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| 13-year-old Buddhist girl gang-raped by Bangladeshi Soldiers. |
The
soldiers of the Bangladesh Army encircled the village at 11:00 a.m. and on the
pretext of making searches entered the houses. All the women and the girls who
were in their houses, were stripped by the soldiers and were subjected to gang
rape. Even the minors were not spared.
Women are targeted by the military for
two objectives: as a member of the 'enemy' and as a female individual. By
raping a woman the oppressor does not just aim at hurting her personally, he
takes what's a woman's private possession and at the same time tramples and
humiliates the identity of the Jumma people as a whole.
Jumma women are made pregnant by the
Bangladesh military and thus are forced to give birth to children of the enemy.
According to the Hill Women's Federation (HWF), there have been 47 reported
cases of rapes between January 1991 and June 1992, five in 1993, four in 1994
and twelve in 1995.
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| A Buddhist woman gang-raped by Bangladeshi soldiers. |
The Jumma women are especially
attractive and exotic to the Bangladeshis. They move around more freely and are
not bound by the same cultural and religious impositions that restrict the
freedom of movement of Muslim women.
These cultural differences combined
with the military presence and the increasing domination of Bengali Muslim
culture in the CHT have made the Jumma women more exposed to sexual attacks and
harassment. The CHT Commission interviewed some rape victims in the refugee
camps of Tripura, India. A woman told the CHT Commission:
"About 50 army personnel came in the night and rounded up the whole
village and gathered us in one place. In the morning all the men were arrested.
I was tied up hands and legs, naked. They raped me. There were three women
there.
They raped me in front of my father-in-law. After that we were tied up
together, naked, facing each other. Then they left. Three other girls were
raped in front of me. This happened in the month of Ashar (June/July)
of 1985."
Another refugee woman from Dighinala told in
Tripura:
"In the early morning 5 to 6
groups of soldiers encircled the village and some entered the huts. They caught
all men and brought them to the fields and tied them with rope. My husband had
his teeth beaten out of him, all blood. My son ran to his father and he was
thrown to one side.
The army ordered me to go into my hut
and pointed guns at me. One grabbed me by the neck. My husband was near. My
husband was almost beaten to death. I was raped by three soldiers in the room.
After this I didn't want to live anymore,
but what am I to do? I am still suffering from it. My husband is still injured
in the lungs and can't work. I want to go back if there is peace, otherwise
not.
I want medical treatment as I am still
suffering from the rape. I am still afraid of Muslims. My ribs were broken and
my skin burns there. This happened in June 1986. I am still like mad,
disturbed."
A woman from Matiranga told what happened to her in
April 1986:
One girl was taken by three soldiers. I
don't know where she was taken. Then it was my turn. Two soldiers took me and
subjected me to abuse. I was fully naked, they harassed me, they even poked me
with a bayonet.
I was left alone. I didn't know what to
do. Somehow I managed to cover my body with some cloth and went to the jungle
and kept walking till I reached India."
Life in the cluster villages is not safe,
especially for women. Women in cluster villages are more vulnerable to rape by
Bangladesh Army personnel and are often forced to spend the night with their
rapist. A man in one of the refugee camps explained:
"I was forced to live in a cluster
village. We had to come here because we have a teenage daughter and we were
afraid that she would be raped by the army. ...A woman neighbor was raped in
1989 after the cluster village was established. She then fled to India,
together with 22 other families."
"The army raped some of the women,
especially college students and women working in offices. Many girls were taken
to the army camp. After this incident (1989), intellectuals of the village were
arrested by the army so as to prevent them from taking shelter in India. ...The
girls who were taken away to the army camps were released after one week. In
the camp the army raped them repeatedly."
Forced itermarriage is one way in which women are
used as an instrument to integrate the Jumma people into Islamic Bangladeshi
society and to alter the demographic profile in the area. Many Jumma women had
been kidnapped, forcibly converted to Islam and married. Jumma women were
murdered who refused to be converted and married. A woman who came to Tripura
in July 1990 told the Commission:
"I was walking along the road to
go to the fields with my six-year old niece to plant some seeds. A man appeared
before us, bound my mouth with a piece of cloth and took me away on his
scooter. . .I was kept for three months. I was forcibly converted to Islam and
married."
Rape
is used systematically as a weapon against Jumma women in the CHT. Rape is a
recurring characteristics of attacks by the Bangladesh military and by the BD
settlers on Jumma villages. Many women were gang raped by the soldiers of the
Bangladesh Army, often in front of their children. Women live in continuous
fear of rape.
Women
who have been raped may be rejected by their husbands or their families, or may
not be able to get married. If they become pregnant they have to conceal this
fact and must try to have an abortion. If a child is born it is impossible for
the woman to stay in her community as the situation is not accepted and she is
ostracized.
For
these reasons women who have been raped hesitate to talk about it at all
because they are scared or worried about the social stigma. This makes it
difficult to collect information on such sensitive issue. The trauma of rape
remains with these women form years, and many of them are still suffering from
its repercussions years later.
There
were almost 100% Buddhists (ethnic Jumma) in CHT just after WW2. Now the
Buddhist population there is only about 20% or even much less. Buddhist
population was more than 20% in whole Bangladesh (East Pakistan) just after WW2
and now is only 0.7%. The silent genocide last 60 years has horribly depleted
the Buddhist population in Bangladesh to near extinct.
The
Illegal Bengali-Muslims have now overflowed into the bordering Arakan in Burma
and even seeped into the Burma-Proper. And we all know Islam will never satisfy
till the native Buddhists are completely wiped out. The result is the
anti-Islam race riots now breaking out frequently in Burma.
Buddhist-Burmese
in Burma are now fighting back as they do not want to be extinct like the
Buddhists in Bangladesh or the poor Buddhists in Indonesia, Afghanistan, and
Pakistan before them.)
