SITTWE, Rakhine—A local woman in Rakhine State’s Rathedaung Township has filed a complaint with the Sittwe Township Police Station against three military personnel accusing them of gang rape.
The 36-year-old woman from Uga Village in Rathedaung claimed that she was raped by three Myanmar military soldiers at gunpoint. She also underwent sexual assault forensic examination at Sittwe Hospital as she filed the complaint on Friday. “I want the truth to be revealed, so I filed the complaint at the police station openly, by telling the truth,” said the victim as she met the press on Friday evening. Local residents of Uga said that Myanmar military troops arrived at their village around 6 p.m. on June 29 and stayed overnight. When the soldiers arrived, male villagers fled, fearing that they might be arrested on suspicion of having ties to the Arakan Army (AA), an ethnic armed group fighting the Myanmar military in northern Rakhine. The victim hid in her house together with five other women and three children. Three soldiers were staying the night at her neighbors’ house and summoned her for interrogation before raping her at gunpoint, she said. “They took me to their place saying that they had things to question me about. There, they said they had suspicions about me. I asked what it was about. They told me that I had two options: they said they would shoot me as a rebel if I flee, and the second option was that I had to give my body,” said the victim. “As I attempted to flee, two soldiers held me, threatened me with knives and guns, and raped me one after another,” said the victim. The three soldiers allegedly gave her 20,000 kyats (US$14.67) and told her not to tell anyone, including her relatives. An hour later, one of the three soldiers then attempted to rape the victim’s 19-year-old daughter. Her daughter had just given birth to a child several days earlier, the victim said. “One of the three soldiers who raped me came and said he would interrogate my daughter. I told him that my daughter gave birth to a child just six days ago. I begged him again and again to spare my daughter as I had given them what they wanted. But he forcibly took my daughter at gunpoint,” said the victim.
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