CONGO: UN condemns culture of impunity which allows Congo's armed men to continue to rape, pillage and kill

The UN's humanitarian chief on Friday (September 8, 2006) condemned the culture of impunity which allows Congo's armed men to continue to rape, pillage and kill. Jan Egeland, visiting the war-battered Congo's eastern borderlands where violence continues despite the official end to a 1996-2002 war, said women in the region continue to suffer greatly from sexual violence. Many are living in makeshift camps having fled their homes. "This is a place where people can live from the land, they should not be refugees and they should not be living in fear every single night to have new attacks and to again be violated and abused," he told reporters. The exact number of rapes in Congo isn't known. But the one clinic in Bukavu that specialises in rape cases has dealt with more than 10,000 cases in the last seven years. Doctors say without a greater acceptance of rape victims by their communities, their psychological scars will never heal. And one doctor said once raped, the women are more likely to be victims again. Landmark elections held at the end of July were aimed at bringing lasting peace to the giant central African state. But the hospital still receives 10 victims per week, aged between two and 60 years old, often malnourished and suffering infections. Many of them are so brutally gang raped they required reconstructive surgery on their vaginas. Tears in the vaginal wall between the bladder or the rectum, known as fistula, leave the women unable to control their bodily functions. They are often ostracised by their community, unable to have sexual relations and suffer lifelong health problems. The clinic has performed surgery on more than 1,000 women, some of them requiring three or four painful operations to heal the damage. Egeland, who is on a 3-nation African tour, condemned the injustice done to the victims and demanded that those responsible must be punished. "I will write to President Kabila with my strong impressions from Katanga, from south Kibo and as of this afternoon, from Ituri, and detail the action steps that need to be taken to end impunity and to punish those military and those administrative leaders who are either responsible for sexual abuse or for acts of corruption," Egeland said on Friday. The 1998-2003 war killed some 4 million people through conflict, hunger and disease. Although the war is nominally over, an estimated 1.7 million Congolese are still homeless, fleeing attacks by militia groups and the predatory army. As they have in other conflict zones, young soldiers roaming lawless eastern Congo have turned rape into a weapon of war. Different militia groups have developed their own torture techniques, doctors said. One group, for example, shoots the victim in the genitals after the rape.

ITN Source | September 9, 2006

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