NGOs aid 14 year-old rape victim in Mae Sot

WCRP, Mae Sot: Phyi Thu Saythana and World Vision, two Mae Sot-based NGOs, are providing for the legal services, shelter, and education of a 14-year-old Mon child raped by her stepfather 2 months ago.
According to the victim’s family, the crime occurred on August 20th at the victim’s home on a corn plantation near Gawe Pon village, in Mae Ramat district, in the northwestern part of Tak province, northern Thailand. The victim and her family are migrant farmers originally from Thanat Pin Town, Pegu division.

According to Nai Aung Chit, the Phyi Thu Saythana NGO member who served as the victim’s legal advocate for this case, “On the 22nd of August at 12:00 pm, the victim’s relatives contacted our organization. They told us about the crime, and asked us to arrest the man who raped the victim, her stepfather. After learning about this crime, our organization immediately located this man, took him into custody, and turned him over to the Gawe Pon police.”

Nai Aung Chit told WCRP that the crime reportedly happened while the victim’s mother was hospitalized for a week in August, after a stomach operation; the victim was left in her stepfather’s care. The victim informed her mother and extended family of the rape upon her mother’s return. According to the report given by the victim to Phyi Thu Saythana, the revelation sparked a vicious physical confrontation between the victim’s mother and stepfather.

The victim and her mother arrived at the Phyi Thu Saythana safe house on August 24th; on September 1st, Phyi Thu Saythana and World Vision met to discuss the case, and sent the victim to get a medical examination the same day. A nurse who examined the victim at Mae Sot Hospital told NGO that the hospital collected evidence of rape, and documented it in preparation for legal proceedings.

Nai Ko Aung Chit informed WCRP that the victim’s stepfather had to be arrested twice, after initially being taken into custody on August 22nd. After escaping police custody in Gawe Pon village, he was detained again on September 2nd on the corn plantation where he was employed, and sent to Mae Ramat district Court, which handled the case.

Phyi Thu Saythana confirmed for WCRP that on September 10th, the Mae Ramat district Court sentenced the victim’s stepfather to 7 years in prison for rape. His sentence was reduced after the victim’s mother, in an attempt to lessen her husband’s jail-time, took partial responsibility for her daughter’s rape in court. The victim’s mother received a sentence of 4 years in prison.

Nai Aung Chit told WCRP that Phyi Thu Saythana’s mission is to, “help anyone who is facing a terrible situation, we aid them however we can, without favoring Mon, Karen, or any other ethnic group.”

Dao, a World Version member, announced to the victim’s relatives after the trial that her NGO plans to personally oversee the victim’s future development and education. She said, “We will care for her, save for her future’ and continue her education. We want to get papers to adopt her from her mother.”

The victim is now living in World Vision-run housing, where her education has been provided for.

rehmonnya

Concern over forced relocation of 60 Kachin villages

Chiang Mai (Mizzima) – Over 60 villages are in the process of forced relocation from two dam sites in Burma’s northern Kachin State, said the latest report released on Tuesday by a Kachin Environmental group.

The Kachin Development Networking Group, (KDNG) a network of civil society groups and development organizations in Kachin State, Burma released a report “Resisting the Flood” on Tuesday. It has monitored developments and the likely impact of the 2,000-megawatt Chibwe Dam on the N’Mai River, work on which has already begun, and the Irrawaddy Myitsone Dam.

“Over 60 villages with approximately 15,000 people are in the process of being forcibly relocated without informed consent. This dislocation will cause many secondary social problems including conflicts over jobs and land, and an increase in migration and trafficking to neighbouring countries. Women will be particularly impacted,” the report said.

The group also sent an open letter on Tuesday to China Power Investment urging it to immediately stop construction of the Myitsone Dam and other dams in Kachin State “to avoid being complicit in multiple serious human rights abuses associated with the project”.

According to a statement from the group, on October 9, residents of Tanghpre village at the planned Myitsone dam site on the confluence at the source of the Irrawaddy handed an open letter directly to Burma’s Northern military commander, objecting to the dam.

