By Mulugeta Abai, Toronto, Canada 

“In the Yugoslav and Rwanda statutes, rape is included as a crime against  humanity. Those provisions derive from rape having been a crime against  humanity from the late 1940s in legal documents drafted right after Nuremburg  and the Tokyo trials. Rape was also interpreted into the customs of war provision  of the Yugoslav statute given its long-recognized status as a war crime, based, for  example, on the holding of rapes as war crimes in the 1947 Tokyo Judgment.” 

“Rape was the rule and its absence was the exception.” “Rape was systematic and  was used as a “weapon” by the perpetrators of the massacres. (United Nations  Special Rapporteur on Rwanda, Rene Degni-Segui). That is exactly what is  happening to girls, women, young and old in Tigray region now at this very  moment and their voices need to be heard and perpetrators brought to justice. 

Most of the world’s refugees – a staggering 80% – are women and Special  Rapporteur their dependent children. Yet despite their presence in such vast  proportions in the global refugee population, women remain the forgotten majority,  a wail of unheard voices, unnoticed victims, a rollcall of numbers.  

The outrageous silence intensifies when the cries from female refugees subjected  to an almost unique abuse: rape. In times of violence and armed conflicts, rape  often becomes an instrument of war on a par with scorch and burn. Throughout  history, enemy soldiers have swarmed through the homelands of the vanquished,  subduing the population and raping every female they encountered, including tiny  girls and white-haired grannies. 

Usually, when this happens, the vanquished men, the leaders of the overrun  country, howl in collective misery and label the endemic sexual violence a  conspiracy to destroy their national pride and honor. 

When German troops marched through Belgium during World War I, they raped  so systematically, and the Franco-Belgian propaganda machine spewed so  expertly, that The Rape of the Hun became a dominant metaphor. Afterward, in peace time, propaganda analysts dismissed these mass rapes as rhetoric designed to  whip up British and American support. In the face of new political realities, the  Rape of the Hun or the Rape of Belgium had lost its propaganda value. It had  become merely the individual tragedies of thousands of women, and no longer  mattered – except, of course, to its silenced victims. 

In wartime, women are raped by ordinary youths as casually or as savagely as a  village is pillaged or destroyed. Sexual trespass on the enemy’s women is to a  soldier one of the satisfactions of conquest, for once he is handed a rifle and told to  kill, he becomes an adrenaline-charged young man with permission to kick in the  door, to grab, to steal, to boot the vanquished in the face, to give vent to his  suppressed rage against all women who belong to other men. Each time a woman  is raped, it saps the collective spirit of all women and of the whole nation. This is  the case in the former Yugoslavia and in Somalia, where mass rape leaves bitter  reminders long after the troops have departed. And if a woman who is a victim of  wartime rape survives the assault, how do her people treat her later, when that war  is over?  

During World War II, when German soldiers were again on the march, they  committed atrocious rapes on Russian and Jewish women in the occupied villages  and cities, and dragged other women off to forced service in brothels, or to death. 

In the Pacific, in 1937, the Japanese occupation of Nanking, China’s war time  capital, was accomplished with such freewheeling sexual violence that it became  known as Nanking Massacre or The Rape Nanking. During this dreadful operation  around 200,000 Chinese civilians were raped and murdered by the Japanese troops. 

During World War II, 200,000 “comfort women” or “lanfu” from Korea, China,  Philippines, Thailand, Malaysia, Vietnam, Taiwan, the Dutch East Indies,  Indonesia, and Japan were enslaved. They were forced into sexual servitude to  Japanese Imperial Armed forces before and during the war. Girls, as young as 12,  were taken from homes through coercion, intimidation and deception. Most came  from poor, rural backgrounds. As a result of multiple rapes many of the women  were later unable to bear children and were never able to marry. And astounding  though it seems, it was not until recently that the “comfort women” overcame  their shame sufficiently to talk about how they were coerced into playing the role  of sexual conscripts for the Japanese Army.  

