Kachin schoolgirl gang raped and killed by Chinese settlers

Mary Hkingjawng Htoi San (17)
was gang raped and cut into pieces on August 6
by five Chinese settlers in Myitkyina
in Kachin State, northern Burma.

by KNG

In a gruesome incident a 17-year-old Kachin high school girl was gang raped and cut into pieces on August 6 at about 5 p.m. local time by five Chinese settlers in Myitkyina, the capital of Kachin State, northern Burma, said local sources.

Mary Hkinjawng Htoi San, resident of Myitkyina of House No. 1/85, Northeast Tatkone (or Dapkawng in Kachin) quarter was gang raped and killed in a room in the Muslim settler businessman-owned Golden City Guest House (GC), near the Town Railway Station, said family members.

Mary Hkinjawng Htoi San was a Xth standard student in the government's No. 5 State High School. She sang part time at the Shwe Taung Garden restaurant between 7 p.m. and 8 p.m. for extra income, said sources close to her.

After the gang rape, her body was cut into several pieces and put in a wooden box in the room in Golden City Guest House. Later, the body was hidden in a bush behind the No. 5 State High School, said eyewitnesses.

The body was discovered by local people after a foul stench from the decomposing body started emanating the next day at 6:30 p.m. local time, said local eyewitnesses.

The Myitkyina-based No. 1 Police Station has arrested three settler Chinese males from Myitkyina but two are absconding, sources close to the police station said.

Sources close to the Golden City Guest House said the guest house owners knew the schoolgirl was killed and her body cut into pieces and put in the box to be hidden somewhere. However, they did not inform the police.

The local Kachin youth are up in arms and want to retaliate and pay back the Chinese settlers in the town because they feel that native Kachins are being tyrannized by the Chinese, said an angry Kachin youth in Myitkyina.

Before the Kachin Independence Organization (KIO) and the Burmese ruling junta signed a ceasefire agreement in 1994, Chinese settlers in Kachin State respected native Kachins. They never committed big crimes against native Kachins, said residents of Myitkyina.

After the ceasefire agreement, the influence and power of the KIO in Kachin State took a nose dive and it has been kowtowing politically, socially and economically to foreign settlers like the Chinese and Indians in Kachin State, said local Kachin politicians.