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Three years of uncertainty over murder of Kachin school teachers

January 19, 2018/in Press Releases and Statements

19 January 2018, Rangoon Three years of uncertainty over murder of Kachin school teachers The recent military’s admission of extrajudicial killings paves the way for further acknowledgements of human rights violations committed by its troops On the three year anniversary of the rape and murder of two Kachin schoolteachers in Shabuk Kawng Kha, Kachin […]

9 People Reported Dead After Police Crackdown on Protest in Mrauk-U

January 18, 2018/in News

By MOE MYINT 17 January 2018 YANGON — A police crackdown on a protest in northern Rakhine State’s ancient city of Mrauk-U on Tuesday night left at least nine people dead and 12 severely wounded by gunfire, according to a local lawmaker. U Tun Thar Sein, who represents Mrauk-U (1) in the state Parliament, spoke with The […]

Three years of uncertainty over murder of Kachin school teachers

January 19, 2018/in Press Releases and Statements

9 People Reported Dead After Police Crackdown on Protest in Mrauk-U

January 18, 2018/in News

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Three years of uncertainty over murder of Kachin school teachers

January 19, 2018/in Press Releases and Statements

19 January 2018, Rangoon

Three years of uncertainty over murder of Kachin school teachers

The recent military’s admission of extrajudicial killings paves the way for further acknowledgements of human rights violations committed by its troops

On the three year anniversary of the rape and murder of two Kachin schoolteachers in Shabuk Kawng Kha, Kachin State, the Network for Human Rights Documentation – Burma (ND-Burma) calls on the government to launch a fresh investigation into the case, which remains unsolved in spite of significant evidence implicating government soldiers.

In the early hours of January 2015, screams were heard from the church compound where Maran Lu Ra and Nan Tsin were staying while working as voluntary teachers for the Kachin Baptist Convention. Local villagers went to investigate but left after hearing sounds coming from the bathroom. The bodies of the two young women were discovered the next morning, bearing marks of physical and sexual assault. Maran Lu Ra and and Tangbau Hkwan Nan Tsin were 20 and 21 years old, respectively.

A police investigation into the case failed to detain a single suspect and civil society has accused the authorities of a deliberate cover-up to protect government soldiers from Light Infantry Battalion (LIB) 503, who had arrived in the village the day before the murder and were occupying a number of houses near the church compound.

An investigation conducted by ND-Burma member the Kachin Women’s Association in Thailand (KWAT) and the NGO Legal Aid Network found evidence incriminating soldiers, including: military boot prints found outside the women’s home; ten soldiers who left the village shortly after the murder took place and have never been questioned; a villager in whose house the military commander was staying being sent away without explanation just before the crime was committed; and 5.3 million kyat (approx USD 4,800) being given to each of the victims’ families by the military.

The same investigation found that police had also failed to follow basic protocol when gathering evidence and interviewing suspects, undermining the validity and impartiality of the inquest. Physical evidence was collected haphazardly and in such a way that it could have been tampered with and final DNA results were never released. Police also tortured a local man and pressured him to confess to the crime by offering material and financial support.

The military also wielded considerable control over the police inquiry, with soldiers taking over the crime scene and required anyone wanting to enter to having to gain permission from the military first. Only 28 out of the 40 soldiers temporarily stationed in the village were questioned by the police, with none of the examinations taking longer than 5 minutes. Information gathered by police following interrogation of villagers was passed directly to the military.

The military has threatened legal action against anyone who accuses its troops of involvement in this case. The commander of Light Infantry Battalion (LIB) 503 also directly threatened villagers, saying: “Our military column has 20 mortar shells. If we are targeted as suspects, the entire village will be fired at and burnt down.”

KWAT Secretary General Moon Nay Li said:

“Three years after these young women were murdered, not a single member of the Kachin community has forgotten what happened, and calls for justice are only growing fiercer. As the government’s peace process falls apart, it should finally start addressing the pain of local communities, as opposed to just negotiating with those holding guns. It is not too late to try and heal past wounds to find national reconciliation.”