In August military authorities informed residents that they had less than two months to begin moving out. “We cannot bring our farms with us when we move” said a representative of the Tanghpre Village Housewives Group in a meeting with the commander on October 10. “We do not want to move and we appeal to you to bring our concerns to Naypyidaw for consideration,” the statement noted.

On the same day, 300 residents assembled at the confluence for a public prayer ceremony to protect the rivers. Several historical churches will be submerged by the Myitsone Dam project, which will also flood forests in one of the world’s “hottest hotspots” of biodiversity, impact downstream riverine ecosystems that are home to the endangered Irrawaddy Dolphin and affect the delta region, which provides nearly 60 per cent of Burma’s rice.

The KDNG noted in the report that the project has no environmental, social or health impact assessments, which have been publicly disclosed, locally-affected residents have not been consulted about the project; their attempts to voice concerns have been ignored.

The report also noted that it is well-documented that development projects in Burma are accompanied by increased militarization and human rights abuses, including forced labour and rape.

The group mentioned that the location of the dams are insecure because it is in a ceasefire area that is extremely unstable; an outbreak of fighting would put local people, the project, and Chinese personnel at risk, and it faces risks from earthquake because it is located a mere 100 kilometers from a major fault line in an earthquake-prone area.

China Power Investment is planning a series of seven dams on the Irrawaddy and its two main tributaries. The majority of the electricity from all the dams will be transmitted to China.

On June 21 2009, Burma’s Ambassador to China Thein Lwin and the President of China Power Investment Corporation Mr. Lu Qizhou signed the Memorandum of Agreement between Burma’s Department of Hydropower Implementation and CPI for “the Development, Operation and Transfer of Hydropower Projects in the Maykha, Malikha and Upstream Ayeyawady-Myitsone River Basins.”

Rohingya Forced to Work on Border Fence

Burmese junta troops force 200 Rohingya to build a wire fence on the Bangladesh-Burmese border in Burma’s northern Arakan State each day.

Speaking to The Irrawaddy on Wednesday, Tun Tun, a resident on the Bangladeshi side of the Bangladesh-Burmese border said troops from the Burmese junta’s Light Infantry Battalions No. 233, 234, and 236 ordered headmen to martial 200 people daily to build a wire fence along the border.

“The headmen are told to, ‘Volunteer labor to develop your country’,” Tun Tun said.

The junta troops use forced labor rotated from four villages near the border in Maungdaw Township, he said.

Chris Lewa, coordinator of the Arakan Project, said that the junta’s troops have used forced labor since they started building the fence in March. She said they sometimes pay 500 kyat (US 50 cents) a day to each worker.

“Villagers can buy exemption from forced labor duties,” Lewa said, “but most Rohingyas have very little money and cannot avoid it.”

Two refugees who fled to Bangladesh recently told Tun Tun they were forced to work three days a week.

“They told me every man in the village had to work on the fence if he wanted to continue living in the village,” Tun Tun said.

The Burmese resumed building the wire fence in Maungdaw Township on the border with Bangladesh in October.

Burmese authorities started the 200-kilometer wire fence earlier this year, saying it was to stop human trafficking along the border with Bangladesh.

Bangladesh and Burma share a 320-kilometer border, partly demarcated by the Naf River, a regular route for smuggling and illegal crossings by Muslim refugees.

Many Rohingya refugees from Burma cross the border to look for work in Bangladesh, but many end up in UN refugee camps in Cox’s Bazaar District in Bangladesh.

The United Nations High Commission for Refugees (UNHCR) estimate that 400,000 unregistered Rohingya refugees live in two camps near Cox’s Bazaar.

The Rohingya are a stateless Muslim minority who face severe discrimination in Burma. Many have fled the country to escape human rights abuses, including forced labor for Burmese junta forces.

Bangladesh authorities have cracked down on Rohingyas living illegally in Bangladesh recently. More than 1,000 people have been arrested and pushed back across the border into Burma in recent months, Lewa said.

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