A/HRC/39/CRP.2
old. My father objected to me joining the SSA-S military training but they answered
“if you don’t want her to come, we will come back and get you”.
353. The victim also stated that the conditions during training were dire and they often felt
hungry: “We had to train hard and to always be on guard for the Tatmadaw. Sometimes we
had to work the entire night without eating. It was quite hard for the women in the group. 771
354. Another 16-year old girl told the Mission that she was forcibly recruited by the SSAS in July 2011 in Mongkaung Township, Shan State until she escaped from a SSA-S military
camp. She received training for two years, which she said was because, “they needed to work
for their country and fight back the Tatmadaw”. 772
(d)
Destruction and appropriation of civilian property
355. The Mission has reasonable grounds to conclude that EAOs have confiscated and
destroyed civilian property as a means to coerce civilians to participate in military operations,
to gain control over a given territory or to punish civilians who have collaborated with the
Tatmadaw or an opposing non-State armed group.773 This appropriation of property was
closely connected to the extraction of natural resources or farming, which appear to be
imperative to the armed group’s financial survival. 774
356. For example, a source reported that the SSA-S destroyed his mother’s tea plantation
in 2013 in Namhsan Township, Shan State. The source mentioned that the SSA-S wanted to
gain control over the Ta’ang region and exploit the tea plantation for financial reasons. This
led his mother and other villagers to leave and move to Yangon as they were no longer able
to earn a living in their native village.775 The Mission also recorded other recent unverified
accounts of Ta’ang villagers being forced to leave their land in territory controlled by the
SSA-S in Shan State.776
357. In several cases reported, the TNLA confiscated the land, house or belongings of
families who refuse to give up their sons for recruitment or because they escaped after having
been recruited.777 The property is confiscated until the families allow their son to be recruited.
In one credible instance reported, the TNLA confiscated the home of the mother of the source
in 2017, Namhsan Township, Shan State, because her brother was recruited by the TNLA,
but had then “deserted” and fled to Thailand. As a consequence, the mother was evicted from
her home, under orders from the TNLA. 778
358. In another account, the TNLA confiscated the home and tea plantation of a family in
Namhsan Township, Shan State in early September 2017.779 The interviewee explained that
initially her brother was recruited, despite his mental disability, and when he had escaped
military training, she had been forcibly recruited in his place. She was informed of this by
the village administrator, acting on behalf of the TNLA. She eventually also managed to flee,
but as a consequence her parents were evicted from their home and land, and are now
displaced.780
359. The Mission has also received unverified reports of the SSA-S and TNLA looting and
pillaging civilian property during their military incursions into the opposing group’s
territory.781 For example, on 13 February 2016, it was reported that, during fighting between
the TNLA and RCSS in Nam Twe village, Langhko Township, Shan State, SSA-S members
771
772
773
774
775
776
777
778
779
780
781
88
DI-070.
PI-014.
PI-094, PI-101, QI-088, SI-003.
QI-088, SI-003.
QI-088.
PI-101.
PI-093, PI-094, PI-095, PI-097.
PI-093.
PI-094.
PI-094.
K-137, K-144.