Community | August 25, 2010 | 91 comments

Updates: Armed Groups Gang-Raped Nearly 200 Women and Children in Four Days | Videos | Photos

source: http://www.cnn.com/video/#/video/world/2010/08/25/bpr.drc.rape.kron.cnn?hpt=T2

EthicalVegan
Armed Groups Raped More Than 150 Women

Added On August 25, 2010

Journalist Josh Kron reports from Goma, DRC, about the mass rape of women over four days in North Kiva last month.
  1. groups:
    Community,   News and Politics,   Politics,   Current Tonight,   17 more
  2. tags:
    Activism,  Human Rights,  Rape,  Humanity,  39 more
  3.     
    |

91 comments // Updates: Armed Groups Gang-Raped Nearly 200 Women and Children in Four Days | Videos | Photos

  • jubal
  • tverdell
    • tverdell  
    • This comment was removed by its owner.
  • EthicalVegan
  • Nephwrack
  • tverdell
    • tverdell  
    • This comment was removed by its owner.
  • EthicalVegan
  • tverdell
    • tverdell  
    • This comment was removed by its owner.
  • EthicalVegan
  • ibrake4rappers13
  • ayipis
  • ayipis
    • +2
      ayipis  

    • http://www.eastafricaforum.net/2010/07/14/the-failure-of-the-live-aid-model/

      BETTER GOVERNMENT IS THE KEY TO PREVENTING FAMINE.

      Twenty-five years ago yesterday, rock stars and charity organizers from both sides of the Atlantic came together for an unprecedented fund-raising event. Simultaneous concerts at London’s Wembley Stadium and JFK Stadium in Philadelphia were joined via satellite linkup for a global television audience. Ethiopians were suffering from dire famine, and promotional posters proclaimed this would be “The day the music changed the world.” They called it Live Aid.

      In monetary terms, the event was considerably more successful than expected, raising £150 million ($283 million). There was an extended round of global self-congratulation and a knighthood for organizer Bob Geldof. More than ever, the attention of the world was focused on the famine and poverty afflicting Africa.

      Yet despite the massive financial outpouring, the raised awareness and the cultural impact, Live Aid must be considered a failure.

      Recently released CIA documents from 1985 (and a subsequent BBC investigation) suggest that so much of the money went to arms instead of food that it may have prolonged and deepened Ethiopia’s humanitarian catastrophe. Live Aid also focused the developed world on a flawed approach to charity that ignores the governmental causes of Africa’s misery.

      Seven years later, the United Nations pledged to relieve the serious famine in Somalia brought on by its civil war. The U.N.’s first mission in 1992 was purely humanitarian—providing food, medicine and other vital supplies to a population in critical danger of starvation. Yet the country was so thoroughly in the grip of chaos that 80% of the food aid was stolen. Much of the remainder was unable to pass through the ruined Somali infrastructure to reach those who needed it.

      It was not until a U.S.-led military mission was sent to restore order by force that the aid finally started getting through. The famine soon abated, and the conflict subsided considerably—until American forces pulled out after suffering 19 casualties in the Battle of Mogadishu the following year. Since the final withdrawal of U.N. peacekeepers in 1995, Somalia has known nothing but hunger, disease, anarchy and now piracy.

      *******

      be weary of those who wants to save the world with nude protests..LOL

    • 1 year ago
  • ayipis
    • 0
      ayipis  

    • http://www.africafiles.org/article.asp?ID=3851

      * Across the Third World, Structural Adjustment Programmes imposed by the IMF and World Bank to obtain the repayment of foreign debt have led to famine, environmental destruction, and the dismantling of health, education, infrastructural and social welfare programmes. These programmes nearly always include the same set of measures: currency devaluation, decontrol of exchange rates, higher interest rates, financial deregulation, trade liberalisation, privatization, wage cuts, reduction in the public service through budget cuts and massive retrenchments, labour market deregulation, and the like. The social costs, typically including large increases in the prices of basic goods and food, intensified poverty, deterioration of public services, and rising unemployment, are nearly always borne by those people, especially women and children, who never received any benefits from the borrowings. Structural Adjustment Programmes have also made small economies vulnerable to transnational corporations that exploit cheap labour (often imprisoned in union-free export processing zones devoid of health and safety regulations with wages that sink to US$1 per day) and that dump toxic wastes and poisons produced in the rich industrialized countries.

