Burma has ratified UN?s Convention on the Rights of Women. Even so, the military regime still uses rape as a tactical weapon against the country?s ethnic minorities. Now, women?s organisations request an international boycott of their own country, say Moe Kham and Wah Ku Shee, right, both interns with the Norwegian Burma Committee at the Human Rights House in Oslo. (22-NOV-05)
This article is based in part on notes taken by HRH volunteer Raph Pluimert at yesterday?s seminar at the Oslo Human Rights House; ?Rape as a weapon in war. Reports and testimonies from Burma, Turkey, Bosnia and Iraq?, but also on Magnhild Folkvord?s article in today?s edition of the Norwegian newspaper Klassekampen. The two sources have been translated and edited into the below article by Niels Jacob Harbitz. Photos of Kham and Shee: Niels Jacob Harbitz.
?Licence to rape? is the title of one of the many reports made by Burmese women?s organisations on what must now be considered brought beyond doubt and proven; that the Burmese army systematically uses rape as a weapon in the war against the country?s ethnic minorities. While the army largely consist of members of the 60 % strong ethnic majority, the remaining 40 is made up of different minorities, all suffering, in all parts of the country, from these tactics. In addition to the systematic rapes, the army and other authorities use forced labour as part of their repression, in both conflict and cease-fire zones.
-Rape, or I?ll kill you
Wah Kuu Shee is speaking on behalf of Women?s League of Burma (WLB), an umbrella organisation for altogether 12 different women?s organisations. Together with Moe Kham, she was among the speakers at yesterday?s seminar. As an example of how brutal the tactics of rape has become, Shee told of an incident where a Captain in the Burmese army first had raped a woman himself, and then ordered a soldier to to the same, with the same women. -If not, the Captain had added, addressing the soldier, -you will be killed yourself.
-Report a rape, and face another. And arrest, torture and death
-Gang rape is also common, say Shee and Kham, -and neither girls below the age of ten or highly pregnant women are spared. There have also been cases of fathers being tied and forced to watch their wives and daughters be raped, repeatedly. In the ?Licence to rape? report, 173 cases of rape and other sexual offences, involving 625 women and girls in the state of Shan, are documented. Most of the cases took place in 1996 – 2001. 61 % of the cases were gang rapes, and only one of the total of 173 cases resulted in any kind of legal persecution and punishment of the rapist. A far more common outcome of reporting rape committed by the Burmes army is that the victim herself is being punished with further abuse, arrest, torture or even death.
Cook, clean and carry water during day, get raped at night
The ?Licence to kill? report triggered a US government investigation which in December 2002 also concluded that the Burmese army is indeed using rape as a weapon against the country?s ethnic minorities. The pressure on Burmese authorities was such that they initiated their own inquiries, resulting in forced, signed denials that any such violations had ever taken place. -Even an official ceasefire does not mean that the rapes come to a halt, adds Shan. -After the first report, we know of more than a hundred more cases. We know of cases where a village has been informed that ten, twenty or even fifty women are needed in a camp for cooking, cleaning and carrying of water. At night, though, the same fifty are being raped.
Shame and stigmatisation sometimes lead to suicide
The aftermath of the rapes are equally painful. In addition to the shame and stigmatisation, many of the raped women experience that their husbands don?t want them anymore, and leave. Many also suffer isolation and expulsion from their local communities. Some end up committing suicide.
-MR Prime Minister of Norway: We want a full trade embargo
Shee and Kham draw attention to the contradiction that systematic rape happens in a signatory country to the UN Convention on the Rights of Women. A male leader of the official Burmese delegation to the UN recently reported that ?all is well? with equal opportunities and women?s rights in Burma. WLB, however, has made a shadow report, presenting a rather different picture. -The UN Security Council must address the Burmese security situation in general, the human rights situation in particular. In addition, it is our hope that other countries must not only stop investing in Burma, but also initiate a total trade embargo, says Kham, who believes that a true end to the violations against minority women is unlikely until a political solution to the entire Burmese predicament has been found. -To reach there, though, we need all the support we can get. And trade embargo may well prove effective, Kham concludes, in a direct appeal to the Norwegian government.
