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press release, 10/26/2004
The scale of rape in eastern DRC represents a human rights
and health crisis requiring both an immediate and a long term
response. Tens of thousands of survivors are today suffering.
Many are dying needlessly, said Amnesty International
in a new report launched from Kinshasa today.
The report: Democratic Republic of the Congo: Mass Rape
- Time for Remedies documents cases of brutal sexual violence
and highlights the lack of effective access to adequate medical
care as one of the most pressing needs of survivors.
The Government of the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) and
the international community must take immediate measures to
facilitate access to medical care for thousands of rape survivors
and ensure that the rehabilitation of the health care system
in the DRC is made a priority.
"We are now more than one year on from the installation of
a transitional government in DRC. Yet this government and
the international community has done very little to address
the human needs of the Congolese people, especially in the
war-ravaged east. The time is now overdue for essential and
effective programs of reconstruction and reform to begin,
including particularly of the national health care system."
"It is impossible for survivors to access decent medical care
-- a further violation of their human rights," said Amnesty
International.
Tens of thousands of women, girls, children and even babies,
as well as men have been systematically raped and tortured
in eastern DRC where over twenty armed groups have been fighting
for control of the land and its resources. Some of the victims
have suffered multiple rapes and other forms of sexual violence
on two or three separate occasions during the war by different
forces. Others have been raped by up to twenty-five combatants
or used for months or years as sex slaves.
The rapes are often accompanied by sexual torture with, for
example, bayonets, sharpened-sticks inserted into the woman’s
vagina or even gunshots to the genital area.
Survivors interviewed by Amnesty International gave horrifying
accounts of the rape they have suffered at the hands of warring
factions and their struggle to obtain medical care. As one
recounted: " I fell seriously ill after being raped for
the first time in October 2002. I really needed medicine.
Since there are no medicines at the local health centre, I
decided to walk to the town and search for treatment. On the
road I was stopped by two soldiers. I told them I was sick
and on my way to get medical treatment because I had been
raped. But one of them said ‘It makes no difference’ and they
threw me to the ground, and raped me again there on the road.
Since then, I am extremely ill but there is nowhere I can
get treatment around here."
While countless women and girls are now in desperate need
of treatment and many are traumatized by their ordeal, no
organized or comprehensive response has so far been developed
to assist them.
In the DRC, millions of civilians are suffering and dying
from the injuries and traumas of many years of conflict, while the
health care infrastructure is unable to offer even the most basic
treatment. Across
eastern DRC, there is a clear lack of trained doctors, including
gynaecologists and nurses, as well as a massive shortage of equipment
and drugs. Only international humanitarian and some national Congolese
NGOs, as well as some UN agencies are trying to respond to the needs of
tens of thousands of women and girls.
Amnesty International is concerned that the DRC government and the
international community have been far too slow in fulfilling their
obligations to protect the human right to health for survivors and the
Congolese population. "The DRC government and the international donor
community should establish an emergency programme for the medical and
psychological care of survivors," the organization said. The longer-term restoration of a sustainable state health
care system should also become a priority. "An assessment mission,
composed of mixed DRC and international medical experts and health care
managers, should be formed as quickly as possible to evaluate the needs
of the DRC’s national health care system. The findings of this
assessment mission should form the basis of a joint national and
international plan, with dedicated international donor assistance, for
the priority reconstruction of the DRC’s health system," Amnesty
International urged. The other needs of the rape survivors and victims of other
forms of sexual violence must also be addressed. As a result of the
stigma attached to rape, survivors often suffer rejection by their
communities and abandonment by their husbands. Women are left as the
sole carers of themselves and their children and, generally, cut off
from economic means of survival. For those survivors, the current
incapacitated judicial system in the DRC offers no justice or redress
for the crimes they have endured. "The DRC government must assume its responsibility to
prevent, punish and eradicate sexual violence, and demonstrate that
such behaviour is not tolerated," Amnesty International said.
A coordinated national and international effort to improve
security in the eastern provinces is a priority. The government must
also take measures to prevent survivors from being subjected to social
and economic exclusion, and facilitate their search for justice.
"Unless such crucial steps are rapidly taken, tens of thousands of
known and anonymous victims will continue to suffer." the organization
concluded.
Amnesty International’s global campaign to Stop Violence
Against Women is working to end this and other hidden human rights
scandal.
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