Rape used as weapon in DR Congo war

english.aljazeera.net...

"The Democratic Republic of Congo is grappling with rampant rape, which has become an every day practice and is used as a weapon of war, the UN has said.

It said almost 5,400 cases of rape against women were reported in the South Kivu province during the first six months of the year.

Elisabeth Byrs, a spokeswoman for the UN Office for the Co-ordination of Humanitarian Affairs, said South Kivu, near Rwanda, was an increasingly dangerous place for civilians, especially for women.

"Night-time attacks against civilians by unidentified armed elements, and rape against women, remain widespread," Byrs said."

It's too bad the congo isn't more rich in oil or poppies, we might be able to get some 'humanitarian' help in there.

Seriously, I am at a loss for words.

This sux for sure, but unfortunately it's nothing new either.

-Bosnia
-Sudan
-Timor
-Kuwait

It's a power thing. Convince them that they are powerless, even at the most basic humanistic level. "If they'll do this, they'll do anything"

Terrible

It goes beyond that.

You break down the family unit completely, and set the men in general to rejecting the women enmass while still denying them rights.

What happens is that the guys reject the wives and children that this happens to. The rape then uses the men's cultural oppression to destroy their families.

The men reject the women and children. The women are rejected in general. They have few rights, and little protection outside of their husband's or the father's house. Neither will take them in, and if they do they are considered worthless.

Not only is there the initial trauma, but then the men of the culture then perpetuate the cultural destruction by furthering the trauma and destroying the basic unit of their society - the family.

The men who are enemies rape the women and children. And then leave it to the men of those women to complete the job of destroying themselves through their own horrid behaviour.

Then the children of the family are tarnished, and often outcast with their mothers. They grow up without a father, or knowing only that men are in all ways horrible. Their either then grow up to be that, or to fear that, or to hate themselves. If they are a product of the rape, they bear even more stigma and are often disliked by their own mothers as well. You have one generation out to total familial chaos.

You'd think by now that some of these guys would have figured it out, that they are contributing to their own destruction.

[edit on 2009/10/22 by Aeons]

Not just in Africa either. Nor is rape just a women's issue.

dosfan.lib.uic.edu...

The Croatian health ministry believes that one third of those held in camps were raped - age being no barrier.

Known rape-camps. Though often towns have been turned into impromtu rape camps. The Bosnian war had rape houses.

The people doing the rapes - some of them obviously like it. However, they are under ORDERS to do it. If they don't, they then are targetted for torture by their higher ups and fellow solidiers. So the men who are not horrid are forced to be horrid, or essentially run the gauntlet.

[edit on 2009/10/23 by Aeons]

A solution to the problem:

Bite back

Originally posted by whitewave
A solution to the problem:

Bite back

Which wouldn't mean ANYTHING in a gang rape war situtation, because then they'd just kill you after raping your children in front of you and castrating your husband.

Originally posted by Aeons

Originally posted by whitewave
A solution to the problem:

Bite back

Which wouldn't mean ANYTHING in a gang rape war situtation, because then they'd just kill you after raping your children in front of you and castrating your husband.

I refuse to buy into that learned helplessness. Something is better than nothing at all and there are things worse than death.

I say equip every female in the country with one of these and they'll either depopulate themselves by killing off all their females or the problem will be greatly reduced.

www.independent.co.uk...


I particularly think this is interesting. If 1/3 of the population can be potentially effect by swine flu and they can mobilize a response in less than a year...but in more than a decade they can't do anything but use rape as a campaign strategy....

Marijana Senjak, a psychologist working for the NGO Medica in Zenica, which assists women who have been abused, says ' A lot of politicians have taken advantage of the women's plight and used the issues of war rape for their own ends. The state has done nothing to organise a unified response to women's needs.

"It has used war rape as a political tool and a means to get money, nothing else.'

[edit on 2009/10/23 by Aeons]

Originally posted by whitewave

Originally posted by Aeons

Originally posted by whitewave
A solution to the problem:

Bite back

Which wouldn't mean ANYTHING in a gang rape war situtation, because then they'd just kill you after raping your children in front of you and castrating your husband.

I refuse to buy into that learned helplessness. Something is better than nothing at all and there are things worse than death.

I say equip every female in the country with one of these and they'll either depopulate themselves by killing off all their females or the problem will be greatly reduced.

That isn't learned helplessness. People don't want to die. People who are mothers surely don't want to die. Assuming that hurting one guy who already has you in a postion of being raped, when he has buddies with him is STUPID.

And the idea that you can then get rid of the culture by having the women resist being raped and instead killed, so that the men have no one left to do it too is INSANE. And is still a war crime. Encouragine women to fold up their whole society by choosing death is not a better option.

[edit on 2009/10/23 by Aeons]

I know that this goes on all over the world. I wanted to bring it up because I find it repulsive that we find commodity more valuable than life.

Women and children are a commodity. When power is your currency, bodies is your unit of purchase.

Land is something people live on.

But bodies are the turf of the real war. And the turf that can create more of the people you are fighting is the ultimate landscape upon which to fight.

The people who control fertile women hold the power. The people who can make fertile women an untouchable landscape wins the war.

Wars are about people. Women and children are traditional booty.

The rapes of men are very bad. Just because they don't get the attention, doesn't mean they don't happen.


