美国国家公共电台 NPR Rohingya Fleeing Myanmar Describe Military Tactic Of Systematic Rape

 

RACHEL MARTIN, HOST:

In the last six months, more than 70,000 Rohingya fled across the border into Bangladesh. A warning here - some listeners might find the content of this story disturbing. Reporter Michael Sullivan has been with the Rohingya in southern Bangladesh, and he joins us now on the line. Good morning, Michael.

MICHAEL SULLIVAN, BYLINE¹: Hi, Rachel.

MARTIN: Why is this happening at this point, Michael? Why have the Rohingya fled across the border?

SULLIVAN: Well, this was prompted by two separate incidents involving attacks against Myanmar security forces by Rohingya militants² - the first in early October, the second in November - attacks which killed more than a dozen police and soldiers. And this completely shocked Myanmar's military because the Rohingya have been cowed for so long. This act of resistance not only caught the military by surprise, it embarrassed them, and their response was brutal³. It was collective punishment against the civilian⁴ population they accused of harboring the militants. And that's why the people fled across the border.

MARTIN: Is this the first time the Rohingya have been targeted like this?

SULLIVAN: No. The Rohingya have been targeted for decades by Myanmar's military, and you have to remember, Rachel, that the Myanmar government, they don't really consider the Rohingya to be citizens. They're part of a Muslim minority. And Myanmar's Buddhist-majority government say they're basically illegal immigrants from Bangladesh, even though they've been in Myanmar's Rakhine State for centuries. They have - they're almost totally disenfranchised. They want to marry. They have to get permission from the authorities. They want to visit people in distant villages. They have to get permission for them. Living under the Buddhist-majority government, it's like being in one big internment⁵ camp.

MARTIN: You've been spending time with some of the Rohingya refugees on the other side of the border in Bangladesh. What kinds of stories have you been hearing?

SULLIVAN: Not very pretty ones, and we've heard lots of them. And you talk to enough of these refugees from enough different villages, and there's a clear pattern of what happened since October when thousands of Rohingya fled across the Naf River into Bangladesh. We went to a spot on that river. We were there at sunset when the crows came out.

(SOUNDBITE OF CROWS CAWING)

SULLIVAN: They sound ominous⁶, my producer Ashley Westerman said, and it did feel a little creepy. Maybe it was the Myanmar military outpost clearly visible on the other side.

UNIDENTIFIED CHILD: (Unintelligible).

SULLIVAN: Not far from that spot we met Shajada. It's not her real name but the name she's chosen to protect her identity and those of family members left behind in Myanmar. She's from a village called Dagiza. When the military came there, she says, they ordered everyone out of their houses.

SHAJADA: (Through interpreter) Some of those who left their homes escaped and those who didn't were burned to death inside.

SULLIVAN: Her husband was killed trying to flee. She and some others managed to get away. They hid in a nearby swamp for five days before finally being discovered. The soldiers separated the men from the women, then, she says, picked four or five women, including her, and took them to a nearby field where they were raped⁸, close enough so that the other villagers could watch.

SHAJADA: (Through interpreter) First, the soldier took off my clothes. Then, he took my money, and then, he raped me for about an hour.

SULLIVAN: After the military left, she and her parents set out through the jungle for the border. She's been treated twice for complications from the assault. Months later, she's not fully⁹ healed.

(CROSSTALK)

SULLIVAN: A few miles up the road at an informal camp, more women with nearly identical stories, this time from two sisters in their early 20s and their 17-year-old cousin. One of the sisters, Toslima - again, a name she's chosen to protect her identity and those of relatives left behind - says the military surrounded their village, Poyakhali, early on the morning of October 16.

TOSLIMA: (Through interpreter) Our brother tried to resist them to keep them from hurting us, but he was taken away. Then, our mother and father were killed, and they took us into the house and raped us repeatedly.

SULLIVAN: Not together but in separate rooms, the men taking turns, she says, with each of them. Their 17-year-old cousin Roshida was in her house two doors down, praying.

