10,000 Villagers Forcibly Relocated in Shan State: Rights Groups

The Burmese army has recently forced an estimated 10,000 people in central Shan State to leave their villages and torched more than 500 homes, Shan human rights groups claimed on Thursday.

The Shan Women’s Action Network (SWAN) and the Shan Human Rights Foundation (SHRF) told reporters that the Burmese junta has been forcibly relocating villagers in Laika Township, in central Shan State, since July 27. About 40 villages were affected, the groups said.

Children in Shan refugee camp in Thailand. (Source: www.shanrefugeeschools.org)

“This campaign has been carried out cold-bloodedly and systematically,” said Kham Harn Fah, the director of the SHRF, speaking at a press conference in northern Thailand. He added that in many cases, Burmese troops used the villagers’ own petrol to burn down their houses.

At least three villagers were killed, including a young woman who was shot while she was trying to recover possessions from her burning house, and over 100 had been arrested and tortured, the Shan rights groups said.

Another woman had her throat cut and was thrown into a river after troops arrested her, and a 45-year-old man was shot to death during the forced relocation, the groups said.

The groups also said that a woman had been gang-raped in an incident that occurred on August 2. Witnesses said that the woman was raped in front of her husband by an officer and three of his subordinates from Light Infantry Battalion 514, based in Laika.

“It was very cruel. For many years, the junta’s troops have used raping women as a weapon of war,” said Charm Tong, one of the founders of SWAN, which published License to Rape, a report documenting the Burmese army’s extensive use of sexual violence as part of its operations against ethnic insurgents.

She added that while the international community was expressing outrage over the trial of pro-democracy leader Aung San Suu Kyi, the Burmese regime continued to commit crimes against humanity in ethnic areas.

“They are thumbing their noses at the international community,” she said of Burma’s ruling generals, adding that the recent creation of a regional human rights body would be “a joke” if it did nothing to end human rights violations in Burma.