Deserting from the Rape Commanders

Maung Myo was attached to a number of jungle patrols fighting a war of attrition against the Karen National Union, or KNU. The boy saw action against the ethnic insurgent group on five occasions during his five years with the Burma Army.

Bush camps would normally be maintained for four to six months (sometimes as long as a year) at a time until the patrol was ordered to move location. When his patrol was ordered to move, it would press-gang local villagers to serve as porters. They were regularly beaten if they had trouble carrying their loads.

“It was so bad when I was on duty on the frontline—especially the rapes and forced labor,” said Maung Myo.

“When we arrived at a village we would tell the villagers to give us chickens, pigs and other food,” he added. “If people didn’t want to give us what we wanted, we would beat them and take it anyway.”

“I took part in the beatings—my superiors would order me to,” he said. “If I didn’t, I would be punished myself. But I was disciplined more than 20 times anyway for not following orders.” The usual punishment was one or more beatings and being forced to stand stationary all day.

Some months after arriving in Karen State, Maung Myo witnessed the first of many rapes when his patrol arrived near a Karen village and found a woman hunting for freshwater fish.

Unit leader Lt Soe Naing, from Rangoon, tried to tell the girl that he wanted her. But she spoke only her Karen dialect so didn’t understand Burmese. This enraged the lieutenant, who first beat her in front of his men, then dragged her off into the nearby undergrowth. Maung Myo has no idea what happened to the girl, or even if she is still alive—a dead rape victim tells no stories. In the time the boy spent on the frontline he witnessed at least 10 similar incidents.

In another appalling but common crime against humanity in minority-populated areas of Burma, a girl in the village of Mone Kei, a five-hour walk from the Thai border, was gang-raped in front of her parents by his patrol. The rape commander on that occasion was Lt Htat Toe, from Hmawbi Township, north of Rangoon.

Maung Myo said many of his fellow soldiers wanted to leave the Burma Army, but the only exit was desertion. They were all afraid of defecting to the KNU, as they didn’t know how they would be received after brutalizing Karen villagers. Running back to central Burma carried the risk of being arrested and jailed for seven years, according to Maung Myo. But eventually he could not stand the brutality any longer and defected to the KNU, where he was initially accorded a suspicious but benign welcome.

Maung Myo is currently being sheltered by the KNU.