PREFACE
History has shown that there is a link between war and the control of women's sexuality and of their productive and reproductive capacities through rape, sexual harassment and prostitution.1This is particularly true of the war that has raged since 1996 in the east of the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC), where sexual violence and abuse against women and girls has been, and continues to be, committed on a large scale. This report shows how women and girls have been exploited as producers and reproducers both in order to maintain the fighters and ensure their day-to-day survival as well as to provide them with sexual services.
Acts of sexual violence have been committed by combatants on all sides: fighters belonging to the Rassemblement Démocratique Congolais pour la Démocratie (RCD), soldiers of the Rwandan and Burundian national armies, Maï Maï and Interahamwe militias, and Burundian rebels of the Forces pour la Défense de la Démocratie (FDD) and the Front National pour la Libération (FNL). Despite the considerable progress made on the political front in the DRC since the end of 2002, with the ratification of various peace accords and the establishment of a transitional government in June 2003, political and administrative reunification has not been fully achieved. The security situation remains worrying in the east of the country, where acts of sexual violence are still taking place. There have been reports of many cases of rape following the brutal events that shook South Kivu in May–June 2004.
Since 2000, the UN Security Council has been paying particular attention to the situation of women and girls during armed conflicts. Thus Resolution 1325, adopted by the Security Council in October 2000 recognised the extent and gravity of sexual and sexist violence against women and girls, as well as the need to put in place prevention and protection mechanisms.2Moreover, the UN Secretary-General's two reports on 'Women, Peace and Security', which were published in October 2000 and October 2004 respectively,3devote considerable space to the issue of sexual violence as a violation of the basic rights of women and girls during armed conflict. The Secretary-General calls for this to be taken into account in the planning and execution of all peacekeeping operations.4The two reports also underline the need to take concrete measures to put an end to the impunity enjoyed by the perpetrators of sexual and sexist violence.
The African Union (AU), of which the DRC is a member has likewise turned its attention to the problem of sexual violence, one of the main features of the deadly conflicts that ravage the African continent. In Article 11 of the Protocol to the African Charter on Human and People's Rights Relating to the Rights of Women in Africa, the member states of the AU undertake to protect women during armed conflicts from all forms of sexual violence and exploitation and to ensure that such acts of violence are regarded as war crimes, crimes of genocide and crimes against humanity, and that the perpetrators of such crimes are brought to justice in the appropriate courts of law.5
However, although these efforts on the part of the international community are to be welcomed, it has to be said that they have failed to prevent acts of sexual violence, which continue on a massive scale in conflict zones. Impunity likewise remains a major problem, despite the advances represented by the creation of the International Criminal Court (ICC) and the prospect of the perpetrators of gender-based crimes during conflicts having to answer to this court for their acts. The DRC has adhered to the Rome Statute but the ICC can only take on cases regarding crimes committed prior to 1 July 2002. In the DRC, none of the fighting forces involved in the war has been made to face up to the atrocities committed against women, girls and the entire civilian population.
The women of South Kivu mobilised very early on to denounce the sexual violence and impunity and to fight for the recovery of the victims' rights. In the provincial capital Bukavu, the CCVS (Coalition Contre les Violences Sexuelles/Coalition Against Sexual Violence) was formed following a consultative meeting between several local women's organisations. The CCVS put forward to the Congolese legislative authorities proposals for reforming the national criminal law, with a view to redefining and reinforcing provisions against rape. However, these proposals went unheeded. Congolese women have also taken steps to provide concrete assistance to victims. For example, in the Uvira area, women's refuges ('Maison des Femmes') have been opened by women's organisations, offering a place of refuge and also material, psychological and medical support to women who have been raped. Thanks to this initiative, more and more victims are finding the courage to speak openly about the atrocities committed in their own areas, which makes it easier both to take care of them and to discover the scale of the problem.
This study was commissioned, with International Alert's support, by two women's organisations in South Kivu, Réseau des Femmes pour un Développement Associatif (RFDA), based in Uvira, and Réseau des Femmes pour la Défense des Droits et la Paix (RFDP), which has its headquarters in Bukavu. The women who were interviewed displayed great courage in recounting the many forms of violence and cruelty they had endured. We extend our warmest thanks to them .
We are also deeply grateful to the organisations and centres supporting victims of rape and violence, who were not only kind enough to supply us with extremely useful documentation and raw data for our research, but also enabled us to make contact with the people we wished to interview. In particular we would like to mention: Centre Olame, Union pour l'Emancipation des Femmes Autochtones (UEFA), the Junior and Saint Paul medical centres, Vision Teqoa, the Lemera hospital at Panzi, Save Humanitarian, Arche de l'Alliance, Association de Lutte pour la Défense des Droits de la Femme et de l'Enfant (ALUDROFE), Solidarité des Femmes Activistes pour la Défense des Droits Humains (SOFAD), the Ordonnance Baraka dispensary, Solidarité des Femmes de Fizi pour le Bien-être Familial (SOFIBEF) and Programme de Secours aux Vulnérables et Sinistrés (PSVS).
The political and military authorities were contacted in the areas where we carried out our research, and they provided our investigators with information, and a degree of security or protection, for which we thank them. We should also mention the Maï Maï and other fighters who were interviewed, even if we did not obtain a great deal from these interviews.
