Human rights advocates demand Burma to be condemned for mass rape

The Society for Threatened Peoples (STP) demands more medical, psychological, and social care for victims of sexual violence in Burma. “The Rohingya refugees are not only in need of food and other humanitarian supplies – there must also be initiatives to help victims of rape. The massive increase in births among female Rohingya refugees is a definitive proof that thousands of them were raped by soldiers just before they fled. Many of them have already stated that they experienced severe violence,” emphasized Ulrich Delius, the STP’s director, in Göttingen on Friday. Further, he demanded: “These crimes against humanity must not go unpunished. Burma’s government must be condemned for trying to prevent independent international investigations into the cases of sexual violence against Rohingya refugees.”

Recently, international aid workers reported a dramatic increase in births among single women in refugee camps in Bangladesh. Most of the young mothers had fled from their home country seven to nine months ago. The United Nations, human rights organizations, scientists, and journalists interviewed hundreds of women who were forced to flee in recent months, and there were numerous credible reports about mass rape by Burmese soldiers. However, Burma’s government under Aung San Suu Kyi has been denying cases of mass rape ever since the mass exodus of the Muslim minority started in late August 2017. 

“Burma is obviously ignoring the international consensus that rape must be outlawed as a weapon of war,” criticized Delius. “It is a mockery that Nobel Peace Prize winner Aung San Suu Kyi, Burma’s influential councilor, is trying to cover up crimes against humanity committed by Burmese soldiers. The use of sexual violence as a means to drive hundreds of thousands of Rohingya away from their homes is to be seen as one of the greatest crimes of the 21st century.”

Rape as a weapon of war is not new in Burma. The STP recalled that members of Burma’s armed forces had systematically raped women in the scope of clashes with the Karen, the Shan, the Kachin, and other nationalities during the past 30 years. “These crimes were never punished,” Delius criticized. “Now, we see the consequences. Burma’s soldiers obviously still think that these terrible acts of violence are legitimate.”

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