The ruling Burmese military junta, always reluctant to bring its own to book, has not taken any action against four army officers, who had raped four ethnic Kachin schoolgirls in February 2007, in Putao in Kachin State, Northern Burma, locals said.

The army officers--- Maj. Saw Min Thet, Capt. Win Myint Oo and Capt. Kyaw Ze Ya of  No. 138 Infantry Battalion led by Lt-Col. SoeWin, based in Munglang Shidi village, about 20 miles south of Putao city, remain in the same military base without any punishment, locals told KNG.

"I saw the rapist army officer Maj. Saw Min Thet in uniform and rank at Putao Airport earlier this month," an eyewitness told KNG today.

According to locals and a source in No. 138 Infantry Battalion, none of the rapist army officers have been punished by the junta because the regime has gone on record as saying, "Army officers cannot be replaced with civilians."

Local Rawang tribe teenagers, from Duk Dang Village, aged between 14 and 16 named-- Rawang Nang, Chinlai Nin Ram, Nanghkyi Hkaw Dang and Pu Ram were gang-raped by three military officers and four soldiers at the military base on February 3, 2007.

Soon after, the victims were not only jailed on a prostitution case but also thrown out from the government-run State High School in Duk Dang village by the military authorities in Putao.

Meanwhile, the Burmese media in exile and human rights groups had wrongly assumed that action had been taken against the rapist army officers by the ruling junta, according to the residents of Putao.

Overseas pro-democracy ethnic Kachin and women organizations also strongly criticized the schoolgirls' rape case, committed by Burmese army officers.