ND-Burma has been collecting data on human rights violations since 2004 and our database holds some 6,000 cases that have yet to see justice. There have been a few instances of the military charging low-ranking soldiers with having committed abuses and we hope the military’s admission of extrajudicial killings at Inn Dinn in Rakhine State will pave the way for further acknowledgements of rights violations.

Independent investigation by the two arrested Reuters journalists has forced the military to admit to extrajudicial killings. Foreign governments, international bodies, human rights organizations, and Daw Aung San Suu Kyi’s government should now pressure the army to come clean on the many other abuses that have been committed across the country. Acknowledging the victims of the past is the only way to build a peaceful future.

ND-Burma is a 13 member organization representing a range of ethnic nationalities as well as women and the LGBTI community. Our members are:

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9 People Reported Dead After Police Crackdown on Protest in Mrauk-U

January 18, 2018/in News

By MOE MYINT 17 January 2018

YANGON — A police crackdown on a protest in northern Rakhine State’s ancient city of Mrauk-U on Tuesday night left at least nine people dead and 12 severely wounded by gunfire, according to a local lawmaker.

U Tun Thar Sein, who represents Mrauk-U (1) in the state Parliament, spoke with The Irrawaddy over the phone at 2:45 a.m. on Wednesday after returning home from Mrauk-U’s general hospital. He said some of the 12 patients had been transferred to the state capital, Sittwe, about 141 km away.

“I saw that the victims were shot at least twice, mostly in the abdomen and legs”, he said.

He said several thousand people were protesting on Tuesday evening against a decision by authorities to ban celebration of the 233rd anniversary of the end of the Arakan dynasty. Locals commemorate the event each year on Dec. 15 and 16 with traditional wrestling matches and talks on literature by activists and influential politicians.

The protestors who gathered on the roads were few in number at first, but their ranks swelled to a few thousand within hours. The crowd then marched to the district administration office at about 9:30 p.m., approximately 2 km northeast of downtown.

A high school teacher in Mrauk-U said many 11^th grade students preparing to sit their matriculation exams in the next few months also joined the rally.

“The roads in Mrauk-U were taken over by the protesters within a few hours,” he said.

U Tun Thar Sein, the lawmaker, said tensions between the protestors and police quickly escalated at about 10 p.m. Many of the protestors started hurling stones and bricks at the administration office. When some of them entered the office compound and started destroying police trucks, the police opened fire to quell the attack.

Though local authorities said the protestors confronted the police, U Tun Thar Sein said he did not see any police as patients at the hospital, only dead and wounded civilians.

“This mass killing would not have happened if they had used rubber bullets to crack down on the gathering,” he said. “I think the protestors only gathered bricks and stones and did not have any other weapons.”

The high school teacher said he did not participate in the protest but followed the rally in order to pull out his students. He said he heard a series of gunshots while heading toward the administration office and then saw thousands of people running back toward downtown.

“Police used real bullets, not rubber rounds. I saw a boy’s abdomen hollowed out,” the teacher said.

The teacher said he went to the Mrauk-U general hospital and saw nine people severely wounded. He recalled the accounts of his students, who told him they saw police firing at the crowd.

“My students recounted to me that they laid down on the ground when they saw the flying burning bullets. They were very lucky,” he said.

The Irrawaddy called township police chief Major Kyaw Mya Win and administration official Bo Bo Myint Thein, but they declined to comment. A junior staff member of the district administration office said that “a protest group destabilized the situation” but refused to answer further questions.

Two military truckloads of armed soldiers arrived at the scene of the violence at about 11:30 p.m.

Irrawaddy News

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ND Burma

ND-Burma formed in 2004 in order to provide a way for Burma human rights organizations to collaborate on the human rights documentation process. The 13 ND-Burma member organizations seek to collectively use the truth of what communities in Burma have endured to advocate for justice for victims. ND-Burma trains local organizations in human rights documentation; coordinates members’ input into a common database using Martus, a secure open-source software; and engages in joint-advocacy campaigns.

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