No matter how often such mass rapes occur, they are always described as  “unprecedented”. In 1971, when Pakistanis methodically violated the women of  newly independent Bangladesh, the indignant government of Bangladesh  denounced the rapes as “unprecedented” in their appeals for international aid to  help with the aftermath. They even went so far as to praise the raped women as Heroines of Independence, and permitted them to secure abortions. When the  victims returned to their own villages, however, they were ostracized by their own  men.  

In the course of crisis in the former Yugoslavia, thousands of unwanted babies  born conceived through rape by soldiers. A preliminary report by a team of  investigators from the European Community estimated about 20,000 victims.  Amnesty International has found that abuses against women, including rape, have  been widespread. In some cases, the rapes are so organized that women are  deliberately detained so that they can be raped or otherwise sexually abused.  In the current unprecedented destruction and scorched earth bombardment of the  people of Tigray using fighter jets, drones, tanks and over 500,000 ground troops,  the whole infrastructure, factories, religious site (both Christian and Moslem),  school, hospitals, health centres, universities, water supply lines are being looted,  destroyed and shipped to Amhara region in Eritrea. This is not all. Rape and sexual  violence have become the tool of subjugation and unheard suffering. 

The U.N. special representative on sexual violence in conflict says “serious  allegations of sexual violence” have emerged in Ethiopia’s embattled Tigray  region, while women and girls face shortages of rape kits and HIV drugs amid  restrictions on humanitarian access. “There are also disturbing reports of individuals allegedly forced to rape members  of their own family, under threats of imminent violence,” Pramila Patten said in a  statement released on Thursday, January 21, 2021. She added: “Some women have  also reportedly been forced by military elements to have sex in exchange for basic  commodities, while medical centers have indicated an increase in the demand for  emergency contraception and testing for sexually transmitted infections.” 

A significant number of women have been subjected to torture, starvation,  terrorism, humiliation and mutilation simply because they were women. If they  were not women but men, if they were members of any other caste or group, their  treatment would be recognized as a civil and political emergency and as a gross  defilement of humanity. Yet despite the clear record of abuse, women’s rights are  not recognized or classified as human rights. Therefore, it is impossible to pinpoint  the grave consequences of these grave abuses on the fundamental issues of  women’s lives.  

In many cases, the sexual violation intensifies the suffering of Tigray female  victims who, alongside their men, are subjected to deliberate and arbitrary killing,  detention, torture and ill-treatment. However, rape is a sinister and unique  humiliating assault. It has traumatic social repercussions, which may be affected by the individual’s cultural origins or social status. These women feel degraded and  ashamed, and often fear that if they reveal what has been to them, they will  confront a social stigma as well. So, they choose eternal silence as the more  bearable option.  

The International Community has the obligation and the responsibility to liberate  the women, the mothers who are being humiliated by the evil minds who are  rejoicing because they have achieved what they desired – to destroy the trust  among nations and nationalities. Innocent lives are lost, dehumanized, and evil  minds and evil forces, darker than those of fascism are getting the upper hand as is  the case in Somalia, the former Yugoslavia, Sudan, Angola just to name a few. 

A VOA article, published few days ago, provided additional testimonials that  reinforce the rape, sexual violence and humiliation the women of Tigray of all  ages are facing. The article mentioned the case of a 25-year old coffee seller who  was raped by a soldier wearing an Ethiopian federal army uniform. It also cited a  recent meeting in Mekelle that was broadcasted, during which a soldier asked why  women were being raped in Mekelle too, where federal police and local police  were operating. Doctors who reported having treated numerous victims of rape  were also cited. In December of last year, a Guardian article cited a woman who  fled Tigray with her son after hearing of federal militias raping Tigrayan women  on the basis of their ethnicity. 

The Associate Press and Reuters reported Ethiopian Minister Filsan Abdullahi, has  admitted and issued a statement after a task force visited Tigray to investigate  accounts of sexual assault in a region under communication blockage,  bombardment, extrajudicial execution , destruction of historical sites for the last  100 days. The Minster said “We have received report back from taskforce team on  the ground in Tigray region, they have unfortunately established rape has taken  place conclusively and without a doubt” we await the investigation of these  horrible crimes”, adding that a team from the attorney general’s office is  processing the information. 

