Sexual and gender-based violence in Myanmar and the gendered impact of its ethnic conflicts in English (ii) The 2016 “are clearance operations” 84. A second episode of extreme sexual and gender-based violence was triggered on 9 October 2016, when ARSA attacked three Border Guard Police posts in northern Rakhine State, killing nine police officers. The Mission found that the 2016 “area clearance operations” were a precursor to the 2017 violence, when the violations were committed on a larger scale. The 2016 “clearance operations” were illustrative of the foreseeable and planned catastrophe that was later to come.188 85. Security forces, led by the Tatmadaw, responded with “clearance operations” across an “area clearance zone” between Taungpyoletwea and Maungdaw, in central Maungdaw Township.189 The “clearance operations” extended into December 2016.190 86. Tatmadaw mass gang rapes191 were a significant part of the pattern of violence from October to December 2016. The Mission verified information about cases of sexual and gender-based violence, including rape and gang rapes, perpetrated in Yae Khat Chaung Gwa Son, Kyein Chaung and Kyet Yoe Pyin village tracts in Maungdaw Township. Tatmadaw and other security forces also raped and gang raped women and girls in Buthidaung Township,192 despite the “clearance operations” being focused on an area some distance from Buthidaung Township. This further indicates that the acts were clearly committed outside of the military’s stated objective of counter-insurgency, whose objective was to overcome ARSA terrorists. 193 87. The Mission spoke to victims of the extreme sexual violence, who described their ordeals. For example, on 1 December 2016, in Kyet Yoe Pyin, Maungdaw Township, a victim was gang raped by four men, two were armed with guns. She said the rape was painful: “I thought that I was going to die”. She bled for 15 days afterwards.194 “I would rather be killed by a tiger or a bear in the jungle.”195 88. On 5 December 2016, in Maungdaw Township, a four months pregnant woman was gang raped by soldiers from what the survivor described as the Tatmadaw Special Forces Unit. She told the Mission she would rather be killed by animals than be raped. Describing the rape, she stated that she became numb after the third rape and started losing consciousness. In her interview with the Mission, the survivor was able to confirm that one of her rapists wore a Northern Command badge.196 89. In another case, a 25-year-old woman reported being gang raped in Dar Paing Sa Yar, in Buthidaung Township after the village chairperson failed to provide girls to the military as demanded: “When the military entered the village all the men ran towards the jungle and the women stayed in groups. Women from 10-20 houses gathered in one house. In every village women made groups like that to stay together. The military initially pretended they needed potatoes. I thought I could rest and hide, but then they rushed into the house. 4 to 5 military were guarding the house when one of them raped me. One after the other, they took turns in raping me. I begged for my life. After the second rape, I fainted. I do not know how many men raped me.”197 188 189 190 191 192 193 194 195 196 197 22 CI-106, EI-055, EI-091, EI-093, EI-094, EI-095, LI-105, K-127, K-128. A/HRC/39/CRP.2, Para. 1069. A/HRC/39/CRP.2, Para. 1070. CI-106, EI-055, EI-091, EI-093, EI-094, EI-095, LI-105, K-127, K-128. EI-094, EI-095, EI-107. A/HRC/39/CRP.2, Paras.s 1102-1107, 1433, Global New Light of Myanmar “Tatmadaw ends clearance operations in Northern Rakhine” (18 February 2017). EI-054. EI-094. EI-055. EI-094.