By SAW YAN NAING
Monday, November 7, 2011
Victims of war—ethnic Karen women and children wait for medical treatment in January 2010. (Photo: AP)
“I was terrified. I kept screaming, and then he threatened to punch
my baby through my stomach if I didn't stop,” said a pregnant woman from
Kachin State, describing her rape at the hands of a Burmese government
soldier.
“I was so afraid. All I could do was cry while he brutally raped me,” she said, sobbing.
The
woman was speaking to women's rights researchers who had traveled to
war-torn Kachin State to produce a documentary about sexual violence
perpetrated against women in the conflict zone. She was just one of 18
women known to have been raped by Burmese soldiers in the state, where
the Burmese army is mounting a major offensive against the Kachin
Independence Army.
The documentary, produced by the Thailand-based Women's League of Burma (WLB) and titled “
Bringing Justice to Women,” makes harrowing viewing.
“If
possible, I want legal action taken against the military government in
Burma,” said the woman, not looking very hopeful that that would ever
happen.
Kachin State is not the only place in Burma where ethnic
women are targets of sexual violence. In neighboring Shan State, rights
activists reported that four ethnic Shan women, aged between 12 and 50
years old—including one women who was nine months' pregnant—were raped
by soldiers in July.
The film highlights the ongoing systematic
use of rape as a weapon against ethnic minorities in areas of renewed
military conflict in Kachin, Karen and Shan states, one year after Burma
held its first election in more than two decades.
At a time when
Naypyidaw is stepping up its efforts to win international legitimacy,
the film, using interviews with rape survivors, community members and
women’s rights groups, provides compelling evidence that war crimes and
crimes against humanity by the government's army continue unabated under
the new military-backed “civilian” regime.
Moon Nay Li, a spokeswoman for the Thailand-based Kachin Women's Association Thailand (KWAT), told
The Irrawaddy,
“In the war zone, women are most vulnerable and their lives and safety
are at risk. Some are raped then killed by the government army.”
“The situation is getting worse instead of better, especially in ethnic areas, after the general election in 2010,” she added.
Civilians
routinely become victims of forced labor, torture, rape and murder in
Burma's conflict zones. The fact that such abuses have not stopped
despite the supposed transition to democratic rule means that it is too
early to be optimistic about recent political developments in Burma,
according to Moon Nay Li.
With no signs of improvement in the
army's human rights record, the WLB has renewed calls for a UN-led
Commission of Inquiry (CoI) leading to the referral of Than Shwe, the
chief of the ex-military regime, and other former leading generals to
the International Criminal Court (ICC).
One reason the army
continues to commit rampant human rights abuses is that for decades it
has acted with impunity. In fact, Burma's 2008 Constitution guarantees
the country's military leaders immunity from prosecution. Under Articles
443 and 445 of Chapter XIV of the Constitution, members of the current
regime cannot be held accountable for their wrongdoings in the past.
Article
443 states that “the preparatory work done by the [regime] before this
Constitution comes into operation, to bring the Constitution into
operation, shall be deemed to have been carried out in accord with this
Constitution.”
“No proceeding shall be instituted against the
[ruling military council] or any member thereof or any member of the
Government, in respect to any act done in the execution of their
respective duties,” according to Article 445.
According to Moon
Nay Li, the 2008 Constitution, which was written by handpicked
representatives of Burma's various social and ethnic groups, serves only
to protect those who have committed crimes in ethnic regions, and
offers no security to ordinary citizens.
The WLB's documentary
therefore argues that the only way to achieve justice in Burma is by
calling on the government to implement the terms of UN resolutions
demanding an end to acts of sexual violence carried out with impunity by
members of the Burmese armed forces
