YANGON—Police in Sagaing Region’s Kalay Township have arrested a pastor for the sexual abuse of two minors, Captain U Htay Win of the Kalay Police has confirmed to The Irrawaddy.
The pastor has been identified as Sum Hkyet Mung.
The aunt of the two girls, who are sisters, filed a complaint with police after the younger of the two, an 11-year-old, told the aunt about the abuse.
“We have charged him with rape under Section 376 of the Penal Code. He is being kept in custody,” Capt. U Htay Win said. “We have done all the police procedures to prosecute him.”
The two sisters live with their grandmother and a brother; their mother went to work in Malaysia after their father passed away.
The girls’ grandmother requested that the pastor say prayers for the wellness of her granddaughters.
Sum Hkyet Mung is married with five children. He moved from Chin State’s Tedim to Kalay some five years ago, according to police.
“The girl said the pastor told her he did it because God had instructed him to, and that she would be cursed if she told anyone about it,” Capt. U Htay Win said. “He has confessed [to raping the two].”
According to the Home Affairs Ministry, there were 64 cases of child rape in 2016 and 75 cases in 2017.
Recently, in Yangon’s North Okkalapa Township, police arrested a 39-year-old novice monk after he sexually abused a girl that was less than two years old.
President U Win Myint in March signed into law an amendment to the Penal Code allowing courts to jail child rapists for life. The amendment supplements Article 376, which imposes a 20-year minimum for rape.
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