      * Debt repayment has become an important mechanism for transferring wealth from the people of the South to financiers of the North. According to the United Nations, developing countries paid US$1,662 trillion in debt servicing between 1980 and 1992. This amount is three times the original amount owed in 1980. Yet in spite of the above transfers the total Third World debt still stands at over US$1,3 trillion. It is not commonly known that the Third World has repaid almost a trillion dollars of principle over and above US$771 billion in interest. In Sub-Saharan Africa the ratios of foreign debt to Gross National Product rose from 51% in 1982 to 100% in 1992, and of foreign debt to total exports from 192% in 1982 to 290% in 1992, a period during which the Third World debt crisis was allegedly resolved. The external debt of the Third World has become an eternal debt and stands as the largest immediate obstacle to growth and sustainable development. It is therefore crucial that progressive forces in South Africa add their voice to the calls made internationally to cancel Third World debt as the first step towards building equitable and just relationships between and within different parts of the world. The meagre gold sales belatedly proposed by Camdessus to help finance extremely limited debt relief, and only for those countries which religiously adopt the IMF's 11 Commandments, are far too little, far too late, and it is a reflection of the exploitative charact

    • 1 year ago
  • ayipis
    • -1
      ayipis  

    • this shit happens because the UN does not have the balls to do what its suppose to do..it has the "i dont want to offend" policy when dealing with these people..

      and who else has that "i dont want to offend" mindset?

    • 1 year ago
  • EccentricSage
  • ayipis
    • +1
      ayipis  
    • Image

    • http://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/un-soldiers-accused-of-atrocities-in-som...

      UN soldiers accused of atrocities in Somalia: Human rights group urges adherence to Geneva Conventions
      RICHARD DOWDEN, Africa Editor
      Friday, 30 July 1993SHARE PRINTEMAILTEXT SIZE NORMALLARGEEXTRA LARGE
      SPONSORED LINKS:
      Ads by Google

      Learn Your Human Rights
      Did you know you had 30 HumanRights? Check them out now!
      HumanRights.com

      2 Laptops for $23.41?
      Charles B. got 2 Laptops forUnder $30. Learn how!
      SwipeBids.com

      Human Rights Education
      Raise Human Rights Awareness To OurYouth. Get Free DVD & Info Kit
      YouthForHumanRights.org

      Human Rights Study Abroad
      International Human Rights ExchangeJohannesburg, South Africa
      www.ihre.org

      THE United Nations force in Somalia (Unosom) is accused of atrocities including killing of unarmed people, the bombing of a hospital, beating civilians and theft, according to a report published in London today.*

      Africa Rights, a newly formed human rights body, accuses the United States-led operation of 'grave breaches of the Geneva Conventions' and acting with 'near-total impunity'. Complaints procedures against the UN are woefully inadequate, the report says. It calls on the UN to reverse the policy of militarisation of the aid operation and for strict adherence to the Geneva Conventions.

      Its most serious complaints concern the helicopter gunship attacks on buildings on 17 June and 12 July, but it also accuses the UN of the killing of unarmed civilians, the forced relocation of Mogadishu residents and the demolition of their homes. 'These are not cases of undisciplined actions by individual soldiers, but stem from the highest echelons of the command structure,' the report says.

      The report will reopen the dispute between the American command in Mogadishu and the Italians and other forces that broke out two weeks ago over repeated American helicopter gunship raids aimed at killing General Mohamed Farah Aideed, the leader of the largest Somali faction. The Italians complained that the attempt to kill Gen Aideed was counterproductive, and demanded a return to the humanitarian aims of the operation.
      \ *********

      what needs to be done is REMOVE THOSE dictatorships...and that would take a lot of sacrifice and effort...the UN and a lot of liberal "help" organization had been milking this fucking continent that its already decimated because people already lost the will to fight..

    • 1 year ago
  • ayipis
    • 0
      ayipis  

    • well liberal hollywood is going to make an awareness movie to "educate" the masses that africa is not doing well...

    • 1 year ago
  • EthicalVegan
  • ayipis
  • EthicalVegan
    • 0
      EthicalVegan  
    • ayipis:

      Wow, are you off on yet another tangent.

      Here is what I wrote. This is what I asked.

      "What's your source? Is this already in production, then? How about some more information, including facts?"

      I asked you three questions, none of which you answered. What's your bloody game?

    • 1 year ago
  • Eddie_Miller
  • dariusvons
  • Einsam_Data_Old
  • EthicalVegan
  • ThresholdBroken
  • EthicalVegan
  • EmperorThan
    • +1
      EmperorThan  

    • That's fucked. I read a few years ago that teenage Chinese youth will gang together in small groups and travel across the border to Mongolia to rape women because of the lack of women in their communities their age, but those are always isolated incidents nothing like this...

      This is like Rape 9/11

    • 1 year ago
  • ayipis
  • eLearnDev
  • ThresholdBroken
  • versasrev
    • 0
      versasrev  

    • So now that more than 150 women have been raped over a four day period, this makes fucking news...

