mon rebel soldiers
were taking bases. But they just based inside the villages and restricted the
villagers to go out from the villages.
Additionally they also forced the young women to entertain them in their
military camps in villages.
“We are difficulty to complaint about rape. We can complaint
to whom. The military regime is the most powerful .
These cases are violated by the soldier. So if we complaint to the higher rank,
we are always denied,” a village community leader said.
Many young women in the village were sent to town by their
parents to free from rape and sexual harassment. Many young women, including
the rape victims have migrated to
The villagers were restricted from going to work in the
farms, gardens and plantations. The
Burmese Army also gather in the main villages everyday
in the base for the registration that they reported that they are still in
village. The men who were late in the gathering in the group face beating and
other serious torture. In some days the soldiers also put these men under
sun-heat.
According to Human Rights Foundation of Monland,
over 10 villagers were killed with accusation of rebel-supporters during
December 2003 to March 2004 and about 50 people were arrested and seriously
tortured with similar accusation.
Many times, the local Burmese Army’s commanders tried to
close Mon National Schools in the area and forced the Mon teachers to resign
from the schools. Some schools were already shifted from the Mon Schools to
Government Schools the commanders of Burmese Army.
For further information, please contact to
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