WOMEN, PEACE AND SECURITY:
DEMOCRATIC REPUBLIC OF CONGO (DRC)

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UNIFEM WOMEN, WAR AND PEACE WEB PORTAL: DRC

"On May 15 of this year [2001], four heavily armed combatants-they were hutu--came to our house at 9pm. Everyone in the neighborhood had fled. I wanted to hide my children, but I didn't have time. They took my husband and tied him to a pole in the house. My four month old baby started crying and I started breastfeeding him and then they left me alone. They went after my daughter, and I knew they would rape her. But she resisted and said she would rather die than have relations with them. They cut off her left breast and put it in her hand. They said 'Are you still resisting us?' She said she would rather die than be with them. They cut off her genital labia and showed them to her. She said, 'Please kill me.' They took a knife and put it to her neck and then made a long vertical incisioon down her chest and split her body open. She was crying but finally she died. She died with her breast in her hand. RCD officers came and looked at the body. But then they went away and I donít think they ever did anything about it. I didn't talk to other authorites because I thought it was a military matter. There is no electricity there, and we couldn't see much, but we could hear her scream and see what happened when we saw the body in the morning. I never saw the attackers again, but I couldn't even see them well that night. They didnít stay after they killed my daughter."

A mother about the murder of her daughter Monique B., aged twenty, in Kabare

"Voila ce que nous pensons, nous les Femmes […] Nous sommes fatiguées de la guerre et nous la refusons. Il faut que la guerre finisse, qu'elle soit finie, qu'on la finisse. Nous refusons toute violence qui detruit en nous l'image de Dieu. […] Nous demandons qu'on redonne aux femmes le respect et la justice. Nous voulons que finisse immediatement toute sorte de violence: faire promener les femmes nues, les fouetter, les violenter devant les enfants. Nous refusons que nos filles soient violentées. […] Nous refusons que nos enfants soient forcés a faire le militaire ou que nos jeunes soient enrolés dans l'armée contre leur volonté. […] Nous demandons la PAIX, la PAIX POUR LA PAIX, et ENCORE LA PAIX pour notre pays, la République Démocratique du Congo."

Les deleguees des femmes des comites du developpement des secteurs de Kasongo,3 July 2002

"The situation, where women are amongst the most active and effective advocates for peace at the grassroots level, but hardly penetrate the higher levels of the society structures, is not only unjust towards women but also counterproductive for the peace process as a whole. One can easily imagine that the peace-building activities of Civil Society organizations would go through a major reorientation if the more pragmatic views of women would be seriously included in the development of the programmes."

Romkema Hans, “An Analysis of the Civil Society and Peace Building Prospects in the North and South Kivu Provinces, DRC,” Life & Peace Institute, 2001.