      This isn't the least of what happens. Some women are vaginally raped with the soldiers guns and have holes torn in their uterus, some are raped with guns anally. Other women are rounded up as sex slaves and raped on a continual basis. Any woman in that country isn't safe; these rouges have executed a womans husband in front of her, then raped her. For the life of me I can't remember if this act was perpetrated in front of her children or not. I'm done with this before I throw a fit.

    • 1 year ago
  • Eddie_Miller
    • 0
      Eddie_Miller  
    • versasrev:

      Its ok we don't have to see it we can just sit here and get fat and laugh at others misfortunes. We don't have a responsibility as one of the leading powers in the world NO WAY MAN

    • 1 year ago
  • versasrev
    • 0
      versasrev  
    • Eddie_Miller:

      What are you talking about?

      The only thing I'm expressing is frustration that the thousands of other stories that have occurred in the DRC have not been adequately reported on by the mainstream media. It as if a peoples suffering has to be beyond epidemic proportions before mainstream sources are interested. This just further illustrates how far journalism has fallen since the muckraking day, and is now in the shallows of pure sensationalism. If they really gave a shit they would have been reporting on this and other tragedies for the past several years that they have been occurring.

    • 1 year ago
  • Eddie_Miller
  • versasrev
  • EthicalVegan
  • EthicalVegan
  • versasrev
  • Eddie_Miller
  • EthicalVegan
  • QuestionGeek
  • darkmerkaba
    • 0
      darkmerkaba  

    • See what happens when the people of the country do not have guns. do you think that would happen if that group new that everyone in that country had guns? Nope. No one has ever held up a gun store.
      And the UN army is a F-ing joke. its led by random Generals from random parts of the world who have almost no training, and no desire to be there.
      the best way to prove that Gun laws and the slow de-arming of the US public is a bad idea is this story right here.
      "The first step in ruling a country is to disarm the people of the country because an armed public is a fighting force no government or military in the world can slay."

    • 1 year ago
  • Eddie_Miller
  • ayipis
    • -20
      ayipis  

    • well what can i say. that is your UN for you.........when you get an liberal organization that is incompetent as the UN..shit happens..

    • 1 year ago
  • Nephwrack
  • DisownCashValue
  • ozoneocean
  • wellhunggimp
    • +6
      wellhunggimp  
    • ayipis:

      SInce you say so much stupid shit, I figure I should help you with your grammar. You know, so folks think you're a moron for less reasons.

      You use "an" before a word that starts with a vowel. What an idiot.
      You use "a" before a word that starts with a consonant. What a dickhead.

      So now you know whats wrong (grammatically at least) with your statement.

    • 1 year ago
  • littlwarrior
    • +1
      littlwarrior  
    • ayipis:

      Right no way it's because i dont know, all of these conservative countries tell their soldiers not to get involved! The UN is not a military organization, it is a humanitarian one. You want a war pick up a gun and do it yourself.

    • 1 year ago
  • iamfree
  • bailey78
  • eLearnDev
  • ayipis
    • -1
      ayipis  
    • DisownCashValue:

      it does not make sense that we are allowing the UN to run the show...africa is a liberal strong hold..just ask Bono..every effort every live concert every "nude" protest done to save this shithole had done nothing but to condition the world to these kind of atrocities..

      http://www.nytimes.com/2005/07/15/opinion/15tonme.html

      OP-ED CONTRIBUTOR
      All Rock, No Action
      Sign In to E-Mail This
      Printer-Friendly
      Save Article
      By JEAN-CLAUDE SHANDA TONME
      Published: July 15, 2005
      Yaoundé, Cameroon

      LIVE 8, that extraordinary media event that some people of good intentions in the West just orchestrated, would have left us Africans indifferent if we hadn't realized that it was an insult both to us and to common sense.

      Forum: Op-Ed Contributors
      We have nothing against those who this month, in a stadium, a street, a park, in Berlin, London, Moscow, Philadelphia, gathered crowds and played guitar and talked about global poverty and aid for Africa. But we are troubled to think that they are so misguided about what Africa's real problem is, and dismayed by their willingness to propose solutions on our behalf.

      We Africans know what the problem is, and no one else should speak in our name. Africa has men of letters and science, great thinkers and stifled geniuses who at the risk of torture rise up to declare the truth and demand liberty.

      Don't insult Africa, this continent so rich yet so badly led. Instead, insult its leaders, who have ruined everything. Our anger is all the greater because despite all the presidents for life, despite all the evidence of genocide, we didn't hear anyone at Live 8 raise a cry for democracy in Africa.

      Don't the organizers of the concerts realize that Africa lives under the oppression of rulers like Yoweri Museveni (who just eliminated term limits in Uganda so he can be president indefinitely) and Omar Bongo (who has become immensely rich in his three decades of running Gabon)? Don't they know what is happening in Cameroon, Chad, Togo and the Central African Republic? Don't they understand that fighting poverty is fruitless if dictatorships remain in place?

