'Rape' Capital Of The World

By Ann Mawathe, BBC News, Goma

"The rebel leader asked me two things: 'Do you want us to be your husbands? Or do you want us to rape you?'"

Congolese mother-of-eight Clementine speaks in a quiet and hesitant voice:

"I chose to be raped."

She explains: "I told myself, if I tell them that I want to be their wife, they will kill my husband. I didn't want my children growing up saying the one that made our father die is our mother."

Every time they see this woman, they see someone they were not able to protect. But that sacrifice was not enough. Her husband left her for another woman.

"After they raped me, my husband hated me. He said I was dirty. I often ask myself: 'Surely, I gave up my dignity for him, how come he can abandon me this way?'"

A host of different armed groups roam parts of eastern DR Congo and all are accused of horrific violence against women.

'Failures'
Clementine says she will not marry again: "He is the husband I chose when I took my vows in the church. If God wills, he will return." It seems to be a forlorn hope.

Jocelyn Kelly, a researcher with the Harvard Humanitarian Initiative's Gender-Based Violence programme, says the men that have survived these attacks on their families are extremely traumatised themselves:

"They say: 'I can no longer look at my wife.' And every time they see this woman, they see someone they were not able to protect. They feel like failures and the only way they can deal with it is to reject their wife and start over."

This is part of the damage that has been caused by people like Emmanuel, a former child soldier who is now 22 years old. He fought with the CNDP rebel group.

Emmanuel says that they raped to show their anger with the authorities for neglecting them.

"Soldiers or rebels usually rape because we stay in isolated places and we don't get our pay - even if it can come, it doesn't come on time.

"After living for a long time in the forest, you don't see women and so if one woman shows up then all of us, we profit."

_ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _

The Democratic Republic of Congo is "the rape capital of the world", a senior UN official has said.

Margot Wallstrom, the UN's special representative on sexual violence in conflict, urged the Security Council to punish the perpetrators in DR Congo.

Rape remained a dominant feature of the ongoing conflict in eastern DR Congo, with impunity being the rule rather than the exception, she said.

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

"Women have no rights, if those who violate their rights go unpunished," Ms Wallstrom told the UN Security Council on her return from DR Congo.

"If women continue to suffer sexual violence, it is not because the law is inadequate to protect them, but because it is inadequately enforced," she said.

The UN mission in DR Congo, Monuc, has been trying to deal with the problem by escorting women on their way to market, developing early warning systems and working with local officials, according to a UN statement.

In April, research on sexual violence in DR Congo's eastern South Kivu province produced shocking findings.

The report by the Harvard Humanitarian Initiative showed that 60% of rape victims in South Kivu were gang raped by armed men, more than half of the assaults took place in the victims' homes 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.
_ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _

Spread Me Fridays - is another segment I have started on the blog to highlight particularly pressing issues that need attention, change or very simply awareness. If it's an issue that has spoken to you, please pass it on. If you have an issue that needs highlighting, then please drop me an email.