February 16, 2010

Amnesty International has reported that Myanmar's ethnic minorities are vulnerable to increased repression leading up to the elections in the country later this year. The military junta in charge of Myanmar say that the country will hold their first election in 20 years at some point this year, though no date has been given yet. Amnesty International says that the ethnic minorities in the country -- up to 40% of the population -- play an "important but seldom acknowledged role" in the opposition movement. This is because international attention tends to focus on opposition leader Aung San Suu Kyi. Ethnic minorities face surveillance, harassment, and discrimination when they try to carry out political activities. However, these abuses don't get much international attention. Benjamin Zawacki from Amnesty International explained, "The ethnic minorities states are simply beyond the spotlight that's typically placed on Myanmar. So it's much easier for the regime to persecute and to repress ethnic minority activists simply because they feel they can do so without a great deal of attention, much less accountability for those abuses."
An UN envoy for human rights is currently visiting Rakhine state in the Northwest of the country, and home to the Rohingya people. Tens of thousands of Rohingya -- who are mostly Muslim -- have fled the country due to abuse and oppression. Most have fled to Bangladesh. Amnesty International says that the Rohingya suffer persecution under the junta after they led a 2007 uprising that was violently suppressed. In addition to the Rohingya, members of Myanmar's many ethnic groups are waging decades-long armed uprisings along the country's eastern border as a result of neglect and mistreatment.
Amnesty International has urged the Association of South East Asian Nations and China to help ensure that the people of Myanmar are free to openly participate in the political process and upcoming elections (and while they're at it, some of them should probably do the same for their own countries...). (Full Story)

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Heartbreaking story about sexual assault against women in the military. Congressional leaders have been holding hearings this month on this issue, and they say that more needs to be done to stop this from occurring. In a 2003 survey of female veterans conducted by the University of Iowa (and funded by the US Department of Defense), they found that 30% of the 500 female veterans interviewed were victims of rape or attempted rape. In 2009, the Department of Defense estimated in their annual report on sexual assault that around 90% of rapes in the military are never reported. The article features the story of a female soldier stationed in Afghanistan. Protocol says that soldiers are supposed to carry their weapons at all times in a combat zone. This soldier placed her weapon down and walked away to smoke a cigarette. It was at this time that she was attacked by another soldier. She went to the authorities and told them about the rape. However, they told her that if she filed a claim she would be charged with dereliction of duty for leaving her weapon unattended in a combat zone -- an offense that can get you court-martialed. So she kept quiet and the man that raped her went unpunished.

Congresswoman Loretta Sanchez, who sits on the Military Personnel Subcommittee, successfully lobbied last year for the development of a Sexual Assault Database to encourage accountability within the Armed Forces. She says that she gets many calls to her office about women being assaulted in the military. She added, "I'm told that the statistics are that once you have been raped in the military you are most likely to be raped over and over." Congresswoman Sanchez says that the Pentagon is taking this issue more seriously, but there's still not enough prosecutions happening and big changes still need to be made. She said that often times when a woman alleges rape, the man is simply demoted or moved to another unit.

Dr. Kaye Whitley, Director of the US Department of Defense's Sexual Assault Prevention and Response Office said that for those soldiers who do report a sexual assault, they take the crime very seriously. She said they are seeing progress and that "more and more commanders are referring these cases to court martial." But she added they're still working hard on getting prosecutions, and that there's still things that need to be improved.

Helen Benedict, a writer who has done a lot of research on sexual violence in the military, says that women don't often report the assault because "there is a culture [in the military] that if you report someone, you are seen as a weak soldier who failed to defend yourself." Dr. Whitley explained that another thing that discourages some female soldiers from reporting a sexual assault is that then their command knows and their whole unit knows, and that is said to affect "unit-readiness." As a result, there is now a new "restrictive reporting option" where victims who are afraid to report the assault can get the medical care they need and receive counseling, but their command is not notified and they don't have to participate in an investigation. I think it's good that victims are having their needs met even if they're afraid to report the assault. Before the options were report it or suffer alone. So that's good that there's a program for them to get the necessary help they need. However, I hope this program wasn't put in place to somehow encourage women to not report an incident -- kind of like 'Well, we'll give you all you need. Just don't report it.' I hope it genuinely is a program to look out for women.

Helen Benedict says that economics may help bring about cultural change in the military. Because of the recession, more women are joining the military than ever before. Benedict hopes the current military culture will shift as women become less of a minority in the armed forces and as more women rise in the ranks and gain more seniority. (Full Story)