Type of Incident

Child rape

Date of Incident(s)

Unknown, 2020 

Incident Location

(Village, Township and District)

Kyainseikgyi general hospital, Noh T'Kaw Township, Dooplaya District

Victim Information

Name

Ma[3] A---

Age

14 years old

Sex

Female

Nationality

Burmese

Family   

Single

Occupation

Day labourer

Religion

Buddhist

Village

C--- village, Kyain Shwe Doe village tract, Noh T'Kaw Township, Dooplaya District

Perpetrator Information (Civilians)

Name(s)           

Occupation

Village

B---

Day labourer

C--- village, Kyain Shwe Doe village tract, Noh T'Kaw Township, Dooplaya District

1. Explain in detail how you collected this information.

[The KHRG researcher heard about this incident from a KNU intelligence officer in Noh T'Kaw Township, who himself got this information from the C--- village head. The KHRG researcher then interviewed the parents of the survivor.]

2. Explain how the source verified this information.

[The sources are relatives of the survivor.]

Describe the Incident(s) in complete detail:

This child rape case happened in the vicinity of the Kyainseikgyi general hospital, Noh T'Kaw Township, Dooplaya District [KHRG was not able to establish the exact date of the incident]. The perpetrator is B---, a 22-year-old married man with one child. He is a migrant worker from Oak Pya village, Pyu Township, Bago Division [Myanmar government administrative divisions]. The survivor is Ma A---, a 14-year-old Burmese girl. The family of the survivor also migrated from Pyu Township, Bago Region [Myanmar government administrative divisions] to Noh T'Kaw Township. They are now working as day labourers on a rubber plantation. 

The survivor and the perpetrator first met at the Kyainseikgyi general hospital while caring for relatives who had been admitted for treatment. As she is from a poor background, she could not go to school. Her father thinks that the perpetrator took advantage of her lack of education and maturity to seduce her. The perpetrator also pretended that he was single. According to the survivor’s father, the two ‘fell in love’ in less than a month [KHRG was not able to establish how long they both stayed at the hospital]. At some point in time, B--- took Ma A--- to a public bathroom in the vicinity of the hospital and raped her violently when she refused to have sexual relations with him.

After the rape, the perpetrator and the survivor saw each other on several instances in C--- village, Kya In Swe Doe village tract, Noh T’Kaw Township. The survivor’s father eventually found out that his daughter was seeing B---, and that he was not single. When her parents asked her about it, she told them that she had been raped by B---. The father reported the case to the KNPF in Noh T’Kaw Township on July 20th 2020.

The perpetrator was arrested and detained for one and a half months. He admitted during the investigation that he had planned to rape the girl seven or eight times, but did not get the opportunity to do so. The KNPF asked the parents of the survivor whether they would like to refer the case to the Karen National Union (KNU)[4] district authorities. The parents refused and chose to settle the case with compensation.

At first, the survivor’s family asked for 5,000,000 kyats [USD 3,875.77][5] in compensation. Since the perpetrator did not have that much money, both parties ultimately agreed to a 900,000 kyats [USD 697.64] compensation. The case was closed and the perpetrator was released after paying the compensation. The survivor did not receive any further assistance.

The survivor's father said: "I would have let them marry if he [the perpetrator] were single. But now he has a wife and a son, so I could not do that. I also have sympathy for his wife and son." The mother said: "For her security, we won't let her go anywhere alone anymore. If we have to go somewhere, she will go with me or with her father. If in some cases she has to go alone, I will go instead." She added: "We do not want our relatives or our friends from our village [of origin] to hear or know about this case. We do not want our faces to be exposed in public in relation to this case. We worry that people will look down on us and that we won't be able to find jobs in case we have to move from place to place for work."

Did the victim(s) provide permission to use this information? Explain how that permission was provided.

The parents allowed KHRG to use this information.