25 March 2013
The challenge of ending warzone rape
Foreign Secretary William Hague and film star turned UN envoy Angelina Jolie have jointly launched a campaign to end warzone rape but, as Cathy Newman writes, there are many obstacles in the way.
On the bumpy, dirt track which passes for a main road
out of Goma, the crowds of Congolese don't even look up when the UN
armoured convoy rumbles by.
They're so used to seeing it that it's no longer noteworthy.
The UN and an assortment of charities have been in the Congo for years to try and protect a people whose lives have been torn apart by decades of fighting.
Since 1998, the war has claimed 5.4m lives, and official estimates suggest 200,000 women have been raped during the conflict.
And even though there's a peace agreement of sorts, the violence and rape go on.
I'm travelling with the foreign secretary and the Hollywood film star turned UN envoy Angelina Jolie - who have jointly launched a campaign to end warzone rape - an atrocity which, William Hague says, shames the world.
Despite the incredible mineral wealth of the Congo - gold, diamonds and coltan, which is sought-after to make mobile phones - in the east of the country particularly its people live in daily danger and grinding poverty.
By the side of the road we're jolting along, women are selling anything they can - fruit and nuts balanced in giant baskets on their heads, vegetables, mobile phone covers, baseball caps. Men push home-made bikes hewn from tree trunks and laden with produce, and tiny children carry even tinier babies.
Without saying a word, a boy in a thread-bare red cross t-shirt emblazoned with a red cross seems to say it all. Their trust in the protection of charities and the international community has worn thin over the years.
The International Rescue Committee which runs the Nzolo camp is trying to stop women endangering themselves by giving them stoves so they don't have to collect wood.
But despite its best efforts conditions for the ten thousand people who call this place home are pretty hellish.
The makeshift shelters are no protection against the rain, and it's a breeding ground for insect-borne diseases.
One of the women told me a baby recently died because there are no ambulances to take people who fall sick to hospital.
In a camp just up the road another woman said she'd been raped in the camp itself. That was the second time she'd been attacked.
She was prepared to stand up in court to see her attackers punished. But she doubted she could recognise them well enough to identify them.
And that's the kind of challenge Mr Hague's initiative faces. For women facing a daily struggle for food and survival, bringing rapists to justice is without doubt a laudable aim, but in a country broken by decades of war, there are many obstacles in the way.
They're so used to seeing it that it's no longer noteworthy.
The UN and an assortment of charities have been in the Congo for years to try and protect a people whose lives have been torn apart by decades of fighting.
Since 1998, the war has claimed 5.4m lives, and official estimates suggest 200,000 women have been raped during the conflict.
And even though there's a peace agreement of sorts, the violence and rape go on.
I'm travelling with the foreign secretary and the Hollywood film star turned UN envoy Angelina Jolie - who have jointly launched a campaign to end warzone rape - an atrocity which, William Hague says, shames the world.
Despite the incredible mineral wealth of the Congo - gold, diamonds and coltan, which is sought-after to make mobile phones - in the east of the country particularly its people live in daily danger and grinding poverty.
By the side of the road we're jolting along, women are selling anything they can - fruit and nuts balanced in giant baskets on their heads, vegetables, mobile phone covers, baseball caps. Men push home-made bikes hewn from tree trunks and laden with produce, and tiny children carry even tinier babies.
Without saying a word, a boy in a thread-bare red cross t-shirt emblazoned with a red cross seems to say it all. Their trust in the protection of charities and the international community has worn thin over the years.
The challenges ahead
We're on our way to a camp for displaced people near Goma. It's supposed to afford some protection and the families living here are grateful that it does. But they also say they're at risk of being raped if they leave the camp to find food or firewood for cooking.The International Rescue Committee which runs the Nzolo camp is trying to stop women endangering themselves by giving them stoves so they don't have to collect wood.
But despite its best efforts conditions for the ten thousand people who call this place home are pretty hellish.
The makeshift shelters are no protection against the rain, and it's a breeding ground for insect-borne diseases.
One of the women told me a baby recently died because there are no ambulances to take people who fall sick to hospital.
In a camp just up the road another woman said she'd been raped in the camp itself. That was the second time she'd been attacked.
She was prepared to stand up in court to see her attackers punished. But she doubted she could recognise them well enough to identify them.