ROSHIDA: (Through interpreter) When my neighbors' houses were set on fire, my parents ran out of our house. I was left home alone. Then, four men entered my home and raped me.

SULLIVAN: The U.N. Human Rights Watch and others have documented dozens of stories like these, and there's a reason they sound so similar.

MATTHEW SMITH: It's very clear to us at this point that state security forces set out to systematically¹⁰ rape⁷ Rohingya women and girls.

SULLIVAN: Matthew Smith of Fortify¹¹ Rights, which advocates for the Rohingya and other minorities in the region, he's here in Bangladesh collecting more stories. What the military's done to the Rohingya, he says, they've done before.

SMITH: The military has used rape against ethnic¹² women, in particular, for many, many years. Rape is - as a weapon of war is still occurring in other parts of the country now. What sets recent events apart is that the scale of rape that occurred was unusual even by the Myanmar military's brutal standards.

SULLIVAN: The military continues to deny almost all of it, despite the testimony¹³ of hundreds of witnesses, despite satellite photos that show hundreds of homes burnt to the ground. NPR reached out to Myanmar's government for comment with no success. And Myanmar's de facto leader, Nobel laureate Aung San Suu Kyi, she seems oddly indifferent to the situation. Here she is in a rare interview with Singapore's Channel NewsAsia.

(SOUNDBITE OF ARCHIVED RECORDING)

AUNG SAN SUU KYI: I'm not saying there are no difficulties, but it helps if people recognize the difficulty and are more focused on resolving these difficulties rather than exaggerating them so that everything seems worse than it really is.

SULLIVAN: The charitable explanation is that Suu Kyi has no control over the military. And that's true. The country's constitution cements the military's role and power indefinitely. But what really infuriates Matthew Smith are the things she could have done but hasn't.

SMITH: We've seen terrible language coming out of state-run media referring to Rohingya as thorns that need to be removed and referring to Rohingya as human fleas¹⁴ and things of that nature. This is a shameful¹⁵ discourse¹⁶ that she has failed to change.

SULLIVAN: Last month, the U.N.'s Human Rights Council said it would send a team to Myanmar to investigate the allegations of atrocities¹⁷. Myanmar's ambassador to the U.N. in Geneva, U Htin Lynn, objected. He called the resolution not acceptable, and it's not clear if a team will be allowed into Myanmar. The country has set up its own commission of inquiry¹⁸. It's led by Vice¹⁹ President Myint Swe, a former army general. For NPR News, I'm Michael Sullivan in Cox’s Bazar, Bangladesh.

(SOUNDBITE OF TALVIN SINGH AND NILADRI KUMAR'S "RIVER")

1 byline   

n.署名；v.署名

参考例句：

• His byline was absent as well.他的署名也不见了。
• We wish to thank the author of this article which carries no byline.我们要感谢这篇文章的那位没有署名的作者。

2 militants   

激进分子，好斗分子( militant的名词复数 )

参考例句：

• The militants have been sporadically fighting the government for years. 几年来，反叛分子一直对政府实施零星的战斗。
• Despite the onslaught, Palestinian militants managed to fire off rockets. 尽管如此，巴勒斯坦的激进分子仍然发射导弹。

3 brutal   

adj.残忍的，野蛮的，不讲理的

参考例句：

• She has to face the brutal reality.她不得不去面对冷酷的现实。
• They're brutal people behind their civilised veneer.他们表面上温文有礼，骨子里却是野蛮残忍。

4 civilian   

adj.平民的，民用的，民众的

参考例句：

• There is no reliable information about civilian casualties.关于平民的伤亡还没有确凿的信息。
• He resigned his commission to take up a civilian job.他辞去军职而从事平民工作。

5 internment   

n.拘留

参考例句：

• Certainly the recent attacks against the internment camps are evidence enough. 很明显，最近营地遭受到的攻击就是一个足好的证明。 来自互联网
• The chapters on the internment are Both readaBle and well researched. 这些关于拘留的章节不仅具可读性而且研究得很透彻。 来自互联网

