16 year-old student raped by 74 year-old man in Chaung Zone Township

February 2, 2015

A 16 year-old girl from Quarter 4 was raped by 74 year-old U Kyaw Myint on December 6, 2014 in Taung Sone Village, Chaung Zone Township, Mon State.

U Kyaw Myint, who has not had a wife for 10 years, works as a money transfer, transferring foreign currency to Myanmar.

U Kyaw Myint has a Thai phone in his house which, on the day of the incident, Mi H H used to talk to her parents who are currently working in Thailand.

Around 1 pm on December 6th, Mi H H went to buy snacks at the market when she met U Kyaw Myint. The man asked to buy Mi H H a tonic, and the young girl went into his house. Upon entering the house, U Kyaw Myint closed the door and held a knife to the child, threatening that if she shouted he would rape and kill her; he further threatened to kill the girl’s parents.

Following the incident, Mi H H continued to attend school, but her grandmother knew something was wrong as the young girl looked very sad and was always brooding. Mi H H’s grandmother believed the child was upset because she did not understand her lessons in school, but when she asked the girl about it, Mi H H said nothing was wrong. Nine days later Mi H H’s grandmother asked her again what was wrong, and the girl told her that she had been raped by an old man, U Kyaw Myint.

Mi H H’s parents have two children and are currently working in Thailand. The victim lives with her grandmother, but her parents have returned to the village because of their daughter’s case. Mi H H attends grade 8 in Ka Lawi high school, but fearing for her safety and well-being, Mi H H’s parents want to remove her from school.

“Our daughter is really young. We have a lot of hope for her future. Her father does not want her to leave school, but because of this incident, we feel really shy and cannot go out. We really pity our daughter because she is so young and is facing this kind of problem. We asked her to stop going to school for the rest of the year because all the people from the village know about the incident and we don’t want the other people asking our daughter about it. We are worried for her. We also worry that she may feel uncomfortable among her friends in school. We don’t want her to feel sad, so we asked her to stop going to school for a while. We don’t want the other children to experience what my daughter has, so we want the perpetrator to be punished for what he has done to our daughter,” said H H’s mother.

U Kyaw Myint’s daughter and sister offered compensation to the child, but her grandmother refused to accept it. They went to the child’s house again to ask how much the family wanted in compensation, demanding once compensation was paid that the family leave the village and migrate to Thailand. The child’s grandmother refused once again, and on December 16th reported the assault to the village administrator. Police arrested U Kyaw Myint around 9pm on December 16th and brought him to the Chaung Zone police station. Committee members from the Maternal and Child Care Organization and the Women’s Team lent support for this case.

According to Maternal and Child Care Organization Administrator Daw Kyin Than, “If we allow someone to pay compensation after raping someone, later on other people will also do it [commit rape]. They abuse people and children and pay compensation, so other people will [commit crimes of] abuse too. This is unreliable for the young girls in the village.”

Mi H H and her family have visited the Chaung police station three times, and the trial was set for the end of December. On January 15, 2015, Chaung Zone police transferred the perpetrator to Mawlamyine.
This is the first rape case to be reported in Taung Sone in the history of the village.

Written by Modinator · Filed Under News