A woman prayed for the safety of Buddhist monks as they marched in a demonstration against Burma’s junta.
(AFP/Getty Images/File 2007)
Globe Editorial
When Senator John F. Kerry chairs a Foreign Relations Committee hearing today on violence against women, he will have a chance to shine a bright light on human rights abuses that are all too common in all too many places. One place in particular where women are subjected to widespread rape and violence by soldiers is Burma under its ruthless military junta. Kerry should seize this opportunity to caution the Obama administration against the naive assumption that dialogue with the Burmese generals may dissuade them from committing sickening acts of cruelty.
Kerry would do well to draw on a recent report from the International Human Rights Clinic at Harvard Law School. Citing United Nations documentation of the systemic use of rape as a weapon of war against ethnic minority women in Burma, the report calls for a UN Commission of Inquiry for crimes against humanity committed by the junta’s forces.
The administration, after a long policy review, said this week it will maintain existing sanctions on the junta at the same time as it pursues engagement. That’s fine - unless dialogue leads to the lifting of sanctions while Burma’s soldiers and officers go on raping the minority women of Burma.
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