Bob Herbert
For years now, in the Democratic Republic of Congo, marauding bands of soldiers and militias have been waging a war of rape and destruction against women. This sustained campaign of mind-bending atrocities, mostly in the eastern part of the country, has been one of the strategic tools in a wider war that has continued, with varying degrees of intensity, since the 1990s. Millions have been killed.
Women and girls of all ages, from old women to very young children, have been gang-raped, and in many cases their sexual organs have been mutilated. The victims number in the hundreds of thousands. But the world, for the most part, has remained indifferent to their suffering.
"These women are raped in front of their husbands, in front of their children, in front of their parents, in front of their neighbors," said Dr. Denis Mukwege, a gynecologist who runs a hospital in Bukavu that treats only the women who have sustained the most severe injuries.
In some cases, the rapists have violated their victims with loaded guns and pulled the triggers. Other women have had their organs deliberately destroyed by knives or other weapons. Sons have been forced at gunpoint to rape their mothers. Many women and girls have been abducted and sexually enslaved.
It is as if, in these particular instances, some window to what we think of as our common humanity had been closed. As The Times's Jeffrey Gettleman, on assignment in Congo, wrote last fall:
"Many of these rapes have been marked by a level of brutality that is shocking even by the twisted standards of a place riven by civil war and haunted by warlords and drug-crazed child soldiers."
James Morton
For years now, in the Democratic Republic of Congo, marauding bands of soldiers and militias have been waging a war of rape and destruction against women. This sustained campaign of mind-bending atrocities, mostly in the eastern part of the country, has been one of the strategic tools in a wider war that has continued, with varying degrees of intensity, since the 1990s. Millions have been killed.
Women and girls of all ages, from old women to very young children, have been gang-raped, and in many cases their sexual organs have been mutilated. The victims number in the hundreds of thousands. But the world, for the most part, has remained indifferent to their suffering.
"These women are raped in front of their husbands, in front of their children, in front of their parents, in front of their neighbors," said Dr. Denis Mukwege, a gynecologist who runs a hospital in Bukavu that treats only the women who have sustained the most severe injuries.
In some cases, the rapists have violated their victims with loaded guns and pulled the triggers. Other women have had their organs deliberately destroyed by knives or other weapons. Sons have been forced at gunpoint to rape their mothers. Many women and girls have been abducted and sexually enslaved.
It is as if, in these particular instances, some window to what we think of as our common humanity had been closed. As The Times's Jeffrey Gettleman, on assignment in Congo, wrote last fall:
"Many of these rapes have been marked by a level of brutality that is shocking even by the twisted standards of a place riven by civil war and haunted by warlords and drug-crazed child soldiers."
James Morton
10 comments:
We never do hear anything of this tragedy in the news. Sure every now and then we do hear something. But it's never front page news. I can't remember the last time I've seen this in our newspaper's or on the T.V. news. I really can't !
What is the U.N.doing about this besides just talk? It seems to me that we only hear about them when they are criticizing Israel for what ever reason.
Correct me if I'm wrong,but isn't this the type of reasons why we have this world body,is to stop or prevent these types tragedies from happening in such countries as in the Democratic Republic of Congo and others from happening?
If only they had oil...
More than three million died during the 90's. It wasn't that we didn't hear about it. It was that we didn't want to hear. You had to look the other way not to learn what was happening in Congo.
Let's be honest. As far as the West is concerned, they're black - and we don't do black. That's why we fobbed it off on the African Union.
I hate to agree but there is a real truth to what the comments say. We (the West) don't really care about Africa and the UN is so focussed on a small Middle Eastern state that Congo is irrelevant. As for oil, well, who knows what oil would have done to make Africa more important! Perhaps I'm just in a bad mood but I do care about Africa -- my family was there from the 1860's -- and it's a damn shame that decent people are given up to monsters because they are poor, black and invisible...
Africa was better when it was run competently. It was better run from London and Paris and Brussels and Berlin. Colonialism worked.
Oh great. Just harness those blacks up to the yoke and their lives will be wonderful! Anon, you're pure scum.
Meanwhile, and totally off-topic Morty, check out this piece I linked through FootToTheFire. It's about how legal academics can be just as craven as industrialists:
http://www.counterpunch.org/cockburn02202009.html
Thanks Mound -- that's an amazing story and while I dont usually slam comments I also agree regarding Anon
Economists say that all war has an economic basis. Wikipedia offers a lengthy detailing of the entire war but devotes one little paragraph to "the reason".
Think colton and casserite, though not specified in Wikipedia. Everytime you open your computer or use your cellphone it glows, at the expense of slaves in the congo.
a terrible tragedy that should not be ignored. those poor, poor women :(
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