This blog has been written by Saugat Subedi. He is an Undergraduate Final year Law Student at Tribhuvan University, Faculty of Law, Prithvi Narayan Campus, Nepal with a keen interest in International Humanitarian Law and Conflict Studies. He can be reached at saugatsubedi04@gmail.com.
Introduction
“In Myanmar, we had our lands where we grew flowers, vegetables and many plants. We had a big house where all the family members lived together. The violence and the killing drove us to leave our homes. They burnt houses in my neighbourhood. They shot and killed a lot of people in my village. We were living with fear every day. When we finally decided to leave, we had no other option”
-Rohingya Refugee Nur Ayna speaking to UNHCR
Burma obtained its independence from Great Britain in 1948 but rather than unity, it experienced fierce civil warfare. Many ethnic groups have ancestral roots in what is now Rakhine state. Rakhine State is home to two principal ethnic groups: Buddhist Rakhine and Muslim Rohingya, both of which have fluid and shifting identities. Numerous ethnic groups that were previously controlled by British rule fought continuously for many years to gain recognition and self-governance. According to citizenship law in 1982 the government officially recognized 135 distinct ethnic groups yet rejected Rohingya Muslim people from obtaining citizenship.
The 1982 citizenship law erased every legal identity from Rohingya people and created statelessness while the 1978 military actions forced more than 250,000 Rohingya to become immigrants. Despite winning the 1990 elections with the National League for Democracy (NLD) Aung San Suu Kyi faced military invalidation when the military retained its grip on power. A permanent military suppression by Tatmadaw (Myanmar Military Force) in addition to Rohingya persecution in Rakhine State compelled authorities to force more than thousands of Rohingya people from their land permanently. Military operations supported by Buddhist militia forces led the United Nations to confirm cases of “ethnic cleansing” which forced 700,000 Rohingya refugees to flee to Bangladesh travailing a violent and unpleasant situation of NIAC amongst the government as well as non-governmental forces like: the Arakan Army (AA), Arakan Rohingya Salvation Army (ARSA), Myanmar National Democratic Alliance Army (MNDAA), Ta’ang National Liberation Army (TNLA) and Tatmadaw.
Intersectional Elements of CRSV in the conflict
Conflict-Related Sexual Violence (CRSV) is profoundly executed by warring parties as a war tactic no matter the nature of the conflict. Despite Myanmar’s CEDAW ratification its warring forces continue to perpetrate the CRSV with complete impunity from relatable accountability. News from voluntary women's organizations shows that widespread violations have persisted since the military coup restricted official gender-based violence research inside the territory. Rohingya Muslim women throughout history have been suppressed under the pedigree of religion and patriarchy; with their role confined to household activities and maternity responsibilities. The Muslim minority women of Rohingya are in constraint fear of and exposed to vulnerable CRSV in light of their racial recognition, ethnicity, gender, patriarchy, economic disparities, and cultural and religious exclusion with a de facto absentia of their judicial right to redress against CRSV depriving them of bare minimum life a human is entitled to access.
Ethnicity and Religion as an intersectional factor in CRSV
The widespread notion of Buddhist nationalism on grounds of historical ethnic and religious regimes has subsequently suppressed the Rohingya Muslim minorities in a devastating manner. Through provoking speeches and advocacy, ethnicity and religion are intersectional factors that have widely been used in committing CRSV against Rohingya Muslims. The provocations are committed through religious leaders and advocates of pro-Buddhist notions. Sexual harassment and rape are two of the many sexual crimes that Rohingya women and girls face as per the UNHCR report of 2018. According to studies by the UN, and Human Rights Watch in 2017; women in the Rakhine State find it difficult to disclose rape as a form of CRSVs committed upon them because of its serious post-effects upon them and their families due to the involvement of various intersectional factors like: gender, religion and ethnic minority.
Gender and Patriarchal mindset as legal validation for CRSV
An estimate of over 40,000 women and girls in the community were found to be pregnant due to forced rape as provided by a UN opinion piece in late 2017. Whether in their residents, streets, schools, workplaces or shops, the rebellions have spared no mercy upon them. My hands are shuddering while writing this but one of the key informants in the UN qualitative report on the Myanmar Conflict from (2016- 2021) mentioned that, "During dinner twenty soldiers started their intrusion by breaking into the family home and made several drunk soldiers haul away two sisters who were 23 and 19 years old. The soldiers killed a male family member as he insisted on protecting his 23-year-old wife. Three soldiers engaged in gunpoint rape of the women while holding them in a rubber forest. The soldiers eventually freed the two girls but forced them to leave wearing little clothing before they threatened them into keeping secret what had occurred. The soldiers issued a threat that an act of revenge would lead to the destruction of the village through fire. After her homecoming the 19-year-old victim took her life by hanging because of terrible trauma. Following the double funeral for their victims the family moved out of the area along with their remaining relatives".
