THE 59^TH SESSION

THE UN COMMISSION ON HUMAN RIGHTS

17 March -25 April, 2003

Oral Intervention Item 12:

By Australian Council for Oversea Aid (ACFOA)

April 10, 2003

Madame Chairperson,

I would like to draw your attention on the on-going state-sponsored sexual violence against ethnic Shan women in Burma and against women in the armed conflict regions of Indonesia.

Since 1992, the UNCHR has passed resolutions each year on the situation of human rights in Burma. The reports by the UN Special Rapporteurs on Burma submitted to the UN General Assembly since 1992 have contained an abundance of summaries of testimonies of extreme human rights violations committed by the Burmese military regime, including military rape. There has been no concrete redress provided to victims of rapes and no positive development in the lives of women in Burma especially in ethnic states. Similar trends of impunity also exist in Indonesia in the hundreds of cases of sexual violence experienced by women.

It is evident that the military regime in Burma has taken no serious measures to improve the situation. Nearly all military rapists go unpunished. This culture of impunity has meant that women and girls in Burma are in greater danger as, until today, they are continuing to be raped by the regime's soldiers.

The Shan Women's Action Network (SWAN), the Shan Human Rights Foundation (SHRF) jointly released a report "Licence to Rape," which documents 173 incidents of rape and other forms of sexual violence, involving 625 girls and women, committed by Burmese troops in Shan State. 83% of the rapes were committed by officers, in most cases in front of their troops. The rapes involved extreme brutality and often torture such as beating, mutilation and suffocation. 25% of the rapes resulted in death. 61% were gang-rapes, and in some cases, women were detained and raped repeatedly for periods of up to four months. Out of the total 173 documented incidents, in only one case was a perpetrator punished. More commonly, the complainants were fined, detained, tortured or even killed by the military. The majority of rape incidents were committed in the areas of Central Shan State where over 300,000 villagers have been forcibly relocated from their homes since 1996 as part of an anti-insurgency campaign.

Licence to Rape gives clear evidence that:

• rape is officially condoned as a 'weapon of war' against the women in Shan State.
• the Burmese military regime has committed war crimes and crimes against humanity in the form of sexual violence, against Shan women.

Over the past decade, the regime has increased the size of its army from 180,000 to over 400,000 troops. In Shan State alone, there are now at least 150 battalions, with well over 100,000 troops. The military exercises absolute power, and all abuses, including sexual violence, are licenced in the interest of controlling local populations. "Licence to Rape" thus affirms that the system of military dictatorship in Burma is the root cause of the widespread sexual violence against ethnic Shan women.

Since the publication of Licence to Rape, the Burmese military has repeatedly refuted its complicity in acts of rape by military personnel. They have sought to discredit the authors of the report. In August and September 2002, they conducted their own "investigation" into the report, which involved forcing local Shan communities to deny that their troops had committed any sexual violence.

Prior to the visit of the UN Special Rapporteur for Burma, Professor Pinheiro, the regime threatened Shan villagers in various areas not to testify against their troops. They also sent out military intelligence officers to track down and interrogate rape survivors. Before the visit of the International Committee of the Red Cross to Central Shan State in December 2002, and the visit of Amnesty International to Burma in January 2003, local Shan populations were warned not to speak ill of the military. Most recently, in early February, local military officers threatened to cut out the tongues and slit the throats of villagers who had dared speak out to the ICRC during their recent visit to Shan State in January 2003

Mme. Chairperson,

The same day a team of the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) was visiting Shan state, a 35 year-old woman was gang-raped a few miles away by the Burmese military troops in front of her 4 children.

SWAN is deeply concerned at the increased climate of insecurity for rape survivors and their communities in Shan State, as under the current military regime there is no protection mechanism provided for survivors and/or witnesses who dare to testify against the military.

The much publicized incident of the regime's bugging of an interview between Professor Pinheiro and a political prisoner in Rangoon's Insein Prison on March 2003, is clear evidence of the regime's insincerity towards international investigators.

Even though SWAN has been greatly heartened by the response of the international community in calling for international investigations into the systematic sexual violence committed by the Burmese military, the safety of the rape survivors must be the foremost priority in this process.

Mr. Chairperson,

There is nowhere for the rape survivors to turn to inside Shan State for any medical or social support, let alone for legal recourse. Women survivors interviewed have not been able to return to their homes inside Shan State, where their families have lived for generations, and to live in peace. They want the Burmese military to withdraw from Shan State and let them live without fear. In Indonesia, Acehnese women have been voicing similar calls. This will necessarily involve political concessions by the regime, beginning with a nationwide ceasefire.

We would like to urge the Commission and governments to raise their concerns to the Burmese military regime, to pressure the regime immediately and fully to implement a nationwide ceasefire and begin tripartite dialogue with the representatives of the Burman and non-Burman democratic opposition (A/C/3/57/L.48: the 57th Session of UNGA Resolution 2002 on the situation of human rights in Burma, No. 4. g and 5 a, b & g ).

We would also like to urge the Commission and governments to raise with the Indonesian Government the issue of prosecuting the various forms of systematic violence against women in Indonesia, and to provide immediate rehabilitation and compensation to women victims of systematic violence.