Troops raped and killed my sister, says refugee
cox’s bazaar — Myanmar army has been accused of using rape as an instrument of terror. Dozens of Rohingya refugees who escaped from Myanmar to Bangladesh confirm the allegations, which the government had categorically denied.
Shallom Khatul, a Rohingya refugee who spoke to Khaleej Times said the Myanmar army raped and killed his 15-year old sister, Hamida Khatul.
He arrived in Bangladesh on Thursday, after walking through the Myanmar’s jungle for 16 days.
“They tortured her for hours in front of our eyes. We could not do anything. When my father tried to protest, they shot him pointblank,” said Shallom.
“They were on a killing spree. They went about raping women too. Many young girls were dragged into the forest, and we never saw them again.” Shallom said 16 members of his extended family was murdered by the army.
When asked whether he would wish to go back to his home country, Shallom said there is hardly anything left at his ‘Merulafakirpara’ village.
“My village has been razed. More than 1,000 people have escaped from my village itself. It is a graveyard now,” he said.
Johura Khatoum, a middle aged woman said almost all women in her neighbourhood got raped or killed.
“They always used to come looking for young girls. But this time, they took dozens of women to the forest and raped them. Most of them never returned. We fear they got killed.”
A 30-year-old woman who did not want to be named said she was raped by the army. “They shot my husband and my son. And five men raped me by putting a gun on my head,” said the woman.
Speaking to Khaleej Times, Irine Loria, Sector Head for Gender-based Violence at IOM (International Organisation for Migration) said they have reported 24 gangrape cases among the new arrivals of Rohingyas. “We have also identified eight cases of rape among the new arrivals,” said Loria.
A recent UN report compiled from interviews with Rohingya women had described incidents of rape and murder of women — even mothers and pregnant women — by the Myanmar army.
The Human Rights Watch has said the army and border guard police took part in rape, gang rape, invasive body searches and sexual assaults against women and girls in at least nine villages in the Rohingya-dominated Maungdaw district in the final months of 2016.
The attacks were reportedly often carried out in groups, with women being held down or threatened at gunpoint by some men while others raped them.
The Myanmar government has denied allegations.