6 ominous   

adj.不祥的，不吉的，预兆的，预示的

参考例句：

• Those black clouds look ominous for our picnic.那些乌云对我们的野餐来说是个不祥之兆。
• There was an ominous silence at the other end of the phone.电话那头出现了不祥的沉默。

7 rape   

n.抢夺，掠夺，强奸；vt.掠夺，抢夺，强奸

参考例句：

• The rape of the countryside had a profound ravage on them.对乡村的掠夺给他们造成严重创伤。
• He was brought to court and charged with rape.他被带到法庭并被指控犯有强奸罪。

8 raped   

v.以暴力夺取，强夺( rape的过去式和过去分词 )；强奸

参考例句：

• A young woman was brutally raped in her own home. 一名年轻女子在自己家中惨遭强暴。 来自辞典例句
• We got stick together, or we will be having our women raped. 我们得团结一致，不然我们的妻女就会遭到蹂躏。 来自辞典例句

9 fully   

adv.完全地，全部地，彻底地；充分地

参考例句：

• The doctor asked me to breathe in,then to breathe out fully.医生让我先吸气，然后全部呼出。
• They soon became fully integrated into the local community.他们很快就完全融入了当地人的圈子。

10 systematically   

adv.有系统地

参考例句：

• This government has systematically run down public services since it took office.这一屆政府自上台以来系统地削减了公共服务。
• The rainforest is being systematically destroyed.雨林正被系统地毀灭。

11 fortify   

v.强化防御，为…设防；加强，强化

参考例句：

• This country will fortify the coastal areas.该国将加强沿海地区的防御。
• This treaty forbade the United States to fortify the canal.此条约禁止美国对运河设防。

12 ethnic   

adj.人种的，种族的，异教徒的

参考例句：

• This music would sound more ethnic if you played it in steel drums.如果你用钢鼓演奏，这首乐曲将更具民族特色。
• The plan is likely only to aggravate ethnic frictions.这一方案很有可能只会加剧种族冲突。

13 testimony   

n.证词；见证，证明

参考例句：

• The testimony given by him is dubious.他所作的证据是可疑的。
• He was called in to bear testimony to what the police officer said.他被传入为警官所说的话作证。

14 fleas   

n.跳蚤( flea的名词复数 )；爱财如命；没好气地（拒绝某人的要求）

参考例句：

• The dog has fleas. 这条狗有跳蚤。
• Nothing must be done hastily but killing of fleas. 除非要捉跳蚤，做事不可匆忙。 来自《简明英汉词典》

15 shameful   

adj.可耻的，不道德的

参考例句：

• It is very shameful of him to show off.他向人炫耀自己，真不害臊。
• We must expose this shameful activity to the newspapers.我们一定要向报社揭露这一无耻行径。

16 discourse   

n.论文，演说；谈话；话语；vi.讲述，著述

参考例句：

• We'll discourse on the subject tonight.我们今晚要谈论这个问题。
• He fell into discourse with the customers who were drinking at the counter.他和站在柜台旁的酒客谈了起来。

17 atrocities   

n.邪恶，暴行( atrocity的名词复数 )；滔天大罪

参考例句：

• They were guilty of the most barbarous and inhuman atrocities. 他们犯有最野蛮、最灭绝人性的残暴罪行。 来自《简明英汉词典》
• The enemy's atrocities made one boil with anger. 敌人的暴行令人发指。 来自《现代汉英综合大词典》

18 inquiry   

n.打听，询问，调查，查问

参考例句：

• Many parents have been pressing for an inquiry into the problem.许多家长迫切要求调查这个问题。
• The field of inquiry has narrowed down to five persons.调查的范围已经缩小到只剩5个人了。

19 vice   

n.坏事；恶习；[pl.]台钳，老虎钳；adj.副的

参考例句：

• He guarded himself against vice.他避免染上坏习惯。
• They are sunk in the depth of vice.他们堕入了罪恶的深渊。