Myanmar Army Raped Rohingya Women With 'Genocidal Intent', Govt Did Nothing To Stop Them: UN

Women are said to be the worst victims of conflicts anywhere in the world. We have heard the horror stories of how US soldiers raped Iraqi women during the Iraq war. Then the world saw how ISIS raped Yezidi women and kept them as sex slaves for years. Same was the case with Sudan. There have been reports about sexual violence against women during communal riots. Currently, one of the worst humanitarian crises is going on in Myanmar, where the Rohingya Muslim community is being targeted and reports suggest that thousands of Rohingyas have been killed so far. Hundreds of thousands have fled to neighbouring countries for safety.

Sexual violence has been a known tool used against the Rohingyas by the troops in Myanmar. Even the UN expressed its worries about it in 2017.

Today in Bangladesh I met Rohingya women and girls who suffered horrific acts of sexual violence in Myanmar ¡ª some now mothers to babies born of rape. They must not be forgotten victims. The world must know their story. We must show them solidarity. pic.twitter.com/KchyCWoMjG

¡ª Ant¨®nio Guterres (@antonioguterres) July 2, 2018

The Security Council debate on sexual violence in conflict highlights the vulnerability of women and girls in Myanmar and other conflict zones, where sexual attacks are used to advance military, economic and ideological goals. https://t.co/9phJ9RuEPV

¡ª Ant¨®nio Guterres (@antonioguterres) April 17, 2018

Now, the latest report by a team of UN experts have concluded that sexual violence committed by Myanmar troops against Rohingya women in 2017 was an indication of the military¡¯s genocidal intent to destroy the mainly Muslim ethnic minority.

The committee of investigators has accused Myanmar¡¯s government of failing to hold anyone accountable. It held the government responsible ¡°under the Genocide Convention for its failure to investigate and punish acts of genocide.¡±

Reuters

¡°Hundreds of Rohingya women and girls were raped, with 80 per cent of the rapes corroborated by the Mission being gang rapes. The Tatmadaw (Myanmar military) was responsible for 82 per cent of these gang rapes,¡± the report accessed by Reuters said.

Reuters

On its part, the Myanmar authorities refused entry to the UN panel. Reports suggest that they met the victims in refugee camps in Bangladesh, Thailand and Malaysia.

The investigators, in 2018, marked five indicators of genocidal intent by the Myanmar military:

1. The use of derogatory language
2. Specific comments by government officials, politicians, religious authorities and military commanders prior, during and after the violence
3. The existence of discriminatory plans and policies;
4. Evidence of an organised plan of destruction
5. The extreme brutality of the campaign

¡°The Mission now concludes on reasonable grounds that the sexual violence perpetrated against women and girls that began on 25 August 2017 was a sixth factor that indicated the Tatmadaw¡¯s genocidal intent to destroy the Rohingya people,¡± said the report.

The panel reached this conclusion after examining ¡°the widespread and systematic killing of women and girls, the systematic selection of women and girls of reproductive ages for rape, attacks on pregnant women and on babies, the mutilation and other injures to their reproductive organs, the physical branding of their bodies by bite marks on their cheeks, neck, breast and thigh.¡±

Reuters

¡°Myanmar¡¯s top two military officials remain in their positions of power despite the Mission¡¯s call for them to be investigated and, if appropriate, prosecuted for war crimes, crimes against humanity and genocide,¡± the report said.

With inputs from Reuters