Global Pulse Blog

This is from the Washington Post (free subscription required):

For the women of eastern Congo, a U.S.-backed Congolese military operation meant to save them from abusive rebels has turned into a nightmare of its own.

An already staggering epidemic of rape has become markedly worse since the January deployment of tens of thousands of poorly trained, poorly paid Congolese soldiers, with people in front-line villages such as this one saying the soldiers are not so much hunting rebels as hunting women.

And so as the sun dropped behind the soaring jungle here one recent day, little girls, mothers and grandmothers began heading home, some closing curtains and padlocking wooden doors. It was time, they explained, to lock themselves indoors.

“To avoid getting raped, after 6 p.m., women are not allowed to go out of the house,” said Maria Bitondo, who said she was among three women attacked by a soldier last month. “With the soldiers here, no woman is safe to go out and walk. We do not even go to the bathroom at night.”

On Monday, a coalition of 88 aid groups called the operation, which is supported by the United Nations, “a human tragedy” and urged Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton, who is to visit eastern Congo on Tuesday, to push for better civilian protection. Clinton has vowed to make the prevention of sexual violence a priority in Congo, where the United States pays about a quarter of the cost of U.N. peacekeeping efforts.

“We have to speak out against the impunity of those in positions of authority who either commit these crimes or condone them,” Clinton said at a town hall meeting in the capital of Kinshasa on Monday. She added, “There are even some cases of these terrible crimes committed by members of the Congolese military.”

The entire article is an interesting, yet devastating read. Though there is a policy of “zero tolerance” for sexual violence, the actual list of offenders taken to court is abysmally low.

One constant question while reading this article is, why do men rape women? An excerpt from the article is quite telling:

He and other soldiers interviewed expressed a deep frustration at their pay, which is usually late and only $50 a month; their rations, which were recently a single can of sardines for three soldiers for 15 days; and especially their long deployments, which often keep them away from their families for years.

“The truth is like this,” said one officer, sitting under a shed and sipping a powerful local brew. “What is making soldiers to do these bad things is their treatment by the army. Imagine, one can of sardines?! And you send a soldier away for 10 years?! So, I’m hungry, I’m in need of a wife and I have no money” to pay for a prostitute, he said. “If I see a woman walking on the road, and I love her, I will take her. I will help myself.”

The lieutenant, who did not give his name, is in charge of teaching his soldiers about human rights. “Now,” he said, “buy me a beer so I don’t have to rob you.”