      ******when it comes to actually physically doing something...liberals fail**********

    • 1 year ago
  • ayipis
    • 0
      ayipis  
    • wellhunggimp:

      okay thank you for the lesson ..now do you have anything to say about africa??

      now question is..can you comprehend or reason?? do you want me to do it correctly so you can follow the conversation here??

      because i say " fuk u" is pretty much same as "fuck you"....... if YOU CAN COMPREHEND..

    • 1 year ago
  • ayipis
  • ibrake4rappers13
  • ibrake4rappers13
  • ibrake4rappers13
  • Varex_Sythe
    • 0
      Varex_Sythe  
    • ayipis:

      I would swear that you are either drunk or a moron.

      I don't need to bash or counter you political slant, just about everyone else has. But I also am noticing that someone else did a rudimentary correction of your pathetic grammar. Well, I want to go more in depth than they did, so on to correcting your butchering of the language that you can't seem to master.

      The first sentence should read, "Well what can I say?" You capitalize the first letter of a sentence, and you capitalize the word I. However, capitalization is fairly minor. You are asking a rhetorical question. The key word there is question. You need the question mark.

      The second sentence should read, "That is your U.N. for you." Again, capitalizing the first word of the sentence. Also, U.N. is an abbreviation of two words. You put periods after the letters of abbreviated words to signify that they are an abbreviation.

      The third sentence should read, "Shit happens when you get a liberal organization that is as incompetent as the U.N." Again, capitalizing the first word of the sentence. The word "an" which is in front of liberal should be "a." The word "a" becomes "an" when it is placed in front of a word that begins with a vowel, and the word "liberal" does not begin with a vowel. You also need the word "as" between "is," and "incompetent." No, it is not redundant to say something is as incompetent as (insert random noun).

      This has been your basic english lesson. If you haven't already been through a public school, go back and earn your basic elementary and middle school education. If you have already been through a public school, then I'm sorry the system failed you.

      By the way, we don't correct your grammar because we don't comprehend or understand your argument. We correct your grammar because it is atrocious and an eye sore to anyone with any semblance of a working and an understanding of the english language.

    • 1 year ago
  • Varex_Sythe
    • 0
      Varex_Sythe  
    • ibrake4rappers13:

      I'm voting this up, not because it warms my heart to see two people who lean towards the conservative side arguing, but because you're taking a realistic and respectable position more to the middle ground of this argument by recognizing (at least I think) that this is not an issue with a political leaning of any kind.

    • 1 year ago
  • wellhunggimp
    • 0
      wellhunggimp  
    • ayipis:

      I can comprehend that you want me to talk about Africa when you only wanted to talk about liberals and color them incompetent.

      I've had excellent reading comprehension for decades now, you don't have what it takes to test me, kid. You've got a lot of growing to do.

      THINK.

    • 1 year ago
  • ibrake4rappers13
  • ibrake4rappers13
  • Eddie_Miller
    • 0
      Eddie_Miller  
    • ayipis:

      I think people should be more aware of how they use their terms... people and organizations can make liberal decisions AND conservative decisions. "Liberal" and "conservative" are not states of being, they are more-so adjectives used to explain a specific point of view on a given subject.

    • 1 year ago
  • Varex_Sythe
  • Incredulous
  • UtopianSky
    • +4
      UtopianSky  

    • I read an article a long time ago, about how the national boundaries in Africa were created on purpose to create conflict.

      Nations in Europe formed on their own, naturally, based on ethnic groups and border disputes, resulting in national boundaries strongly correlating to ethnic boundaries.

      Africans did not create their National boundaries- Europeans did, and they did not give a damn what tribes lived where.

      A single tribal region could be chopped up into two or three countries, making a large population into minorities when they should have been a country of their own.

      A single country could contain bits of numerous tribes that hate one another.

      Imagine if Europe got chopped up, with one country containing French, Germans and Brits all together, and forced to get along, separate from all the other french, Germans and Brits.

      Europe did that to ensure that they could not organize and overthrow European control.

      Africa really needs to completely redraw their maps, but now it's too late. Most African governments are hardly more than organized crime, and they will not give up their control for anything.

    • 1 year ago
  • ozoneocean
    • +1
      ozoneocean  
    • UtopianSky:

      That's only partly true. Sections of Africa were sliced up strangely over the long period of European colonisation, but it wasn't really done with the intention of causing strife... It was more about the strife the different colonial powers had with each OTHER. ie. a French colonial country like Tunisia is bordered by the former Italian colony of Lybia and so on.

