[Congressional Record Volume 150, Number 55 (Tuesday, April 27, 2004)]
[Senate]
[Page S4424]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




                    BURMESE WAR CRIMES AGAINST WOMEN

  Mr. BROWNBACK. Mr. President, I wish to draw the attention of my 
colleagues in the Senate to a new report by a credible organization 
based on the Thailand-Burma border. In ``Shattering Silences,'' the 
Karen Women's Organization has carefully investigated and recorded the 
Burmese military regime's use of rape as a weapon of war against ethnic 
minority women, revealing a shockingly brutal and callous practice.
  The report documents that both young and old women are being raped, 
and usually very brutally. Forty percent of the rapes committed by the 
regime's soldiers were gang rapes, and over one-quarter of the women 
were killed after being raped.
  This horrifying evidence, which echoes previous documentation 
conducted by our own State Department, suggests that Burma's regime is 
deliberately using rape as a weapon to terrorize and subjugate the 
Burmese people. Fifty percent of the rapes were committed by officers 
in the military regime.
  Many of us hoped that after the exposure of the use of rape as a 
weapon in Bosnia, the practice would come to an end. Sadly, our hopes 
have not been fulfilled, and Burma is the new Bosnia. To be a woman in 
Burma's ethnic states is to live in constant fear of sexual violence 
and murder.
  Ever since the United States imposed economic sanctions on Burma last 
year, the ruling regime has made repeated promises of a so-called 
transition to democracy. The rapes documented in this report show what 
many of us have known for a very long time; that promises by this 
regime are meaningless. Our State Department must take a lead in 
condemning these horrific acts and move to rally support for 
international sanctions on Burma. We cannot wait any longer, while more 
women face the war crimes committed by Burma's dictators.

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