Burma’s
military has continued to use rape as a weapon of war even after a
nominally civilian government was elected in 2010, a women’s group says. "Surely these aren't the Nazis"?????? WOW
According to the Women’s League of Burma, they have documented more than 100 cases, some involving children as young as eight.
Most rapes were reportedly observed in areas where the army was still fighting armed ethnic groups.
However the government in Burma, also known as Myanmar, said using rape was not army policy and cases should be reported.
Most of the cases were linked to conflict in the border areas of Kachin and Northern Shan State.
The organisation provides that around 50% of cases were gang rapes, and 28 women were killed or died of their injuries.
"Their
widespread and systematic nature indicates a structural pattern: rape
is still used as an instrument of war and oppression. Sexual violence is used as a tool by the Burmese military to demoralise and destroy ethnic communities," the report reads.
Meanwhile
presidential spokesman Ye Htut told Reuters news agency the military
did not use rapes as weapons and were trying to take effective measures
against the offenders.
President Thein Sein has introduced major
reforms since the elections of November 2010, which saw military rule
replaced by a military-backed civilian government.
The last three
years have seen far-reaching political change in Burma, but the army has
so far shown little appetite for change, or altering the way it
operates, says the BBC’s Jonah Fisher in Rangoon.
A new round of
talks is due to start later this month aimed at achieving a cease-fire
in all of Burma’s ethnic conflicts, our correspondent adds.
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