Rape and Death in Congo
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By Brittany Young
Photo courtesy Refugee International
War has been raging in Congo for over a decade, and lately Congolese and rebel troops have used a brutal war tactic: rape. Thousands of young girls and women have been raped by warring militias as a means to establish control and authority in villages.
This weapon of war is used to terrorize villages, forcing them into submission. It is proving to be the most powerful and disturbing method used by these troops, and it is producing an incalculable number of female victims and deaths.
As much as 90 percent of women in many villages (as young as 3 and as old as 75) have been raped, brutalized and even murdered. The women who have survived such violations have described horrific acts performed by militants. Many women were shot or cut open with knives. Some have even been raped with tree branches and the barrel of a gun.
“Some of these girls whose insides have been destroyed are so young that they don’t understand what happened to them,” Dr. Mukwege, the director of Panzi Hospital in Eastern Congo, told CBS News. He treats dozens of women a day who have been brutalized.
Militiamen of the Congolese army and foreign rebels began fighting over a decade ago when the Rwandan genocide spread to Congo. Now, various home-grown and foreign rebel militias are battling the national army for power in Congo and control over the world’s largest deposits of gold, diamonds and other coveted stones and metals.
Despite a democratic election in October 2006, on which the United Nations spent $500 million, the war has continued to ravage Congo and its people. CBS reports that more people have died in the Congolese war than in Iraq, Afghanistan and Darfur combined, despite the UN’s largest peace-keeping involvement in history.
As the warring persists, the raping of women becomes more commonplace.
“The violation [rape] is a means of intimidation, humiliation and the destabilization, as well as destruction, of local communities, by foreign and national armed forces,” explained Marie-Louise Mazunga Pambu from Women’s International League for Peace and Freedom (WILPF).
One of the newest and most dangerous groups to appear in Congo is called the Rastas. This group of fugitives lives in the forest and is known for kidnapping women and burning babies, according to CBS. Dozens of other rebel groups practice similar tactics to bring villagers to their knees and destroy women.
The victims are also forced to face the shame of their communities. Ms. Magazine reports that rape victims are told they are “not women anymore.” In a country where virginity is revered and women are subordinate to men, rape victims are shunned by their families and communities.
Dr. Mukwege explains that husbands of the victims, for example, “have been traumatized…humiliated…because they weren’t able to do anything to protect their wives and children.”
There are currently 17,000 UN peacekeeping troops supporting the government army and aiding in reinforcements, according to a press release by Friends of the Congo. Areas of shelter have been established for displaced victims, but the capacity of most camps is shrinking as thousands of families move westward to escape the violence.
Even still, fellow refugees are taking advantage of the vulnerable women and raping them inside the supposed safety of the camps.
Organizations such as Women for Women International are providing aid for the rape victims. Their support groups and counselors have informed women of their rights and have even taught them vocational skills so they may find work. WILPF, too, is working to restore normalcy to life in villages.
While fighting in the east continues, the Congolese justice system is nearly inexistent, leaving rape victims without justice. The focus now is to give women the hope and ability to function as strong members of society. However, any true strides toward women’s rights will most likely not be attained until warring ceases.
Sponsor a woman – survivor of war – and change a life: www.womenforwomen.org
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