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Rape: The Way of Subduing the
Opponents
- Anju Chhetri
“On October 15, 1999,
only mother and my three-year old brother and myself were in the house.
The ‘enemy’ (the police) had already surrounded the house. They were led
by sub inspector Ram Singh Thapa. ‘Who is in the house?’ A voice came
from outside. ‘It’s us,’ mother replied. After we heard the order that
all of us should come outside, mother and I came out of the house. As
soon as we came out, they shouted at us and tied mother and me with a
rope. They took us to the police post at Gajulkot. The inspector of the
post Rajendra Adhikari was not there at that time. He came after a
while, drunk. He kept mother outside, took me into his chamber and tied
a strap over my eyes. He tore all my clothes. He started to torture me
shouting why I married a Maoist. I could not bear the torture and lost
senses. I learnt later that he had raped me while I was unconscious. In
the meantime, the sub inspector had taken mother into the kitchen of the
post and raped. When we were in the detention for 19 days, they raped
both mother and me several times.”
When Dibyajyoti Thapa
(29) of Gajul, Rolpa was recounting the outrage she and her middle-aged
mother underwent seven years ago, a question rose in the mind of this
scribe: "How many women might have been victimized during the last
ten-years of armed conflict?" However, it is not easy to find real data
in this regard. It was not possible to investigate and keep records of
such incidents during the time of war.
The Maoist insurgents
have been claiming that the state security forces have raped women in a
large number. “All of our women comrades who were captured and killed
had been raped by the security forces. Among the 2,500 women martyrs in
the people’s war more than one thousand were those women who were killed
after rape,” says Pampha Bhusal, the central committee member of the
Maoists. The chairperson of the Maoists Puspa Kamal Dahal (Prachanda)
has also publicly said in an interview with the TV channel Nepal 1
that a large number of women were raped in Rolpa and Rukum.
In that way, the
central leaders of the Maoists have been stating in the media and public
forums that thousands of women of their party were raped by the state
security forces. However, the Maoists have not been able to keep an
authentic record of the incidents that could support their claim. “More
than 50 women were raped in a single district during the war. But, since
we were in war, we could not keep their record,” says Jayapuri Gharti,
the chairperson of the All Nepal Women's Association (Revolutionary) or
ANWA (R). Obviously, it is almost impossible to keep record of such
crimes in the middle of war. In today’s changed context, however, the
Maoists should help the human rights groups and media personnel in
identifying the sufferers of such violence and documenting the
atrocities. When the situation will return to normal tomorrow, such
documentation plays an important role in investigating the incidents and
gathering essential proofs in order to punish the culprits and give
justice to the sufferers.
Available Data
The Informal Sector
Service Center (INSEC), a non-governmental organization working in the
field of human rights, has given the accounts of some incidents of rape
in its Yearbook (Nepali version, 1996) as follows: “When a person
informed the group of policemen that had arrived in Melgauri village of
Pipal VDC, Rukum that some Maoist leaders were hiding in the House of
Shetu Jaisi, the police surrounded the house and opened fire. In the
chaotic situation while the villagers were running here and there the
police captured three young women of the age 14, 17 and 18. The police
took them in a house nearby and committed gang rape.”
“A woman aged 46 and her
21 years old daughter of Jedwang VDC-2, Rolpa were gang raped by the
police in their own house at 10 o’clock in the night on March 15, 1996.
Since the police used to come to the house everyday even after that
incident, both the mother and daughter left the house. The police wanted
to arrest the father and son of the family. When they could not find the
father and son, they had raped the mother and daughter.”
It has been recorded in
the INSEC Yearbooks (1996-2006) of INSEC that during the ten-year
long armed conflict, 81 women were raped in 61 incidents with the
involvement of the state security forces. On analyzing all the rape
cases recorded in the Yearbooks since 1996, it can be seen that
the highest number of rape cases has occurred in Siraha and Sindhuli. On
the contrary, very few rape cases are recorded in the Yearbooks
from Rukum and Rolpa, which are supposed to be the districts where a
large number of women were raped. In Rolpa, the number of rape incidents
committed by the security forces is just five. “I could not report all
the rape cases that occurred in Rolpa. The reason for this was that due
to the adverse situation I could not go to the sites of incidents
committed times, though I had heard about the incidents. In some cases,
I did not report them because they lacked necessary proofs,” admits
Ghanashyam Acharya, the INSEC representative for Rolpa and who is also
responsible for gathering the cases of human rights violation for
documentation in the Yearbook.
