The Killing Fields of Shan State
Rape as a Weapon of War
We ask the men if they have recent knowledge of sexual violence since we know that rape committed by Burmese troops has been well-documented. One of the men says that two girls from his village were gang-raped by soldiers last year. The villagers approached the military to press charges. An officer told the villagers that the girls were providing food to the rebel Shan State Army and thus deserved what they got.
The destruction of the villages of Shan State is part of the Burmese junta's larger war against the country's ethnic nationalities. The violence in Shan State has been going on for many years but dramatically escalated in 1996. Since then, according to Amnesty International, more than 300,000 people from 1,400 villages have been evicted from their homes and farms. The Burmese army's counter-insurgency strategy is to remove any support base for the rebel Shan State Army. Villages are burned, food stores destroyed and people forced into relocation sites without any means of supporting themselves.
According to international NGOs monitoring the situation, an estimated 200,000 people have fled Shan State to Thailand. Unlike the ethnic Karen refugees to the south, the Shan are not considered by the Thai government as refugees and have been refused any form of humanitarian assistance. In Thailand, Shan refugees exist in the shadows, eking a living as illegal labourers in the orchards and tea estates, constantly vulnerable to arrest and deportation.
The situation in Shan State finally received international attention in 2002 with the publication of Licence to Rape¹, a report researched and produced by the Shan Women's Action Network (SWAN). The report documented the rape of 625 Shan girls and women in the period 1996 to 2001. Most of the women were gang-raped and more than a quarter of them died. The women of SWAN argued that rape is being used by the Burmese army as a counter-insurgency tactic designed to terrorize and humiliate women and their families. The report was picked up by international news networks and human rights organizations around the world. The junta labeled the report as bogus propaganda. But a report released in April 2004 by the Karen Women's Organization² confirms that women are also being raped in Karen State by army troops.
¹ The Licence to Rape report can be found on the SWAN website 
www.shanwomen.org
² The Karen Women's Organization report on rape can be found on www.karenwomen.org
| Reviewed July 31, 2009 |  |
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