A report released today by the Kachin Women’s Association Thailand (KWAT) and the Legal Aid Network (LAN) examines war crimes of sexual violence against ethnic women, and the “systematic cover-up” of these offenses by the Burma Army.

The publication of “Justice Delayed, Justice Denied” coincided with the one-year anniversary of the rape and murder of two ethnic Kachin teachers in northern Shan State. On January 19, 2015, Maran Lu Ra, age 20, and Nan Tsin, age 21, were sexually assaulted, beaten and stabbed to death in their bamboo house within a church compound in the village of Kawng Kha, 20 miles east of Muse in northern Shan State.

“Why do we have to keep silent? This is the public’s voice. We have to stand on the women’s side, on behalf of all,” said Seng Zin, Joint General-Secretary at KWAT, of the report’s conclusions, which are based on witness testimony.

While local police have yet to identify or arrest a perpetrator, and the government has cleared the military of any involvement in the crime, the report identifies the primary suspect as the commanding officer of the Burma Army troops stationed in the village.

Police allegedly questioned some, but not all of the soldiers in the area, and interrogated the commanding officer only briefly. Forensic evidence from the Kawng Kha crime scene was also reportedly collected unsystematically: suspicious items were placed in shopping bags, hairs of the perpetrators stored in unsealed envelopes, bloody fingerprints not collected for analysis, and no DNA testing was performed on bodily fluids collected at the crime scene.

“The government’s priorities were clear in the Kawng Kha case—protect the military at all cost,” said KWAT General Secretary Moon Nay Li in a statement also released today.

The murder in Kawng Kha is one of four incidents profiled in the report—others include the forced disappearance of a 28-year-old Kachin woman, Sumlut Roi Ja, in 2011; the murder of a 14-year-old Kachin girl, Ja Seng Ing, in 2012; and the rape and murder of a 28-year-old Shan woman, Nang Khaek, in 2015.

KWAT and LAN fear that the impunity which has accompanied these incidents “will become a catalyst for recurrence of gross human rights violations in the future.”

“A key factor causing sexual violence is the large number of Burma Army troops deployed throughout the ethnic states,” the report states. KWAT and LAN argue that by “reducing its presence” in the ethnic areas, the military would demonstrate sincerity in “seeking a negotiated political solution to the conflict.”

Like other rights groups, KWAT also advocates for the reform of the 2008 Constitution to eliminate “structural barrier[s]” to justice in Burma, such as the military’s power over executive and judicial institutions. Immunity for government officials is granted in Article 445 of the 2008 Constitution, Seng Zin points out, a clause which protects them from prosecution for actions committed during their service.

“If a soldier commits a crime while he is serving, he can’t get punished by anyone—he was doing his duty,” she said of the existing law. “Because of this kind of article, the military can get impunity.”

Last month, the “Former President’s Security Bill” was also proposed to Burma’s parliament, promising immunity to ex-presidents for any crimes committed while in office. The legislation was not openly challenged by the leadership of the National League for Democracy (NLD), which won the majority of seats in Burma’s general election in November and is slated to take power in March of this year.

Hkawng Lum, a lawyer working with LAN, said in today’s statement that such an amnesty law would not protect President Thein Sein from prosecution for war crimes in an international court, in accordance with the Geneva Convention, which dictates the humane treatment of civilians during times of armed conflict.

 By SIMMA FRANCIS / Shan Herald Agency for News (S.H.A.N)