A 16-year old girl from Shan State South’s Langkhurh township was raped by a locally-based Burmese Army soldier and both her parents were murdered, local sources said.

Local villagers said the soldier was a private from Nam Oon based Light Infantry Battalion (LIB) # 578 of the Burmese Army one of the units of Mongpan based Military Operations Command (MOC) #17. The incident occurred on 20 November.

“He [solider] tried to rape the girl but her parents begged him not to. He shot both of them and took the girl into the jungle. The girl’s father died instantly, but her mother did not. But she died later after the soldier shot her again when she tried to follow the two,” a local resident told SHAN.

The girl was identified as Nang Hla (not her real name) and her parents were Sai Ariya and Nang Kham from Hwe Hsim village, three miles north of the town.

Nang Hla was able to escape from him the next morning. She is said to have been under treatment at the Langkhurh public hospital, locals said.

But hospital officials declined to give information saying they were not allowed to report to anyone.

According to officers from LIB# 578, the private was mentally deranged, who was already given a death sentence. He was executed the next day, they said.

The MOC commander Brig-Gen Tint Shwe was reported to have offered Nang Hla Kyat 2 million (US$ 2,000) in compensation asking her not to talk about the incident, a local source said.

Both her parents were buried two days ago.

Shan Human Rights Foundation (SHRF) and Shan Women’s Action Network (SWAN) published a report License to Rape: The Burmese military regime’s use of sexual violence in the ongoing war in Shan State, Burma in May 2002. The expose` had brought Burma’s ruling junta into an unwanted international spotlight since.