And that's the kind of challenge Mr Hague's initiative faces. For women facing a daily struggle for food and survival, bringing rapists to justice is without doubt a laudable aim, but in a country broken by decades of war, there are many obstacles in the way.
If you missed my interviews with @williamjhague on Syria and Angelina Jolie on warzone rape you can watch here bit.ly/15LJrb4
— Cathy Newman (@cathynewman) March 25, 2013
William Hague & Angelina Jolie arrived @ 15h45 at Goma airport, want to a camp w/ IRC and r now on their way back to Kigali
— Melanie Gouby (@Melaniegouby) March 25, 2013
Angelina Jolie visits DRC to raise awareness of rape in warzones
Angelina
Jolie joins British Foreign Secretary William Hague talk to women in
DRC about rape being used as weapon of war. Rough Cut (no reporter
narration).
Reuters video
Video
Jolie and Hague visit Africa for anti-rape campaign from ITV News on Vimeo.
mikeyhoare
Mikey Hoare
Good photo of Foreign Secretary and Angelina Jolie at Nzolo IDP camp in eastern DRC pic.twitter.com/QsvQYxGadC
BBC
25 March 2013 Last updated at 22:25 GMT
Hollywood actress Angelina Jolie and Foreign Secretary
William Hague have teamed up in the Democratic Republic of Congo to
highlight concerns over sexual violence.
The pair visited a rescue camp for women north west of Goma to raise awareness of warzone rape.
The foreign secretary said: "Sexual violence in conflict has to be resolved if conflicts are going to be resolved."
Jolie, a special envoy for the United Nations High Commissioner, said the issue needed a "worldwide focus".
James Robbins reports.
BBC video at site
The pair visited a rescue camp for women north west of Goma to raise awareness of warzone rape.
The foreign secretary said: "Sexual violence in conflict has to be resolved if conflicts are going to be resolved."
Jolie, a special envoy for the United Nations High Commissioner, said the issue needed a "worldwide focus".
James Robbins reports.
BBC video at site
Telegraph
Angelina Jolie and William Hague visit Congo on anti-rape mission
The Hollywood actress and British Foreign Secretary visit a refugee camp in the Democratic Republic of Comgo as part of campaign to stop rape being used as a tool of war.
10:26PM GMT 25 Mar 2013
Hollywood actress Angelina Jolie, a special envoy for the UN refugee agency,
travelled to the Nzulo camp near Goma on Monday along with Foreign Secretary
William Hague.
The visit to the Nzolo IDP camp north of Goma, was intended to highlight the
use of rape in conflict zones, and to raise awareness of the issue on an
international level.
"What we're here to do is try to scale it up and make this a world wide focus
and it's due time, it's been going on every war, every crisis and it's often
an afterthought and it's due time to end this and put an end to impunity and
they deserve it," Jolie said.
Mr Hague said that he planned to raise the problem at the annual G8 meeting of
foreign ministers in London in April.
"Sexual violence in conflict has to be resolved if conflicts are to be
resolved because when rape is used as a weapon of war, it makes communities
harder, to bring together and much harder for people to get on with their
lives afterwards," he said.
The International Rescue Committee (IRC) says it's provided care to more than 2,500 women and girls who have been raped or abused over the last year alone.
The IRC is handing out kits with flashlights and whistles, as well as cleaning products so that women can avoid bathing at creeks where the risk of assault is higher.
Sexual violence is frequently used as a weapon of war by rebel groups that operate in eastern Congo, as well as by Congolese soldiers.
A somewhat unlikely duo, the Foreign Secretary and the actress launched the campaign in May 2012 to prevent sexual violence in conflict zones.
The International Rescue Committee (IRC) says it's provided care to more than 2,500 women and girls who have been raped or abused over the last year alone.
The IRC is handing out kits with flashlights and whistles, as well as cleaning products so that women can avoid bathing at creeks where the risk of assault is higher.
Sexual violence is frequently used as a weapon of war by rebel groups that operate in eastern Congo, as well as by Congolese soldiers.
A somewhat unlikely duo, the Foreign Secretary and the actress launched the campaign in May 2012 to prevent sexual violence in conflict zones.
