Myanmar’s army is tormenting Muslims with a brutal rape campaign

For Fatima, a 13-year-old girl from Myanmar’s western marshlands, the new year began with a grueling escape. She spent the first days of 2017 on the run, slogging through rice fields in the dark.

With each step, cold muck sucked at her ankles. The sky above was dark — just a dim crescent moon and a thousand pinpricks of starlight.

She was grateful for the blackness of night. At least there was no sign of armed border guards on the horizon. No distant flashlight beams scanning for intruders in the fields.

She was determined to stay alive until she reached the refugee camps in Bangladesh — a haven for Rohingya Muslims, among the world’s most tormented people.

But as Fatima trudged on, her insides burned. Just one week before, Myanmar’s army had violated her in almost every imaginable way. (Courtesy of pri.org)

A 'Long, Sickening' History: Burmese Army Systematically Raping Rohingya

A Human Rights Watch (HRW) investigation into the oppression of Rohingya minorities in Burma has found government forces perpetrated rape and other sexual violence against hundreds of women, and girls as young as 13, during security operations in late 2016 - the organization's deputy director for Asia has told Sputnik.

The investigation indicates Burmese army and Border Guard Police personnel took part in rape, gang rape, invasive body searches, and sexual assaults in at least nine villages in Burma's Maungdaw district between October 9 and mid-December.

Survivors and witnesses identified army and border police units by their uniforms, kerchiefs, armbands, and patches, and described forces carrying out attacks in groups, some holding women down or threatening them at gunpoint while others raped them. Many survivors reported being insulted and threatened on an ethnic or religious basis throughout the assaults. (Courtesy of sputniknews.com)

Rohingya Refugee: ‘They Cut the Bodies Into Four Pieces

In light of a new U.N. report documenting atrocities against Rohingya in Myanmar, photojournalist Allison Joyce profiles Rohingya refugees who recently fled to Bangladesh and have harrowing stories to tell.

Hasina Begum is still reeling from the stomach-churning scenes that she witnessed before she fled her home. She points to her knee, then to the top of her thigh as she describes how the Myanmar military quartered the bodies of the Rohingya men they killed when they attacked her village called Bura Shida Para in Rakhine State, Western Myanmar.

The military would “cut the men up into four pieces and bury them in the ground,” so people couldn’t photograph proof of the atrocities, the 20-year-old woman explained. (Courtesy of newsdeeply.com)

Burma Government Asks UN for More Evidence on Human Rights Claims

Burma’s government said on Monday that it has requested more information from the United Nations so that it can investigate alleged human rights abuses by the Burma Army in Arakan State.

“If there is solid evidence to prove these allegations of human rights violations, if they can be investigated, then we will take action in accordance with our procedures,” U Zaw Htay, deputy director general of the President’s Office, told The Irrawaddy on Monday.

In response to a recently published UN human rights report, State Counselor Daw Aung San Suu Kyi directly asked the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights to provide more information on the allegations, he added. (Courtesy of irrawaddy.com)