Rape As A Weapon Of War
A CNN report shows that rape has turned into a weapon of war in the Democratic Republic of Congo, with the number of attacks on women having grown threefold over the past few years.
Anneke van Woudenberg, senior researcher with Human Rights Watch, told CNN reporter Christiane Amanpour, that 200,000 women and girls have been raped in Eastern Congo since 1998, and the condition of women has become more dire as the Congolese army has pressed a military campaign against armed groups in the countryside.
“Rape is being used as a weapon of war in eastern Congo. So we notice and we have documented that when armed groups walk into town, they will rape the women and girls, sometimes publicly, sometimes privately, in order to punish the local population,” she said. “It’s the easiest way to terrorize a community.”
“One of the other sad realities is that the majority of those who are raped are adolescent girls, 12-year-olds, 13-year-olds, 14-year-olds. Their lives are often ruined by this. And I think we’ve got to take more seriously — protection of civilians is not just protecting them from death. It’s protecting them from rape,” van Woudenberg said.
The situation is compounded when even the Congolese army who are supposed to be protecting innocent civilians, actually participate in the rapine. There are reports of members of the army, particularly high ranking officers, attacking women.
Van Woudenberg called for international pressure to force the Congolese army to bring abusers to justice. There needs to be the establishment of a special court made up of Congolese and international judges and prosecutors to investigate rape allegations.
“I think they’ve got to start holding to account the generals and colonels who are either themselves responsible or who allow their troops to rape. And so far, those are the guys that have been untouchable,” said van Woudenberg. “No general has yet been held to account in Congo for rape, and it’s high time that that changes.”
“My worst fear is that we’re going to continue to see those individuals responsible for rape being promoted. My hope is that the women and girls of — of eastern Congo in particular — will continue to speak out. I think we’ve seen immense courage from those women and girls to say, ‘No, we’ve had enough
