Ethnic minorities targeted with ‘sexual violence’, UN report says

24 August 2019
Ethnic minorities targeted with ‘sexual violence’, UN report says
Kachin refugees in Wine Maw township. Photo: Mizzima

The UN has called for an end to the use of sexual and gender-based violence to terrorize and punish ethnic minorities, according to a new report released by the United Nations Independent International Fact-Finding Mission.

The report is entitled, “Sexual and gender-based violence in Myanmar and the gendered impact of its ethnic conflicts”.

In a presentation to the media in New York, Ms Radhika Coomaraswamy, who took part in the UN Fact-Finding Mission, said responsibility for sexual violence in conflict zones in Myanmar lies with both state and ethnic armed actors. 

The Mission alleges the brutal tactic is being employed in Kachin and Shan states. It points to the severity of the situation during the 2017 ‘clearance operations’ that led to more than 700,000 Rohingya fleeing to Bangladesh. 

The UN Fact-Finding Mission on Myanmar said "soldiers routinely and systematically employed rape, gang rape and other violent and forced sexual acts against women, girls, boys, men and transgender people in blatant violation of international human rights law."

It added that the military "must stop using sexual and gender-based violence to terrorize and punish ethnic minorities."

"Many of these acts amount to crimes under international law, including war crimes, crimes against humanity and acts of genocide," the mission said in a statement.

In her presentation in New York, Ms Coomaraswamy said "conditions were not favourable" for a safe repatriation of Rohingya refugees.

"People will not return to their villages," she said, adding that "the silence must be broken" surrounding cases of sexual violence against men, boys and transgender people.

A planned start to repatriation for 22 August failed to get underway as no refugees arrived at the pick-up point, with trucks supplied by the Bangladesh government.

As Ms Coomaraswamy said in the press conference, the fact-finding mission was set up in 2017 just before “the incidents that led to the humanitarian disaster took place.” Her mission produced a report in 2018, the result of interviews with over 800 witnesses, and the mandate was extended to work on this latest report.

This latest report on sexual violence in armed conflict follows one on Myanmar military economic interests in Myanmar, which was published recently. 

When it comes to sexual violence the basic responsibility lies with the Tatmadaw, she said, adding it was part of military strategy, which is called the “Four Cuts Strategy” which allows one to use force against a civilian population to intimidate and punish the civilian population as a tactic of war.

“Now, one of the tools of that intimidation is sexual violence. It happens even in Kachin, or it happens in Shan, but it is egregious in Rakhine, for we say it might even be an influence for genocide and can be taken because of the nature and brutality that takes place, that took place in the Rakhine,” she told the press conference.

She said the new report looks at other issues of sexual offences including slavery, “silent issues” such as gender and the trans community, and sexual violence by the armed organizations, which is something people do not generally explore. It looks at in the context of forced labour, and it also looks at the root causes of sexual violence and discrimination.

She pointed to the practice of forced labour and how in these practices those held might be subject to sexual violence. This, she noted, even included cases of ethnic Buddhist Rakhine people.

“We have looked at sexual violence with ethnic armed organizations. For them it was not a tactic of war, but as you know they recruit people from the community, sometimes forced, it is not sometimes voluntary. Women are used as cooks, nurses, cleaners, seamstresses, and sexual violence does take place in those situations, and we have case studies from that context,” she said.

As she noted, this report put more focus than the previous report on the non-state actors, the ethnic armed organizations. 

Discriminatory practices in Myanmar society in peace time aggravate the situation in war time. 

She pointed to a number of cases of discrimination that applied to the Rohingya community within Myanmar, including in issues of marriage and education, health care, and “no freedom of movement”. This included the issue of a lack of Myanmar nationality.

As she noted, researchers have found a link with militarization across Myanmar to sexual violence. 

Concerns also focus on the situation of refugees in exile.  In the refugee camps in Bangladesh the situation may be difficult for women, and in a number of cases children have gone missing, possibly trafficked, particularly girls. 

Ms Coomaraswamy said “in terms of recommendations there is a need for security sector reform under civilian oversight of the Tatmadaw, and we have pointed out that one of the reasons that is not there is their independent economic base and that is one thing we have mentioned very clearly in our report, the fact that there are conglomerates, companies, run by the military and a network of businesses, primarily local but also international, went in to joint ventures and others with the Tatmadaw.”

“We are not saying not to do business in Myanmar, we are saying only with the Tatmadaw,” she said. “So I think that should be clear.”

Ms Coomaraswamy said the whole legal framework in Myanmar needs to be improved to give women rights in terms of sexual violence under the law. “And we don’t really feel that domestic remedies are possible in Myanmar. The options are hybrid courts or international courts.”

Sanctions have been raised as an option.

“We don’t want any sanctions against Myanmar or the people of Myanmar, they must be targeted against specific individuals and assets, etc. We have specific targets against the Tatmadaw economic interests, against the Tatmadaw who we felt were involved in some of these atrocities.”

She cited the “failure” of the domestic prosecution in the 2017 Inn Din “massacre case” as to why an international mechanism was necessary. 

“As for repatriation, people are worried about a safe and dignified return, let me just leave it at that,” she said.

She said the conditions are “not conducive” for return. Given the bulldozed villages and few buildings left standing, there is a serious issue of where they are going to return to.

Ms Coomaraswamy pointed to the concern that if IDPs in Sittwe were living under what amounts to near “apartheid” laws, then what are they sending the refugees back to. Unless some kind of promise is made, a pathway to citizenship, that will give them rights, then they think this is also a problem.

It is not just a case of security, she said. It is a case that people should not have to live like the people in the displaced camps in Sittwe. She noted that the UNHCR was aware of this and would not take the 3,000 initial returnees back into Myanmar unless this is the case.

There is so much local denial that would allow a local solution to the problem, she said. “I don’t think we have the network of laws, especially sexual violence in Myanmar, and we don’t have the kind of independent mechanisms that we require.”

In the press conference, Ms Coomaraswamy made the point of making a distinction between sexual violence being committed within the conflict between the Arakan Army and the Myanmar military and the attacks on the Rohingya. “It’s there, but it is not so extreme,” she said. 

In response to a question from the press, Ms Coomaraswamy said she understood the challenge in pushing through to prosecute due to the difficulty of getting this passed by the UN International Security Council. China would possibly put a block on such an action. 

The mission said it had interviewed hundreds of survivors and witnesses of sexual abuse in Kachin and Shan States in the north, and in Rakhine state in western Myanmar.

It will present its final report to the UN Human Rights Council next month.

Reporting by Mizzima, additional reporting by AFP