Rape as a weapon of war against Rohingya
Bangladesh-Myanmar
border (CNN): The slash marks on Rashida
Begum's neck have turned into dark, red scars.
She showed us the cuts as if to say: look, I tried to fight
back, I tried within an inch of my life.
"We saw the military digging holes (for mass graves).
We were five women with our babies," Rashida said, almost in a whisper.
"The grabbed us, dragged us into the house, and shut the door."
The soldiers snatched Rashida's baby son from her arms and
killed him.
"I just screamed, I cried but they wouldn't listen to
us. They don't even understand our language," Rashida recalled.
The uniformed men showed her no mercy. They slit Rashida's
throat and tore off her clothes. She was brutalized and raped alongside the
four other women. As Rashida lost consciousness, the men set the house alight
and left them for dead.
I woke up," she said.
"Rashida Begum says she was raped by multiple Myanmar
soldiers before she fled to the refugee camps in Bangladesh. "
Naked and disoriented, she ran out of the flames and hid in
a nearby field, but she wishes she had not survived.
"It would be good if I too died because if I died then
I wouldn't have to remember all these things. My parents were killed too, lots
of people were killed," Rashida said as tears streamed down her face.
The soft-spoken 25-year-old was too traumatized to speak
further about the assault or the loss of her child, but answered quickly when
asked if she wanted revenge.
"We will be pleased if the military who raped us and
killed our parents, if they are hanged," she said.
Then Rashida went quiet, her lips quivering, her hands
shaking uncontrollably. In her eyes was a distant gaze that made her seem far
away.
"I constantly think about what happened," she
said. "I can't get it out of my mind."
'Untold numbers' of
women raped by soldiers
Rashida's story is not an uncommon one in the sprawling
camps along the Bangladesh-Myanmar border. More than more than 615,000 Rohingya
have fled Myanmar since late August, desperate to escape the violence in
Rakhine State. Myanmar's military has intensified what it calls "clearance
operations" targeting "terrorists" in Rakhine State following a series of attacks on police posts by Rohingya militants that
left 12 officers dead.
"One of the military's most feared weapons is mass
sexual violence, with untold numbers of women and girls brutally gang raped by
government soldiers," according to a Human Rights Watch report released Thursday, which documents
the widespread rape of Rohingya women and girls at the hands of Myanmar's
security forces, often in uniform.
Myanmar's military has denied
carrying out atrocities, and this week cleared itself of any wrong-doing in an
internal report, saying it was responding to attacks by militants.
The country also announced it was replacing the general in charge of Rakhine
State.
The United Nations has described the situation in Myanmar as
a "textbook example of ethnic cleansing," and some observers have
accused the army of overseeing genocide against the Rohingya.
Still wearing the
skirts they were assaulted in
Aid workers say it's difficult to estimate just how many
women have been raped, but the incidents are so prevalent that Doctors Without
Borders (MSF) have developed a program to provide support for victims.
Aerlyn Pfeil, an MSF midwife, has taught a group of young
female leaders a song to spread the word on the social services available in
the refugee camps.
"Rape can happen to anyone. After being raped there is
no peace in mind. This is not my fault being raped," the song goes.
"Within three days of rape you need medicine. After three days, you need
to consult a doctor."
Some Rohingya women still traumatized by their assaults have
confided in Pfeil. The midwife appears frayed, worn down by one too many
stories of horror.
"Several of the women I spoke to -- I was the first
person they shared their stories," she said.
But for the victims, catharsis is rarely an option. They
must focus on survival, feeding their children, eking out a living where
dignity is hard to come by. None of the victims CNN spoke to had received
medical attention.
"Sure, they are worried about pregnancy, yes they are
concerned about STIs [sexually-transmitted infections], but mainly they are
concerned that they are still wearing the same clothes and that they have no
roof over their children's heads and their shelter still hasn't been
built," Pfeil said.
Dozens of women have received medical and psychological
treatment for rape, and about half of them are girls under the age of 18, MSF reported earlier this month.
"The piece for me that is the most heartbreaking is
that the women coming in are still wearing the same skirts. They are still
wearing the same skirts that they were assaulted in," Pfeil said.
"It's just heartbreaking that three months later you
are still putting on the same skirt that someone assaulted you in."
Victims demand
justice: 'No one is helping us'
Several rape survivors now living in refugee camps on the
border agreed to speak to CNN on camera, an act of fierce bravery given that
victims are often socially ostracized.
When the military came to Aisha's village, her husband,
fearful of being killed, ran away, leaving her and her five children
vulnerable.
"They had their eyes on me," she said of her
attackers. "Two of the soldiers were standing in front of my door. One
came inside the house and pointed the gun at me."
"They hit my children with the butt of the gun to get
them out, and I don't know where they went -- my children ran away."
The men then turned their attention to the 37-year-old,
punching and beating her into submission.
"Two stood at the door, one tore my clothes off, and he
raped me at gunpoint and the gun was pointed at my chest."
The Rohingya's native language is different to that of the
Burmese -- Myanmar's dominant ethnic group -- but Aisha understood clearly the
soldier who had her pinned to the ground.
"He said, 'I will kill you. If you move, if you scream
I will kill you.' And he covered my mouth with his hand," she recalled.
"I felt so bad. He was not my husband. He did it so roughly, he did it
without mercy."
"When I remember what happened, tears come to my
eyes," Aisha said as she started to cry. "Why did they do this to me?
Why did they rape me?"
She began to answer her own question.
"They did this to so many other women in the village
too. They used it as a weapon of war," she said. "They did it because
we wouldn't leave our homes, and they think that if they do this, it forces us
out."
Aisha's fear of her attackers has given way to hardened
anger, not just at her perpetrators but at the world for failing to hold
Myanmar's military accountable.
"Since you are shown all over the whole world, maybe
something will happen for us, maybe we will be left in peace." she said.
"I hope it will help to stop the violence. That's why I am talking to you,
to demand justice. No one is helping us."
CNN's Clarissa Ward contributed to this report.
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