Gang Rape Used as Weapon of War in Congo

It took five operations to repair Lumo’s internal injuries after she was gang-raped and left for dead by Hutu militia in eastern Congo, in what women’s rights activists call a new form of terrorism, the use of rape as a weapon of war.

Lumo’s story, told in an award-winning documentary about survivors of sexual violence in Congo, highlights the women’s continuing plight. “The main issue is terrorism. Rape is used as terrorism, as an instrument of war, to empty whole communities of people, to destroy the economies,” said Lyn Lusi, program manager for Heal Africa, whose organisation works with the affected women in the Democratic Republic of Congo’s eastern region.

Mrs Lusi, who is in Australia to promote grassroots advocacy for Congo, welcomed last week’s United Nations announcement of a global campaign to combat violence against women and girls, saying raising awareness of the problem was an essential step.

She said a recent survey of 600 young women with HIV in Goma, eastern Congo, found that for a large number their first sexual experience was not consensual.

Mrs Lusi’s organisation has treated 11,700 women in the past four years for sexually transmitted diseases. Almost every woman gang-raped by a militia has an STD, she said. One in five of the 11,700 women had been gang-raped or tortured and one in 10 had fistula, a hole torn between the vagina and the urinary tract, leading to chronic incontinence. Fistula can also occur during childbirth.

“The purpose of the Lumo documentary is to raise awareness of the Congo situation. It can’t be solved from inside the country,” she said.

Mrs Lusi encourages Australians to write to their members of parliament asking how Australia is supporting the peace process in Congo. “If you ask the question, they have to answer, they get informed, they become more engaged,” she said.

For years, Congo’s civil war has gone largely unnoticed internationally. But suddenly the world is paying attention: in January a ceasefire between nine militias and the Government was signed and the UN’s biggest peacekeeping mission – a force of 17,000 – is moving in. The renewed Western interest appeared to come after China signed a 30-year deal to exploit Congo’s minerals in return for building infrastructure, Mrs Lusi said.

While the UN, the US, China and Congo wrestle with national unity and rebuilding the country, organisations such as Heal Africa build up communities that will give women greater rights.

Source: The Sydney Morning Herald – 3 March 2008