      And your comment about Europe being cut up in that way is a bit funny, since it WAS and has been many times over the last couple of thousand years and as recently as the cold war! Which is probably why the colonial powers didn't see it as a problem when they did it in Africa.
      Examples of that are especially visible in the country of Belgium, Switzerland and the United Kingdom (especially Northern Ireland).

    • 1 year ago
  • Blkwdw
  • toastyguy11
  • fun_size
    • 0
      fun_size  
    • UtopianSky:

      Its not that they were divided just to cause unrest, its that they were divided to make them easier to govern by a foreign power. Its all a result of European colonialism and the effects are certainly visible in the Middle East. It can be said that Britain is responsible for much of the ethnic violence that occurs on a near daily basis in countries such as Iraq, Palestine/Israel and Afghanistan.

    • 1 year ago
  • wellhunggimp
  • Sparky2U
  • corndog67
    • -2
      corndog67  

    • We need to save this country next. Right after Afghanistan and Iraq. Then North Korea, then Iran, then Mexico, then China. Congo comes next. I'll gladly pay more taxes to "Save the Congo!!!"

    • 1 year ago
  • Incredulous
    • +6
      Incredulous  

    • "U.N. peacekeeping mission did not know about the rebel attack and rapes, a U.N. official said"

      bullshit they didn't know. I live in the US and I knew...they don't want to know. We have troops in the Congo, women's sites have been reporting this, and women's groups connected to the UN have been reporting this for a while now.

    • 1 year ago
  • EthicalVegan
    • +4
      EthicalVegan  
    • Incredulous:

      http://www.nytimes.com/2010/08/26/world/africa/26congo.html?_r=1&ref=world

      The New York Times --

      August 25, 2010

      U.N. Knew of Rebels in Area of Congo Rapes

      By JOSH KRON

      GOMA, Democratic Republic of Congo — The United Nations knew Rwandan rebels were occupying villages in eastern Congo at the time the rebels raped nearly 200 women there, United Nations and aid officers said Wednesday, raising questions about why peacekeepers failed to move to protect villagers.

      Between July 30 and Aug. 3, hundreds of soldiers from two rebel groups took over the villages, raping at least 179 women. Many of the attacks were gang rapes by two to six men. The humanitarian group that documented the rapes, International Medical Corps, said that it first notified the United Nations of the attacks on Aug. 6. The United Nations made its first public comments on the rapes Sunday.

      According to the officers, an e-mail alert from the United Nations Department of Safety and Security was sent to United Nations staff members on July 30, the day the rapes began. The message warned them to stay away from the area — part of Walikale, in the North Kivu Province of Congo — because it had been taken over by rebels.

      “Everyone got that e-mail,” said an officer from a humanitarian organization in the area, who spoke on the condition of anonymity on strict instructions from the organization. “That rebel elements were active in those specific villages, and humanitarian workers should not go there.” The officer said that the alert did not mention rape.

      On Wednesday, the top United Nations official in Congo said that the rebel activity reported on July 31 was not out of the ordinary. “There was no particular suggestion of an attack, much less the kind of events like the mass rape,” said the official, Roger Meece, speaking to reporters in New York by video teleconference from Goma.

      Even so, a United Nations official based in Kinshasa, the Congolese capital, said that such an alert would almost certainly have been shared with peacekeepers and should have prompted them to try to protect the villagers.

      “I don’t know why they didn’t act in time,” the official said, speaking on condition of anonymity about a matter of confusion within the United Nations. “It is beyond my mind.”

      The United Nations keeps a forward peacekeeping base nearby, for better communication with villagers, and the Congolese military has a presence in the area. It had sent a patrol down the main road at the time to remove a roadblock set up by other rebels, Mr. Meece said.

      Mr. Meece said that a United Nations patrol had passed through a couple of the villages where the rapes were taking place — once while at least some rebels remained in the area and once after they were gone — but that the villagers never said anything about the horrific sexual assaults. The first word came via humanitarian workers nearly two weeks after the rapes occurred, he said.

      The presence of the patrol during the time of the attacks meshes with reports from the area. A United Nations spokesman, Madnodje Mounoubai, said humanitarian organizations alerted the United Nations of the attacks a week after the rebels left the villages, on Aug. 12. The United Nations then organized a team for fact-finding, security and aid.

      Another United Nations officer, speaking on condition of anonymity to avoid antagonizing departments in the United Nations, said that the team heard from witnesses that peacekeepers had been in the area on Aug. 2, while the rapes were still taking place.

      The official said that there had been “a lot of miscommunication” within the peacekeeping mission.

      “There seems to be a disagreement between the military and civilian sides” of the mission, the official said. “Everyone has their own information, and we are trying to piece everything together.” A meeting is to be held on Thursday to clarify the situation.

