Kachin ethnic minority clashes with government
By a TrustLaw correspondent
BANGKOK (TrustLaw) – The Myanmar military is using sexual violence extensively in their offensive against ethnic Kachin separatists in the north of the country where up to 12,000 people have fled since the fiercest fighting in two decades flared up almost two weeks ago, a Kachin women’s organisation said on Tuesday.
Soldiers gang-raped at least 18 women and girls – the youngest 15-years-old and the oldest around 50 – between June 10 and June 18 during the advance of Myanmar’s army towards the strongholds of the Kachin Independence Army (KIA), Kachin Women’s Association Thailand (KWAT) said.
Four women, including a grandmother, were killed after being raped while another died from injuries during rape, it said.
A statement released by the group, part of an ethnic minority numbering as many as 1.5 million in Myanmar, said, “KWAT demands that the regime immediately stops using rape as a weapon of war, ends the offensive against Kachin and other ethnic groups, and withdraws from the ethnic areas.”
“The rapes were deliberate,” Shirley Seng, KWAT spokeswoman, told TrustLaw.
“When the soldiers from Myanmar army are moving, they set fire and destroy (the villages), kill and force villagers as porters, and rape the women. They are tormenting the public who happen to be living along the military route."
She also said talks by the Myanmar government of a ceasefire have mainly been lip service.
"We still haven't received any concrete evidence, like an official document, that they are (calling for a ceasefire) because they want genuine peace,” she said.
The KIA battled the central government for decades but agreed to a ceasefire in 1994 that permitted a degree of self-rule, albeit unofficially.
However, the government's refusal to register a Kachin political party for last year's parliamentary election -- due to its refusal to disarm -- has angered the Kachin while KIA’s persistent rejection to become part of the military-run Border Guard Force has upset the government.
Information is difficult to obtain from the remote northern states of Kachin and Shan but observers believe the latest clashes may be related to the controversial Chinese-owned hydroelectric plants which have fuelled local resentment.
The dams have raised environmental concerns and anger that 90 percent of the power generated will flow into China’s power grid.
In its first comments on the unrest, Myanmar's state media said on Saturday the military had no choice but to respond with force after KIA ignored its warning to move fighters away from the Taping Hydropower Project.
Analysts also say the Myanmar’s first civilian-led administration in five decades, less than three-months-old, is intent on seizing control of the rebellious states.
However, the unrest has raised fears the fighting could spread and intensify a wider, decades-old conflict between ethnic minority factions and Myanmar's army.
Our Standards: The Thomson Reuters Trust Principles.
