Sexual and gender-based violence in Myanmar and the gendered impact of its ethnic conflicts in English 175. In January 2015, a Kachin man was arrested in Shan State and detained by district police on suspicion of being involved in a high profile crime. 390 For a day and a night the police interrogated and sexually humiliated him. The police made him stand up on a chair naked while they took photos of his penis, laughing at him and telling him, “if you do not answer and say the truth, we will kill you”.391 In July 2018, in Hpakant Township, Kachin State, the Mission received information that Tatmadaw soldiers subjected a Kachin man to forced nudity during his interrogation, alongside other treatment while in the custody of Tatmadaw soldiers, on suspicion of belonging to the KIA. The soldiers reportedly placed a grenade in his mouth and forced him to undress. He was reportedly tied naked to a tree in the forest during the rainy season for several weeks.392 Similarly, it was also reported that in March 2019 in Kuktai Township, Shan State, Tatmadaw soldiers forced a Kachin man to remain undressed in front of other men for two hours alongside other treatment to force him to confess having ties to the KIA.393 In the Kachin patriarchal culture, forcing men to undress, even partially, is considered humiliating. Sources available to the Mission and the area of operations of specific Tatmadaw military units, as well as media reports, suggest that the soldiers involved in these latter two incidents were operating under LID 99.394 176. The Mission received information that in June 2011, when the conflict escalated in Kachin State between the Tatmadaw and the KIA, a Kachin man forcibly recruited into the Tatmadaw-supported Pyi Thu Sit was coerced to perform fellatio on a Tatmadaw commander on two occasions at the military base.395 Each time, the commander threatened the survivor, “if you tell anyone I will kill you”. Fearing retaliation, the survivor ran away and reported the events to the village elders. Subsequently, the elders reported the incident to the Tatmadaw hierarchy and were told that the perpetrator had been redeployed somewhere else.396 177. Based on the nature and number of cases that the Mission documented of sexual violence against men, the Mission has concluded that the use of sexual violence and forced nudity by the Tatmadaw, the police and SaYaPa in northern Myanmar 397 is not isolated but a broader practice.398 While reports of sexual violence by male survivors are not as extensive as other issues that the Mission has documented, it is likely that incidents of sexual violence against men are under-reported due to fear of stigmatization, reprisal and ostracism by their communities. 178. The men who experienced sexual violence in detention or their relatives told the Mission that they continue to suffer enduring physical and psychological pain or suffering, for which support in northern Myanmar is limited.399 Conclusions and legal findings 179. The Mission concludes on reasonable grounds that rape and other forms of sexual torture of men in Kachin and Shan States were intentionally inflicted to cause severe mental and physical pain or suffering and were perpetrated by Myanmar government officials, thereby constituting cruel, inhuman or degrading treatment or punishment. The Mission also found that in many cases the sexual violence constituted torture because it was done for the purpose of obtaining information or a confession. Similar to its conclusions above, the Mission concludes on reasonable grounds that the sexual violence also violated the 390 391 392 393 394 395 396 397 398 399 42 PI-168, PI-169, PI-170. PI-139. GI-028, 1100. AM-001, GI-034. AM-001, GI-028, GI-034, 1100, Kachin News Group (Twitter post, 20 April 2019), https://twitter.com/KachinNewsGroup/status/1119526652604665858/video/1; Statement by the World Kachin Congress on the 8th anniversary of the resumption of the civil war (9 June 2019). GI-027. GI-027. A/HRC/39/CRP.2, para. 164 et s. PI-052, PI-055, PI-056. PI-052, PI-056, PI-055.