DRC: Rape victims hope new leaders will halt violence

August 2, 2006 (IRIN) - Large numbers of women took part in Sunday’s elections in the Democratic Republic of Congo’s South Kivu Province in the hope that the new leaders would clamp down on the violence perpetrated by militants, say civil society organisations.

One of these voters was Naomie Kisenyi, 38. In 2003, three hooded armed men in civilian clothes raped and beat her in a forest near Bukavu, the provincial capital. "It is difficult to talk about my experience as it is so humiliating," she said on Sunday at a Bukavu polling station.

She was admitted to Bukavu's Panzi Hospital and has recovered after lengthy treatment. However, every six months she is tested for HIV. "So far, thank God, the tests have proved negative," she said. She still does not know the identity of her attackers. She decided to vote because she believed new leaders would regain control of the entire country from armed elements, punish rapists and re-establish security.

The international community shares the sentiment that the elections could set the stage for lasting peace in the DRC. "This election is not an end in itself," Sylvie van den Wildenberg, a spokeswoman for the United Nations Mission in Congo (MONUC), said. "It is the first day in a new chapter in Congo's history. Elections are important as a strategy to consolidate peace and security."

Clearly, she said, the continued presence of armed foreign groups and local militia in South Kivu and in the northeastern district of Ituri in Orientale Province presented major challenges to an elected government. "Once the Congolese have chosen their leaders, they will need to begin regional negotiations to try to find a final solution to the endemic problem of insecurity," she said.

"This violence is not only the work of the foreign groups in Congo but also of Congolese civilians who try to discredit the country's security forces," Van den Wildenberg added. However, representatives of civil society organisations in South Kivu said widespread rape became noticeable in the province in 1999 when foreign forces invaded the east of the country.

"South Kivu Province was the main gateway for those who brought war, which created insecurity and instability in the east," said Denis Buhendwa, a trainer with Groupe Jermie, an association for civic education and the protection of human rights. MONUC says pockets of insecurity have always existed in South Kivu; particularly in the territories of Shabunda, Mwenga, north of Walungu and in the south of Kabaré.

In these areas, Mai-Mai militia and other rebel groups, which rejected integration into the armed forces or demobilisation, have continued to terrorise the community. Violence against women is widespread in these areas because a constantly shifting population has made people easy prey, according to human rights organisations.
In these territories, according to humanitarian bodies in South Kivu, there are 120,000 to 130,000 internally displaced people, of whom 4,000 women had been raped in South Kivu in the past four months. "The violation of women's rights is an unhealthy reality that we live with in South Kivu," said Agnès Kamuanya-Ntumba, the Vice-President of the South Kivu Civil Society Organisation. "During and immediately after the war, even today, violence is a reality in South Kivu; and 99 percent of rape cases are the work of foreign forces."

This election, she said, was a way to solve this problem. "We should make it count," she added.South Kivu ProvinceConsequences of violence against women The number of rape victims is such that Panzi Hospital, which offers specialist care for such cases, can no longer cope. Many patients come from the provinces of Katanga and North Kivu, in addition to those from South Kivu.

"Each day we get on average 10 patients, of whom some have been raped repeatedly over the past six months," Dr Denis Mukwenge-Mukengere, the director of Panzi Hospital, said. Although this number had stabilised since January, he said, the 320-bed hospital had admitted 520 patients, of whom 350 were victims of sexual violence. An international NGO is building wards for another 100 patients.

According to Mukwenge-Mukengere, 160 of the 180 outpatients are also rape victims, all of whom receive free care with support from the European Commission Humanitarian Aid agency, ECHO. This help has enabled raped women to be screened for HIV; 5 percent of the 360,000 women raped have been positive. "We provide pregnant raped women with treatment to prevent mother to child transmission of HIV," he said.

Given this stark reality, South Kivu residents see the elections as one way to solve the problems of insecurity in the province and its accompanying consequence: rape.


From: http://www.irinnews.org