Investigation of Burmese Military Rape of Ethnic Women Trip Report August 1 - 4 2002

U.S. Department of State August 1 - 4 2002

Investigation of Burmese Military Rape of Ethnic Women Trip Report August 1 - 4 2002 
Bureau of Democracy, Human Rights and Labor, U.S. Department of State

Executive Summary

The Bureau of Democracy, Human Rights and Labor (DRL) sent a representative to the Thai-Burma border to investigate allegations of the systematic rape of ethnic women and girls by the Burmese military. Disturbing reports of sexual violence by Burmese military forces, the Tatmadaw, against ethnic minority women have been coming out of Burma for years. International awareness of this horrific practice was recently heightened with te publication of a report titled "License to Rape" compiled by Shan Human Rights Foundation (SHRF) and the Shan Women's Action Network (SWAN) in May 2002. Similar to other reports before it, "License to Rape" concludes that the brutal use of sexual violence as a weapon of war is widespread and systematic. We were able to locate many victims and record chilling new stories of rape and other atrocities in just three days on the border.

Of the 12 rape victims we met, all had been gang-raped by Burmese soldiers sometime over the past 5 years. Most knew several other women or girls who also had been raped and or killed. The most recent rape victim interviewed was a 13 year-old girl who was raped in June 2002. All of the young victims under 15 were clearly disturbed mentally and spoke in whispers if at all. The older women sobbed violently as they recalled horrific incidents of their own rapes as well as brutal rapes, torture and execution of family members. Most of these women have just recently arrived in Thailand and were thin, ill, lethargic, despondent and had no belongings or hope for the future. These first-hand accounts corroborate allegations made in several NGO reports that rape and other forms of sexual violence by the Burmese military against civilian women has been and continues to be widespread in ethnic regions. The international community cannot stand by and allow these heinous crimes by the Tatmadaw to continue with impunity. We should continue tot pressure the regime to end this violence and punch the perpetrators. We should also respond to the urgent need for counseling and material assistance to rape victims to help them rebuild their lives.

This trip report documents and summarizes several new incidents of rape by Burmese soldiers, assesses the credibility and methods of the most recent NGO report on this issue, and recommends USG action. The ongoing atrocities in ethnic regions demand that the USG remain firm [in] its stance against the brutality and human rights abuses of the Burmese regime and continue to play a lead role in garnering international community support to address the issue. We should also continue to press for a fill investigation of these allegations with participation of independent international human rights monitors. We should expand humanitarian assistance and programs for counseling services, safe-houses, and healthcare provision linked to regional HIV/AIDS initiatives should target victims. We should also encourage Thailand to maintain its protection of refugees on the border and expand that protection to vulnerable groups like the Shan that currently have no access to refugee camps.

Introduction-Trip Description

This preliminary investigation into rape allegations against the Burmese military took place from August 1-3 2002 in three separate districts on the Thai-Burma border; Pail District, Fang District and Wieng Haeng District, all in Chiang Mai Province. DRL officer Jean Geran conducted all the interviews with the help of an experienced Shan interpreter associated with SWAN. On the first two days a political officer from the U.S. Consulate in Chiang Mai, Ruth Bennett, participated as well. The first day of interviews in Pai District we met with a group of 12 women newly arrived from Shan State, 10 of whom were rape victims. The second day in Fang, we met with one of the women whose case is documented in the recent NGO report, License to Rape, as well as Nang Mo Hom, who compiled most of the SHRF cases from monthly reports and conducted new interviews for the License to Rape report. With her we were able to discuss the methodology used to compile that report. That day, we also met another rape victim whose story had not been recorded before. The third day we spent in Wieng Haeng meeting with some of the trip allowed us to draw conclusions about he allegations of rape through first hand accounts from rape victims, verify the stories contained in the latest NGO report on this issue, and assess the methods used by SHRF/SWAN to compile their report. The meeting with other new arrivals helped us understand other types of atrocities such as execution and forced labor ongoing in Shan State and the challenges faced by Shan refugees in Thailand.

This trip report documents and summarizes several new incidents of rape by Burmese soldiers, assesses the credibility and methods of the most recent NGO report on this issue, and recommends USG action. We recommend a multi-faceted strategy to bring an end to the sexual violence pervasive in the ethnic regions of Burma and to assist the victims to recover and improve their lives.

