ICRC on fifth trip to Shan township

ICRC on fifth trip to Shan township

Human Rights

For the fifth time since late last year and for the second time in the same month, the International Red Cross has been in the Shan township, 79 miles northeast of Taunggyi, where reports of human rights violations continue to flood across the Thai-Burma frontier. 

According to reports reaching Chiangmai, a 12-men team of the International Committee of Red Cross arrived in the township on 22 September, ten days after the last trip to the area ended. 

During that trip, the group had reportedly complained about heavy presence of Burma Army troops in the villages where they had been conducting their survey, the upshot of which was the villagers' extreme reluctance to cooperate with the ICRC's fact finders.

The team would be staying for a week visiting 30 villages east of the township seat. 

Shan Human Rights Foundation had documented extrajudicial killings of 58 people, 4 of them also raped, during the 1997 forced relocation campaign launched by Rangoon. Shan Women's Action Network also identified 17 out of a total of 173 cases of sexual violence committed by Burma Army officers and men between 1996-2001. 

ICRC, according to its statement, believes that "the mere fact of being present in conflict affected areas and repeating our visit to the people there can have a preventive protection effect." 

Shan State Army's 758th Brigade commanded by Lt-Col Moengzuen is active in Laikha and the surrounding townships.