Four school girls were allegedly gang raped by Burmese army soldiers in Putao Township, Kachin State in early February. Relatives of the alleged victims are seeking more compensation than was paid by the army, according to a local source.

The army paid 300,000 kyats (US $232) in compensation, but the families consider the amount too low, the source said. The family is seeking 2 million kyats ($1,550) to be divided by the four girls.

The case was not reported to local police, the source said, because of a fear of reprisals.

“The army officials have told the parents to clam down and not to report it to any other authority, saying they had already compensated for the case,” the source told The Irrawaddy.

The family claimed that seven soldiers from the military regime’s Infantry Battalion-138 stationed near Putao approached four school girls on February 2 and invited them to go to a Karaoke shop. Later, the girls were taken to a military camp where the soldiers gang raped them, the source said.

The four Kachin Rawang girls, between 14 to16 years old, are students of Duk Dang High School in Putao.

The girls' parents and relatives reported the incident to the battalion commander, Lt Col Soe Win. The relatives reportedly identified Maj Zaw Min Thet, Capt Win Myint Oo and Capt Kyaw Ze Ya as among the abusers. Others who may have been involved in the incident could not be identified, relatives said, because of a lack of cooperation from the army.

The incident follows a recent report by a human rights group that accused the Burmese military of killing, raping and torturing ethnic Karen women as part of its battle against minority groups.

The report issued on Monday by the Thailand-based Karen Women’s Organization cited cases of 959 women and girls in Myanmar’s eastern Karen State who have reported abuses over the past 25 years.

“Rape has been and continues to be used as a method of torture to intimidate and humiliate the civilian population, particularly in the ethnic states. Women and children are subjected to forced labor and are displaced from their homes,” the report said.

Similar allegations detailing widespread sexual assaults against women of the Shan ethnic group, always denied by the Burmese regime, have been made in recent years.

Leonard Shinra Chan, a native of Putao who now works for the Thailand-based All Kachin Students and Youth Union, told The Irrawaddy that girls and women have become more vulnerable since more Burmese military battalions have been deployed in the Putao region in northern Burma.

“It’s just a few cases that media groups have heard of because of communication problems, but many rape and forced labor cases have taken place there," he said. "Many, many women are raped."  Women have nowhere to report abuses, he said, because the area is largely controlled by the military.