US paper: male rape a ‘weapon of war’

A paper in the Hastings Law Journal has lifted the lid on the use of male rape and sexual torture as weapons of war.

The paper, Male Rape and Human Rights by researcher Lara Stemple, documents male rape as a component of armed conflict and political violence in Chile, Greece, Croatia, Sri Lanka, El Salvador, Iran, Kuwait, the former Soviet Union, the former Yugoslav republics and the Democratic Republic of Congo.

In some cases soldiers gang raped prisoners, while in other cases prisoners were forced to rape each other. Other cases involve sexual humiliation, genital mutilation or castration and in many cases victims were left with serious long term injuries.

Twenty one percent of male Sri Lankan male refugees at a London treatment centre reported sexual abuse while in detention, while a study of political prisoners in El Salvador held during the 1980s found 76 percent had been sexually tortured. Of 6000 male concentration camp inmates in Sarajevo during the Bosnian war 80 percent were found to have been raped.

Victims often had few options for support, facing stigma from within their communities while many support agencies supporting rape victims were focused on supporting female victims.

It is estimated that male rape is even more under reported than female rape.