Sexual Violence in Burma’s Mon Area Exposed July 21, 2005
Brang Di/ Chiang Mai
The Woman and Child Right Project (WCRP) - Southern Burma and Human Rights Foundation of Monland (HURFOM) held a press conference in Chiang Mai on July 18 to release their report detailing thirty-seven incidents of systematic sexual violence against fifty women and girls aged 14 to 50 in Southern Burma by soldiers from the Burmese military.
The report, titled “Catwalk to the Barracks”, also documents the recent use of Mon women as “comfort women” by the Burmese military, revealing incidents of rape and sexual violence in Southern Burma.
In 1995, the Burmese military government began deploying over twenty new battalions in Mon areas and subsequently caused an increase in sexual violence in those areas. And, in 2003-2004, the military based in Southern Ye township of the Mon state began recruiting scores of women for use as “comfort women” by Burmese soldiers, according to the report.
At the press conference held in Chiang Mai University Campus, Mi Khamom Htaw, Coordinator of WCRP, said “the SPDC not only forced young women from nearby village for the troops by day but also forced into sexual slavery as ‘comfort women’ at night.” Each night, a few young women were chosen by village headmen in Southern Ye township to serve as “comfort women” in response to the military’s orders, according to Mi Khamon Htaw.
The report notes the climate of impunity in which sexual violence takes place. Not only are community leaders reluctant to report sex crimes for fear of the government’s retribution, but in the eight instances when sexual violence was reported to the government, it has not punished any of the offenders.
Mi Khamon Htaw said, “as the picture on the cover of the report indicates, even though schoolgirls were forced to parade on a catwalk for the entertainment of military officers and they [engaged in] sexual molestation.” The authors of the report argue that the international community; especially ASEAN members, must pressure the SPDC to stop sexual violence and to engage in political reform.
