WASHINGTON - A State Department investigation has corroborated reports earlier this year that Burmese military officials have systematically raped ethnic minority women and girls, according to a recently declassified copy of the investigation report.
The report by the Thailand-based groups concluded that the Burmese military, as part of its campaign to bring ethnic areas under its control, officially condones rape as a ''weapon of war'' against civilian populations.
All of the rape victims had been gang-raped by Burmese soldiers within the past five years, including a 13-year-old girl who had been raped two months earlier.
''The older women sobbed violently as they recalled horrific incidents of their own rapes as well as brutal rapes, torture, and execution of family members,'' the State Department report said.
Reports of rapes in Burma verified

The report by the Thailand-based groups concluded that the Burmese military, as part of its campaign to bring ethnic areas under its control, officially condones rape as a ''weapon of war'' against civilian populations.
All of the rape victims had been gang-raped by Burmese soldiers within the past five years, including a 13-year-old girl who had been raped two months earlier.
''The older women sobbed violently as they recalled horrific incidents of their own rapes as well as brutal rapes, torture, and execution of family members,'' the State Department report said.
Reports of rapes in Burma verified
