Dozens of Rohingya women ‘raped’
Rohingya Muslims say Myanmar soldiers raped or sexually assaulted dozens of women in a remote village in the northwest of the country during the biggest upsurge in violence against the persecuted minority in four years. Eight Rohingya women, all from U Shey Kya village in Rakhine State, described in detail how soldiers last week raided their homes, looted property and raped them at gun point. Reuters interviewed three of the women in person and five by telephone, and spoke to human rights groups and community leaders. Not all the claims could be independently verified, including the total number of women assaulted. Soldiers have poured into the Maungdaw area since Oct. 9, after an insurgent group of Rohingyas that the government believes has links to Islamists overseas launched coordinated attacks on several border guard posts.
Citing evidence garnered by interrogating suspected militants, the government blamed the attacks on an armed group it says is made up of some 400 Rohingya fighters. The crisis in northern Rakhine marks the biggest challenge Myanmar’s sixmonth-old tore my clothes and they took my head scarf off,” the mother of seven told Reuters in an interview outside her home, a cramped bamboo hut.
“Two men held me, one holding each arm, and another one held me by my hair from the back and they raped me.”
Zaw Htay, the spokesman for Myanmar President Htin Kyaw, denied the allegations. U Shey Kya village’s official administrator, Armah Harkim, said he was working to verify the latest accounts, adding most residents believed them to be true. Zaw Htay, the President’s spokesman, accused residents of fabricating the allegations as part of a misinformation campaign led by the insurgents. Five other women from U Shey Kya have also detailed in a series of telephone interviews how Myanmar soldiers raped them. The accounts are backed up by at least three male residents of the village and a Rohingya community leader. The residents said some 150 soldiers arrived near U Shey Kya on Oct. 19. Soldiers dismantled the fences around homes, residents said, removing possible hiding places as part of what authorities called a “clearance operation.” A 30-year-old woman described being knocked off her feet by soldiers and repeatedly raped.