      Neil MacFarquhar contributed reporting from the United Nations.

    • 1 year ago
  • dariusvons
  • EthicalVegan
  • EthicalVegan
  • MrMxyzptlk
  • wellhunggimp
  • MrMxyzptlk
  • Incredulous
  • Incredulous
  • Incredulous
  • MrMxyzptlk
  • Incredulous
  • EthicalVegan
    • +2
      EthicalVegan  
    • Image

    • http://www.cnn.com/2010/WORLD/africa/08/25/congo.rapes.un/index.html

      U.N. peacekeepers cite delay in learning of mass rape in Congo

      From Josh Kron, For CNN
      August 25, 2010 8:30 p.m. EDT

      A file image from UNTV, released as the United Nations released more details about a mass rape in the DRC.

      STORY HIGHLIGHTS

      * NGO says that it told UN peacekeeping mission about the mass rape on August 6
      * U.N. peacekeeping mission did not know about the rebel attack and rapes, a U.N. official said
      * Rwandan and Congolese rebels attacked 16 villages, looting homes and raping residents

      Video: Armed groups rape more than 150

      _____

      Goma, Democratic Republic Of The Congo (CNN) -- The United Nations peacekeeping mission in eastern Congo did not know about a rebel attack and mass rape in that region until more than a week after the events took place, a U.N. peacekeeping mission official said Wednesday.

      But the account of the delay was disputed by a non-governmental organization.

      Hundreds of Rwandan and Congolese rebels raided a network of villages in North Kivu Province between July 30 and August 3, gang-raping nearly 200 women, humanitarian officials said. A U.N. peacekeeper military base was within 30 kilometers (about 19 miles) of the general area of the attacks, in the town of Kibua.

      "We had regular patrols in this area during that period," Madnoje Mounoubai, spokesman for the U.N. peacekeeping mission in the Congo, told CNN by phone from Kinshasa. "Unfortunately, the villagers and the local authorities never brought this issue to our knowledge.

      "If we are not informed, it will be difficult for us to know," he added.

      Although the U.N. maintains a number of peacekeeping bases in the region, Mounoubai said the U.N. troops in eastern Congo, known under the acronym MONUSCO, did not find out about the attack until August 12, and only after being informed by the International Medical Corps (IMC).

      But Margaret Aguirre, an IMC spokeswoman, told CNN that her group informed the U.N.'s Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs about the rapes on August 6.

      "Two hundred to four hundred armed men systematically pillaged and raped women in the villages," Giorgio Trombatore, country director for the IMC in the Congo, told CNN. He was among the first group of people to visit the site of the attacks.

      "The rebels entered, tried to calm the population down by telling them they came for food and rest, and so [they] shouldn't flee," he continued. "Another group came at night and it was then they started harassing the population."

      The rapes, by armed men, often occurred in front of the women's children and husbands, IMC said in a news release. "Large numbers of women reported being physically beaten before the sexual assaults, and some reported abuse of babies who were forcibly removed from their arms. The perpetrators simultaneously pillaged the entire village and smaller neighboring villages, before leaving."

      During the four-day attack across 16 villages, according to the U.N., rebels from the Democratic Forces for the Liberation of Rwanda, as well as militiamen from the notorious Mai Mai movement, also looted villages.

      An earlier report said three peacekeepers were killed and seven others were wounded, but those deaths and injurie stemmed from a previous incident.

      So far, 179 cases of rape have been documented from the days-long event.

      U.N. Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon condemned the attacks Tuesday, saying he was "outraged."

      Ban has dispatched a senior representative -- Atul Khare, his assistant secretary-general for peacekeeping operations -- to the affected areas in and around Walikale, the town that served as the epicenter of the rapes, to meet with victims.

      "This is another grave example of both the level of sexual violence and the insecurity that continue to plague the DRC," Ban said in a statement.

      Margot Wallstrom, the secretary-general's special representative on sexual violence, was expected to stop in Goma, the capital of North Kivu province, before going on to visit Walikale.

      In Washington, State Department Secretary Hillary Clinton said Wednesday she was "deeply concerned" by the reports.

      "The United States has repeatedly condemned the epidemic of sexual violence in conflict zones around the world, and we will continue to speak out on this issue for those who cannot speak for themselves," she said in a statement.

      "The United States will do everything we can to work with the UN and the DRC government to hold the perpetrators of these acts accountable, and to create a safe environment for women, girls, and all civilians living in the eastern Congo."

      The Democratic Republic of the Congo was ranked as the fifth-worst failed state in the world in a 2010 listing created by the Fund for Peace and Foreign Policy Magazine.

