Burmese Army Shoots Pregnant Kachin Teacher: BCUK

Wednesday, 25 January 2012 20:51 Mizzima News

(Mizzima) – Burma Campaign UK (BCUK) said it has confirmed reports that a pregnant Kachin woman was shot and killed by Burmese Army soldiers on January 11.

A statement released on Wednesday said Mangshang Ying Wang was shot by Burmese Army soldiers on January 11 at 9 a.m. on Hpakan Road in Kachin State. It is believed that soldiers from Battalion 58 under the command of Lieutenant Ye Min Twi, Lieutenant Ko Ko Latt and Colonel Htun Naing were in charge of soldiers in that area, according to the BCUK statement. It did not cite a source for its information.

Mangshang Ying Wang was four months pregnant, the BCUK said, and she was taken to a hospital where she died later that day. Another woman, Gawlu Seng Hkawn, was also shot and injured in the attack, it said.

In June 2010, the Burmese government broke a cease-fire with the Kachin Independence Organization, an armed political party in Kachin State in northeast Burma.

The Burmese Army has been deliberately targeting civilians since resuming the fighting, said BCUK. “The attacks by the Burmese Army have forced up to 50,000 people to flee their homes. The military-backed government continues to block international aid from reaching these people,” it said in a press statement.

“The soldiers who carried out the attack should be arrested and put on trial”, said Zoya Phan, campaigns manager at Burma Campaign UK. “There has been good news from Burma recently, but there is still more bad news than good news. It is time the international community took a more balanced approach to what is really happening in Burma.

“For decades these kind of attacks have taken place with no action taken against the soldiers and their commanders. The scale of this indicates this is Army policy, not individual soldiers behaving badly.”

She said the breaking of the cease-fire in Kachin State was expected, but the international community took no action to try to prevent it happening, and no action to ensure aid could reach those who fled the attacks.

“Attacks like this should remind the EU that they shouldn’t get carried away by the good news and relax sanctions too soon,” she said. “Those EU members whose diplomats are privately arguing that even the arms embargo should be lifted in April, should come out publicly and explain why they think it’s a good idea to sell arms to a government that shoots unarmed women.”