burma army uses rape as a weapon of war

[niyad]

(but, there is no war on women, no rape culture)

Report: Burma Army Uses Rape as Weapon of War

The Women's League of Burma (WLB) released a report on Tuesday revealing the Burmese Army's continued, systematic rape of girls and women since the country's 2010 elections. The Thailand-based group documented over 100 rapes in its report, Same Impunity, Same Patterns, but believes these are only a small fraction of the rapes and that there have likely been hundreds more that have not been reported.

Overall, 47 of the reported cases were gang rapes, and 28 victims died from internal injuries after the rapes. Some of the victims were as young as eight years old. Most of the cases have been clearly linked to military offensives against ethnic minority Kachin and Shan insurgents in the northeast of Burma, also known as Myanmar. And many of the perpetrators have been high-ranking officials in the Burmese military.

"These crimes are more than random, isolated acts by rogue soldiers," WLB writes. "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 demoralize and destroy ethnic communities."

WLB argues that these actions go against international treaties Burma has signed as well as it's own penal code that punishes rapists. To create change, WLB suggests putting the military under civilian judicial control so it can be held accountable for its crimes. It is currently independently in charge of administering its affairs. The group also suggests involving more women in the nation's peace process, signing the international Declaration of Commitment to End Sexual Violence in Conflict [PDF], and adopting laws aimed at protecting women from violence.

Media Resources: The Women's League of Burma 1/14/14; Al Jazeera 1/14/14; Women's Media Center 1/14/14; United Nations 10/2/14; Gov.uk

http://www.msmagazine.com/news/uswirestory.asp?ID=14806

[grilled onions]

1. War...What's It Good For?

Absolutely nothing! No matter what country,no matter what the end result is supposed to be the innocent are the victims..many are too young to even understand the concept of war but if they survive they will have a hate, a fear in them for the rest of their lives. War is the perpetual hating machine.

[niyad]

2. you are correct. not to mention, that the money used to fuel the insatiable war machine takes

away from social spending, the making of decent societies.

[Donald Ian Rankin]

6. Speaking as a European Jew: you're an offensive fool

I bet most Kosovars would agree with me too.

War is always a great evil, but occasionally it's a lesser evil than the alternative. Most wars have not been worth fighting; a few have been. Don't overgeneralise unless you really would oppose efforts to stop a second Holocaust.

[Nuclear Unicorn]

9. It's good for stopping armies that would use rape as a weapon.

Do you really think an army that uses rape as a weapon can be reasoned into setting aside war? Do you really think anything other than superior force will stop them?

[niyad]

3. . . .

[cinnabonbon]

4. Rape has always been a weapon of war, hasn't it?

Man, these reported cases sounds awful. Just awful.

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 demoralize and destroy ethnic communities."

Very important quote, I think! Thank you for the article.

[La Lioness Priyanka]

5. people can recognize a rape culture very easily

Last edited Sun Jan 19, 2014, 09:14 AM - Edit history (1)

so long as it's not the culture they live in.


for most people on DU, recognizing a rape culture in non-white countries is pretty easy. it's acknowledging that the same things create a rape culture in the west, which is harder to digest.

EDITED TO ADD: since people seem to have problems comprehending language, i am addressing the first sentence in this OP about denial of rape culture. Just in case it wasn't completely clear.

[Donald Ian Rankin]

7. Wait, what?

You're comparing the incidence of rape in the West to an army specifically using rape as a military tactic?

[La Lioness Priyanka]

10. no, i am addressing the issue of denying rape culture. nt

[Donald Ian Rankin]

13. I think it's a meaningless and counterproductive term, if that counts as denying it?

Different cultures have different attitudes to, and incidences of, rape.

I think that trying to divide cultures up into "rape" and "non-rape" cultures is a useful exercise if what you are interested in is self-righteousness and blame-placing, and an at best useless and at worst counterproductive one if what you are interested in is proposing narrow, specific measures that may reduce the incidence of rape.

And I use the word narrow there intentionally. What will lead to a reduction in the number of rapes is not broad, general calls about how we as a society need to reevaluate how we look at issues, it's narrow, specific measures like "more funding and training for police on how to handle rape victims", "better sex education in schools", "more/less tolerance of prostitution, depending on how you read the data", and "more spending on education in poor areas" (which doesn't look like it has anything to do with rape, but I suspect would actually do more to reduce not just rape but every other social evil than just about anything else - it's rapes committed by by college athletes that generate the most publicity, but actually the poor and undereducated are much more likely both to commit and be the victims of rape.).

The US has more rapes per capita than some cultures, and fewer than others. Looking for common denominators to see if there are things that can be copied or avoided may be worth while, but I think drawing an arbitrary line between "rape" and "non-rape" cultures serves to keep sociologists in work and activists entertained, but not much else, I'm afraid.

[La Lioness Priyanka]

14. denying elements of misogyny that leads to more or less rape

is much more futile, than acknowledging the various issues that lead to a culture where rape occurs often

[niyad]

16. actually, yes it does count as denying it. but, keep trying.

