A
15-year-old says she was attacked by 10 Burmese soldiers, and women describe
seeing their children murdered before being raped.
Survivors
said they endured days of agony walking with swollen and torn genitals to reach
Bangladesh
Human
Rights Watch has accused Myanmar security forces of a systematic campaign of
sex crimes - including the rape of women and girls - against Rohingya Muslims
in the country's Rakhine State. Some
women described seeing their young children, husbands and parents being
murdered before being beaten and raped, according to a report by the group.
The
allegation follows interviews with 52 Rohingya women and girls from 19 villages
who have fled to Bangladesh. Twenty-nine
of them said they had been raped, and all but one of the sex attacks were gang
rapes.
Hala
Sadak, a 15-year-old from Hathi Para village in Maungdaw Township, described
being stripped naked by 10 soldiers who went on to rape her. "When
my brother and sister came to get me, I was lying there on the ground, they
thought I was dead," she told the rights group.
In
eight cases, women and girls reported being raped by five or more soldiers. Many
survivors said they endured days of agony walking with swollen and torn
genitals to reach Bangladesh. "Rape
has been a prominent and devastating feature of the Burmese military's campaign
of ethnic cleansing against the Rohingya," said Skye Wheeler, author of
the report.
She
said the "barbaric acts of violence have left countless women and girls
brutally harmed and traumatised". The
report by the New York-based rights group comes just days after Pramila Patten,
the UN special envoy on sexual violence in conflict, said sexual violence was
"being commanded, orchestrated and perpetrated by the Armed Forces of
Myanmar". It
urged the UN Security Council to impose an arms embargo on Myanmar and targeted
sanctions against military leaders responsible for human rights violations,
including sexual violence.
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