Violence against Women in Myanmar and the Democratic Republic of Congo

Geneva, 17.03.03 - 25.04.03 - Written Statement by the Society for Threatened Peoples
Society for Threatened Peoples is appalled by the systematic use of sexual violence as a weapon of war in Myanmar and the Democratic Republic of Congo.

Credible testimonies of several hundred victims of rapes in the eastern state of Shan in Myanmar gave account of horrific mistreatments of minority women by soldiers. Minority women and girls reported of widespread rapes and other forms of sexual assaults by soldiers. Furthermore women, even pregnant women, are used as forced labourers at construction sites and in military camps. Pregnant women often lose their unborn child due to the poor conditions and the lack of access to health care. Some are forced to porter military supplies or are used as mine sweepers. While serving as porters or forced labourers, women and girls are often sexually abused and raped. The ruling State Peace and Development Council (SPDC) is allowing its troops systematically and on a widespread scale to commit rape with impunity in order to terrorize the minority people in Shan state. Impunity prevails even in the relocation sites, where villagers are supposed to be safe if they obey the orders of the soldiers. Women and girls were caught and raped by soldiers not only in relocation sites, but also on their farmland close to these new centres while they were fetching firewood or water or planting or gathering food. Women who went back to their old villages where they have been relocated from due to security considerations, were often raped by patrolling troops. They were accused of being wives of insurgents or providing food to them. Many of the women caught, were tortured, raped and killed. Many of the rapes are committed collectively. Some of the victims of gang-rapes even were released, showing that their perpetrators had no fear to be punished.

Sexual violence against women and rape are a crime. An independent international investigation should confirm, that these crimes have been committed with impunity and were used as a weapon of war against the civilian population. The U:S: State Department confirmed on December 17, 2002, after an own assessment of investigators who met victims of rapes in refugee camps, the systematic rape of Shan minority women and girls by the military.

Society for Threatened Peoples is outraged about the rape of two high school children after publicly criticizing human rights violations of the army at a school meeting in Lai Kha town. The 17- and 18 year old schoolgirls immediately were arrested by soldiers in the school and taken to the military base. Both girls were raped several times by the commander in the following four days and nights and only freed after their parents paid for their release.

Furthermore we are very much concerned about the situation of Burmese migrant women working in the sex industry in Thailand and Pakistan. Most of these sex workers are very young. They were abducted or trafficked into the sex industry without their prior knowledge. They can’t leave their brothels due to their illegal status in Thailand and Pakistan and their debt bondage. In closed brothels they have no rights. They are unable to refuse abusive customers and totally dependent on the brothel owners for their security, food and accommodation, They are extremely vulnerable to violence.

In Africa too, sexual violence against women is widespread in conflict zones. In the Democratic Republic of Congo Society for Threatened Peoples has witnessed an increasing use of rape as a weapon of war by soldiers and other combatants. In eastern Congo those unable to escape the fighting face high risks of sexual abuse, forced military recruitment an prostitution. Mass displacement of civilian population adds to the vulnerability of women and girls. Without the protection of their husbands and fathers, they are easy sexual targets for the military and other combatants. Many women had been gang-raped or raped in front of their children. In some cases men had been forced to have sexual relations with the wife of their son in front of the son. A greater number of girls and women had been abducted by soldiers or insurgents to their camps where they forced them to provide sexual services.

Tens of thousands of women have been raped in eastern Congo since 1998. Many girls and women will never recover from the psychological, physical and social impacts of theses crimes. Victims are fearing the stigma associated with rape. They are unwilling to talk to their families and neighbours on these sexual assaults for fear of being rejected by her husbands and families.

Society for Threatened Peoples calls on the U.N. Commission on Human Rights:

 

• to condemn the systematic use of rape and sexual violence as a weapon of war in Myanmar and the Democratic Republic of Congo

• to assess the responsibility for these crimes in independent investigations.

• The government of Myanmar and all combatants in the Democratic Republic of Congo should be urged to cease all sexual violence against women and girls and to immediately bring to justice the perpetrators of these human rights violations