Press Release by Women’s League of Chinland
Chin women reveal further evidence of state-sanctioned rape in Burma, urge India to stop arming Burma’s junta
A new report by the Women’s League of Chinland (WLC), Unsafe State, provides further evidence of state-sanctioned rape by the military regime’s troops, and urges India, where the majority of Chin refugees seek asylum, to review their economic and military support of the regime.
Despite tight military controls in the isolated Chin hills, the WLC have managed to document 38 cases of sexual violence, committed with impunity by the Burma Army throughout Chin state, mostly during the past five years. Almost half of the cases were gang rapes, and at least a third committed by officers.
The sexual violence was carried out with extreme brutality, with victims being tortured and murdered. One woman was stripped naked and tied to a cross, in a savage act of mockery against her Christian beliefs.
“These horrors are being sanctioned by the state in Burma,” said WLC spokesperson Cheery Zahau. “How can the civilized world accept this junta among their ranks? And how can countries like India and China be arming these rapists?”
The Burmese regime has quadrupled its military presence in Chin State in recent years, and the militarization is set to worsen if plans go ahead to export natural gas from the Burmese coast by pipeline through Chin State to India.
The WLC is launching the report on March 27, Burma’s Resistance Day, which the junta has renamed as their “Armed Forces Day.”
For further details, contact Cheery Zahau:
Email: womenleagueofchinland@yahoo.co.in
The full report can be viewed here.