Update on Gang-Rapes in the Congo

Wednesday, September 8, 2010


Update on Gang-Rapes in the Congo
by Crystal
Huskey
September 8th, 2010
The situation in the Democratic Republic of the Congo, formerly known as Zaire, is worse than previously suspected, although it is hard to fathom anything much worse. The numbers of women systematically gang-raped has increased from an estimate of around 240 to now closer to 500, all during the same two week time period of July 30th through somewhere around August 14th. The growing number represents small villages in the North and South Kivu provinces that were attacked during the same period of time.
Numerous complaints have been made in online forums concerning the idea that the world does not care what happens in the Congo because there is nothing to gain materially from them. This assumption is wrong. In terms of natural resources, out of all the African countries, the Congo has the most to offer. Interestingly, many of the villages targeted were along the route that is used to traffic illegally extracted minerals. Margot Wallstrom, a UN special envoy on sexual violence in armed conflict, cited horrific accounts from women attacked around Kibua, a village in North Kivu. She reported that “militiamen shoved their hands inside women’s sexual organs to look for hidden gold and that the village was surrounded so that no one could run away.”[1]
Much has been done in the Congo and other African nations to bring the illegal trade of so-called blood diamonds, also called conflict diamonds (diamond that originate from areas controlled by forces or factions opposed to legitimate and internationally recognized governments[2]) under control and stop the violence, but not enough[3].
All crime has its motivation. The issue of illegal trade serves to understand the motivation behind these heinous acts a little bit more, at least, more so than rape and torture for the sake of rape and torture. There must have been a unifying goal to get so many different militia groups working as one, over such a broad sweep of land, and such a short period of time. Four years ago I worked in a refugee camp in Europe. I recall meeting a group of young girls with beautiful eyes and energetic spirits. When I asked them where they were from, they replied in unison and with great pride, “The Congo!” They were there alone, having escaped to Angola on the back of a pick-up truck with a group of orphans. The war in the Congo has been going on since it first became independent, over forty years ago now. My hope is that as time goes on, the motivation will become known, and a solution found.

3 comments:

mathias October 2, 2010 at 1:39 AM  

nice post.

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Unknown November 10, 2010 at 3:22 AM  

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marcos1054 January 20, 2011 at 4:39 AM  

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