This Week: Myanmar Military Systematically Rapes Rohingya Women

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Bangladesh Myanmar (burma)

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In this November 19 photo, a Rohingya Muslim child runs on a mud track between tents at Kutupalong refugee camp in Bangladesh. Image by Maye-e Wong. Bangladesh, 2017.

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"All I have left are my words," the Rohingya Muslim refugee said. The AP documents systematic gang...

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In this Wednesday, Nov. 22, 2017, photo, F, 22, who says she was raped by members of Myanmar’s armed forces in June and again in September, cries as she speaks to The Associated Press in her tent in Kutupalong refugee camp in Bangladesh. The Associated Press has found that the rape of Rohingya women by Myanmar’s security forces has been sweeping and methodical. The AP interviewed 29 women and girls who say they were raped by Myanmar’s armed forces, and found distinct patterns in their accounts, their… — In this Wednesday, Nov. 22, 2017, photo, F, 22, who says she was raped by members of Myanmar’s armed forces in June and again in September, cries as she speaks to The Associated Press in her tent in Kutupalong refugee camp in Bangladesh. The Associated Press has found that the rape of Rohingya women by Myanmar’s security forces has been sweeping and methodical. The AP interviewed 29 women and girls who say they were raped by Myanmar’s armed forces, and found distinct patterns in their accounts, their assailants’ uniforms and the details of the rapes themselves. The most common attack involved groups of soldiers storming into a house, beating any children inside and then beating and gang raping the women. Image by Wong Maye-E. Bangladesh, 2017.

Systematic Rape by Myanmar’s Military

Kristen Gelineau

The Myanmar military conducted an internal investigation and concluded that its soldiers had not raped Rohingya women. One official suggested the women were not “that attractive to be raped.” Kristen Gelineau of the Associated Press conducted her own investigation. In a searing report, she documents savage sexual assaults on 29 women and girls, age 13 to 35. Their stories have a sickening sameness, including descriptions of the assailants’ uniforms, bolstering the U.N. case that Myanmar’s armed forces are systematically employing rape as a “calculated tool of terror” aimed at exterminating the Rohingya people.

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