Action: Stop Violence Against Women and HIV/AIDS in DRC

Stop Violence Against Women

Democratic Republic of the Congo:
the struggle for health care and justice for rape survivors

“ My dad told me to hide. When the soldiers came in they shot my mum and my dad before my eyes. I stayed hidden but the soldiers found me and raped me… they were many. ”

Aurélie (not her real name) was 10 years old when her village was attacked by an armed group in 2002. She still suffers intense pains and long periods of depression.

“ I really would like to go back to school, but the other kids insult me, calling me the enemy’s woman. ”

Armed groups in eastern Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC) have raped tens of thousands of women, in attacks marked by extreme brutality. Sometimes they kill fathers, husbands and sons before raping the girls and women. They have shot and knifed women and mutilated them with sharpened sticks, before robbing them of all their possessions.

Women have been raped in front of their children and relatives, or publicly raped in a group to punish a whole community suspected of supporting a rival armed group. Armed groups have abducted women as sexual slaves, and held them in inhuman conditions, often naked and dirty, for weeks or months on end.

The survivors of rape have long-term and sometimes fatal injuries. Many require reconstructive surgery, or have to endure severe pains and bleeding, incontinence, HIV/AIDS and other infections.

HIV infection in the eastern DRC is closely related to the war crime of mass rape perpetrated by all the armed forces in the region. Figures from health programs suggest that between 20% and 30% of patients tested are HIV positive. “The rate is not only high, it is probably one of the highest in the world”, says one international specialist.

Most women who have been raped suffer nightmares and flashbacks. Abandonment by husbands and discrimination by communities, because of the stigma attached to rape and HIV leave them destitute and isolated. The chances of treatment for the injuries of rape victims are negligible. National health facilities across the eastern part of the DRC are largely destroyed, or operate with minimal resources. Women walk for days to reach help but thousands have access to traditional herbal treatments only. No more than two small hospitals, in an area roughly the size of France and Spain combined, have the resources for reconstructive surgery. There is only one experimental HIV treatment program, and there are only a few clinics that treat sexually transmitted infections. Panzi Hospital in Bukavu treats up to 200 rape survivors a month, and has treated more than 1,500 since 1999.

“In the beginning the women were frightened of admitting they'd been raped,” the only surgeon carrying out reconstructive surgery on rape victims told Amnesty International. “Now they are determined to speak out.”

Rape survivors have little prospect of judicial redress. The crimes of sexual violence against them constitute war crimes and crimes against humanity, yet virtually none of those responsible has been brought to justice. In addition the legal system is in ruins after years of neglect and the conflict and in some part of the country, the current cease-fire only exists on paper.
Local women’s and human rights organizations have responded with compassionate and positive initiatives, but are wholly unsupported by the government and only rarely by the international community. Grassroots networks of women activists provide basic counseling for survivors, medical and legal assistance, and economic support, often in the form of self-help micro-credit projects. Survivors themselves are determined to challenge government inaction and the social stigma attached to rape. Where they lead by example, the DRC government and international community must follow.

Take Action:
Urge Roger Winter, Asst.Administrator, Bureau for Democracy, Conflict and Humanitarian Assistance, asking him to

U.S. Agency for International Development
Office of Press Relations
Ronald Reagan Building
1300 Pennsylvania Ave, NW
Washington, D.C. 20523-0016
Telephone: 202-712-4320 or 202-712-0770
FAX: (202) 216-3397

• help create and contribute to an emergency medical program for rape survivors in eastern DRC, to include mobile multi-disciplinary health teams
• help create and contribute to an expert mission to assess the priority needs of the DRC’s health care system as the basis of a joint reconstruction plan with international donor assistance

Urge the DRC government (which includes representatives of most armed groups) to:
• issue clear instructions to all armed forces to stop all forms of sexual violence and to suspend from duty anyone implicated in such attacks
• end impunity for rapists and other perpetrators of violence against women, by investigating all reported incidents promptly and impartially and by bringing those responsible to justice in accordance with international human rights standards, and enable survivors of sexual violence to obtain full redress
• organize, in partnership with international donors, an emergency medical program for rape survivors in eastern DRC and an expert mission to assess the priority needs of the DRC’s health care system, particularly with regard to HIV/AIDS
• work with international and local NGOs to implement their public education programs to combat discrimination and ostracism of rape survivors and HIV positive people

Send your appeals to: Son Excellence Général Major Joseph Kabila, Président de la République, Présidence de la République, Palais de la Nation, Kinshasa Ngaliema, République Démocratique du Congo