Arakan News Agency
Dozens of Muslim women have been raped by state security forces in northern Arakan State during allegedly counter-insurgency operations there, according to rights groups citing “credible” sources also military controls in the region, including shutting out international humanitarian organisations
Around 30 women are reported to have been raped by security forces in a single village on October 19, according to Chris Lewa, director of the Arakan Project, a Rohingya rights organization.
Ms Lewa said she had also received additional reports of five girls aged between 16 and 18 being raped in another village on October 25 and two women at another location on October 20.
On October 25, the Burma Human Rights Network (BHRN) released a statement saying it was “extremely concerned” over at least 10 alleged rape cases that had been documented by civilians in Maungdaw township since the military operation had begun there, including one woman who was three months pregnant and later suffered a miscarriage.
“The Burmese government is deliberately violating international law and committing crimes that it promised the world they would refrain from,” said U Kyaw Win of the BHRN, referring to the Declaration of Commitment to End Sexual Violence in Conflict.
Ms Lewa said, “[The security personnel] look down on women and Rohingya women in particular. These women are very vulnerable, especially when the men have fled the villages.”
A large swathe of northern Arakan State has been under military lockdown since the October 9 attacks, with local residents reporting extrajudicial killings, torture, large-scale evictions, and the burning and looting of property.
Many villages are reported by sources on the ground to be lying entirely empty, with an estimated 10,000 Rohingya people believed to have been displaced. In other villages men have fled fearing they will be accused of being insurgents and shot or arrested by authorities, leaving women vulnerable to assault, those sources on the ground have added.
International groups including the UN and INGOs have demanded that the government allow an independent investigation into the series of alleged human rights violations emerging from northern Arakan State.
Social media have also included reports of rapes in recent days.
The increasing reports of rape have added to further demands for immediate action.
“First, the government needs to order the Tatmadaw to let the humanitarian agencies and international observers into these areas where the military is running roughshod over the Rohingya. And the government needs to immediately launch an independent investigation of these abuses, leading to the criminal prosecution of any soldiers found to have engaged in such abuses and commanders who looked the other way as their troops committed these crimes,” said Mr Robertson.
“It will not pass the laugh test if the government lets the Tatmadaw respond by itself to these serious charges, because the military have regularly sought to cover up these kinds of crimes by their troops in the past.”
