Rape as a weapon in the DRC, part 1

On 23 March 2000, Pope John Paul II gave a moving speech to a crowd gathered at Israel’s Holocaust Memorial. In this speech, he articulated a unified commitment to the memory of the Holocaust and pledged that such brutal acts against humanity would never be repeated: “We wish to remember. But we wish to remember for a purpose, namely to ensure that never again will evil prevail, as it did for the millions of innocent victims of Nazism.”

And we all agreed – never again. Yet at the very moment of Pope John Paul’s pledge, a similar sort of evil was prevailing over millions of innocent people in the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC), and still continues to this day. Recently termed “the rape capital of the world” by the UN because of extreme acts of sexual violence committed against women and children, the DRC is a hotbed of conflict that has claimed the lives of 5.4 million people since the late nineties – the highest fatality rate since World War II. Disease, war and armed rapes are the foremost causes of death.

The DRC is one of the poorest countries in Africa. This poverty was further exacerbated by the absorption of millions of Rwandan Hutus fleeing civil war in their own country during the late nineties, giving way to an outbreak of violence and a fight for government power. Millions of internally displaced persons (IDPs), forced out of their villages as a result of armed attacks, further the instability of the country.

In the midst of this chaotic landscape, perpetrators of injustices against the defenceless are not brought to justice. Impunity is a major factor in the lack of legal action taken against high-ranking military officials who endorse and regularly exercise violence against women.

Those who have survived sexual violence are perhaps the most exposed to the corollary dangers of civil conflict. Soldiers and civilians alike, indoctrinated by brutal military leadership, are encouraged to use sexual force, often in homes and in front of family members as a weapon of control and intimidation. It is no surprise, therefore, that a Harvard University study found that the number of rapes carried out by civilians has increased by a staggering seventeen-fold since 2004. Like any societal trend, it has developed into a social norm and something as atrocious as rape is rationalised.

Let’s not turn a blind eye to the Congolese nationals who have come to accept these atrocities as part of everyday life.

We will be posting again on Monday with information on how people can take action to make a difference.

Written by Lydia Bowden