At least fifty-six women and girls were killed and 43 detained by Myanmar’s junta between July and September, according to the Burmese Women’s Union (BWU).
It said it had documented that 56 women were killed from the beginning of July till the end of September by junta troops, but that the actual number could be higher.
Thirty were killed in shelling, 13 were shot dead, six died in aerial bombings, three were burned to death, two were beaten to death, one was killed in a junta detention center, and one young woman was gang raped before being murdered, the BWU said in a report.
“Women’s participation in the Spring Revolution is still gaining momentum … To suppress the mental strength [of women], the terrorist regime conducts unjust arrests, imprisonments, rapes and killing of women on a wide range [and] purposefully,” the BWU said.
On August 27, a 20-year-old woman and her father—who was over 50 years of age—were killed by regime troops in Kyi Kan (north) Village in Sagaing’s Wetlet Township. The woman was gang raped before being killed, residents said. Her mother and sister-in-law were locked in a building during the crime.
Fourteen women and 13 children were among the 29 people killed in a massacre at a displacement camp in Mung Lai Hkyet Village in Kachin State’s Waingmaw Township on Monday night.
The BWU said that the deliberate arrest of women was among the regime’s ongoing abuses. Women from all walks of life are targeted, including prominent women in politics, it said, noting that Daw Nyo Aye, chairperson of the Arakan Women’s Network, was arrested by junta forces on August 15. Rohingya women were also arrested in September, it said.
“An average of 15 women per month are being arrested arbitrarily,” the report said.
The data is based on statements by the Assistance Association for Political Prisoners (AAPP) and credible news reports, but the actual number could be much higher, the BWU said.
Resistance forces also committed sexual and other forms of violence against women, the BWU report says.
Sexual exploitation of women by a monk participating in the revolution has occurred in each of the three months, the report says.
In August, eight members of a security force operating under the National Unity Government in Magway Region’s Saw Township, were arrested and charged for raping a woman held in their custody in late April.
In the same month, the anti-regime people’s authority in Magwe Region flogged two women for allegedly being abusive during a village meeting.
As of the end of September, a total of 613 women have been killed and 4, 969 arrested by junta forces since the February 2021 coup, according to the AAPP.
