Human Rights Watch have released a 83-page report describing how the Burmese army has attacked Kachin villages, razed homes, pillaged properties, and forced the displacement of tens of thousands of people. Soldiers have threatened and tortured civilians during interrogations and raped women. Human Rights Watch writes in the report:
"According to the September 2011 report by UN special rapporteur on human rights in Burma, Thomas Ojea Quintana, “Allegations of abuses against civilian populations throughout Kachin State include reports of 18 women and girls having been gang-raped by army soldiers, and of four of those victims being subsequently killed.” Human Rights Watch spoke to a witness of multiple rapes and sexual violence, and community members confirmed the practice. Community-based organizations have reported numerous rape cases since the conflict began. The Kachin Women’s Association Thailand (KWAT) reported 37 rape cases in the first two months of the conflict, in which 13 of the victims were allegedly killed. In November 2011, based on the accounts of escaped porters, KWAT reported that four women were being held as “sex slaves” by Light Infantry Battalion (LIB) 301 at the Mu Bum Burmese army post near the China border."
Read the report "Untold Miseries" here: http://www.hrw.org/reports/2012/03/20/untold-miseries
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