Interviews with Victims

On August 1 2002 we met with a group of 12 women newly arrived from Shan State, all of the whom had compelling and chilling stories of abuse, oppression and injustice at the hands of the Burmese military. Ten out of the 12 women and girls had been raped, all by more than one soldier, and several had additional stories of brutality, torture and execution of other family members or friends. The most recent rape incident among this group, that of a 13 year-old girl, occurred in June 2002, just a month before the group came to Thailand. All these women came from the same general area in Central Shan State and their villages had been relocated in 1996-97. The various incidents of rape happened over the course of the 5 years during which the women were displaced and forced to move around to survive. Below are excerpts from some of the interviews.

Ba Yawt (not her real name) had been forcibly relocated with her family from her home in Central Shan State in 1997. Forced to move around in small groups, trying to survive by planting rice in temporary settlements, their lives were already difficult. Three years ago, however, her life was completely shattered. She was walking with her daughter and younger sister, both about 20 years old, to harvest rice when they were surrounded by 30-40 soldiers. One of the soldiers had more "things" on the shoulder and chest of his uniform and was talking on "some kind of machine." The soldiers dragged the younger girls away and put plastic around their heads so that all Ba Yawt could hear were their muffled screams. When she tried to look where the soldiers were taking them they hit her and one cut her with his bayonet leaving a scar on her hand. They blindfolded and raped her. She does not know how many raped her but does know that it was several.

She returned to her settlement and the villagers heard shots that day. They were too afraid to go look for the other girls until after the soldiers left the area a few days later. They found the dead body of her younger sister first, face down and still grasping bushes. Her sarong was on her loosely and when they turned her over they saw that her face was bloody and beaten with maggots already present. She had been shot in the neck and back. When they found her daughter's body there was no blood but her sarong was around her waist and her body bruised all over. The plastic was still around her head. Ba Yawt's other teenage daughter was with them when they found the bodies and fled to Thailand shortly after in fear. The villagers found another man that day who also had been beaten and shot. Ba Yawt has been alone ever since the incident and is always afraid. She says her mind wanders all the time now. She and her sister sat with us and sobbed violently while showing us photos of Yawt's daughter and grandson (also dead now), their younger sister who died in the incident, Yawt's daughter that fled, and 3 other young girls from their village who also had been raped by Burmese soldiers in another incident.

Nang Tip thinks she is 19 years old but is not sure because her parents died when she was young and she is an orphan. She was about 14 and was living with four other orphans in a small hut when the Burmese soldiers came. It was August or September and four of the soldiers dragged her out of their hut and into the buses where they took turns raping her. They hit her on the head several times so she was dizzy and faded in and out of consciousness. When she finally woke up the next day she had pain all over, could barely move and was wet with the soldiers' fluids. She wandered in the forest for months afterwards and never saw the other four teenagers again. Nang Tip says she has been weak and ill for five years since the incident and indeed her appearance confirms this fact. She is extremely thin and must shift around often due to the pain in her back.

Nang Oun, 17 years old, could not speak louder than a whisper and had difficulty telling us about the day in June 2002 that she was raped by three soldiers. She was on ther way to fetch water when she was surrounded by the Burmese soldiers. Three of them slapped and beat her while taking turns raping her. She traveled to Thailand with her Aunt, Ba Law, who says that the girl has barely spoken since the incident. In fact, all the young victims we met were clearly traumatized and mentally disturbed. Two of them gazed around aimlessly and smiled off and on without speaking at all.

Separately from the first group of 12 we met another strong young woman who had been in Thailand for over a year and told us her story of being raped by 3 Burmese soldiers in May 2000. She was from a different part of Central Shan State than the other women but also had been relocated by the Tatmadaw to Khun Hin about six years ago (1996). Through her tears, she expressed feelings of shame to tell us the story, but she poke with confidence about what she could and could not remember. She confidently told us which battalion, #246, forced her village to relocate and killed her husband along with 10 other men. She did no know, however, who the soldiers were that raped her about 3 years later. Even in Thailand life remains difficult. After being picked up as an illegal migrant, she spent time in Thai jail until her employer paid a find of 3,200 Bt. To have her released. She only recently paid off that debt to her employer and now her new husband is sick in the hospital.

