While the Thai Army continues its reign unfettered, the Burmese Army or Tatmadaw continues with impunity to torture, rape and kill members of the ethnic Kachins in north Burma – with only muted criticism by the international community now that the country is big business.
The Free Burma Rangers have recently visited villages in Kachin state and have been collecting evidence of the torture in particular in Nam Lim Pa Village.
These reports are regular and are a reminder that the Burmese Army’s sole purpose is to subjugate the people and keep the military in power.
They have received training by the British military, apparently on human rights, but those courses seemed to have gone by the wayside as have scores of courses given to Thai police by, Britain, the European Union, Australia and the United States.
One such recent case is that of La Bang La Ring a 30-year-old deaf mute who was tortured after Burmese soldiers killed his pig. Normally torture is used either to gain information or extract confessions.
His father told FBR:
“I am La Bang La, father of La Bang La Ring, who was killed by the Burma Army. I am from Nam Lim Pa Village of Mansi Township in Bhamo District. I respectfully file this report.
I had a son named La Bang La Ring (30 years old). My son was deaf and could not speak. Although La Bang La Ring was deaf and couldn’t speak, his mind was normal and he understood everything. He could communicate with sign language very well. On 17 November 2013, the Burma Army came and attacked Nam Lim Pa Village with heavy mortars and then came to the village. My family ran away to the jungle, three furlongs from the village.
La Bang La Ring didn’t run away because he was taking care of his livestock, a pig. By 3 January 2014 we knew the Burma Army had left the village. As soon as we knew they had left we returned to the village from our hiding place in the jungle.
We looked for La Bang La Ring but could not find him. We continued to look for him and found something like a grave beside Palai Naw’s house. We dug it up and there was a body; the body was a little bit decomposed but I knew it was my son. The clothes on it were my son’s. We reburied him but didn’t have much time as the Burma Army came back and we had to run to the jungle again.”
