In Kashmir and Balochistan, Chhattisgarh and Nepal, sexual violence is used with impunity to subjugate women, say researchers.

There is an
exponential increase in the incidence of sexual violence – which is
often used as a tool of punishment, for revenge and to teach other
communities a lesson – in areas of conflict in India, Pakistan,
Bangladesh, Nepal and Sri Lanka. These are the findings of a three-year
long project exploring sexual violence and impunity in South Asia, which
were discussed during a conference in New Delhi on Saturday.

Fifty
scholars across these five South Asian nations gathered evidence for
this project, which was initiated by Zubaan, an independent feminist
publishing house, in 2012.

The research addresses issues relating
to “accountability, state involvement and complicity in strengthening
impunity for perpetrators, legal regimes and their understanding of the
rights and needs of survivors and victims of sexual violence”.

A public secret

“Sexual
violence is used as a tool of subjugation in the region whether it is
in Balochistan in Pakistan, or North Eastern India, Kashmir or Nepal,”
said Laxmi Murthy, co-ordinator of the project. “It is used as a way in
which minorities are kept out of the political system.”

In India,
the researchers explored sexual violence in areas suffering from
violence for years such as Kashmir, Chhattisgarh and the North Eastern
states. They also studied areas that suffered from communal violence
such as Delhi in 1984; Bhagalpur in Bihar, in 1989; Gujarat in 2002, and
Muzaffarnagar, Uttar Pradesh in 2013.

“The sexual violence is
both visible and unknown,” said Urvashi Butalia, the director of the
project. “It is like a public secret, which nobody acknowledges. The
impunity is taken for granted and signals many kinds of collusion with
spaces of power.”

Warisha Farasat, who conducted research into the Bhagalpur riots in 1989,
in which more than 1,000 people, the majority of them Muslims, were
killed, said that two commissions constituted to investigate the riots
did not write a word on sexual violence or rape.

“Only one family
in one village spoke of sexual violence,” said Farasat. “They described
several women who were tricked into going to a neighbour’s house, who
were raped and killed brutally. They did not file a police report
earlier, but wanted justice now.”

Farasat added that she couldn’t
help but wonder if that family was now talking about the incident only
because the women had been murdered. This meant that there was no
rape-related social stigma involved.

The case of Kashmir

On
the other hand, in Kashmir, sexual violence against women isn’t
suppressed but there are community protests whenever a woman accuses
armed forces personnel of sexual violence. Women even come on camera to
talk about it.

“One woman told her husband that if he does not
announce that his daughter and wife had been raped by an Army officer on
the loudspeaker, she would do it,” said Gazala Peer, who conducted the
research in Kashmir. Despite that, an FIR is not registered unless
people pour out onto the streets and protest about it.

In such
cases, rape is seen as an issue that can be used to fight larger
battles, said Kavita Punjabi, professor and head of the department of
Comparative Literature at Jadavpur University, Kolkata. “Rape then is
not as stigmatised, but protesting against it is seen as a political
act.”

No justice or reparation

The project
also discusses the absence of a lack of accountability by governments,
the failure to address the impunity enjoyed by perpetrators, and the
absence of effective mechanisms to provide justice and reparations.

In
Chhattisgarh, for instance, women thought to be involved in combat are
usually brutally tortured and raped over a period of days, and then
killed, said Guneet Ahuja, who worked with the Jagdalpur Legal Aid
Group, representing Adivasis in Bastar.

In 2011, the Supreme Court
ordered an enquiry into sexual violence in Chhattisgarh on a writ
petition filed by Nandini Sundar, professor at Delhi School of
Economics. The enquiry found six serious cases of rape.

Ahuja
narrated how rape accused who belonged to the police or paramilitary
forces often get away, or are even rewarded. For instance, in
Chhattisgarh, the statue of a special forces officer accused of rape,
who was killed in an attack, now stands in the village where he was
accused of rape.

Similarly, “the current Inspector General of
Bastar, SRP Kalluri, was accused of rape in Tadmetla,” said Ahuja. “He
was then the superintendent of police but was made the IG. Another
policeman accused of rape was given the presidential medal.”

In the Muzaffarnagar cases, the Supreme Court ordered compensation for seven women who filed rape cases.

But
that is no solution, said Vrinda Grover, lawyer and human rights
activist who appeared for the women. “While it was commendable that
compensation was provided before a trial, it was also a way in which the
state was getting off the hook,” said Grover. “The possible
condemnation towards the state was purchased. Their role for allowing
this kind of violence to be perpetrated was not recognised in a way it
should have been.”

She aded that the delay in the trial in the
Muzaffarnagar cases had proved costly. “Of the seven women, one is
willing to give testimony,” she said. “Two have turned hostile, and four
are negotiating. The everyday-ness of life takes over. They probably
feel – what are they fighting for and what are the risks?”

Source: http://scroll.in/article/808556/study-sexual-violence-routinely-used-as-a-weapon-in-conflict-zones-across-south-asia