Sexual and gender-based violence in Myanmar and the gendered impact of its ethnic conflicts in English (iii) The 2012 violence 90. Similar to the 2016 “clearance operations” being a precursor for the sexual violence that marked the 2017 operations against Rohingya, the 2012 violence foreshadowed what was to come in 2016. On 28 May 2012, Ma Thida Htwe, a 27 year-old Buddhist woman was killed in the Kyauk Ni Maw village tract, Ramree Township, in the south of Rakhine State. On 5 June 2012, the newspaper Global New Light of Myanmar reported the case as murder and rape. It published the names of the three suspects and described them as “Bengali/Islam”. The three accused were subsequently prosecuted and sentenced to death. In the following days and weeks, the rape allegation, more than the murder, was used to incite violence and hatred against the Rohingya.198 91. The Mission found that the ensuing violence was in large part triggered by a growing level of hate speech against the Rohingya community in Rakhine. Three waves of violence occurred: from 8 June to August 2012, in October 2012 and again in 2013. The perpetrators of the violence were mainly members of ethnic Rakhine communities who acted with either the direct participation or the acquiescence of the security forces. 199 92. In addition to killings, arson attacks and arbitrary arrests of Rohingya on a massive scale, sexual and gender-based violence was also committed against women and girls. 200 The Mission received credible reports that up to 20 girls were abducted in June 2012 from the Narzi quarter in Sittwe and subjected to sexual slavery by soldiers.201 93. The Mission corroborated a case of a rape and subsequent killing of a 16 year-old girl by security forces on 8 June 2012, in Ka Nyin Tan (a) Myo Ma Ka Nyin Tan, Maungdaw Township. A witness saw security forces surrounding the house of the girl. Four people entered the house, brought her outside the house, took off her clothes and raped her. They pulled her legs and arms and then they killed her by gunshot. They had aluminium and wooden sticks, long knives and short pistols.202 94. Following the 2012 violence, Rohingya in Rakhine State started being identified as “violent extremists” and “terrorists” and practising “violent Islam”, fuelling fear and deep resentment.203 The statements of government officials, politicians, religious authorities and military commanders, as well as of direct perpetrators, prior, during and after the violence, revealed an exclusionary vision, with perpetrators using expressions such as “go away”, “you don’t belong here”, “you are Bengali”, “we will kill you all”. 204 The Government failed to condemn any of the sexual violence or the hate speech demonizing the Rohingya. (iv) Conclusions and legal findings 95. In its 2018 report, the Mission concluded on reasonable grounds that sexual and gender-based violence against Rohingya constituted, among other violations and crimes under international law, torture, war crimes, underlying acts of crimes against humanity and underlying acts of genocide.205 In that report, the Mission also assessed this sexual and gender-based violence as part of three of five factors that inferred the Tatmadaw’s genocidal intent to destroy the Rohingya people as such. 206 The first factor was the utterances of Myanmar officials and others. One member of the Tatmadaw said to a gang 198 199 200 201 202 203 204 205 206 A/HRC/39/CRP.2.Para. 625. A/HRC/39/CRP.2.Para. 645. A/HRC/39/CRP.2.Para.s 662-668. K-076.19 DI-038. BI-001, BI-006, CI-147, EI-017, LI-006; LI-041, LI-048, LI-059, LI-077, LI-099, LI-114, QI-038, QI-040, QI-041, QI-059, QI-064, QI-111, WI-010, YI-005, YI-030. LI-006; LI-041, LI-048, LI-059, LI-099, QI-038, QI-041, QI-059, QI-064, QI-111, YI-030, WI-010, A/HRC/39/CRP.2.Para.s, 1327-1331. A/HRC/39/CRP.2, para. 438-441 The five indicators were rhetoric of hatred and contempt for the Rohingya, the utterances of governmental officials and others prior, during, and after the violence, the existence of discriminatory plans and policies, evidence of an organized plan of destruction, and the extreme brutality of the violence. A/HRC/39/CRP.2, para. 14219-1433. 23