Main PageThousands gather for funerals of murdered Myanmar teachers
Myitkyina - Thousands of mourners gathered Friday
for the funerals of two young teachers who activists
allege were murdered by soldiers in northern
Myanmar, as the government promised an inquiry
into their deaths.
Tearful well wishers packed into a hall in Myitkyina,
the state capital of war-torn northern Kachin state,
to pay respects to the pair, whose deaths have
sparked an outpouring of public anger and grief.
Crowds massed around the coffins of the two
women, which were draped with white sheets, in a
solemn procession led by a Kachin orchestra.
The violent deaths have struck a bitter chord for
many in Kachin state, which has been wracked by
conflict between the army and ethnic minority rebels
in recent years.
"We demand safety for women. We are not safe in
this country," Mar Mar Cho, an activist with the
Women's Organisations Network of Myanmar, told
AFP.
The battered bodies of the women were discovered
early this week when students visited their house in
a remote village near the border town of Muse in
northern Shan state, worried that they had failed to
turn up for morning lessons, according to state-
backed media.
They had suffered stab wounds and head injuries,
the state-backed Global New Light of Myanmar
newspaper reported Friday, adding that a steel blade
was found at the property.
Myanmar on Thursday vowed to investigate the
deaths and promised that any involvement by army
troops -- if proved -- would not go unpunished.
- Thousands displaced -
Fighting between the Myanmar military and Kachin
Independence Army (KIA), which reignited in 2011
after the collapse of a 17-year ceasefire, has
displaced around 100,000 people and spilled into
parts of neighbouring Shan state.
The country's quasi-civilian government is struggling
to ink a nationwide ceasefire deal as part of its
reform drive since replacing outright military rule in
2011.
But decades under the iron-fisted junta and years of
bloody conflict in the country's borderlands have left
a legacy of deep distrust of the military, which was
long accused of committing abuses with impunity.
The Kachin Baptist Convention, which ran the school
where the women worked, has said it believes they
were raped and severely beaten before being killed.
Images of their injured corpses have been widely
circulated on social media, stirring outrage.
"I broke down when I first read the news. Now I feel
despair," said Julia, an ethnic Kachin who said one of
the dead women was a distant relation.
"I am campaigning for true justice," she told AFP
early Friday at a sombre ceremony in honour of the
teachers in Yangon.
Also read: China denies hundreds of Chinese
nationals trapped in Myanmar
The government has put a national ceasefire deal at
the heart of reforms, but heavy fighting in Kachin
has overshadowed peace talks.
The international community has also raised alarm
that the country is backsliding in other key areas of
its democratic transition.
On Wednesday, US State Department spokeswoman
Jen Psaki called on Myanmar to investigate the
killings in a "credible and transparent manner".
Myanmar has launched a special investigation into
the deaths, according to officials.
President's office spokesman Zaw Htaysaid that if
soldiers were found to have committed the crime
"we won't be tolerant, we will take serious action".
But he bristled at a statement from the United States
urging a probe into the incident, saying Washington
should "respect our country's sovereignty".
Last year the military admitted that its troops had
shot a freelance journalist known as Par Gyi who
was in custody at the time, but said that he was
working for an armed group in southern Mon state
-- a claim his family denies.
for the funerals of two young teachers who activists
allege were murdered by soldiers in northern
Myanmar, as the government promised an inquiry
into their deaths.
Tearful well wishers packed into a hall in Myitkyina,
the state capital of war-torn northern Kachin state,
to pay respects to the pair, whose deaths have
sparked an outpouring of public anger and grief.
Crowds massed around the coffins of the two
women, which were draped with white sheets, in a
solemn procession led by a Kachin orchestra.
The violent deaths have struck a bitter chord for
many in Kachin state, which has been wracked by
conflict between the army and ethnic minority rebels
in recent years.
"We demand safety for women. We are not safe in
this country," Mar Mar Cho, an activist with the
Women's Organisations Network of Myanmar, told
AFP.
The battered bodies of the women were discovered
early this week when students visited their house in
a remote village near the border town of Muse in
northern Shan state, worried that they had failed to
turn up for morning lessons, according to state-
backed media.
They had suffered stab wounds and head injuries,
the state-backed Global New Light of Myanmar
newspaper reported Friday, adding that a steel blade
was found at the property.
Myanmar on Thursday vowed to investigate the
deaths and promised that any involvement by army
troops -- if proved -- would not go unpunished.
- Thousands displaced -
Fighting between the Myanmar military and Kachin
Independence Army (KIA), which reignited in 2011
after the collapse of a 17-year ceasefire, has
displaced around 100,000 people and spilled into
parts of neighbouring Shan state.
The country's quasi-civilian government is struggling
to ink a nationwide ceasefire deal as part of its
reform drive since replacing outright military rule in
2011.
But decades under the iron-fisted junta and years of
bloody conflict in the country's borderlands have left
a legacy of deep distrust of the military, which was
long accused of committing abuses with impunity.
The Kachin Baptist Convention, which ran the school
where the women worked, has said it believes they
were raped and severely beaten before being killed.
Images of their injured corpses have been widely
circulated on social media, stirring outrage.
"I broke down when I first read the news. Now I feel
despair," said Julia, an ethnic Kachin who said one of
the dead women was a distant relation.
"I am campaigning for true justice," she told AFP
early Friday at a sombre ceremony in honour of the
teachers in Yangon.
Also read: China denies hundreds of Chinese
nationals trapped in Myanmar
The government has put a national ceasefire deal at
the heart of reforms, but heavy fighting in Kachin
has overshadowed peace talks.
The international community has also raised alarm
that the country is backsliding in other key areas of
its democratic transition.
On Wednesday, US State Department spokeswoman
Jen Psaki called on Myanmar to investigate the
killings in a "credible and transparent manner".
Myanmar has launched a special investigation into
the deaths, according to officials.
President's office spokesman Zaw Htaysaid that if
soldiers were found to have committed the crime
"we won't be tolerant, we will take serious action".
But he bristled at a statement from the United States
urging a probe into the incident, saying Washington
should "respect our country's sovereignty".
Last year the military admitted that its troops had
shot a freelance journalist known as Par Gyi who
was in custody at the time, but said that he was
working for an armed group in southern Mon state
-- a claim his family denies.
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