We can never thank enough the consultants who agreed to carry out this research in a difficult security context. Finally, we are deeply grateful to all those who made a valuable contribution to this study, through their constructive comments when the results of the research were made public, at the Round Table held at the Restaurant Bodega in Bukavu on 28 November 2003 and at the panel discussions in New York during the 48th session of the UN Commission on the Status of Women, and in Washington at the Woodrow Wilson International Center for Scholars in March 2004. We would like to thank in particular Howard Wolpe, Director of the Africa Department of the Woodrow Wilson Center and former US Special Envoy to the Great Lakes region, who chaired the panel and presided over the debates held at that institution.
Jeanne d'Arc Chakupewa Executive Secretary Réseau des Femmes pour un Développement Associatif (RFDA)
Vénantie Bisimwa Executive Secretary Réseau des Femmes pour la Défense des Droits et la Paix (RFDP)
Ndeye Sow Senior Advisor International Alert
INTRODUCTION
The world today is experiencing a new type of armed conflict, different from the more traditional war between nations. These new conflicts are characterised by the 'privatisation' of violence6and the use of private armies, community self-defence groups and paramilitary forces, but above all by ethnically-based militias – combatants who have no regard for international agreements and protocols, who attack civilians and take them hostage. These acts of violence, which are inflicted on entire populations very often include rape and other forms of sexual violence, both against women, and, increasingly, also against men.
In 1996, the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC) in the Great Lakes region of Africa experienced a first war. This was in part due to internal factors but the country had also been affected by the shockwaves of the conflicts in Rwanda and Burundi, which had a significant destabilising effect on eastern DRC. These conflicts represent a real challenge in geopolitical terms; they have altered the overall military picture in Africa and have made a deep impression on the rest of the world, both because of the complex and entangled nature of the various forces present in the territories affected, and the appalling number of civilian victims.
The province of South Kivu, the focus of this study, borders on both Rwanda and Burundi, and has therefore served as the point of entry for the foreign troops who have made their way across the province in all directions since 1996. Before then, in 1994, South Kivu had received more than 1.5 million Rwandan refugees, escorted there by French troops in 'Opération Turquoise' after the crushing defeat of the former Rwandan army. The military situation in this part of the DRC is extremely complex and this study briefly describes the various armed groups that are active in South Kivu, either on their own or in alliance with others, according to whatever is in their own interest at any one time.
Another characteristic of the armed conflicts in the DRC is the degree of cruelty and the scale of the rape and sexual violence committed against women, young girls and sometimes men. The scale of this violence, which some observers have called 'murderous madness',7prompted RFDP and RFDA, with the support of International Alert, to examine the socio-cultural roots of this violence and the different forms that it takes. Some attention has been paid to these issues by other local and international organisations, but existing studies on sexual violence against women in South Kivu concentrate mainly on describing and condemning these inhumane acts, and on underlining the fact that they constitute a violation of women's human rights. However, no less important is the fact – observed and highlighted in other studies – that this type of violence is rarely an isolated phenomenon and that, on the contrary, there is a strong link between violence committed at individual, institutional and structural level.
This study is based on extensive data, obtained from detailed interviews with 492 rape victims and from the examination of files relating to 3,000 victims of rape and sexual violence kept by local organisations. Fifty members of the armed forces were interviewed, but their statements on the whole were rather vague and evasive compared with those of the victims.
The aim of the study, which is divided into nine chapters, is to contribute to an understanding of sexual violence in South Kivu. Chapter 1 begins with a description of the methodology used. Chapter 2 looks at the socio-economic, political and military context of South Kivu, also showing how the violence is perceived from a socio-cultural standpoint; Chapter 3 discusses the position of women in South Kivu society and Chapter 4 sets out the socio-demographic characteristics of those interviewed. The study also examines the extent of the violence, the forms that it takes and its perpetrators as well as identifying the survival strategies deployed by victims and their communities. Chapter 5 sets out the various forms of rape committed and Chapter 6 describes not only the physical and psychological consequences for victims of rape and sexual violence, but also the social consequences of these acts. Chapter 7 scrutinises the motives for these violent acts both as perceived by the victims themselves, and also on the basis of the statements made by those few perpetrators who agreed to talk about them. The institutional response –ie, that of local and state authorities – is covered in Chapter 8, with a particular focus on how Congolese legislation deals with sexual violence, while Chapter 9 highlights the role of civil society, which takes care of victims in a variety of ways.
Recommendations are made on the basis of the research findings, with a view to raising awareness among all those – activists, researchers but above all decision-makers with a particular interest in the situation of victims of rape and sexual violence who are working to eliminate this crime against humanity.
Footnotes:
1 Lorentzen, L.A., and Turpin, J. (eds.), The Women and War Reader, New York University Press, New York, 1998.
2 Resolution 1325 was adopted by the Security Council at its 4,213th session on 31 October 2000.
3 United Nations Security Council, Report of the Secretary-General on Women, Peace and Security, 16 October 2002, S/2002/1154, 2002. Report of the Secretary-General on Women, Peace and Security, 13 October 2004, S/2004/814, 2004.
4 United Nations Security Council, Women, Peace and Security, 16 October 2002, op. cit.
5 The Protocol Relating to Women's Rights was adopted by the 2nd ordinary session of the Conference of Heads of State and of the Government of the African Union, held at Maputo in Mozambique, July 2003.
6 Turshen, M., and Twagiramariya, C. (eds.), Ce que font les femmes en temps de guerre: Genre et conflit en Afrique, L'Harmattan, Paris, 2001.
7 Human Rights Watch, La guerre dans la guerre - Violence sexuelle contre les femmes et les filles dans l'Est du Congo, New York, 2002.
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