PRESENTATION BY CHOUCHOU NAMEGABE - AFEM-SK - DRC

Challenging the Silence: Media against sexual violence

The Hague, December 10th. 2007

Rapes and sexual violence against women are used as weapon of mass destruction and as a tactique of war in the East of the DRC. This to destroy the whole future of a community through its women. Despite the apparent end of the war and the elections that have taken place in the DRC, the sexual violence has not come to an end.

The number of victims of sexual violence continue to increase each day. And the cruelty used during the rapes exceed any understanding. But the international community is silent on this issue and the Congolese government does nothing to end this crime against humanity.

To explain to you what I am talking about, I will tell you the stories of two victims, so you can imagine.

One lady was attacked in her house in Kaniola, a village near Bukavu. She was raped by seven interahamwe – who are armed Rwandese Hutus. They raped her in front of her five children and her husband. After this they forced her eldest son to rape her. Then they killed her husband. Then they took this woman with her children to the forest, and made her their sex slave. 

While they continued to rape her, each day the interahamwe killed one of her children. Each day they brought her the head of her child and forced her to eat the meat of her child. Five children, so this nightmare lasted five days.

Physically and pshycologically destroyed by this experience, the woman asked her menaces to kill her.  She didn't want to suffer anymore. They refused, telling her she had no right to an easy death. In the end she escaped with the head of one her children. Once in the hospital she couldn't stop reliving this horror. She couldn´t commit suicide since she is a Christian.   How do you imagine this lady can ever find peace with herself and the world? Voilà, the big question.

The second example is an eight-year-old girl who was raped by five interahamwe. After the rape, they pushed stones and branches of a tree into her vagina. This destroyed her bodytissues, so there was no difference anymore between her vagina and her anus. This is what the medical language calls fistula.

The girl asked the doctor: « Doctor, will I marry one day and will I have children, like the other women?

What kind of answer can you give this little girl, apart from hiding your tears? How can we heal the body and the heart of this girl that has lost her feminity and doesn't have any chance of a normal future?

These cases are known by the authorities and the United Nations organisations that are present in great numbers in the DRC. So why do all these actors remain silent on these atrocities? Especially when the testimonies of the victims allow for identifation of the perpetrators of these crimes.

What the victims know, is that the international community has opened the border for the interahamwe to enter into the eastern DRC with arms and munition. Laurent Nkunda, who is causing terror in North Kivu, hides behind the argument that he is fighting the Interahamwe. But he is perpetrating the same atrocities against women. Now, who is responsible for what? 

Victims want peace and security. But this cannot come without justice and punity for the perpetrators of crimes against humanity.

Also victims and their communities need to be compensated. Because when a woman is violated, the whole community is affected. The women need pshycological help, medical treatment ánd support for social reintegration.

Fact is that the justice system in the DRC is limited to persecution of certain crimes only. This is why it is important that the International Criminal Court ensures reparation for victims of this type of crime we are talking about today.

Why does the ICC judge Thomas Lubanga for the enrollment of child soldiers, but not for committing sexual crimes ? This comes as a real shock for Congolese women. Is the ICC telling us that the soldiers of Lubanga haven´t committed these crimes in Ituri ?

There are testimonies of victims available that say the contrary.

The Netherlands is a big financer of international institutions in support of human rights. As such this country should use all its power to pressure the ICC to start immediately with an investigation into the sexual crimes committed in the Eastern part of the DRC.

We, the women of AFEM and all the victims that we represent here today, want that the ICC starts taking repressive measures against the ones who violate women. The ICC culd start by setting up local offices in those villages are most affected by this tragedy.

These offices should take into account the real needs of the victims.

Also, on behalf of more than 50 NGO´s in the Eastern part of the DRC we made a document with recommendatons on how to deal with sexual crimes. These are recommandations to the Congolese government, but also to the ICC and to you, the international community. You will find this document in your file.  

Lastly, we urgently appeal to the international media. They have to improve their way of portraying the situation. Media can provide influence to get political attention for these crimes. All depends on on how these media treat the information available.

When the international media confirm wrongly that 80% of these crimes are committed by the military of the FARDC, this has resulted in the situation where the international community rejects all responsability and leaves it to the Congolese government.

This even turns away the attention of the ICC from foreign armed groups and from Congolese militias who use sexual crimes at this moment as a weapon of war.

This is why we ask you to get involved in this fight in a more profound way. A good example of this possibility is how you engaged with the Tsunami campaign where you, the international media, succeeded to mobilise the world for support for the victims.

It is said «To Speak about something, is to Act». We ask you to act and help us to Break the Silence, because we don´t know what will happen to our society tomorrow given the number of women that are affected by these violations and the cruelty of how these are committed.

Contact person: Mme Chouchou NAMEGABE, Présidente
Address: Hôtel des postes, avenue Kibombo, Bukavu, RDC
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Phone number: +243 (0) 813180007