EBO Burma News, 13 May 2003
News Summary:
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1. Chirac concerned about human rights
in
2. Burmese Women Are Reporting Systematic
Rapes by Military
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Chirac concerned about human rights in Myanmar
about
the human rights situation in
implement
reforms," during talks with Thai Prime Minister Thaksin
Shinawatra.
Chirac met with Shinawatra, in
regional
cooperation in southeast Asia and the reinforcement of Franco-Thai
relations,
the president's spokeswoman Catherine Colonna said.
During his stay, Shinawatra, the first Thai
leader to visit
1989, is also due to meet with Foreign Minister Dominique de Villepin, Prime
Minister Jean-Pierre Raffarin
and a group of French business leaders.
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Burmese Women Are Reporting
Systematic Rapes by Military
The New York Times
By SETH MYDANS
12 May 2003
groups in northeastern
are sometimes characterized by sadism and
that human rights groups say appear
to be authorized and systematic.
The State Department investigated the reports,
which it called "appalling," and
said it found them credible.
The military government of the former
asserting that any perpetrators are harshly
punished, and calling the reports
fabrications by domestic and foreign enemies of their
government.
"Isolated rape cases may have
happened in certain areas, as is happening in
many other countries around the world,"
the
a statement last month. "But `systematically
using rape as a weapon of war'
is just too ridiculous."
The minister for labor,
U Tin Win, said, "Severe punishment is always handed
down to any member of the armed forces who
rape women, be they officers or
other ranks or privates.
"The
the all-encompassing fold of Buddhist
teachings," he said.
However, the reports have been supported
by widespread and consistent descriptions
given by victims and witnesses, including
members of separate ethnic groups.
The government must contend with three
separate and mutually corroborating
reports — the initial collection of accounts by a
Shan human rights group a year ago,
an unusual follow-up investigation by the
State Department and most recently
a report by an independent human rights
group.
"Women are raped during forced labor assignments, they are raped
while farming,
they are raped in their own homes and raped
also when they are trying to flee
to
rights group Refugees International, based in
That report, released last month, made the
point that the allegations came from
a range of ethnic groups and that the rapes
— sometimes conducted on military
property by high-ranking officers — appeared to be
officially sanctioned.
It documented accounts of 43 rapes among
women from the Karen, Karenni, Mon,
and Tavoyan groups
as well as the Shans. It said 75 percent of the women
interviewed reported knowing someone who had been
raped.
"Aside from the fact that rapes are
happening across ethnic boundaries, our report
also showed that rape is happening on a
widespread basis and is not the result
of rogue groups or occasional unruly
soldiers," Ms. Martin said.
Because military units are often stationed
near villages for long periods and use
local people as forced laborers,
the report said, three-fourths of the women
interviewed were able to identify their attackers by
their battalion number.
The initial allegations were made last
year by the Shan Women's Action Network,
a private human rights group based on the
Thai-Myanmar border, which described
rape as a systematic weapon of war.
Its report said it had documented 173
incidents of rape or sexual violence against
625 women and girls committed by soldiers
from 52 military battalions between 1992 and 2001.
It alleged that 25 percent of the rapes
resulted in death and that 83 percent
were committed by officers.
In December, the State Department issued a
statement saying that it was
"appalled by
the reports" and that its own interviews in three separate locations
appeared to confirm them.
It said its investigators had talked to 12
women who said they had been gang raped
by Burmese soldiers during the past five
years.
"All of the victims under 15 appeared
severely traumatized by their experiences,
were disturbed mentally and spoke in whispers,
if at all," the State Department said.
"The older women sobbed violently as
they recalled horrific incidents of their own rapes,
as well as brutal rapes, torture and
execution of family members."
The Refugees International report included
graphic accounts by a number of women.
One, named Thay
Yu, said she had witnessed the rape of a woman who was heading
for the Thai border with her family, like
tens of thousands of other refugees who have
fled war, forced relocations and military
abuses over the years.
The woman's husband was forced to watch as
she was raped, sexually mutilated
and killed, according to this account. The
soldiers then killed him as well.
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