Justice is yet to be found in the case of the two Kachin schoolteachers who were raped and killed in their hut in Kaung Kha Village of Kutkai Township, Shan State as the police continue to investigate the case four years on.
But the case is not forgotten in the hearts of the Kachin community. The families, mentors and colleagues of the victims will hold a memorial service for the two volunteer teachers, Maran Lu Ra and Tangbau Hkawn Nan Tsin, in Kaung Kha on Saturday to mark four years since their murder.
Both women were 20 years old and worked with the Kachin Baptist Convention (KBC) to provide education to children in the region, when they were murdered on Jan. 19, 2015.
At the time of the incident, soldiers from the Myanmar Army’s Infantry Battalion 503 were present in the small village and 28 soldiers were suspected of involvement in the double murder. But the KBC was since told that each of the soldiers’ DNA had been tested and that they did not match that found on the bodies.
Brang Dee, a lawyer from the Kachin Lawyers Network which provides legal advice to the KBC, told The Irrawaddy on Friday that the case is “still in the investigation stage as the culprits have not yet been identified and it is not able to bring charges.”
The KBC has been consistently calling for justice for these two Kachin women, but have not yet been able find get it.
“Even though it has been four years, we feel like it was yesterday. It was an act against our whole ethnic community,” said Rev. Hkalam Sam Sun, chairman of the KBC in a message to the public on Tuesday.
He added, “I was told to forget about these volunteer teachers’ cases by a [Myanmar Military] commander last year. I told him that as Christians, we know well about forgiveness and having patience and letting go of pain, but we must work to get the truth. We want to reveal who the culprits are.”
