Mumbai, 20 January 2004 - On 29 March 2001, 18-year old Naang Shwe (not her real name) was tending the cows in their family farm when she was spotted by State Peace and Development Council (SPDC) troops patrolling the Nong Tao village in Larng Kher township in the Northeastern Burmese state of Shan. SPDC Captain Soe Nyint, leader of'Company 4 of LIB 5252 assigned to the area, called Naang Shwe. When she approached, he grabbed and raped her. Naang Shwe cried and shouted for mercy but the Captain and his troops did not take pity on her.

When she was allowed to go home, Naang Shwe told her family what had happened. They complained to the village head and reported the rape to the police. However, the Shan police captain told them there was no use in reporting the incident because they would certainly lose the case anyway and the captain would go unpunished. Naang Shwe was devastated. She felt ashamed, angry and depressed. She eventually travelled across the border to Thailand to seek refuge from the atrocities of the Burma military regime.

Naang Shwe is not in Mumbai to participate in the ongoing World Social Forum (WSF). However, her painful story and those of other Shan women and girls were presented in the seminar "Burma Under Military Rule," organised by the Women's League of Burma on 19 January 2004 at the WSF. Naang Shwe's case is one of the 173 documented incidents of rape and other forms of sexual violence involving 625 Shan women and girls committed by Burmese army troops in the state from 1996 to 2001. These were documented in the report "Licence to Rape: The Burmese Military Regime's Use of Sexual Violence in the Ongoing War in Shan State," prepared by the Shan Human Rights Foundation - Women's Desk and the Shan Women's Action Network.

The report provides clear evidence that the Burmese Army officially condones rape as a "weapon of war" against civilian populations, especially since it appears to have a concerted strategy to rape Shan women as part of its anti-insurgency operations. The report further reveals that soldiers from 52 different battalions committed the rapes and other acts of violence, with troop officers accounting for 83 percent of the total reported incidents. Rape victims were often beaten, mutilated, or suffocated. Twenty-five percent of the rapes resulted in death; in some instances, the military deliberately displayed the victims' bodies in the communities. Of the total, 61 percent were gang rapes. In some cases, women were detained and repeatedly raped for periods of up to four months. It was not unusual for complainants to be fined, detained, tortured, or even killed by the military. Of the 173 documented incidents, only in one case was a perpetrator punished by his commanding officer.

Shan women have become increasingly vulnerable to the SPDC's increased militarisation and anti-insurgency measures. The number of battalions in Shan has nearly tripled since 1998. The majority of rape incidents happened in the areas of Central Shan State, where over 300,000 villagers have been forcibly relocated from their homes since 1996. Most of the rape cases took place when girls and women were caught searching for food outside the relocation sites.

Members of the Women's League of Burma who are taking part in the WSF hope to draw the attention of more civil society organisations and solicit support for the Shan women. Along with other Burmese groups and support organisations, they have organised various activities throughout the Forum, one of which is a press conference at the Mumbai Press Club at 2:00 p.m. on 21 January 2004.