Nearly 500 cases of sexual assault have been documented against women during Myanmar’s civil war, although the true number is likely much higher, women’s rights groups said Wednesday.

In the aftermath of the military‘s Feb. 1, 2021, coup d’etat, civilians have been caught in the crossfire of battles between the junta and ethnic armies or community-led defense groups.On Wednesday, Thailand‘s Women’s League of Burma, or WLB, said that women have endured some of the worst treatment since the takeover, including arrest, torture, sexual assault and even murder.

  • Flying Squid@lemmy.world
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    8 hours ago

    Myanmar’s civil war

    battles between the junta and ethnic armies or community-led defense groups.

    There’s a term when a government tries to wipe out an ethnic group and it isn’t “civil war.”

    • NotLewsTherin@lemmy.ca
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      4 hours ago

      It wasn’t the govt. It was the military who are independent of the government. It was and is led by Min Aung Hlaing. This is what the West fails to understand. The military wrote the constitution. They have unelected seats in parliament. They are authorized to act in any way they deem fit. Also, in a twist of irony the same military is now arming the Rohingya guerrillas, training them and they are now allies fighting the other ethnic armies. So while the Western media and its consumers want simple black and white picture of evil vs good, the picture is more complex.

        • RandAlThor@lemmy.ca
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          3 hours ago

          You are specifically referring to the Rohingya genocide where over 100 Rohingyas were killed. At the time of the Rohingya massacre the government was not a junta; it was under civilian NLD party led by Suu Kyi who won the parliament despite the constitution that was designed to give military power. The junta happened in 2021 when the military lost the election again that they designed to win. So they staged the coup.

            • RandAlThor@lemmy.ca
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              2 hours ago

              I haven’t suggested otherwise. I’m merely giving you more nuanced and complex understanding of the situation. “Genocide” by definition isn’t just against Rohingya. It is happening against many ethnicities who have been fighting the military for decades in Myanmar. Again, for some reason, the Western media focuses only on Rohingya. It is not your fault you are inadequately informed. However you want to insist on this one-dimensional view of Myanmar, it is only a small slice of reality.

              HRW decided to use a single instance of Rohingya victims getting killed in the civil war to say the genocide is continuing. Why haven’t they done the same for the Karens, the Shans, the Karennis, Chins, Kachins, etc? The report of civilians getting killed in Myanmar during this war is nothing new. I invite you to visit https://lemmy.ca/c/myanmar. I ask you then why is it they only focus on Rohingya? It is because they the HRW are lazy. They have a singular narrative that sells in the West and earns them donations. (The same goes for the press). They aren’t out there on the ground monitoring and reporting on the rest of the country. They don’t even need to be on the ground. Read the news and speak with all the different factions to grasp the situation.