A teenage Lisu tribal girl was gang-raped and murdered on September 8 by a group of Burmese policemen in the Burmese border town Mongkoe, the former Mongkoe Defense Army (MDA)'s territory in Burma's northeast Shan State, said local sources.

The 14-year-old girl Ngwa Ma-le was gang-raped and killed by Mongkoe territorial police in-charge sergeant U Thein Myint along with five or six junior colleagues based in the territorial police station in the town's section 7, said family sources.

After four days, the girl's naked body was found face down in the drain of a paddy field owned by local farmer Lahtaw Zau La, where her neck was stuck to the drain with wooden sticks and also tied with her longgyi (cloth for lower body worn by Burmese women or Burmese sarong), said local eyewitnesses.

According to the victim's family sources, the girl was gang-raped and murdered when she went to the policemen, who called her over telephone at about 8:30 at night, local time.

The police, to divert attention, have arrested more than seven innocent local people, including local young men and relatives, who discovered the girl's body. They have been severely tortured until they vomited blood in the police prison cell, said relatives of the victim.

Till now, the police have not tried to find the girl's killers. Her parents and relatives are being threatened in different ways to prevent the actual perpetrators of the crime from being tried, according to the victim's relatives.

Similarly, a Kachin high school girl was stripped and there was an attempt  to rape her in Mongkoe High School by  the school headmaster on August 14, said her family's sources.

The 16-year-old Hkawn Tsin (not her real name) from Gawn Zam village in Mongkoe stays and studies in the school. She narrowly escaped rape by her school headmaster U Thant, who is from the Burmese military, said school sources.

School sources added, Hkawn Tsin was instructed to go to the school office at about 6:30 p.m. by the headmaster U Thant after the school was over. The headmaster attempted to rape her in the office.

She was saved by other women school teachers and the headmaster's wife when they heard the girl's cries for help from the school office. The girl cried out when she was stripped and made to lie on the floor, said her relatives in Mongkoe.

Two days after the incident, the parents of Hkawn Tsin were summoned to the school by the headmaster and the parents were gifted Chinese Yuan 600 (US $85.7) as a sign of apology. But, the parents have rejected the school headmaster’s request not to take the case to court, said the victim's parents.

Following the incident and in fear of further lawsuit, the headmaster U Thant does not stay in the school any longer. He attends the school from Pongsai near Mongkoe, said school sources.

School sources said the headmaster spent a total of Chinese Yuan 1,000 (US $142.8) to 1,600 (US $228.6) as bribe to town military authorities and gave 600 Yuan (US $85.7) to the girl's parents to evade legal action.

The money, however, was forcibly collected at the rate of 15 Yuan per student from all government schools under the administration of the Mongkoe High School on the orders of the immoral headmaster U Thant, said sources among local school teachers.

U Zaw Oo, the head of electricity supply in the town and president of town Union Solidarity and Development Association (USDA) is the key person, who is protecting the headmaster from legal action, said local sources.

Mongkoe, the border town near China is chaotic since it was captured from the Mongkoe Defense Army (MDA) led by Mungsa La by Burma's ruling junta in 2000.

The leader Mungsa La was deceitfully invited to a meeting in Lashio in Northeast Shan State by the Burmese junta and detained on the way between Muse and Lashio just before the capture of Mongkoe.  Mungsa La died in prison in 2007.

The MDA was formed by the Kachin military officer Mungsa La when the Communist Party of Burma (CBP) collapsed in 1989.

After Mongkoe came under the Burmese junta, the local Lisu and Kachin civilians have been cruelly ruled and dealt with like enemies by the locally based territorial police station, said local people.

It is not unusual for the police to detain innocent young men and women on the roads at night and for women to be raped by policemen, said residents.

According to residents, over 70 Chinese motorcycles owned by local residents were stolen and resold for extra income by the territorial policemen led by Sergeant Thein Myint.

The motorcycles began to be stolen since the territorial police in-charge Sergeant Thein Myint arrived in Mongkoe in December 2008, said residents.

Most motorcycles are stolen from the venues of festivals and cerebrations by breaking locks but the police never catch the thieves, said a resident, whose motorcycle was recently stolen by local policemen.

The junta’s immigration office also demands between 1,600 Yuan (US $228.6) to 3,000 Yuan (US $428.6) for issuing a piece of Family Unit Document from the local people and 200 Yuan for each new born family member to be added to the Family Unit Document, said residents.