06 October 2016•Update: 07 October 2016
By Kyaw Ye Lynn
YANGON, Myanmar
Four members of Myanmar's human right commission resigned Thursday after being heavily criticized for an apparent failure to protect the rights of two teenage maids who were physically abused by employers.
The two girls -- San Kay Khaing, 17, and Tha Zin, 16 -- had reported five years of torture at the hands of a famous family of tailors for whom they worked as maids in Kyauktada Township in the country’s commercial capital, Yangon.
The President's Office said in a statement Thursday that the four -- who had been accused of forcing the victims’ family members to settle the case with cash compensation instead of taking legal action -- were allowed to resign.
The action came after the office instructed the concerned ministry to investigate the case, which had caused outrage among the public and human rights groups.
The two underage maids -- who have said that they were treated as slaves, and regularly stabbed, beaten, burnt and deprived of food and sleep -- escaped bondage at the prominent Ava Tailoring shop in Yangon and returned to their parents in late August after an investigative report was published about them.
The case was first reported to police in June, and then filed with the commission in August after police failed to take action.
The commission then mediated a financial settlement between the tailors and the families of the two maids in which the girls received a combined sum of $4,000, and the perpetrators went unpunished.
Nyan Zaw, one of the four members allowed to resign, claimed to Anadolu Agency on Thursday that they had done nothing wrong in negotiating between the families and the employers.
“To be honest, we want the victim families got the proper compensation. Then we also suggested police to open a case against the employers,” Nyan Zaw said over phone.
