By Assed Baig
The evidence I obtained during my week in Sittwe strongly implies that the Burmese military is imprisoning Rohingya women from the Arakhan region and using them as sex slaves.
We stayed in Sittwe, the main city in Arakhan state of Burma, which is where the majority of the Rohingya camps are situated. Travelling past the police check points every morning and into the Rohingya camps, it felt like being transported into a parallel world where suddenly it's fine to forget about your obligations as a human to not be an unscrupulous bully to a group of people just because they originally come from somewhere different to you. The Rohingya Muslims aren't recognised as citizens of Burma, meaning they have no rights and very little access to education and healthcare.
While in Sittwe, some of my contacts told me about Rohingya women being kept at a military base. I tracked down some of the eyewitnesses, but I needed to get close to the camp to confirm what I'd heard. Bear in mind that taking pictures and video of a Burmese military base obviously isn't something to be taken lightly, and the people who'd agreed to take me there risked their lives if they were caught.
Eyewitness testimony of a military camp situated a few miles from Sittwe town (and home to Regiment 270) describes around 20 women and three children under the age of eight being held at the camp. One of the witnesses, Amina (name changed), described walking past the camp when she heard voices calling out to her. The imprisoned women asked Amina if she was Muslim; she is.
“Please help us. If you can help us escape from here you will go to jannah (heaven),” one woman told her. “Many military men come, we can’t breathe. We want to become Muslim again. If we stay like this we will go to hell.” The intended meaning of what was said was, Amina felt, clear: these women are being raped, and they don’t have to say it explicitly for anyone to understand what's taking place. The prisoners asked Amina to pass the message on to someone who could help. “Our parents can't find us,” they added.
The women only managed to speak to Amina because it was Burmese Independence Day and the soldiers were away. “We've been arrested here for quite a long time now. They have left us today because they have a special visitor,” they told Amina. The women continued, telling Amina that if the word was spread too much that the military would kill them, as well as warning her that she was at risk of being killed herself if she was spotted talking to them.
“The women were crying," Amina told me. "Some of them called me daughter, others called me sister.”
Amina described some of the women as pregnant, which could indicate that they've been prisoners since the June or October violence and have become pregnant during their imprisonment. Information relayed from various sources indicates that local villagers are aware that women are being kept as prisoners but are too scared to speak out. And as Rohingya aren't recognised as citizens of Burma – and therefore have no rights ......
A Rohingya man I interviewed described another camp 20 minutes away where another woman was held under similar conditions. He was one of the 14 rice paddy workers who went to speak Rakhine with the woman, the language spoken by the Buddhist population of Arakhan. The woman replied, “Don’t speak Rakhine with me any more, I am Muslim and a prisoner here.” She then told the men her father's name and where she was from. They asked her what she was doing at a military camp if she was Muslim, and if she was ready to come with them. She replied, “I have two children,” implying that her children are being used to keep her at the camp.
I tracked down other eyewitnesses, but they were mostly too afraid to speak. The Rohingya have no rights or official form of protection, and those who do speak to journalists are risking their lives, so the reluctance to divulge what they know is perfectly understandable.
The last known sighting of these women was at the end of March and it's uncertain whether they're still alive. It's also uncertain if the women are still at the camp or have been split up into different camps. certain is that there are innocent Rohingya women being held captive (sex slaves) by the Burmese military and plenty of locals know about it, only it's impossible for them to do anything about it without the threat of losing their lives.
Source: http://www.vice.com/en_uk/read/rohingya-women-are-being-kept-as-sex-slaves-by-the-burmese-military
The evidence I obtained during my week in Sittwe strongly implies that the Burmese military is imprisoning Rohingya women from the Arakhan region and using them as sex slaves.
We stayed in Sittwe, the main city in Arakhan state of Burma, which is where the majority of the Rohingya camps are situated. Travelling past the police check points every morning and into the Rohingya camps, it felt like being transported into a parallel world where suddenly it's fine to forget about your obligations as a human to not be an unscrupulous bully to a group of people just because they originally come from somewhere different to you. The Rohingya Muslims aren't recognised as citizens of Burma, meaning they have no rights and very little access to education and healthcare.
While in Sittwe, some of my contacts told me about Rohingya women being kept at a military base. I tracked down some of the eyewitnesses, but I needed to get close to the camp to confirm what I'd heard. Bear in mind that taking pictures and video of a Burmese military base obviously isn't something to be taken lightly, and the people who'd agreed to take me there risked their lives if they were caught.
Eyewitness testimony of a military camp situated a few miles from Sittwe town (and home to Regiment 270) describes around 20 women and three children under the age of eight being held at the camp. One of the witnesses, Amina (name changed), described walking past the camp when she heard voices calling out to her. The imprisoned women asked Amina if she was Muslim; she is.
“Please help us. If you can help us escape from here you will go to jannah (heaven),” one woman told her. “Many military men come, we can’t breathe. We want to become Muslim again. If we stay like this we will go to hell.” The intended meaning of what was said was, Amina felt, clear: these women are being raped, and they don’t have to say it explicitly for anyone to understand what's taking place. The prisoners asked Amina to pass the message on to someone who could help. “Our parents can't find us,” they added.
The women only managed to speak to Amina because it was Burmese Independence Day and the soldiers were away. “We've been arrested here for quite a long time now. They have left us today because they have a special visitor,” they told Amina. The women continued, telling Amina that if the word was spread too much that the military would kill them, as well as warning her that she was at risk of being killed herself if she was spotted talking to them.
“The women were crying," Amina told me. "Some of them called me daughter, others called me sister.”
Amina described some of the women as pregnant, which could indicate that they've been prisoners since the June or October violence and have become pregnant during their imprisonment. Information relayed from various sources indicates that local villagers are aware that women are being kept as prisoners but are too scared to speak out. And as Rohingya aren't recognised as citizens of Burma – and therefore have no rights ......
A Rohingya man I interviewed described another camp 20 minutes away where another woman was held under similar conditions. He was one of the 14 rice paddy workers who went to speak Rakhine with the woman, the language spoken by the Buddhist population of Arakhan. The woman replied, “Don’t speak Rakhine with me any more, I am Muslim and a prisoner here.” She then told the men her father's name and where she was from. They asked her what she was doing at a military camp if she was Muslim, and if she was ready to come with them. She replied, “I have two children,” implying that her children are being used to keep her at the camp.
I tracked down other eyewitnesses, but they were mostly too afraid to speak. The Rohingya have no rights or official form of protection, and those who do speak to journalists are risking their lives, so the reluctance to divulge what they know is perfectly understandable.
The last known sighting of these women was at the end of March and it's uncertain whether they're still alive. It's also uncertain if the women are still at the camp or have been split up into different camps. certain is that there are innocent Rohingya women being held captive (sex slaves) by the Burmese military and plenty of locals know about it, only it's impossible for them to do anything about it without the threat of losing their lives.
Source: http://www.vice.com/en_uk/read/rohingya-women-are-being-kept-as-sex-slaves-by-the-burmese-military
A Rohingya Muslim woman tells her story - sexually violated and abused.
Burmese military camp at Sittwe.
A Rohingya village burned to the ground.
And .... the G8 Foreign Ministers joined by Angelina Jolie in London, UK, just a few days ago were talking of ending sexual violence against women. The fact being, they awarded a medal of honor to one of the accomplices and silent collaborators of this crime - Aung San Su Kyi.
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