The Feminist Army would be something I would LOVE to see. No money in it to fund it though.


[edit on 2009/10/23 by Aeons]

reply to post by Aeons


Sad article. Since the women apparently know who these guys are and the police are doing nothing and neither is the government, it might behoove the women to take care of the problem themselves.

What kind of worthless piece of scum throws his wife and kids out after learning that she's been raped? He obviously didn't protect her. I think the women in any country have a lot more power than they realize or are willing to use. And yes, it is a learned helplessness.

If you hear your neighbor hollering and every woman in the neighborhood runs to her defense, even a gang of rapists are going to have a hard time fending off irate women with sticks, rocks, and cast iron skillets (assuming they're not armed with guns).

If men in that country started dying en masse from poisoned dinners or being stabbed in their sleep I bet that would get the government to take action on the women's behalf.

No one with one iota of moxy need ever live in fear of being a victim. Especially of being a constant victim.

[edit on 23-10-2009 by whitewave]

Originally posted by whitewave
I think the women in any country have a lot more power than they realize or are willing to use. And yes, it is a learned helplessness.

I always wonder in situations such as this how is it that some force can so easily and readily roll over a group of human beings with what appears to be absolutely no resistance.

Is it not being reported or is it simply my perspective that makes it look like there is no willingness to repel the attackers?

Why can't they arm themselves? Why don't they fight back? Why do they just live in perpetual fear expecting to be victimized?

It doesnt seem natural.

Originally posted by whitewave
reply to post by Aeons

 

Sad article. Since the women apparently know who these guys are and the police are doing nothing and neither is the government, it might behoove the women to take care of the problem themselves.

What kind of worthless piece of scum throws his wife and kids out after learning that she's been raped? He obviously didn't protect her. I think the women in any country have a lot more power than they realize or are willing to use. And yes, it is a learned helplessness.

If you hear your neighbor hollering and every woman in the neighborhood runs to her defense, even a gang of rapists are going to have a hard time fending off irate women with sticks, rocks, and cast iron skillets (assuming they're not armed with guns).

If men in that country started dying en masse from poisoned dinners or being stabbed in their sleep I bet that would get the government to take action on the women's behalf.

No one with one iota of moxy need every live in fear of being a victim. Especially of being a constant victim.

Women contesting the power of men is discouraged in all socieities. Women are discouraged from even developing muscle, let alone the ability to fight.

Is it learned helplessness? Yes. It is ENCOURAGED helplessness. Girls and women are encouraged to not be tough so as not to challenge their own men. To fear men.

Even here.

The greatest social crime a woman can commit, here or anywhere else, is the crime of not being available seeming or to be too available seeming. If you are willing to fight, you are treated as if you are being "a man" and are therefore disgusting.

This problem is way deeper than you think it is.

How can women as a group remain fragile and womanly and unchallenging to their boyfriends and husbands, and also be brave and tough and willing to fight? The answer is - you can't. You can be brave and willing to defend yourself and others. But you cannot do that and then also then have the men in your life not know it.


[edit on 2009/10/23 by Aeons]

The victim blaming on here is impressive.

Trained men come into a place without warning and gang rape women and children.

And you wonder how it is that they don't fight back.

How about....they don't want to be machine gunned down.

Throwing yourselves in front of machine guns isn't going to help anyone.

reply to post by Aeons


So there's the answer. Teach the women to fight like men and the men won't "want" them. If the men are scum bag violent rapists who torture women then what's the incentive for women to be "desirable" to them?

I know all about guys not liking females that are more manly than they are. Tough toenails! If it's a choice between being downtrodden, tortured, raped, beaten and socially ostracized or being not desired by a group that would do such things....well, that's kind of a no-brainer.

reply to post by Aeons


It's all about what you would rather have happen. Perpetual gang-rape or be killed fighting back?

What do you suggest?

Send more money/food to be intercepted by the warlords? Have a concert and invite Bono? Send in some blue hats to stand around and twiddle their thumbs while they get raped? We all know how much the blue hats love a little raping of their own. Invade the region and start "nation building" like in Iraq?

There are only so many options and none of them are great. Some are better than others but the pain and misery isnt going to go away anytime soon with or without outside interference.

Originally posted by whitewave
reply to post by Aeons

 

So there's the answer. Teach the women to fight like men and the men won't "want" them. If the men are scum bag violent rapists who torture women then what's the incentive for women to be "desirable" to them?

I know all about guys not liking females that are more manly than they are. Tough toenails! If it's a choice between being downtrodden, tortured, raped, beaten and socially ostracized or being not desired by a group that would do such things....well, that's kind of a no-brainer.

No it isn't. Obviously. Since there is well less than 1% of the female population who would fall into your category on the entire planet.

Training women to be solidiers, so that they might be able to protect against wartime gang rapes is not even sensible.

Okay, from education years 12 to 15 girls are now going to learn to be paratroopers and soliders. Just in case.

[edit on 2009/10/23 by Aeons]

reply to post by thisguyrighthere


I would not choose death. To suggest these women should is simply allowing their enemy to achieve their goal faster. So your solution is just another war crime. One that actually continues and entrenches that women's sexual purity is the only thing that matters.

[edit on 2009/10/23 by Aeons]