Description:
"With a population of over 50 million people, Burma is
comprised of eight major ethnic nationalities: Burman,
Shan, Karen, Karenni, Mon, Chin, Kachin and Arakan.
Burma?s ethnic groups demand equality, autonomy and
self-determination, but are systematically denied their
rights by the regime. Instead, they are met with human
rights violations: forced labor, forced relocation, religious
persecution, arbitrary arrest and detention, destruction of
thousands of ethnic villages, the driving out of hundreds
of thousands of ethnic civilians to neighboring countries,
and the forced internal displacement of an estimated one
million people.
Worse yet is that Burmese military soldiers are raping
the ethnic women and girls with impunity. Women and
girls from the Shan, Kachin, Chin, Karen, Mon, Karenni
and Arakan states have long suffered under these state-sanctioned
sex crimes. Rape incidents in ethnic areas are
higher than anywhere else in Burma because they are part
of the regime?s strategy to punish the armed resistance
groups or used as a tool to repress various peoples in the
larger agenda of ethnic cleansing.
Although rape has been used by the regime to control the
population for decades, it took years and the courage of
many women to document these crimes. In recent years,
the different women?s groups operating in Burma started
documenting the systematic sexual violence against ethnic
women by the State army soldiers. The total number of
rape victims documented in these reports from Chin,
Shan, Karen, Mon and Kachin states totals 1,859 girls and
women, with some accounts going back as far as 1995.
As a result of these reports, the UN Special Rapporteur
for Human Rights in Burma has repeatedly raised
concerns about the widespread use of sexual violence
by the regime?s troops. However, the military regime and
the ?new?, nominally civilian government of Burma, has
continued to deny this atrocity and the sexual violence
continues.
This report will look into the meaning of ?rape as a
weapon of war?, the way it is used by the Burmese
military and the response that the Burmese government
and the international community could provide to stop
such practice..."
Source/publisher:
Info Birmanie, Swedish Burma Committee
Date of Publication:
2012-03-00
Date of entry:
2012-05-10
Grouping:
- Individual Documents
Category:
Language:
Fran?ais, French, English