    • 1 year ago
  • EthicalVegan
    • +3
      EthicalVegan  
    • Image
    • EthicalVegan:

      http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-africa-11079135

      24 August 2010 Last updated at 18:34 ET - BBC

      UN investigates claims of mass rape by DR Congo rebels

      Photo: Congolese rape victims raise their hands as they pray at a chapel inside the Heal Africa clinic in Goma on August 9, 2009 Thousands of women are raped each year in DR Congo, the UN says

      The United Nations is investigating claims that rebel fighters raped more than 150 women and baby boys in the Democratic Republic of Congo.

      The attacks happened over four days within miles of a UN base, a US aid worker and a Congolese doctor said.

      UN chief Ban Ki-moon is sending two top aides to the country to help investigate the alleged assaults in the country's volatile eastern region.

      Mr Ban also urged the Congolese government to investigate the attacks.

      Aid workers and UN representatives knew that rebels had occupied Luvungi town and surrounding villages in eastern DR Congo the day after the attack began on 30 July, the International Medical Corps (IMC) said on Tuesday.

      They could not get into the town until the rebels left, said the IMC's Will Cragin.

      According to reports, the rebels gang-raped nearly 200 women and some baby boys over four days before leaving.

      The region lies approximately 10 miles (16km) from a UN peacekeepers' base.

      Mr Ban is sending Atul Khare, assistant secretary-general for peacekeeping, immediately to DR Congo to help investigate, UN spokesman Martin Nesirky said.

      He also ordered his special representative for sexual violence in conflict, Margot Wallstrom, to take charge of the UN's response to the attacks.

      A UN joint human rights team confirmed allegations of the rape of at least 154 women by fighters from the Rwandan FDLR militia and Congolese Mai-Mai rebels in the village of Bunangiri, Mr Nesirky said.

      "The secretary-general is outraged by the rape and assault. This is another grave example of both the level of sexual violence and the insecurity that continue to plague Congo," he told the Associated Press.
      'World rape capital'

      The victims are receiving medical and psychological care.

      Ms Wallstrom condemned the rapes. She said: "It should be noted that this incident represents a very extreme case in terms of its scale and the level of organisation of the attacks.

      The "terrible incident" confirmed her findings during a recent visit to Congo of the "widespread and systematic nature of rape and other human rights violations."

      Ban Ki-moon urged the Congolese government to investigate the attacks

      DR Congo has a shocking reputation for sexual violence. In April, a senior UN official said it was "the rape capital of the world".

      A report by the Harvard Humanitarian Initiative showed that 60% of rape victims in South Kivu province had been gang-raped by armed men.

      More than than half of the assaults took place in the victims' homes, the report said, and an increasing number of attacks were being carried out by civilians.

      More than 8,000 women were raped during fighting in 2009, the UN says.

      Eastern DR Congo is still plagued by army and militia violence despite the end of the country's five-year war in 2003.

      UN peacekeeping troops have been backing efforts to defeat the FDLR, whose leaders are linked to the 1994 genocide in Rwanda and who are operating in eastern DR Congo.

    • 1 year ago
  • EthicalVegan
    • +2
      EthicalVegan  
    • Image
    • EthicalVegan:

      http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-africa-11092639

      Photo: A Congolese woman cries while fleeing fighting in eastern Congo

      * Haunted by Congo rape dilemma
      25 August 2010 Last updated at 19:08 ET - BBC

      UN 'was not told about DR Congo mass rapes'

      Ban Ki-moon urged the Congolese government to investigate the attacks

      A UN envoy has said troops could not prevent the rape of more than 150 women and boys by rebels in DR Congo because they did not know it was happening.

      Peacekeepers passed through the area twice but were told only that rebels were setting up road blocks, he said.

      UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon said he was "outraged" by the attacks and has sent two envoys to investigate.

      The UN has called an emergency session of the Security Council to discuss a response to the violence.

      The rapes happened in Luvungi town and surrounding villages, within miles of a UN peacekeeping base, a US aid worker and a Congolese doctor have said.

      Some reports say rebels occupied the area and gang-raped nearly 200 women and some baby boys over four days before leaving.

      A UN joint human rights team confirmed allegations of the rape of at least 154 women by fighters from the Rwandan FDLR militia and Congolese Mai-Mai rebels in the village of Bunangiri.

      But Roger Meece, a UN official in eastern DR Congo, said that while local people had told the UN patrols about roadblocks, they said nothing about the sexual violence. The UN was only told about it 10 days later by an aid group.

      Speaking to journalists by video from Goma, Mr Meece said the villagers may have feared reprisals from the rebels or have been ashamed by the cultural stigma of rape.

      But the BBC's Barbara Plett at the UN says there was clearly a serious failure in communications, made all the more significant as the peacekeepers work from a small forward operation base established to increase the UN's contact with civilians in the volatile region.

