Despite government
promises to uphold human rights, sources tell IRIN military abuses continued in
May
By Emanuel Stoakes
Myanmar security
forces allegedly raped as many as 13 women during “clearance” operations
following an explosion in May that was reportedly detonated by ethnic Rohingya
insurgents, according to rights groups and witnesses.
Activists and
witnesses tell IRIN that the assaults took place in Buthidaung Township in
Rakhine, a western state where security forces are accused of abuses against
minority ethnic Rohingya Muslims. The UN estimates that about 75,000 Rohingya
fled to neighbouring Bangladesh after the military launched counterinsurgency
operations following deadly attacks on border police posts last October by a
new group calling itself the Arakan Rohingya Salvation Army.
The state-run Global
New Light of Myanmar newspaper reported that the bodies of five men were
discovered after they were apparently killed on 5 May while trying to build
improvised explosive devices. The bodies were found, along with bomb-making
material, when “security forces conducted an area clearance”.
During those
clearance operations, soldiers allegedly raped between five and 13 women on 9
and 10 May, according to Chris Lewa of the Arakan Project, an advocacy group
with an extensive network of contacts in Rakhine State, where most of Myanmar’s
approximately one million Rohingya live.
“Our sources say
this occurred in north Buthidaung Township following an explosion, which was
attributed to the insurgency,” she said. “It seems this was retaliatory.”
Andrew Dusek, a
spokesman for the UN refugee agency, UNHCR, said the UN has received reports of
this and several other “concerning allegations of such incidents” in Rakhine
during the past few months.
“They have been
brought to the attention of the government,” he said.
SEE: The roots and
risks of Myanmar’s new Rohingya insurgency: https://www.irinnews.org/analysis/2017/01/03/roots-and-risks-myanmar%E2%80%99s-new-rohingya-insurgency
The government has
in the past flatly denied that soldiers killed and abused Rohingya civilians,
and it says it will not allow a UN fact-finding mission into the area to
investigate. But Myanmar is facing increasing international pressure, and
officials say that they are instead depending on the government’s own
commission to assess the claims.
“We are not
rejecting the allegations,” said Zaw Htay, a government spokesman. “But we need
to collect data and information for the investigation commission, which is
headed by Vice President U Myint Swe, which is doing the job of investigating
human rights allegations and other media reports.”
Testimonies
of abuse
IRIN has obtained
video testimonies from people who say they witnessed the assaults. Their names
are being withheld for their protection.
One witness said she
was “too shy to say” exactly what happened to a woman she saw severely sexually
assaulted, but she provided more detail on attacks by security forces on two
others.
“A woman’s blouse
was removed and her chest was grabbed. They kicked her and injured her,” said
the witness, adding that another woman “was stabbed with a knife and bled.”
A separate witness
said her daughter was ripped from her arms by security forces.
“The police pulled
at us and my daughter was taken away,” said the woman. “When I tried to prevent
this, I was beaten.”
The witness said she
watched another woman being severely assaulted after pleading with security
officers to release her daughter-in-law.
“They beat her on
the head with a gun and stabbed at her with a knife,” she said in the video
testimony. “They cut and removed her clothes.”
SEE: Myanmar says
Rohingya rape and abuse allegations “made up”, despite mounting evidence:
http://www.irinnews.org/feature/2016/12/22/myanmar-says-rohingya-rape-and-abuse-allegations-%E2%80%9Cmade-%E2%80%9D-despite-mounting
Mixed
messages
Such allegations are
impossible to verify, because the military refuses to allow journalists free
access to much of Rakhine State. But the assaults would fit a pattern,
documented over decades by rights groups, of sexual abuse perpetrated by the
military in areas where it is fighting ethnic insurgents.
Aung San Suu Kyi,
who was awarded a Nobel Prize for her pro-democracy struggle against Myanmar’s
military, condemned the practice in a 2011 video: https://youtu.be/SOHEosj-M5U address to
a Nobel Women’s Initiative conference just months after her release from house
arrest
“Especially in the
areas of the ethnic nationalities, rape is rife,” she said. “It is used as a
weapon by armed forces to intimidate the ethnic nationalities and to divide our
country.”
After 49 years in
power, the military initiated sweeping political reforms in 2011, and Aung San
Suu Kyi’s National League for Democracy party swept national elections in
November 2015. Although the military-drafted constitution bars her from the
presidency, she today serves as state counsellor, Myanmar’s de facto civilian leader.
In her new role,
Aung San Suu Kyi has not only refused to speak out against sexual violence
committed by security forces against Rohingya; her office has repeatedly issued
statements denying such attacks. Her government says its commission has found
no evidence of widespread violence, ethnic cleansing, or rape against Rohingya
civilians.
The UN’s rights
envoy to Myanmar, Yanghee Lee, told IRIN In February that
the commission was incapable of carrying out a “credible” investigation. She
spoke a week after the UN Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights
issued a report based on testimonies from 204
Rohingya in Bangladesh who said they fled as soldiers committed atrocities
including killings and gang rapes, which likely constituted crimes against
humanity.
In the wake of that
report, and others by rights groups, and media, the UN Human Rights Council
announced in March that it would dispatch a fact-finding mission. Myanmar’s
Foreign Affairs Ministry immediately rejected the mission and said in a statement that it “would do more to inflame, rather
than resolve the issues”. http://www.globalnewlightofmyanmar.com/the-following-the-full-text-of-the-press-release-issued-by-the-ministry-of-foreign-affairs-on-un-human-rights-councils-resolution-calling-for-the-dispatch-of-an-international-fact-finding-mi/
But these new
reports, provided exclusively to IRIN, of the rape of as many as 13 more women
this past May indicate that abuses of Rohingya civilians continue, despite the
government’s claim in that statement that it is “fully committed to the
promotion and protection of human rights”.