Alexandra Bradford
Women & Girls
MASS SEXUAL VIOLENCE
against the Rohinyga minority in northern Myanmar has been documented in a
recent United Nations report. http://www.ohchr.org/Documents/Countries/MM/FlashReport3Feb2017.pdf
The spate of
violence, which includes gang rape and involves survivors as young as 11 years
old, was found to have been perpetrated by Myanmar’s security forces,
On October 9, 2016,
the Burmese military entered northern Rakhine state – and over the next four
months detained and killed men, women and children. Soldiers burned down houses
and raped women and young girls. The U.N. report says these actions amount to
possible crimes against humanity and ethnic cleansing.
The military insists
this “clearance operation” was a justified
counterinsurgency operation following an October 9 attack on security forces
near the Bangladesh border, which resulted in the deaths of nine policemen. The
violence caused more than 69,000 Rohingya to
flee from Myanmar to Bangladesh, where they are currently living in eight
makeshift camps in Dhaka and Cox Bazar. http://www.abc.net.au/news/2017-03-01/myanmar-army-defends-operation-against-rohingya/8316654
Myanmar’s Rohinyga
population lives in villages in northern Rakhine state, near the Bangladesh
border. They are known as one of the most persecuted
minorities in the world. Their Muslim faith is viewed as a security
threat by Buddhist groups in Myanmar, which means they receive limited access to basic services such as education.
They are also prohibited from claiming citizenship and moving freely throughout
the country.
The United Nations
Human Rights Office of the High Commissioner (OHCHR) sent a four-person team,
including human rights officer Ilona Alexander, to Bangladesh in early January
of this year to investigate these human rights violations. Their investigation
included testimony from 101 Rohingya women who experienced violence at the
hands of the military: More than half reported being sexually assaulted.
Women & Girls
spoke to Ilona Alexander about the evidence she gathered on the sexual violence
inflicted on Rohingya women and girls.
Women
& Girls: The military indicated that it was conducting “area clearance
operations” in the region – what exactly does this mean?
Ilona Alexander:
Based on the interviews we conducted, the “area clearance operations” followed
this pattern: Large numbers of armed men (often from both the Myanmar Armed
Forces and the police, sometimes accompanied by Rakhine villagers) would arrive
in the village. As is confirmed by satellite imagery
analysis, they would proceed to destroy many houses, mosques, schools
and shops. https://www.hrw.org/news/2016/12/13/burma-military-burned-villages-rakhine-state
They would separate
the women from the men. Women would be rounded up, and either told to stay
inside a school or other building or outside in the burning sun. Many would be
raped or would experience others forms of sexual violence, often during strip
searches, either during roundups or in homes.
Women
& Girls: How did the victims describe the attacks?
Alexander: The vast
majority of those interviewed had experienced multiple violations. Families may
have had members killed, beaten, raped or taken away to an unknown location,
while at the same time their homes were burned and looted. For most
interviewees, separation from their families is a major concern.
Many of the men have
been detained or killed. This is one of the saddest things, because these women
have experienced tremendous sexual violence – but sometimes they broke down
even more when they talked about their missing husbands.
For me, the touching
thing was hearing stories from the little boys who feel that now that their
fathers are gone, they are responsible for protecting their mothers and
sisters. But these boys have had to watch their sisters and mothers being
beaten and raped, and now they feel like they have failed to protect their
mothers.
Women
& Girls: Your investigations found that one girl as young as 11 years old
was gang raped by military forces. Can you describe this case?
Alexander: For this
girl, she started by describing to me how life was peaceful in her village
before … suddenly the military appeared and started killing people [and]
abusing women.
She told me how she
witnessed a man who was about 40 years old have his throat cut with a cleaver
in front of her. After, the military came to her house and badly beat her
parents.
After this incident,
her father went into hiding from the military and took her two older sisters
with him so that they would be safe. He left the girl at home with her mother
and two little brothers because he thought the military wouldn’t hurt children.
The military came back
to their house twice. The first time, the military came and removed her
clothing and kicked her. After the clothing was removed and the girl was
beaten, the military suddenly left. The next day they returned with seven
soldiers and removed the mother from the house. The soldiers locked themselves
in a room with the girl and gang raped her. The girl told me that she doesn’t
even know how many of them raped her because she fell unconscious at times and
awoke bleeding and injured after.
Women
& Girls: Why were some of the women you spoke to targeted for gang rape,
while others weren’t?
Alexander: They
wanted to terrorize the population, so they took some women into public places
like mosques and gang raped them while other women were outside and listening.
They wanted the women outside to know what was happening so they were
terrorized.
They would have
around eight women and 20 men from the military in the mosque, and the men
would take a turn with each woman.
I had this one
15-year-old girl tell me that she was only raped by one solider because she was
not as beautiful as the girls who were gang raped. When she told me this I
thought, “My God, what kind of culture is this where women think they aren’t
beautiful enough to be gang raped?”
This interview has
been edited for length and clarity. This article originally appeared on Women & Girls Hub.