October 26, 2016
At least five women were raped when military raided Nga Sa Gru in Maungdaw on Tuesday.
At around 4.30 pm, the military broke into houses of Rohingya Muslims and raped the women who were all in their late teenage years.
The village tract has been constantly battered by military offensives since the start of operations in October 9 and has led to dozens of casualties among innocent civilians.
Meanwhile, BGP personal raped a woman in her mid 20s in Kawa Bil on Tuesday. A day earlier seven women were abducted and raped by the army in the area while many other women were sexually assaulted when soldiers and officials touched them in their private parts in full view of the public.
Some neighbourhoods of the Kawa Bil have been uprooted by the BGP on Sunday on allegations they had been hosting Muslim rebels. Since then, much of the locals, including children and women have been living in the fields outside the village, sometimes in tents but often under the open sky.
Both the villages have been specifically targeted by the army which along with indiscriminate firepower on civilian targets continue to use rape as a systemic weapon of warfare. This is not a new strategy, according to activist groups who point out the Tatmadaw has long used rape to demoralise ethnic minorities and destroy the fabric of their societies to get control of their localities. The same motion seems to be in work in Nga Sa Gru, Kawa Bil, and much of Maungdaw.