Though none of these cases was included in any NGO report, all the stories resemble those documented in the various NGO reports on this issue and generally support the allegations of widespread sexual violence against ethnic women by the Tatmadaw. There is no doubt whatsoever that these women were speaking the truth. Indeed their ability to speak the truth about their loss and suffering was the one thing the Burmese military had not taken from them. They had arrived in Thailand with only the tattered clothes on their backs, no other belongings and no hope for the future. However, these interviews also illustrated the difficulty of obtaining specific details about dates, places and sequencing of incidents when discussing such emotional issues with people whose lives have been completely disrupted for several years. Many of the victims had several stories of death and loss and would speak in general terms about "so much death."

The ability of women to remember and tell these details seemed to depend on both their personality and current circumstances. It was especially difficult to get timing and sequence from these interviews. Lives of the victims had usually been completely disrupted before the incident occurred and most incidents happened while victims were on the move around Shan State after being "relocated." They made less reference to a set calendar than would a normal villager. It is typically difficult to get exact dates from villagers that do not watch a clock or schedule, but one usually can get close to exact dates by using the agricultural (planting/harvesting) calendar and festival calendar. But in these cases that is even difficult. Place names also present a challenge because the original villagers of the victims no longer exist due to the forced relocation, and their mobile existence since then makes identifying exact locations of the incidents difficult. What the women all knew, however, was the relocation site they lived near, including Mung Nai and Khun Hin. 

License to Rape Assessment

A secondary goal of the trip was to make a general assessment of the credibility of the recent NGO report, License to Rape. We met with one of the women documented as an extended interview in this report, case #160. Nang Hla was gang-raped last year by SPDC soldiers when she was 7 months pregnant and 16 years old, the same day they beat her husband and took him away. Responding to our questions and with no prompting about the existing documentation, she told us her story in generally the same terms as those recorded in the report. A few small details were different. For example, she told us she gave birth to her child alone but told us this was after her relatives had come and found her and they were just out gathering food that day. The report says that her relatives came and found her after she gave birth to the child.

The SHRF researcher who conducted the original interview with Nang Hla, told us that at the time of the first interview just a couple months after the incident, she was still very upset and ill and told the story in a stream of consciousness sort of way. When she has recalled the story several times since then, more details have become available and some have changed slightly. It is difficult to determine which of the details are accurate. Nang Hla's circumstances have also changed in the meantime and she remarried just 6 months before our interview and the new husband and family do not know about the rape. On this day of interviewing Nang Hla told her story in a matter-of-fact and aloof way and was reluctant at first to tell us about the rape itself. She said that she was beaten first but eventually admitted to the rape. The last time she recalled the story was with a reporter who quite aggressively asked questions of the people around her and upset her. She is still quite young and has a tick with her eye that blinks quickly off and on. She seemed afraid and indifferent a the same time.

The organizations - SHRF and SWAN

The majority of the cases in the report were compiled from SHRF monthly reports (about 140) and the rest were collected through longer interviews with the rape victims themselves. These interviews were conducted by SWAN members and members of other women's organizations (i.e. Lahu). All the SWAN members I met with worked on a volunteer basis and were committed to helping other Shan women. Indeed they had already helped the recent arrivals with food, clothing and medications. SWAN as an organization does not appear to have direct links to the armed Shan resistance. Though individual members may have history with the resistance, the organization was set up to bring Shan women together to help other Shan women on a full range of women's issues including domestic violence, education, health, etc. We found all the SWAN members we met, including the primary researcher for License to Rape, to be committed to truthfully documenting these women's stories and assisting them to recover.

SHRF has an admitted history with the Shan resistance (MTA) at the time of its founding back in the early 90's. The organization claims, however, that it broke off its ties with the Shan resistance soon after its founder died and has been committed to documenting human rights abuses since then. They have received funding and training from several credible NGOs which has helped them improve the quality and credibility of their documentation over the years. This evolution of the organization implies that the accuracy of its reporting on rape cases in monthly reports, in the past may have depended heavily on who did the interviews, with whom, and when. However, a reputable NGO that funds the SHRF conducted a thorough evaluation of the credibility of its recent work. This NGO is convinced of SHRF's current political independence and objectivity in human rights reporting. The director of the SHRF indicated that they have been increasingly trying to verify all the information gathered by checking with various sources.

