Sexual and gender-based violence in Myanmar and the gendered impact of its ethnic conflicts in English mother, “I heard you call me mother. I tried to answer back but the soldier covered my mouth. The soldier took me to the bush next to the nursery and raped me.” The following day, her parents, the village administrator and the pastor accompanied the survivor to the LIB 567 base and reported the incident to the Tatmadaw general. A court martial sentenced the perpetrator to one year of imprisonment. The survivor initiated a legal procedure to have the case transferred to a civilian court to extend the charges and increase the sentencing. However, as of June 2019 the civil procedure was stalled. 293 129. A 17 year-old Kachin girl was raped in Bhamo Township, Kachin State, on 9 December 2018. She was coming home from the shop when she was apprehended from behind by at least two men and knocked unconscious. When she woke up on the road, she was partly naked and felt acute pain in her genital area. The survivor could not identify the rapists as she immediately lost consciousness. The Mission has reasonable grounds to conclude they were Tatmadaw soldiers. At the time there was a heightened presence of soldiers in the village, which lies in the frontline area near the KIA headquarters in Laiza. In addition, the road where the girl was raped was regularly used by soldiers. 294 The survivor lodged a complaint with the police in her district, but nothing has happened since the incident due to what the police told the survivor was a lack of evidence. 295 130. Survivors of child rape and their family members to whom the Mission spoke suffered from fear, trauma, marginalization and ostracism from their community and authorities.296 (v) Rape and other forms of sexual violence during forced labour by the Tatmadaw 131. The Mission found a pattern of individual Tatmadaw soldiers or groups of them abducting women and girls, often for forced labour,297 and then subjecting them to rapemurder, gang rape, rape, attempted rape and other forms of sexual assault and humiliation 298 in forests299 or in military bases.300 Parents, relatives and neighbours reported that they saw or knew women and girls forcibly taken by the Tatmadaw.301 In some cases, these people saw or learned from others that the women and girls had been raped 302 and in some instances killed.303 132. In many instances, the Tatmadaw arrived in villages and detained men, women and children in conditions of forced labour.304 Women and girls taken for forced labour by Tatmadaw soldiers were at a high risk of being subjected to sexual and gender-based violence because they are often required to work separately from the men and are assigned “feminized” chores in military camps, segregating them from the rest of the group and increasing their vulnerability to abuse.305 Sexual and gender-based violence have also been committed within the context of the exploitation of natural resources or development projects by the Tatmadaw.306 133. A Kachin female survivor from Kutkai Township, Shan State, reported that Tatmadaw soldiers abducted her from her house in 2011. She said that they destroyed her shop before forcing her to carry heavy items to a military base. She and another woman 293 294 295 296 297 298 299 300 301 302 303 304 305 306 32 PI-144, 2400. PI-141, 2400. PI-141, 2400. PI-141, PI-145, 2400. A/HRC/39/CRP.2, paras. 253-273; PI-124, PI-125, PI-175. QI-084, PI-143, PI-175. PI-003, PI-004, PI-007, PI-029, PI-067, PI-069, PI-083, PI-089, PI-096, PI-099, PI-146, PI-155. PI-023, PI-025, PI-029, PI-143, PI-160. PI-096, QI-078. PI-068, QI-072, QI-082, QI-086, QI-089. PI-069, PI-155, QI-079, V-330. A/HRC/39/CRP.2, para 258, PI-175. PI-029, PI-143, PI-155. PI-069, PI-146, A/HRC/42/CRP.3, para. 101.