The soldiers captured a vehicle for the transportation of medicines and seized medical personnel. After days of violence and torture, the women were killed and thrown into a mass grave. The regular army defends itself: "Killed in action and buried in a respectful manner". The League of Burmese women: "Lies, you have violated the Geneva Convention".
Yangon (AsiaNews) - A group of soldiers from the Burmese regular army kidnapped, imprisoned, tortured, raped and finally killed six female doctors close to the Ta'ang Liberation Army. The military group, born in 1992, seeks the federal independence of the Ta'ang ethnic group from the Burmese government. In recent years violent clashes with regular military personnel have multiplied .
The attack on medical personnel took place last July 11, but only emerged this week. According to some civilians present on the site, the soldiers of the 301 battalion blocked a vehicle near the city of Namkhan. Doctors were on board, carrying medicines for the rebels. The witnesses confirm the arrest of the women, who were then taken away. Their mutilated bodies were found on July 14th in a mass grave near the village of Oi Law. Their corpses bore signs of violence and rape.
The Burmese Ministry of Defense confirmed the death of the doctors but explained that they died "during a gunfight with the rebels". Rebel spokesman Ta'ang, Major Mine-Aik Kyaw, challenged this reconstruction of events and accused the government of violating the Geneva Convention, which prohibits acts of gratuitous cruelty against prisoners of war.
Even the League of Burmese women has condemned the incident: "We know that the doctors were raped for days. Their bodies had unequivocal signs. We must wait for the results of the autopsy, but we are sure that the UN Convention has been ignored by the military ".