Country: Myanmar

Group: Kayah

Date finalized: 11/01/2021    

Team: Nichole Dahlen (lead), Victoria Fuller, Ann Thomas, Gabriel Cardenas

There is reason to believe that the Myanmar Army has committed sexual violence against the Kayah population. The quality of evidence is a 1 due to a lack of detail and a reliance on inference.

The Kayah people live in the Kayah, Shin, Kachin, and Rakhine states of Myanmar. Several sources report that the Myanmar Army committed sexual violence against minority groups in these regions (Kramer, 2018, Blomqvist, 2021, Human Rights Council, 2018, Paddock, 2021). Military operations directly target ethnic villages and threaten women with rape if they do not follow their directions (Paddock, 2021). As the Kayah are a minority group that live in these regions, it is possible that they are one of the minority groups being targeted. Furthermore, in 2012, the KNPP, a Kayah militia agreed to a ceasefire with the Myanmar government, allegedly because the military was arresting women and raping them (Kramer et al., 2018). In part, the lack of concrete details may be due to government coverups (Paddock, 2021), intense stigmatization of rape victims, and the cultural pressure to remain silent about sexual violence (Blomqvist, 2021). In Myanmar, women are not only blamed for their rape but are also sometimes prosecuted for their “participation” because “it takes two hands to clap” (Soe, 2018). Most women must leave their community after their rape case is finalized (Soe, 2018). Many Kayan women use silence as a coping mechanism. Rather than speaking up about the crimes committed against them, women in Kayah continue on with their lives, holding in the trauma to protect themselves and make life possible (Blomqvist et al., 2021). In one telling example, a woman’s family sold her into sex slavery, where she was raped and impregnated. She raised the child and stayed silent about sexual violence (Blomqvist, 2021).

Despite poor evidence quality about Kayah specifically, multiple sources indicating sexual violence combined with the cultural silencing of sexual violence victims points to the likelihood that the military commits sexual violence against the Kayah.

Sources

  1. Blomqvist, L., Olivius, E., & Hedström, J. (2021). Care and silence in women’s everyday peacebuilding in Myanmar. Conflict, Security & Development, 21(3), 223–244. https://doi.org/10.1080/14678802.2021.1933031
  2. Human Rights Council, (September 12, 2018). Report of the independent international fact-finding mission on Myanmar. United Nations. http://www.securitycouncilreport.org/atf/cf/%7B65BFCF9B-6D27-4E9C-8CD3-CF6E4FF96FF9%7D/a_hrc_39_64.pdf
  3. Kramer, T., Russell, O., Smith, M., & Times, K. (2018). From war to peace in Kayah State. Transnational Institute.
  4. Paddock, R.C. (March 24, 2021). ‘It’s Better to Walk Through a Minefield’: Victims of Myanmar’s Army Speak. The New York Times. https://www.nytimes.com/2021/03/09/world/asia/myanmar-military-tatmadaw-violence.html
  5. Soe, H. (2018, April 10). Tackling sexual violence in Kayah. Frontier Myanmar. https://www.frontiermyanmar.net/en/tackling-sexual-violence-in-kayah/