The minster’s statement came out hours after the Ethiopian Human Rights  Commission in a new report said “108 rapes had been reported to health facilities  in the past two months in the Tigray capital, Mekele, Adigrat Wukro and Ayder”. These numbers probably err on the low side because women fear the retaliation  and social ignominy that reporting a rape could bring. 

Spokesman for the Women’s Ministry Adinew Abera said “we will deploy experts  to all districts of Tigray, so the numbers will be higher than what is mentioned”. “The local structures such as police and health facilities where victims of sexual  violence would normally turn to report such crimes are no longer in place” This is  the tip of the ice berg as the total number of girls, women and nuns living in  monasteries who are victims of rape and sexual assault are mourning in silence. 

Such reports are disconcerting because they suggest that sexual violence in  addition to government-imposed hunger is being used as a weapon of war by the  Ethiopian and Eritrean armies. The Abiy government paid $1,000,000,000 US to  the Eritrean government led by another psychopath Isayas Afeworki to destroy and  exterminate the people of Tigray. This is not fundamentally different from the  Rwandan genocide, two civil wars in Liberia, a decade-long civil war in Papua  New Guinea, the Bosnian war – to name a few examples – were all marked by the  extensive raping of women and girls (and in numerous cases of boys and men),  reflecting the almost inevitable weaponization of rape in war-time. In the resolution 1820 passed 19 June, 2008, the Security Council noted that  “women and girls are particularly targeted by the use of sexual violence, including  as a tactic of war to humiliate, dominate, instil fear in, disperse and/or forcibly  relocate civilian members of a community or ethnic group.” The resolution  demanded the “immediate and complete cessation by all parties to armed conflict  of all acts of sexual violence against civilians.” This United Nations Security  Council Resolution was unanimously adapted and the use of sexual violence as a  tool of war, and declares that rape and other forms of sexual violence can  constitute war crimes, crimes against humanity or a constitutive act with respect to  genocide” 

While women’s rights groups and others working to end sexual violence are under  no illusions that the resolution is a panacea, most agree that it is a much-needed  step in the right direction. They believe that by noting that “rape and other forms of  sexual violence can constitute war crimes, crimes against humanity or a  constitutive act with respect to genocide,” the resolution will strike a blow at the  culture of impunity that surrounds sexual violence in conflict zones and allows rapists to walk without fear of punishment. 

Indeed, the resolution stresses the need for “the exclusion of sexual violence  crimes from amnesty provisions in the context of conflict resolution processes,”  calls upon member states to comply with their obligations to prosecute those  responsible for such crimes, and emphasizes “the importance of ending impunity  for such acts.”

Ultimately, however, the effectiveness of UN Resolution 1820 (2008) in reducing  sexual violence and bringing its perpetrators to book will have to be gauged in  places such as Ethiopia arguably the epicentre of sexual violence against women  today. 

The Croatian author Slavenka Drakulic, who has written extensively about war  crimes in the Balkan conflicts of the 1990s, and whose latest book is on the war  crimes trials in The Hague, says the Security Council resolution is historic.  “Finally, sexual violence is recognized as a weapon, and can be punished,” she  says, adding: “We know now, as we knew even before the passage of this  resolution, that rape is a kind of slow murder.” 

Rape is always torture, says Manfred Nowak, Special Rapporteur on torture and  other cruel, inhuman or degrading treatment or punishment. 

Rape and sexual abuse as forms of torture or cruel, inhuman or degrading  treatment are clearly in contravention of international human rights standards, as  well as of international humanitarian law. It has been stated time and time again  but whenever the issue of defending women and their dependents arises, laws and  international human rights standards, the international human rights instruments  are tossed onto the back burner. Once again women and their dependents are  denied the protection they need and deserve. Once again, they have become  unheard voices, unnoticed victims, a rollcall of numbers.