The Methodology

The cases in the report that were compiled from SHRF's monthly reports were collected by Shan human rights monitors who gathered the information by talking to recent arrivals from Shan State. These same monitors, mostly men, also work with other NGOs and have many responsibilities. They tended to document these cases at the same time as documenting other types of abuses and tracking the numbers of new arrivals from Shan State and facilitating humanitarian assistance to them. These monitors sometimes would rely on people inside Shan State who know military schedules to know which troops are in which locations and when. Unfortunately, the researcher who compiled the SHRF cases could not tell me the source of all information contained in the cases. Therefore, it is not clear in each case if the victim herself had been interviewed or her family or other community members. The victim herself may indeed know the name or battalion number of soldiers involved -- as one of our interviewees did -- especially if the incident took place in military camps or relocation sites. However, it is more likely that other male family members or community leaders would have that information and in the cases describing complaints made to authorities, there was often a male family member or leader involved. Several of the women we interviewed mentioned that they noticed one or two soldiers who had extra "decorations" on the shoulder or front of their uniforms and one of these had been talking on something (like a walkie-talkie).

Verification

The biggest challenge to verifying the specific details of each case will be locating the victims and other family members for interviews, because they all continue to move due to their illegal status in Thailand. When the primary researcher wanted to do return interviews of existing SHRF cases in order to fund out what the effects of the rapes had been on the victims and how they were managing currently she could only fund about 6 to do follow up interviews (our of approximately 140). She believes they could probably track down many of them for a fuller investigation but it would require significant time talking to people and going from place to place to try to locate them. They plan to keep closer track of the victims they interview in the future. SWAN also mentioned that though it is not difficult to fund women who were raped it is often difficult for these women to speak about it. They estimate that only 1 in 5 rape victims have been willing to speak about what happened to them.

Recommendations

There are several courses of action the US government can pursue to address this serious situation. 

USG Diplomacy

Encourage a full investigation by the UNHCR and encourage relevant UN Special Rapporteurs to get involved; Continue to press the Thai government to allow UNHCR access to Shan from Burma to determine who may qualify for refugee status and give humanitarian organizations free access to this population to assist them; Continue to pressure the Burmese regime to fully investigate the allegations with participation from independent international observers and punish those responsible; Maintain strong language in the upcoming UNGA Third Committee resolution on Burma that condemns the continuing serious human rights abuses in ethnic areas; and Recruit support from other concerned nations for all of the above initiatives.

Investigation Strategies

Have a thorough knowledge of the relocation process that took place mostly in 1996-1997, before interviewing victims to help with identifying locations; Use rapid appraisal techniques and tools in interviews to assist in determining exact timing of the incidents. (i.e. Felt boards, beans, pictures of different plant phases etc.) Photos of individuals involved in the incidents helped tremendously by focusing the discussion on specific events instead of jumping from one to another; Speak to other family members if they already know what happened and are generally supportive. If unsupportive then they may be detrimental; and Take advantage of the fact that what seemed to motivate the women to speak out was the fact that the SPDC had denied that this was happening - that this had happened to them. Though difficult for them, all of the women wanted to tell their story.

Assistance Programs

Support women's organizations like SWAN and give them appropriate training and computer software to improve their documentation of human rights abuses; Open more safe houses in various border regions to expand the work of SWAN's safe house in Chiang Mai; Link with regional HIV/AIDS programming to provide testing and healthcare to Burmese migrants and refugee rape victims in particular; and Consult with existing healthcare providers to refugees and migrants and support the integration of rape counseling services for victims 

Conclusion

The information we gathered during this initial investigation generally corroborated the allegations contained in several NGO reports including the recent report, "License to Rape." Our ability to locate and record new stories of rape similar to those in NGO reports in such a short time supports the allegations that rape and other forms of sexual violence by the Burmese military against civilian women has been and continues to be widespread in ethnic regions. All the victims we spoke with were especially vulnerable civilians. The stories we heard also support the assertion that officers at the least allow this to occur and at worst are directly involved and promote the activity. However, the level of responsibility and knowledge of the abuses needs to be determined. The exact details of each case in the License to Rape report need to be verified and checked and a full investigation will face large challenges in locating and protecting the victims. However, we must push to ensure such an investigation by independent international monitors takes place. Perpetrators must be punished and this horrific violence against the most vulnerable of innocent civilians ended.