A Rohingya refugee,
who fled ethnic violence in Myanmar, describes how soldiers broke into her home
and raped her. UN observers say they have seen scores of rape and gang rape
survivors among the Rohingya who have arrived in Bangladesh in recent weeks.
By AFP: https://youtu.be/wWK1-wvJKj8
THE EXPRESS TRIBUNE
24 September 2017
LEDA REFUGEE CAMP,
BANGLADESH: Shamila clutches her daughter’s hand so tightly it turns white as
she recounts how soldiers broke into her home in Myanmar and gang-raped her in
front of her children — a story heard over and over in Bangladesh refugee
camps.
UN observers say
they have seen scores of rape and gang rape survivors among the Rohingya who
have fled ethnic violence in Myanmar in recent weeks.
Almost all said the
perpetrators were men in uniform who they identified as Myanmar military.
Those cases, experts
say, are almost certainly the tip of the iceberg.
The social stigma
surrounding rape in their conservative Muslim society and the challenge of
finding shelter and food means many women and girls have likely not yet come
forward.
Shamila, not her
real name, says she was still bleeding from the attack when she arrived in
Bangladesh after walking for three days.
“All three soldiers
raped me,” she said, tears in her eyes, as she gripped the hand of the
six-year-old sitting beside her in a pink vest and shorts.
“When they left, I
ran out of the house with two of my children and followed the crowd of people
running for their lives.”
Shamila’s husband
was out when the attack happened and she has not seen him since. She does not
know where her other three children are — they were playing outside when the
soldiers came and had disappeared by the time it was over, she said.
The story of the
25-year-old who now lives in a makeshift camp, is one UN observers say they
have heard time and again from Rohingya women and adolescent girls fleeing the
eruption of violence that started on August 25.
A UN fact-finding
mission is working in the refugee camps to investigate allegations of rights
abuses in Myanmar, including sexual violence.
UN Special
Representative on Sexual Violence in Conflict Pramila Patten said this week she
was “gravely concerned” about security operations in Myanmar’s Rakhine state.
Survivors have
described sexual violence being used as a “calculated tool of terror to force
targeted populations to flee”, she said.
The Rohingya, a
stateless Muslim minority, are reviled in Buddhist Myanmar where they are regarded
as illegal immigrants.
Rohingya – a tale of
geopolitics at heart: https://tribune.com.pk/story/1505811/rohingya-tale-geopolitics-heart/
Hundreds of
thousands have fled to Bangladesh in recent decades, but the scale of the
latest exodus is unprecedented at 429,000.
Now doctors in
Bangladesh say they are starting to see survivors come forward.
Their stories are
strikingly similar — soldiers broke into their homes when husbands and male
relatives were out and raped them in front of their children.
Nourin Tasnupa, who
works at a clinic run by the UN’s migration agency at the Leda refugee camp,
said most of the survivors she had treated were beaten before they were raped.
She said she had
seen women with bruising on their bodies and bite marks on their breasts and
genitals.
Based on her
experience of the last outbreak of violence in Rakhine in October 2016, Tasnupa
believes many women have yet to come forward.
“People don’t want
to share these incidents with even their family members,” she told AFP.
“With the last
influx (of Rohingya to Bangladesh, in October), we got cases even after three
to four months.”
Human Rights Watch
has said the sexual violence seen in October appeared “part of a coordinated
and systematic attack against Rohingya”.
UN experts in
Bangladesh say there appear to be fewer rape survivors among the latest
arrivals.
But they also say
the chaos caused by the sheer number of arrivals since August 25 means the true
scale is impossible to determine.
“At the moment it’s
a fight for survival,” said Irine Loria, protection officer for gender-based
violence at the UN migration agency.
Loria said the rapes
this time appeared to be different in nature and may be more opportunistic.
“Before it seems
rape was being used as a tool. People were paraded naked in public,
humiliated,” she said.
Why not
deport Rohingya, Myanmar will accept them: Indian Home Minister Rajnath Singh https://tribune.com.pk/story/1512363/not-deport-rohingya-myanmar-will-accept-indian-home-minister-rajnath-singh/
“This time it
appears it is more about pushing them out as fast as possible.”
That fits with
testimony given to AFP by Ayesha, 20, who came to the clinic in Leda a week
after arriving in Bangladesh from Rakhine.
When soldiers came
to her village in Buthidaung township in northern Rakhine her neighbours fled.
“They came to our
village at eight in the morning and they started burning down houses,” said
Ayesha, whose name AFP has also changed.
“People were
fleeing, but I had to take care of my child first.”
Five men in military
uniforms came into her house and one raped her while the others looked on, she
said. Her husband had already left the village after rumours spread that
Rohingya men would be rounded up.
Ayesha has not seen
her husband since, but she has learned that he made it to Bangladesh and is
hoping to be reunited with him soon.
Shamila’s situation
is even more difficult.
“I don’t know where
my husband or my other children are. I keep asking people but I still have no
news,” she said sadly, before picking up her daughter and heading back to the
small bamboo shelter they now call home.
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