With all of the attention that has been placed on the atrocities of Darfur, few people are aware of another, equally brutal African war that is taking place in the DR Congo (former Zaire), literally under the worlds radar screen.
During the course of the last 10 years, an estimated four million people have perished as a result of wars, famine and disease, stemming from the fall-out from the genocide that occurred in Rwanda in 1997 that also impacted the Congo.
Last year alone, over a half-million people were displaced from their homes and communities.
The cause has been an ongoing conflict between the Congolese army, rebel forces from neighboring Rwanda, Uganda, and local militias all vying for power, despite the efforts of a 17.000 member UN peacekeeping force that has been in place since 2005.
After 40 years of often despotic, corrupt rule – first by Joseph Mobutu, who assumed power in 1965 and later, Laurent Kabila, who came to power in 1997 but was assassinated in 2001, after which his eldest son Joseph took over – democratic elections were held in 2006.
Unfortunately, any gains accrued by the election appear to be increasingly onset by fighting which has erupted in Eastern Congo that threatens to plunge the country into an all out civil war.
The fighting has taken an extremely ominous form. Over the past several years, hundreds of thousands of women have been raped. Rape has literally become the weapon of choice for combatants, destroying women, families and whole communities in the process.
Age appears to be no impediment (hindring) to the rapists either, with victims ranging in age from five & six all the way up to 75. Most have been repeatedly gang-raped.
Some of the women who experienced such horrific acts have withdrawn so deep into themselves that they no longer resemble the women they once were – longing more for death than life.
– I think because of the widespread nature of the war, because there has been so much violence, rape is now on a daily basis – rape is the norm,” said Anneka Van Woudenberg, senior Congo researcher with Human Rights Watch, who was interviewed in January.
– I think what is different in DR Congo is the scale and the systematic nature of it, indeed, as well, the brutality, Van Woudenberg continued, adding:
– This is not rape because soldiers have got bored and have nothing to do. It is a way to ensure that communities accept the power and authority of that particular armed group. This is about showing terror. This is about using it as a weapon of war.
– I used to think that when men fled they were irresponsible, but now I understand things differently, said Dr. Denis Mukwege, director of Panzi Hospital in Eastern Congo, which treats rape victims.
– They have not fled because their wives have been raped, but because they feel THEY have been raped. They have been traumatized… humiliated… because they were not able to do anything to protect their wives and children, according to Van Woudenberg.
– When a woman is raped, it is not just her that is raped. It is the entire community that is destroyed, says Judithe Registre, with Women for Women, a rape survivors advocacy group.
– When they take a woman to rape her, they will line up the family; they will line up other members of the communities to actually witness that. They make them watch. And so, what that means for that particular woman when it is all over, is that total shame, personally, to have been witnessed by so many people as she is being violated, explained she.
And the rapes are exceedingly brutal and cruel.
Dr. Mukwegas patients are often sodomized with broken bottles, bayonets and other objects inserted into them. Some rape victims are even shot between their legs.
As a consequence, many young women lose the ability to have children; others have to have hysterectomies (fjernet livmoderen) and many never regain the ability to control their bodily functions and are forced to wear a colostomy bag (tarmpose) afterward.
The History
Since 1998 a brutal war has been raging in the Democratic Republic of Congo. Over four million people have died. And there are the uncountable casualties: the many tens of thousands of women and girls who have been systematically kidnapped, raped, mutilated and tortured by soldiers from both foreign militias and the Congolese army.
The world knows nothing of these women. There are roughly 200 different ethnic groups living in the DR Congo, which has a population of approximately 65 million, the bulk of whom are Roman Catholic, with an average life span of 57 years.
Estimates
Based on personal testimonies collected by Human Rights Watch, it is estimated that as many as 30 percent of rape victims are tortured and mutilated during the assaults, usually with spears, machetes, sticks or gun barrels thrust into their vaginas. About 40 percent of rape victims, usually the younger ones, aged eight to 19, are abducted and forced to become sex slaves.
Kilde. The Push Journal