      Mr Meece said the UN was now investigating ways of improving communication with local people.

      One idea is for villagers to contact the base daily, "with the default being that if the communication is not made, there would be an assumption of a problem and a patrol despatched," he said.
      'Must speak out'

      DR Congo has a shocking reputation for sexual violence and rape is commonly used as a weapon of war.

      But even by normal standards, the latest attacks were particularly vicious, says our correspondent.

      Mr Ban said he had met victims of "appalling crimes of sexual violence" in DR Congo last year and felt compelled to ask whether more could have been done to protect the latest victims.

      "Women and children should not have to live in fear of rape. Communities should not suffer the indignity of knowing that human rights abusers and war criminals can continue to behave with impunity," he said.

      "We must speak up and we must act."

      The UN has previously described Congo as "the rape capital of the world", with more than 8,000 women raped during fighting in 2009.

      A report released in April by the Harvard Humanitarian Initiative showed that 60% of rape victims in South Kivu province had been gang-raped by armed men.

      More than than half of the assaults took place in the victims' homes, the report said, and an increasing number of attacks were being carried out by civilians.

      Eastern DR Congo is still plagued by army and militia violence despite the end of the country's five-year war in 2003.

      UN peacekeeping troops have been backing efforts to defeat the FDLR, whose leaders are linked to the 1994 genocide in Rwanda and who are operating in eastern DR Congo.

    • 1 year ago
  • EthicalVegan
    • +2
      EthicalVegan  
    • Image
    • EthicalVegan:

      http://www.csmonitor.com/World/Africa/2010/0825/Mass-rape-in-Congo-reignites-que...
      Christian Science Monitor

      Mass rape in Congo reignites questions on efficacy of UN force

      A report this week that Rwandan rebels looted villages in Congo and mass-raped more than 150 women and children in July has human rights activists asking why the UN peacekeeping mission can't prevent such atrocities.

      *

      Photo: United Nations peacekeepers pass near a Rwandan Hutu rebel as they patrol near a UN peacekeeping encampment in Kimua, eastern Congo, in October, 2009.
      Rebecca Blackwell/AP

      _____

      By Scott Baldauf, Staff writer / August 25, 2010
      Johannesburg, South Africa

      The Rwandan rebels came down into the eastern Congolese town of Luvungi and occupied it for four days, systematically looting local homes and gang-raping more than 150 women and children.

      Less than 20 miles away, two dozen soldiers from the world's largest United Nations peacekeeping force sat apparently unaware, seemingly unable to come to the village’s aid. The peacekeepers even made mobile patrols through some of the villages surrounding the occupied town of Luvungi itself, only to find that the rebels – the Democratic Forces for the Liberation of Rwanda (FDLR), whose members are blamed for the 1994 genocide in Rwanda – simply ran into the woods to hide, only to return when the UN forces were gone.

      The attacks, which occurred in late July and were confirmed this week by the UN peacekeeping mission, have raised questions about just what the UN Organization Stabilization Mission in the Democratic Republic of Congo is supposed to accomplish.

      VIDEO: Former fighter confesses to rape, says how he's trying to get men to stop

      "During the attack [the rebels] looted [the] population's houses and raped several women in Luvungi and surrounding areas," Stefania Trassari, spokesperson for the United Nations Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA) was quoted as saying by Al Jazeera’s English service on Monday.

      "International Medical Corps [a private aid group] reported that FDLR systematically raped the population during its four-day stay in Luvungi and surrounding areas," Ms. Trassari said. “A total of 179 cases of sexual violence were reported.”

      In eastern Congo, rape is so prevalent as a method of war, both by armed militias and by the Congolese Army itself, that the UN calls it the “rape capital of the world.” It's also now become much more common among civilians in the war-torn areas.

      The lingering violence in eastern Congo is one of the reasons the UN deployed some 20,000 peacekeepers in what is the most expensive peacekeeping mission in the world.

      Yet, as the UN peacekeeping mission winds down – at the insistence of Congo's government – it is cases like the Luvungi mass rapes that raise questions about whether the government is ready to pick up its “primary responsibility” for security and protecting Congolese civilians from still-present armed groups.

      If it is not ready, human rights activists ask, then what is the purpose of the UN peacekeeping mission?

      “The situation in the [Congo] is getting more and more horrific, and this is just one case that we know about in which rape is used as a weapon of war,” says Sipho Mthathi, the office director of Human Rights Watch in Johannesburg. “The issue of civilians being attacked is there whether the UN attacks these militias or not. So as far as we are concerned, this requires urgent action. Either the UN figures this out, or they must be disbanded and something else should be put into its place.”

    • 1 year ago
  • Nephwrack
more from Community:
from the community

top videos