Rights Body Accuses Myanmar Military of Mass Rape of Rohingyas

The New York-based Human Rights Watch (HRW) has accused the Myanmar military of widespread rapes of Rohingyas, amounting to war crimes.

In a 37-page report titled 'All of My Body Was Pain’: Sexual Violence Against Rohingya Women and Girls in Burma', the international body provides the testimony of 52 Rohingya women and girls allegedly raped by soldiers.

According to HRW, many women described witnessing the murders of their young children, spouses, and parents. Rape survivors reported days of agony walking with swollen and torn genitals while fleeing to Bangladesh.

Rape has been a prominent and devastating feature of the Burmese military’s campaign of ethnic cleansing against the Rohingya,” said Skye Wheeler, women’s rights emergencies researcher at HRW and author of the report.

“The Burmese military’s barbaric acts of violence have left countless women and girls brutally harmed and traumatised.”

Hala Sadak, a 15-year-old from Hathi Para village in Maungdaw Township, told HRW that the soldiers stripped her naked and then around 10 men raped her.

"When my brother and sister came to get me, I was lying there on the ground. They thought I was dead,” she added.

Myanmar army has waged a brutal military campaign in northern Rakhine state against the Rohingya – a Muslim-majority ethnic group to whom the Myanmar government denies citizenship and basic rights.

This new wave of violence by the army came after fighters of a Rohingyan armed group – Arakan Rohingya Salvation Army – carried out attacks on the security forces on August 25 this year.

According to reports, more than 600,000 Rohingya Muslims have fled the mainly Buddhist country since the military operation was launched in Rakhine in late August.

This September, United Nations had blamed Myanmar of committing atrocities against Rohingya communities, including ethnic cleansing and mass rapes amounting to war crimes.

Doctors treating some of the 429,000 Rohingya Muslims, who have fled to Bangladesh from Myanmar, had reported dozens of women with injuries consistent with violent sexual attacks, said U.N. clinicians and other health workers, according to Reuters.

Since August 25, the MSF – also known as Doctors Without Borders – had treated at least 23 cases of sexual and gender-based violence.

According to Kate White, emergency medical coordinator for the organisation, there were many cases of gang-rape and sexual assault.

Use of rape or sexual violence as a tool of warfare is considered a war crime, and is prohibited under the International Law and laws governing conflicts or war. 

The Rome Statute of the International Criminal Court, in force since 2002 considers rape, considers sexual slavery, enforced prostitution, forced pregnancy, enforced sterilisation, or "any other form of sexual violence of comparable gravity" as a crime against humanity.

The Security Council resolution 1820 of 2008 called to end the use of acts of sexual violence against women and girls as a tactic of war as well as to end the impunity enjoyed by perpetrators.

Myanmar’s army, meanwhile, has denied all allegations of rape and killings by its security forces.