NEWS & LETTERS, April - May 2009
World in View
Congo and militias
by Gerry Emmett
The Congolese and Rwandan army offensive against Eastern Congo-based Rwandan Hutu militias has had a degree of success. The UN estimates that up to 300,000 Congo refugees have been able to return to their village homes. However, it is also reported that when the army forces have withdrawn, the militias have returned to take revenge upon some villages.
The UN "peacekeepers," the largest such force in the world, have done little to stop the looting, murders and rapes committed in Eastern Congo's war. Rape is so common that the UN Development Program has rated Congo as the world's worst country to be a woman.
It is made worse by the stigma that is carried by a rape victim. She is considered "dirtied," shamed, and her husband or father is expected to disown her in order to regain his "respect" in the traditional community. The hundreds of thousands of women who have suffered all this receive little attention or aid from outside.
Local women's groups have been more serious about responding. For example, at great personal risk, activists from the Women's Media Assocation in Bukavu (AFEM) have travelled to villages where women have been subjected to rape and other atrocities. They have recorded interviews with survivors and got them aired on local radio to help expose the problem and change attitudes.
As AFEM's Franchou Namegabe said recently, "In African traditions, it is difficult to talk about sex on the radio. It was a shock. A scandal. But for them, it was a first step to heal their wounds" (Women's eNews).
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