Patriarchy combined with discriminatory gender norms transforms women into possessions as well as tools of warfare that facilitate CRSV. The abduction of women in Myanmar NIAC through actions of kidnapping and sexual violence including humiliation to support their goals showcases clear masculine dominance. A 19-year-old victim's suicide reveals cultural standards that racially shame victims through punishment rather than providing treatment. The perpetrators used threats of silence toward their victims to show how patriarchal systems block the process of justice. Achieving the elimination of gender-based disparities must be coupled with accountability mechanisms to properly fight CRSV.
The voices from the ground are no less than a horrific nightmare one could imagine. The atrocities committed on the basis of multiple intersectional factors are a complete breach of international obligations and norms to adhere by. The minimum standard of humanity appears to be an appealing insight in the context. As stated by General Min Aung Hlaing, who has been de facto leader of Myanmar since the military intervention in 2021: "We firmly declare that there is no Rohingya race in our country. They are not ethnically from Myanmar, those Bengalis. Therefore, the Tatmadaw must implement security measures for the local population, and Bengali is not an ethnic group of Myanmar. The Rohingya are not listed among the ethnic groups of Myanmar. On its part, the Tatmadaw will prioritize preserving the interests and security of the ethnic groups while defending the residents who live in Myanmar.”
Conclusion
Through tragic experiences, Rohingya women explain how power dynamics linked with gender, ethnicity and religion produce war victimization patterns. Multiple sources of information regarding harassment combined with testimony from survivors demonstrate that ethnic discrimination runs throughout these events. The most disturbing matter extends past the extent of pain because there are no effective worldwide responses to stop this crisis. Such reports deeply upset me because they reveal how thousands of women endure military weapons violence and persistent domestic abuse.
The recorded events focus on genuine destructive actions against humans while muffling their cries and eliminating essential aspects in preference to formal reports and failed legislation. International community actors must accept their joint duty to protect Rohingya women because they have failed to pursue adequate justice for their assailants. The fight to stop sexual violence during wars defends human dignity because it reconstructs human personalities after violent attackers remove their identity. Silence is complicity; Scholars who also serve as practitioners and activists maintain an active duty to keep these narratives from disappearing into oblivion. History needs continued attention from Justice to break its silence. When we remain inactive, we allow two damaging effects to occur which punish the victims while abandoning our commitment to basic human values.
References
Ayna. N (2020, August 21). 'We all miss home, but we cannot go back to the same fear'. https://www.unhcr.org/news/stories/we-all-miss-home-we-cannot-go-back-same-fear
Bentil, S., Adu, P.E., (2020) Polymorphous Discrimination: Rohingya Women in the Goggles of Intersectionality. https://papers.ssrn.com/sol3/papers.cfm?abstract_id=3542688
GEN (2014). Behind the Silence: Violence Against Women and their Resilience Myanmar. https://www.burmalibrary.org/docs20/GEN-2014-11-Behind_the_Silence-en.pdf
Gilmour A (2018, 30 April). Bangladesh and the international community must ensure support to victims of sexual violence: Sexual violence against the Rohingya.
https://reporting.unhcr.org/sites/default/files/pdfsummaries/GR2018-Myanmar-eng.pdf
Human Rights Council (2018). Report of the independent international fact-finding mission on Myanmar.https://www.ohchr.org/sites/default/files/Documents/HRBodies/HRCouncil/FFM-Myanmar/A_HRC_39_64.pdf
International Commission of Jurists (ICJ) (Jul 1, 2024) Unseen and Unheard: Violation of Women’s Rights in Myanmar
ICRC. Myanmar, Forced Population Movements. Hansen, A Crisis and the Risk of Atrocities in Myanmar. https://casebook.icrc.org/case-study/myanmar-forced-population-movements
Rey Ty (2019). The Rohingya Refugee Crisis.
https://sur.conectas.org/wp-content/uploads/2019/12/04-sur-29-ingles-rey-ty.pdf
UN (2017). Horrific accounts of sexual violence against Rohingya ‘just tip of the iceberg’. https://news.un.org/en/story/2017/09/567342
UN (2022). Unheard Voices: Qualitative Research on Conflict-Related Sexual Violence (2016-2021).https://www.un.org/sexualviolenceinconflict/wp-content/uploads/2022/08/report/auto-draft/Unheard-Voices-Research-Report.pdf
UNHCR (2018). Operation Myanmar.
https://reporting.unhcr.org/sites/default/files/pdfsummaries/GR2018-Myanmar-eng.pdf
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