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Tens of Thousands Raped by Militias in Congo Conflict
Owen Bowcott and agencies, The Guardian
March 8, 2005
Some of the victims were as young as three. Men and boys were similarly treated, the report by Human Rights Watch says.
"On occasion military commanders and the heads of armed groups seem to have encouraged the use of sexual violence as a way to terrorise civilians," it adds.
The scale of the abuse during the civil war between 1998 and 2003, which involved rival armies from six neighbouring African states, is gradually emerging.
And it continues.
At least 10 women were being raped every day in the eastern town of Bunia as recently as October last year, the report says.
The aid organisation Médecins sans Frontières has treated more than 2,500 rape victims, aged between four months and 80 years, at its hospital in Bunia since June 2003.
Sheltering in a refugee camp protected by UN peacekeepers with tanks and machine guns, Therese Yeda, 32, said a militia group gang-raped her last week as she walked between two villages.
"Ten of them had guns, the other two had machetes. All 12 of them raped me," she said. "I am eight months pregnant but the baby doesn't seem to be moving any more."
An earlier assessment by the World Health Organisation, which looked at the provinces of South Kivu and Maniema and the cities of Goma and Kalémie, concluded that up to 40,000 people had been raped.
"Combatants of most armies and armed groups in eastern Congo committed acts of sexual violence both before and after the establishment of the transitional government [in 2003]," the Human Rights Watch study says.
"Alleged perpetrators include fighters of the former rebel movements - the RCD-Goma, the MLC, and RCD-ML - and soldiers of the former national army, the FAC. All [are now] supposedly part of an integrated Congolese army.
"In Ituri [province], where armed groups of different ethnicity have fought each other for years, combatants often used sexual violence to target persons of ethnic groups seen as the enemy ...
"In some areas women and girls stopped working in the fields or going to the market [and] took to hiding in the forest at night instead of sleeping in their homes ...
"Civilian and military judicial authorities and leaders of armed groups rarely punished perpetrators of these crimes."
More shaming to the international community is the allegation that the UN mission in Congo (Monuc) "has often failed to protect civilians, including those targeted for sexual violence".
It adds: "Worse, some Monuc peacekeepers and civilian staff have discredited the operation by committing crimes of sexual violence and by sexually exploiting women and girls ...
"Monuc peacekeepers, from different military contingents, have sexually exploited Congolese women and girls who were in desperate need of food, money or other items."
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