Burma Army’s War against Shan: Licence to Rape plus Licence to Commit Genocide?

On 20th July, in relation to the upcoming final assault on the Shan State Army (SSA) North’s Wan Hai base in Kehsi township, Shan Herald Agency for News reported that orders have been issued to the Burmese troops that, “If they are E-ja-kway (Chinese Youzhagui, deep-fried twisted dough sticks), get rid of them,” one source quoted an officer as saying. “If they are Samoosa (Indian-samosa, fried stuffed pastry), eat them.” 

 E-ja-kway means male, and Samoosa means female, according to the source.
 

Tai Freedom website reported yesterday that on 15 July, Maj. Gen Aung Than Htut, Chief of Bureau of Special Operation 2 which oversees all regional commands in Shan State and Karenni State summoned his all commanders concerned to meet him in Murng Nawng Sub-township. In the meeting, the commanders were told “to kill all men, rape all women and burn down every village”.

Almost identically, according to Kachin Women’s Association Thailand’s statement, on 19th July, Burma Army’s human rights abuses so far have been documented as rape of 32 women and girls in eight townships during the offensive, thirteen of whom were killed. One young girl was raped and killed in front of her parents. Refugees describe soldiers declaring they have “orders to rape women”.

In March, when it became clear that main stream non-Burman ceasefire armies like, the KIA, UWSA and bulk of the SSA North would not toe the line of Naypyidaw’s Border Guard Force plan, the War Office   ordered its forces based in ethnic areas to relaunch their infamous Four Cuts strategy against them.
The 4 cut campaign, according to SHAN report, on 22nd April of this year, includes:

Implementation on the ground would mean “sweeping” the operational areas, where male villagers are killed, women raped and the villages burned. Apart from that, creation of “no man’s land” and “free fire zone” are ordered during the Burmese military offensive in ethnic areas.

The 4 cuts campaign launched 1996-98 had laid waste 11 townships in Shan State, displacing more than 300,000 people in 1,500 villages.

“Licence to rape”, researched and compiled by The Shan Human Rights Foundation and Shan Women Action Networks in 2002, is irrefutable evidence to date that the Burma Army has always use “Rape as a weapon of war” against the Shan and other ethnic groups.

According to the report, it has detailed 173 incidents of rape and other forms of sexual violence, involving 625 girls and women, committed by Burmese army troops in Shan State, mostly between 1996 and 2001. The report reveals that the Burmese military regime is allowing its troops systematically and on a widespread scale to commit rape with impunity in order to terrorize and subjugate the ethnic peoples of Shan State.

The incidents detailed were committed by soldiers from 52 different battalions. 83% of the rapes were committed by officers, usually in front of their own troops. The rapes involved extreme brutality and often torture such as beating, mutilation and suffocation. 25% of the rapes resulted in death, in some incidences with bodies being deliberately displayed to local communities. 61% were gang-rapes; women were raped within military bases, and in some cases women were detained and raped repeatedly for periods of up to 4 months

It is now becoming more evident than ever that these acts of crime against humanity have been deliberately and intentionally endorsed by the Burma Army to implement its “total elimination” policy against all non-Burman ethnic population, within its military operation zones.

No doubt, the Burma Army is going ahead with it devastation plan against the people of Shan State, by hook or by crook. The hard question now is: What could the Shan do to protect themselves?. Humanitarian intervention, if the past experiences should be taken as  indication, won’t be forthcoming, at least for now. What is left is to fend for itself, together with all oppressed peoples alike, to the best of their abilities.

Hopefully, the Shan resistance armies would rush to fulfil their historical duty and strive in unison for the sole purpose of defending their homeland and its people.  For anything less would endanger the very existence of the Shan people as a nation.

The author is General Secretary of the exiled Shan Democratic Union.