A/HRC/39/CRP.2 Commander stated she was detained and would be released the next day, but she did not appear. Letters were sent to the Kachin State Chief Minister, copied to several other authorities,461 and a habeas corpus petition brought before the Supreme Court in 2012. The Supreme Court rejected the petition based on a case file from an investigation carried out by the Northern Regional Command’s Base Strategic Operation Command located in Moe Meik.462 The Myanmar Government responded to a communication from the Special Rapporteur on Myanmar and other special procedures mandate holders in 2013, stating that personnel from the military post “did not carry out any activities whatsoever outside their camp”.463 However, in a documentary film released in 2015, a soldier from the military camp in question, who was detained by the KIA, stated that the soldiers had left their camp looking for food and had encountered Sumlut Roi Ja, and that their commanding officer had falsely told the Northern Command that they had not left their camp.464 No new investigations have been conducted and her fate remains unknown. 465 250. The lack of compliance with procedural safeguards for detention which should protect against disappearances (see above) meant family members were frequently unaware of the whereabouts of their detained relatives until they escaped, were released or were transferred to official places of detention, which in some cases was weeks or months later. 466 In other cases, individuals arrested by the Tatmadaw never returned and their families do not know their fate.467 For example, one woman from a village in Tanai Township, Kachin State, reported that her husband disappeared after he went gold mining in January 2014. She was told by witnesses that he was detained by the Tatmadaw in April 2014 and taken to do forced labour, but he has not been heard from since. 468 A victim arrested by the Tatmadaw in Monekoe, Muse Township, Shan State in November 2016, and later released, told the Mission, “I was worried that if I die here, my family would not even find my body”.469 Other individuals reported being arrested alongside family members, but leaving them behind when they managed to escape detention and never hearing from them again. 470 251. The Mission also received accounts of cases where individuals were detained by the Tatmadaw and, after family members searched for them, were found dead, often buried, and sometimes with ropes binding their wrists.471 In two cases reported to the Mission, Tatmadaw solders were reportedly later found to be responsible for the killings.472 The Mission has also received credible reports of the Tatmadaw committing killings of multiple individuals at the same time and the discovery of graves containing the remains of a number of individuals. 473 These and other accounts received by the Mission point to a pattern of intentional concealing of the remains of individuals who are killed during detention. 474 252. In some cases family members or persons associated with disappeared individuals submitted complaints to the authorities about the disappearance.475 However, others did not. One individual told the Mission of being too afraid to complain, and it is likely that many in this situation shared the same fears. 476 These fears are not unfounded given the numerous cases verified by the Mission where the Tatmadaw threatened or brought legal charges 461 462 463 464 465 466 467 468 469 470 471 472 473 474 475 476 K-138.3. K-138.2. Letter from the Permenant Mission of the Republic of the Union of Myanmar to the United Nations Office andother International Organizations in Geneva, 16 March 2013, available at https://spcommreports.ohchr.org/TMResultsBase/DownLoadFile?gId=82270 K. McLeod/DVB Multimedia Group, “The Disappearance of Roi Ja” (2015). V-332. See this chapter, section A.2: Unlawful killings. PI-004, PI-069, PI-099. PI-069. K-148. PI-004, PI-099. K-139, K-140, PI-082, PI-106, V-021, V-022. See this chapter, section A.2: Unlawful killings. K-140, V-021, V-022. See this chapter, section A.2: Unlawful killings. DI-063, PI-062. See this chapter, section A.2: Unlawful killings. DI-059, K-139, PI-037, PI-038, PI-052. DI-057. 63