Similarly, the
Yearbook has mentioned just one case from Rukum in which three women
were raped by the state security forces. In this regard, the INSEC
representative for Rukum, Jeevan Khadka says, “Many times, when I went
to the sites of incidents after hearing about them, no clue of the
incidents could be found. I did not report such unproved incidents for
the Yearbook. Some incidents may have been undocumented, however,
I don’t think that there were so many rape incidents in Rukum.”
The INSEC Yearbooks
also mention that the Maoists had raped seven women. Responding to this
fact Pampha Bhusal says, “I know about one incident. We killed the
culprit. Except that I don’t know about any other incident.” According
to the information acquired during the study, an adolescent girl raped
by a Maoist cadre had given birth to a baby in a shelter home in
Nepalgunj a year before.
The Advocacy
Forum-Nepal, a lawyers forum for human rights and rule of law, has
documented 30 rape cases perpetrated by the state security forces,
Maoists and vigilante groups. Likewise, ANWA (R) has published a book
entitled Mahila Sahid Gatha (‘The Tales of Women Martyrs’), which
includes brief descriptions of 950 women killed during the insurgency.
It is mentioned in the book that 35 Maoist women were killed after rape
by the state security forces.
On analyzing the
statistics acquired from the three different sources mentioned above
[i.e., INSEC, Advocacy Forum and ANWA (R)], it seems that just about a
hundred rape cases related to the ten-year long armed conflict have been
recorded. Definitely, the incidents may have been more than that. But,
to ascertain the real figure there must be a serious investigation and
inquiry. Statistically, the documented number of rape cases related to
the conflict seems to be very less. However, it indicates the rising
trend in rape, as the most brutal form of violence against women.
Rape is the expression
of coercion and hatred. Men try to confirm their superiority and ego
through rape. Therefore, feminists hold the notion that women become
victim of rape at personal level in society. Till yesterday, rape was a
crime against women committed by an individual or a group of individuals
in Nepali society, but after the outbreak of armed conflict, it has also
acquired a political dimension. Women have been raped not only because
they are women but also because they are insurgents, terrorists or
members of a weaker class/community. Dibyajyoti and her mother were
raped by the police not only for being women but also because of the
reason that they were daughter and mother of an insurgent.
The security forces
arrested Ramita Chaudhari (name changed) of Sarlahi from her own house
and took her in the Sarlahi Barracks because she had visited the Maoists
to ask help to get rid of domestic violence. The security forces
blindfolded her, tied her legs in chains and imprisoned her in a dark
room. They tore her clothes, smashed her on the floor and physically
tortured her. Unable to bear the torture, she lost her senses. After she
regained her senses, she learnt that she had been raped. When Ramita was
asked to recall her suffering after four years, this scribe was feeling
very uneasy. However, it is necessary to collect the testimonies of
sufferers in order to document the incidents, and this is a worldwide
practice as well. In order to punish culprits and give justice to
sufferers, investigation about atrocities has been carried out in many
countries of the world.
But, can investigation
on the heinous crimes against women like rape committed during the war
be carried out and the culprits punished? Can the sufferers be given the
feeling of justice? Certainly, it is not easy to find solutions to these
questions. The Maoist leader Bhusal says in this regard, “We must have
the guts to punish the culprits and we can do so. We have said that when
we become an associate in the state-power we will punish those who had
suppressed and tortured people during the people’s movement and people’s
war, and it does not mean that only those will be punished who fired
guns. Our demand is that the security personnel who were involved in
rape must also be punished. We have every detail about who was raped
when, where and which security officer was in command then. On this
basis, we can demand for the punishment of the culprits. Even if the
culprits belong to our party, they will be punished.”
A human right activist
Renu Rajbhandari says, “We have requested the leaders of all the eight
parties that in order to document and investigate about the sexual
violence against women during war time, a separate commission of persons
who are sensitive to and informed about women’s issues should be
formed.” Similarly, according to another human right activist Mandira
Sharma, “A sufferer should be assured that a serious investigation on
the atrocity she had undergone is being carried out. If we have a
political will, we can and have to execute investigation on sexual
violence of such a serious nature and take action against the culprits.
We must not allow the state to grant general amnesty.”
Definitely, all the
crimes that were committed during war are not forgivable. Moreover, no
political party should be hesitate to punish the culprits involved in
the heinous crime like rape against women, and to give justice to the
sufferers. In the present situation, in which the peace process has
already begun, everyone should have a commitment to work towards this
direction forming an effective mechanism.
- Rajdhani,
October 31, 2006, p. 2 |
