Grandmother from Christian ethnic group raped by Burmese troops in church

A grandmother from a predominantly Christian ethnic group was gang-raped and tortured by Burmese soldiers as she took shelter in a church when troops invaded her village.

The Kachin people are not safe even in church buildings CC BY-NC-ND 2.0 / United to End Genocide

The 48-year-old woman was hiding alone in the building in Luk Pi village, Chipwi township, near the Kachin-China border, on 1 May after most of the other villagers had fled.

Around ten Burmese soldiers beat her with rifle butts, stabbed her with knives, stripped and gang-raped her over a period of three days.

After the troops left on 4 May, the grandmother of 12 was found semi-conscious by some villagers and taken to hospital. She survived the ordeal and was reunited with her family but has been left deeply traumatised and mentally disturbed. 

A villager who witnessed the savage assault was captured by the troops, tied up in the church compound, kicked and stabbed. He was also taken to hospital.

“Rape with impunity”

The Burmese military has been using sexual violence as a weapon of war throughout its offensive in Kachin state, which started in June 2011.   

The husband of one victim brought a case against the military to the Supreme Court in the capital Naypyidaw, which recently dismissed all charges against them. Sumlut Roi Ji was raped repeatedly over a number of days before she disappeared in October last year.

Moon Nay Li from the Kachin Women’s Association Thailand (KWAT) said:

The message from the Naypyidaw Supreme Court is clear: the Burmese military can rape and kill ethnic women with impunity.

KWAT has been documenting rape cases among the Kachin throughout the conflict. During the first three months of the offensive, 32 women and girls in eight townships were raped; 13 of them were killed. In February, KWAT reported that the total number of rape cases had increased to 60.

In one incident, the mother of a three-week-old baby was raped and killed in a village near Bhamo. In another, a 39-year-old woman and her 17-year-old daughter were gang raped and killed by military troops.