Burmese junta abuses female prisoners

The group urged the United Nations Human Rights Council to pay more attention on the fate of female political prisoners in Burma.

The press conference was held to release a report "Courage to Resist" detailing how women activists in Burma have been hunt down, assaulted, tortured and framed with false charges, and their family members threatened and held hostage.

They called for a visit of two UN envoys - Special Rapporteur on Violence against Women Yakin Erturk, and Hina Jilani who is special Representative of the Secretary General on the Situation of Human Rights Defenders. "We are particularly concerned that the women, including nuns, recently detained in the prisons and detention centres are facing gender and sexual violence in addition to the other deprivations and unacceptable conditions in the prisons," said the WLB's joint general secretary 1 Naw Paw Hset Hser.

In recent crackdowns, at least 19 women have been disappeared, 131 women protestors got arrested. Though some were released, 106 women remain in detention including six nuns, and a few dozen are on the run, she said.

Khin Ohmar from Burmese Women's Union revealed a case of two young women - Hnin Hnin and Ei Ei who got arrested on September 26 during the raid of Ngway Kyar Yan and Nan Oo Monasteries in Rangoon.

"They were forced by the authority to say in front of video camera that they had sexual affair with monks," said Khin Ohmar, adding that Ei Ei was released after video shooting but has never returned to her family ever since. Hnin Hnin is still detained in Insein Prison.

Another woman revealed in the report, got arrested at the Shwe Daung monastery in Rangoon. She was tortured to make her confess that she had been having an affair with the abbot. The New Light of Myanmar reported about her case.

The WLB sated that in fact the abbot was her uncle and she had been staying at the temple to look after her elderly paralyzed grandmother, the abbot's mother.

Nang Hseng Noung of the WLB revealed that sexual violence against women by the military regime is still going on. She revealed a recent case of a 16yearold girl was gangraped by Burmese soldiers in her village in Shan State. The violence took place on September 23.

In support of the WLB and to mark the International Day for the Elimination of Violence against Women (on 25 November), the International women's networks yesterday called for the release of human rights defenders in Burma.

Meanwhile five women human rights defenders who are on run yesterday sent a letter the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights and the president of Human Rights Council, urging them to conduct a factfinding mission and set up a mechanism to safeguard and protect them.

Subhatra Bhumiprabhas

The Nation