Telegraph video at site
ITN
Photo: The Foreign Secretary and Angelina Jolie visit Nzolo camp tmblr.co/ZAl3fwh9aPlT
— paula carvalho (@SeevSykes) March 26, 2013
Reuters
IRC
William Hague and Angelina Jolie meet uprooted women in Eastern Congo kept safe by International Rescue Committee
NORTH KIVU PROVINCE, Democratic Republic of Congo – The British Foreign Secretary, William Hague, and actress and UNHCR Special Envoy, Angelina Jolie, visited a displacement camp in Eastern DRC today (Monday 25 March) to see how the International Rescue Committee (IRC) is preventing violence against women and girls vulnerable to physical and sexual abuse.Mr Hague and Ms Jolie met with IRC staff and displaced women at Nzulo camp near Goma, the provincial capital of North Kivu. The camp supports over 10,000 of the estimated 218,000 people currently displaced in the area over the past year.
The spontaneous displacement sites and camps around Goma are often not a safe refuge for women and girls, especially as they collect firewood or water, try to find assistance to support themselves and their families, or walk around at night time.
To help prevent violence to women and girls the IRC has distributed 12,000 ‘dignity kits’ in six camps and displacement sites near Goma in recent months. The kits include clothing, several sets of underwear, strips of reusable cloth for sanitary towels, bars of soap and two buckets; one for washing clothes and the other for washing themselves.
These simple items allow women to wash in private rather than risk physical or sexual violence while at communal and unprotected creeks. To reduce the risk at night-time, the kits also include torches and whistles. To reduce the amount of time women and girls spend collecting firewood, the IRC will begin distributing 2,500 fuel efficient stoves in April.
Violence against women and girls is an ever present threat in the DRC but the armed conflict and displacement over the past year have further exacerbated the problem. Over the past 12 months the IRC has provided life-saving care to more than 2,500 women and girls who have been raped or abused.
The IRC has seen a marked increase in violence against women and girls in North and South Kivu, peaking in September, when the number of cases reported was 190 per cent higher than the 2011 monthly average. (1)
Women reported to the IRC rape, physical assault, forced marriage and other forms of abuse. The teams discovered that while there was an increase in cases perpetrated by a stranger, in 45 per cent of the cases the perpetrator was someone known to the woman, typically a family member, partner or someone from the local community.
Protecting women and girls from violence is a core part of the IRC’s emergency response. Seven dedicated teams provide lifesaving care to women and girls. As well as counselling and medical advice, survivors are given ‘post-rape kits’, consisting of antibiotics, antiretroviral drugs to prevent HIV infection, and emergency contraception.
Elinor Raikes, the IRC’s Deputy Regional Director in DRC, said: “Women and girls have been on the frontline of the crisis in Congo for too long and the recent conflict has put them at even more risk from sexual and physical violence. Violence against women and girls takes place in every conflict, which is why it is essential to prevent abuse in the first place and support survivors as they resume their role as leaders within their families and communities.”
The IRC is also providing emergency delivery kits to visibly pregnant women in three camps around Goma to ensure women are able to deliver their babies safely even if they are unable to reach a health centre. By the end of March the IRC will also have renovated 46 schools in North Kivu, which were damaged by fighting and looting.
The IRC has been operating in the region since 1996 and is currently the largest aid and development organisation in the Kivus, reaching an estimated 1.8 million people. Current IRC current programmes focus on emergency assistance, healthcare, women’s protection and empowerment, education and strengthening communities’ capacity for recovery
Contact:
Paul Donohoe (London) +44 (0)20 7692 2727/ 07779 624 385/ Paul.Donohoe@rescue-uk.org
Sinziana Demian (Goma) +243 (0)995 200 516/ Sinziana.Demian@rescue.org
NOTE TO EDITORS: For more information, field visits, or interviews with experts on this issue, please contact the IRC staff above and follow @IRCUkNews for updates.
1. Based on caseload of women and girls using IRC services.
About the International Rescue Committee: A global leader in humanitarian assistance for 80 years, the International Rescue Committee responds to the world’s worst crises and helps refugees and others uprooted by conflict, disaster and persecution to survive and rebuild their lives. At work in more than 40 countries, the IRC works to restore safety, hope, opportunity and dignity.
The IRC is recognised globally as a leader in preventing and responding to violence against women. In emergencies the IRC delivers urgent care for victims of assault and in longstanding crises we provide safe places for women. In the aftermath of war, the IRC addresses the root causes of violence against women by helping them gain greater economic independence and play a more meaningful role in decision-making. Last year International Rescue Committee supported 16,000 survivors of gender based violence across the world.
