Mandalay woman faces trial for false rape claim

Phyu Phyu Min identified herself as Soe Soe, stating that she was from Butalin Township. She accused her employer San Maung, 40, and his brother Ne Win of raping her. She said she was closing the shop at 10pm on June 28 when her employer told her she would be given a new job at a teashop in Naypyitaw. She went along with the two in a white vehicle, but the car stopped on Pyinmana-Taungnyo road around 3am and she was raped by the two brothers. The two then ran away after raping her, according to her complaint to the Pyinmana Myoma Police Station.

State television reported on Saturday that the investigation, wrapped up on July 17, found that Phyu Phyu Min, also known as Gatonneema, 30, was born in Chanayethazan Township in Mandalay. She had never worked at Sun Café. A medical exam found no forensic evidence of rape or physical injury. After police investigated the case, she confessed that she had made a false report at Pyinmana Police Station of being raped by San Maung and Ne Win after she was paid by Ye Htut, also known as Thura Ye Htut, and Nu Nu Myat to file the complaint. 

Phyu Phyu Min married Min Thura Zaw, also known as Nomo Harmed, in February 2007. When her husband was being tried in a drug case in September 2013, she became acquainted with Ye Htut and Nu Nu Myat. The Mandalay District Court sentenced her husband to a 16-year prison term. His aunt Khin Mar Lwin and another accomplice, Ni NiHtay, were given 12-year sentences.

Khin Mar Lwin's husband Khin Maung Htwe, also known as Ko Htwe, Ye Htut and Min Thura Zaw's mother Marlar were dissatisfied with the prison terms and caused a scene inside the court. Mandalay District Court clerk Tin Maung Win filed a case against them and they are facing a trial in Chanmyaethazan Township Court. 

Khin Maung Htwe, Ye Htut, and Marlar dissatisfied with the case opened against them and arranged for a woman named Haymar Kyaw to make a false report of being raped by the district court's clerk Tin Maung Win. Marlar, Phyu Ma, also known as Phyu Phyu Zaw, and Haymar Kyaw went to the Pyin Oo Lwin Police Station and reported that Tin Maung Win raped her at Pearl motel, following the instructions from Ye Htut and Nu Nu Myat.

Ye Htut and Nu Nu Myat are acquainted with Haji Tun Tun, who lives at Sagaing feeder road in Mandalay. Haji Tun Tun has a social issue with Sun Cafe owner San Maung and Ne Win. Haji Tun Tun was charged with Section 376 by Sagaing Police Station for raping his employee Kathy Khine, also known as Cherry Thein, 27, in May. He blamed San Maung and Ne Win for inciting the case against him so he asked for Ye Htut's help to make them face long prison terms.

Ye Htut and Nu Nu Myat used Phyu Phyu Min, who needed money after her husband was sentenced to prison, and arranged for her to make a false report that she was raped by San Maung and Ne Win. They took Phyu Phyu Min to their house in June and told her what to tell police, saying she would be given Ks 1 million if she succeeded in filing the complaint.

Ye Htut, Nu Nu Myat, and Phyu Phyu Zaw took Phyu Phyu Min to Pyinmana on the night of June 26 to show her the area where she was to tell police she had been raped. On the night of June 29, they paid her Ks 25,000 and left her near the Bogyoke statue in Pyinmana. She took a motorcycle taxi to Pyinmana Police Station and filed the false report that she was raped by Ne Win and San Maung.

Police are taking action against Haymar Kyaw and Marlar who filed a false rape report in Pyin Oo Lwin. Phyu Phyu Min and Nu Nu Myat have been apprehended, while Ye Htut, Haymar Kyaw, and Marlar remain on the run. 

The riots followed social media reports that two Muslim men had raped a Buddhist employee at their teashop. Violence subsequently rocked the city for several days, the latest in a series of communal clashes that have bedevilled the former junta-run nation for two years. Curfew has been imposed since July 3. 

Earlier, President Thein Sein said “serious action” would be taken against those involved and hinted that hard-won media freedoms could be compromised if unrest continued.