‘I’ve lost my husband, my children’

The use of rape by Myanmar’s armed forces has been sweeping and methodical, The Associated Press found in interviews with Rohingya Muslim women and girls now in Bangladesh. They were interviewed separately, come from a variety of villages in Myanmar and now live spread across several refugee camps in Bangladesh. Yet their stories were hauntingly similar. The military has denied its soldiers raped any Rohingya women.

HER HUSBAND BLAMED HER

K and her family were settling down to breakfast one morning in late August when they heard the screams of other villagers outside. Her husband and three oldest children bolted out the door. But K was nearly 9 months pregnant and had two toddlers to watch. She couldn’t run anywhere. The men barged in, threw her on the bed, yanked off her jewelry and stole the money she had hidden in her blouse. They ripped off her clothes and tied down her hands and legs with rope. When she resisted, they choked her. And then they began to rape her. When she awoke, the men had gone. Her husband blamed her for the assault, admonishing her for not running away.

THE BABY GIRL WAS DEAD

M was at home feeding her son rice in late August when a bullet from the military blasted through the bamboo wall of her house and struck her teenage brother. Her husband and children ran out of the house. But M was eight months pregnant, and did not want to leave her brother behind. For two days, she stayed by his side, until he died. Soon after, four soldiers charged into her house. They attacked her, but after the second rape, she kicked them so ferociously, they finally left. She gave birth that night at home. The baby girl was dead. “They humiliated us, they destroyed our land and farm, they took our cows, they took our produce,” she says. “How would I go back? They destroyed our livelihood.”

WHEN WILL I HAVE PEACE?

H was reciting the sunrise prayer at home in late August with her husband and six children when she heard a commotion outside. A dozen soldiers burst through her door and started beating her husband. They grabbed three of her children by their feet, carried them outside and bashed them against trees, killing them. Her husband screamed, and H ran out of the house. She never saw her husband again. She made it with her three other children to the nearby hills, but soldiers descended upon them and raped her. Her crying children refused to leave her side during the assault. “I’ve lost my husband, I’ve lost my children, I’ve lost my country. When will I have peace?”

I GUESS THAT WAS MY DESTINY

When seven soldiers stormed into the house in October, 2016, S’s husband fled. The soldiers began beating her parents. A soldier beat S with his gun, ripped two of her babies from her arms and dropped them on the floor. Two soldiers took S to a field, where they held her down and raped her. In August, S was home with her family when the military began firing rockets at houses, setting them ablaze. Her husband and two eldest children fled, but she stayed to pack up her baby girls and a few belongings. One baby was in a swing, the other sleeping on the floor. A rocket hit the house. The babies went up in flames before her eyes. “They burned to death,” she says. “I guess that was my destiny.”