A/HRC/39/CRP.2
“Why did you pass the message to the TNLA?” I told them that I did not, but they
didn’t believe me and slapped me. One soldier told the other two to wait outside. He
then raped me on the floor on a dry grass mattress. He ripped all my clothes off, so I
was completely naked.334
198. Another survivor from Kutkai Township, Shan State, was abducted from her farm in
September 2012 by five Tatmadaw soldiers bearing guns. She was forced to work as a porter
and cook for the soldiers during the day. One night the senior officer asked her for a massage
and then took his clothes off and attempted to rape her. The survivor was able to push him
off and escape even though soldiers fired guns in her direction. 335 Another survivor from
Kutkai was abducted from her house in 2011 by Tatmadaw soldiers who destroyed her shop
before forcing her to carry heavy items to a military base. She and another woman were able
to escape that night after the soldiers had told the women they would have to have sex with
them.336
199. Several witnesses across both Kachin and Shan States saw sexual abuse and rape
committed in military bases337 or in the jungle.338 One witness described seeing 20 soldiers
surrounding two girls aged about 15 to 16 years old in the jungle in December 2017, in Tanai
Township, Kachin State:
The soldiers were punching and slapping them. They pulled their hair. They pushed
them on the ground and tore off their clothing. The girls were naked on the ground.
200. The witness ran from the scene in fear and later learned that villagers had found the
bodies of the two girls.339
201. Other witnesses personally knew women who had been taken away by the military, 340
women who had been raped, sometimes by several soldiers at once, 341 and women who had
fallen pregnant as a result of the rape,342 or had been killed after the rape.343 For example, in
2011, one source who was forcibly recruited for labour by the Tatmadaw in Kunhing
Township, Shan State, witnessed three Tatmadaw soldiers force a husband to work as a porter
while they took his wife to the forest and raped her. 344
Rape and sexual violence in the home
202. There are consistent accounts of Tatmadaw soldiers, either individually or in groups,
attempting to rape women and girls in their homes. 345 Women who were raped in their homes
or following abduction recognized the Tatmadaw insignia and the military uniforms.346 One
survivor in Lashio Township in Shan State described how, in 2012, when there was fighting
between the KIA and the Tatmadaw in her area, a group of soldiers entered her house, killed
her parents and raped her:
334
335
336
337
338
339
340
341
342
343
344
345
346
52
PI-066.
QI-084.
PI-023.
PI-025, PI-029.
PI-029, PI-083, PI-099.
PI-069.
PI-096, QI-078.
PI-068, QI-072, QI-082, QI-086, QI-089.
PI-069, QI-082, QI-098.
PI-069, QI-079.
PI-083.
PI-005, PI-037, PI-057, PI-110, PI-117; see also Shan Human Rights Foundation (SHRF), Update by
the Shan Human Rights Foundation (April 2016); SHRF, Update by the Shan Human Rights
Foundation (November 2015); Ta’ang Women’s Organization, Trained to torture: Systematic war
crimes by the Burmese Army in Ta'ang areas of Northern Shan State (March 2011-March 2016);
SHRF, Summary of HR violations committed by Burma Army troops during military offensive in Tang
Yan, Shan State, from 14-15 April 2013 (April 2013); Kachin Women's Association Thailand, State of
Terror in Kachin Hills (February 2013).
PI-003, PI-004, PI-005, PI-007, PI-067, PI-068, PI-069, PI-089, QI-082.