[Congressional Record Volume 148, Number 84 (Friday, June 21, 2002)]
[Extensions of Remarks]
[Page E1134]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




          THE TREATMENT OF GIRLS AND WOMEN BY THE BURMESE ARMY

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                        HON. ILEANA ROS-LEHTINEN

                               of florida

                    in the house of representatives

                         Friday, June 21, 2002

  Ms. ROS-LEHTINEN. Mr. Speaker, I rise today to stand firm against the 
impunity with which the girls and women of Burma are raped, tortured, 
beaten, and killed as part of a systematic campaign by the Burmese army 
to terrorize and subjugate its people.
  This week, a report was released detailing the heinous acts of rape 
and other forms of sexual violence carried out on the women and girls 
of the Shan State on the Burmese border with Thailand. Compiled from 
interviews with brave victims who would talk about their story, the 
report serves merely as a microcosm of the ongoing and endemic 
commitment by the Burmese army to thwart resistance and opposition by 
officially condoning the use of rape as a weapon of war against its 
civilian population.
  Mr. Speaker, the reports that have surfaced describe how the 
overwhelming majority of these rapes are being carried out by officers, 
and usually in front of their own troops. Girls and women are being 
beaten mutilated, suffocated--tortured. A quarter of these rapes result 
in death, and in some incidences the victim's body is publicly 
displayed to send out a message of terror and fear to local peoples. 
These crimes against humanity are often times even taking place within 
military bases where some women have been detained for up to 4 months--
only to be raped, even gang raped, repeatedly by soldiers.

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