[Donald Ian Rankin]

17. Snark 1, Content 0. N.T.

[geek tragedy]

19. Yeah, misogyny is totally unrelated to rape,

and ask anyone from Steubenville about this supposed rape culture.

Thank you for mansplaining to the feminists here that their fight against rape culture is really an exercise in vanity. They should be more grateful to you.

[Donald Ian Rankin]

20. I think you must be replying to some other post.

Or just not have bothered to read mine.

Not merely did I say "misogyny is totally unrelated to rape", I also didn't say anything that could possibly be interpreted as implying that. You just made that up out of thin air, so as to have something nasty to accuse me off.

I don't know if you noticed that among the things I listed were "more funding and training for police officers on how to handle rape victims" and "better sex education in schools" - both of which - unlike anything else in this thread - are actual specific, achievable proposal which, if implemented, would make things like Steubenville much less likely to happen. Whereas getting everyone on DU to assent to the proposition "the USA has a rape culture" wouldn't, I'm afraid, especially if you don't/cant define that term.

And I'm not "mansplaining" - a wonderful excuse for ignoring things you don't want to think about, by the way - to "the feminists on DU" - I'm one of them.

Feminism is *not* about treating women as delicate flowers who must be deferred to on account of their uteruses. And, when you use "mansplaining" as a dismissal, that *is*, *explicitly*, what you are demanding, and frankly you should be ashamed of yourself. Feminism is about treating women as sentient, rational people to whom it is worth explaining why you disagree with them.

[geek tragedy]

22. If you're saying that teaching boys in school to not rape ("sex education")

would reduce rape frequency, you're conceding the existence of rape culture.

Also, rape culture has a Wikipedia entry--not the toughest term to read up on.


Also, great that police would be more sensitive to rape victims, but that wouldn't prevent a single rape any more than better trained ER doctors would prevent gunshots.

Dismissing the concerns of women in condescending terms and telling them why they say what they sayin a debate over rape is not a great way to prove your feminist bona fides, man.

[Donald Ian Rankin]

23. More sensitive police would prevent rapes in the long term.

More training for the police on how to handle rape victims = less trauma admitting you've been raped + more effort in investigating claims of rape.

less trauma admitting you've been raped = more rape victims come forwards

more effort in investigating claims of rape = rape victims who come forwards being more likely to get their attackers convicted.

more rape victims coming forward + rape victims who come forwards being more likely to get their attackers convicted = more rapists being convicted

more rapists being convicted = fewer men daring to commit rape.

The deterrent effect of prison has a lot more to do with how likely you are to be sentenced than it does to do with how harsh the sentence will be, I believe. At present, very few rapists get convicted, and so there's very little deterrent. There are a large number of contributory factors to that - noteably, the fact that in a significant fraction of rapes there's no evidence other than the victim's testimony, and it's hard to see how those can ever get convictions - but two of the larger ones that *can* be fixed are victims not coming forwards, and victims not being taken seriously when they do come forwards. And both of those can be partially addressed by more training for the police.

> Also, rape culture has a Wikipedia entry--not the toughest term to read up on.

From that page: "Although the concept of rape culture is used in feminist academia,[8] there is disagreement over what defines a rape culture and to what degree a given society meets the criteria to be considered a rape culture.[3]"

I'm not disputing that it's a widely used term, I'm claiming that it's not a well-defined one, and that - like all terms that aren't well-defined - that means that it's not a useful one.

> If you're saying that teaching boys in school to not rape ("sex education&quot would reduce rape frequency, you're conceding the existence of rape culture.

I'm not - and throughout this thread have not been, if you look back - denying that some of the things that some people refer to as "rape culture" exist; I'm denying that using that term to refer to those things, rather than talking about them directly, is useful.

"Sex education in schools would (inter alia) lead to fewer rapes, and therefor is a good idea" is a clear and meaningful statement.
"The US has a rape culture, and therefor needs more sex education in schools" is not.

I think that what matters is the number of rapes committed per year, and how the victims are treated, not whether or not it's decided that that adds up to a "rape culture" or not (I suspect you agree with me about this?). And I don't think that answering the second question will help answer the first at all (you clearly disagree with me about this, but I think you are mistaken).

[geek tragedy]

24. You're citing elements of rape culture--poor treatment of victims, relative impunity for

most rapists, need to educate children to reduce it.

It's not controversial to observe that the US had pervasive rape culture before the feminist revolution. That rape culture, though diminished, has not been eradicated.

Virtually every society has cultural elements and practices that foster this crime. There's no list of rape cultures vs non-rape cultures.

[Katashi_itto]

11. I didn't realize the US army raped our Civilians. Thanks for the insight!

[La Lioness Priyanka]

12. is that at all what i said? why are you making shit up

and attributing it to me?

[geek tragedy]

18. No, just each other as well as women in places like Okinawa.

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2013/12/27/military-sexual-assault-reports_n_4508698.html

http://www.democracynow.org/2014/1/16/okinawas_revolt_decades_of_rape_environmental

[Katashi_itto]

21. Yes of course that's formal military SOP and tactics. I didn't realize!

[Solly Mack]

8. K&R

[niyad]

15. . . .