Arakan News Agency
When soldiers went searching for militants in Myanmar’s Arakan state last October, the result for members of the Rohingya minority was disastrous. Villages were burned, men were killed, women were sexually abused. And when one woman complained of rape, she was accused of lying by the office of the country’s leader, Aung San Suu Kyi, and hounded by vengeful soldiers.
Sitting cross-legged on the floor, 25-year-old Jamalida Begum tells me what happened in the days after her husband was shot dead in the village of Pyaung Pyaik, north-western Myanmar.
Jamalida fled with her two children and watched from a distance as the army set houses in the village on fire. Satellite images confirm that at least 85 buildings were destroyed.
Five days later she returned with some of her neighbours to find her belongings and home destroyed. They sheltered together in one of the few homes that had survived – but at dawn the next day the soldiers came back.
“They chose 30 women. Half were young girls aged between 12 and 15,” says Jamalida.
The soldiers took them to the village school.
“Then they chose four from among the 30,” Jamalida says.
“It was me and three teenage girls. Then we were separated. The army took me to the east of the school near the pond. Another seven soldiers took the other three girls to the hill to the south of the school.
“They shouted at me to open my shirt and my thami (wrap-around skirt). When I refused they started beating me, grabbed my clothes and pushed me to the ground. Three soldiers raped and tortured me for an hour. Blood came out of my lower part and my legs got cramped. They punched me into the eyes saying I was staring at them. It turned my eyes red like fire coal. They left me bleeding and drove away in their Jeeps.”
A wave of reports of human rights abuses followed, including scores of allegations of rape.
For weeks Myanmar’s human rights icon turned leader, Aung San Suu Kyi, denied the allegations, insisting soldiers were adhering to the law, while at the same time refusing to allow independent journalists or observers to access the area.
But as the outcry grew she set up an investigation team, and on 11 December it reached Pyaung Pyaik.
Though initially reluctant, Jamalida was persuaded to speak by the only woman on the team, Dr Thet Thet Zin, the chairman of Myanmar’s Women’s Affairs Federation.
“She said we won’t harm you, bring us the raped and tortured women,” Jamalida says. “So I went there and told her everything and they recorded it.”
Jamalida’s interaction with the investigation team was filmed and several minutes of it broadcast on television. It is extraordinary footage, not just because of the way Jamalida is browbeaten by the translators, but because the Burmese state broadcaster didn’t translate what Jamalida is saying to the investigators in the Rohingya language.
Once fully translated, it’s clear that Jamalida is describing strong circumstantial evidence that rape has taken place. She tells them she saw three young Rohingya women being taken off into the bushes by soldiers.
“Did you see if those women were raped or not?” the translator asks.
“I did not,” Jamalida replies.
“So, it isn’t true,” the translator fires back.
“Yes and no,” Jamalida says. “They were bleeding directly from here”. She points between her legs.
“Don’t say that, don’t say that, don’t say that they are bleeding, just say whether you’ve seen rape or not,” the translator replies.
The translator tells the investigators that Jamalida did not see the women being raped.
Source : BBC
