Shan Human Rights Group Document Govt’s Military Abuse Of Civilians In Kokang Region

The Shan Human Rights Foundation have documented a series of shootings, murders, tortures that they said have happened in Shan State during the recent armed conflict between the Burma Army and the Kokang militia.

The Shan Human Rights Foundation withheld the names of the people for security reasons.

“February 13, 2015 around 4 pm two women, one aged 76 and one aged 47, were shot and wounded while driving in a car in Laogai. On the evening of the same day at 6 pm a married couple were shot dead while riding their motorcycle in Laogai. On February 14, a relative went with three other people to collect the couple’s bodies to cremate them at the border. On the way, he saw 10 other men dead on the road – with their hands tied. The bodies of the dead couple had bullet wounds on them. The wife had been shot in her thigh, her arm and her back. The man had been shot in the head, and also in the side. They had been shot on their motorbike on the way back to the Chinese side of the border. Belongings which they were bringing from their house, including CDs for their children, were scattered in the road beside them. The Shan Human Rights Foundation said in their statement that on the night of February 13, civilians were used as human shields.

“Villagers were used as hostages in an attempt to ambush Kokang soldiers.”

SHRF said that on the afternoon of February 19, “a farmer, 61, was shot and injured in a village 6 miles south of Laogai.”

On February19 it is alleged that, “four male villagers were tortured at the main Burma Army base in Laogai.”

A spokesperson for the Shan Human Rights Foundation told Karen News that because of the thousands of refugees taking refugee over the border the Chinese authorities had opened seven camps.

“Our network estimates that there are seven camps opened by the Chinese government in the south, but as yet there are no camps dealing with the situation in the north.”

The Shan Human Rights Foundation spokesperson urged Ms Yanghee Lee, United Nations Special Rapporteur to Myanmar to urgently investigate the abuse of human rights and to put pressure on the country’s government to stop its military offensives that target civilians.