Arakan Rohingya National Organisation (ARNO) strongly condemns the Burmese ruling military SPDC (State Peace and Development Council) for systematic and pervasive use of rape and other forms of sexual violations by junta’s officers and soldiers against the Shan girls and women and other non-Burman ethnic minority girls and women across the country.
We are deeply shocked at the recent report of the Thailand-based Shan Human Rights Foundation and Shan Women’s Action Network, on the pervasive use of rape and other forms of sexual violations by the Burmese Army troops, as a weapon of war against civilian population in Shan state. We express our full support to the report.
It is relevant to mention herein that the Rohingyas of Arakan have long been subjected to large-scale persecution, genocide and ethnic cleansing and Rohingya girls and women have become largest target of rape and sexual abuses by the Burmese military and Nasaka (Border Region Supervision Forces) forces. The authorities have institutionalised the rape as an official policy and are using it as a weapon to ethnically cleanse the Rohingya people and to rid Arakan of the Muslim population. Rape of Rohingya girls and women by the Burmese armed forces has recently been increased particularly in northern Arakan. Most of the rapes were committed in the military and Nasaka camps where the victims were taken captives for sometimes under false charges. One of the main causes of the Rohingya refugee influxes into Bangladesh and other countries, including the ongoing sporadic undocumented influxes into Bangladesh, is the pervasive use of rape by the Burmese armed forces.
Meanwhile, ARNO warmly welcomes the action of the U.S. State Department against the SPDC by condemning and raising its serious concern with the Burmese authorities while demanding “to fully investigate any and all allegations of the systematic rape of ethnic minority girls and women in Burma, appropriately punish those guilty of such heinous crimes with a warning to take immediate steps to end its violence within its border.” This action of the U.S. State Department has been counted upon, by ARNO, as a positive step and a sigh of relief to the Rohingyas and all vulnerable sections of people in Burma.
Nurul Islam
President
Arakan Rohingya National Organisation
Arakan (Burma)
Dated July 8, 2002