Sexual Violence in the Democratic Republic of the Congo

In war, rape accomplishes a number of objectives. It spreads fear, humiliates, terrorizes civilians for political purposes, obtains information, rewards soldiers, and can eliminate ethnic groups.[1] During the past two decades alone, women were raped in Rwanda, Liberia, the former Yugoslavia, Sierra Leone, Colombia, Sudan, Timor Leste, Uganda, and the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC).[2] War rape is not a new phenomenon, but war rape was “documented with increasing regularity in the 20th century”[3] and statistics indicate it is increasingly prevalent, due in part to the fact that “the nature of warfare is changing, in ways that increasingly endanger women and girls.”[4]

The use of rape as a weapon of war is as old as war itself. While war rape is not unique to any particular country, region, ethnic group, religion or time period, the level of sexual violence reported in the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC) during the past fifteen years is extreme. Though it is difficult to determine the exact number of women and girls who have been raped and mutilated by armed groups, soldiers, and other civilians during this conflict, most experts working in the region believe the number has reached the hundreds of thousands.

Statistics reveal a serious problem exists in the Congo. From 1998 to 2004, a coalition of members of the Congolese government, non-governmental organizations (NGOs), and the UN, called the Joint Initiative on the Fight against Sexual Violence towards Women and Children, recorded over 40,000 reported cases of sexual violence.[5] This number is only a small percentage of actual cases, however, since many women do not report rape because they fear abandonment by their families, rejection by their communities, and reprisals by their attackers.[6] These factors in turn impact the gathering of accurate statistics.

No one has been able to quantify the scale of what human rights groups call the “war on women” in eastern Congo. Tens of thousands of rapes have been recorded by the UN in the eastern provinces of North and South Kivu over the past year, but as only a fraction of the women assaulted make it to hospital there is little doubt that the total number of victims runs into hundreds of thousands in recent years.[7]

Despite the importance of gathering accurate data, statistics on the number of women impacted by sexual violence in conflicts around the world are difficult to collect. The chaos of conflict, the failure of humanitarian organizations to cooperate and coordinate, and the fear and shame surrounding sexual violence are factors contributing to the “great scarcity of data on the prevalence, circumstances, characteristics of perpetrators, and physical or mental health impacts” of sexual violence in conflict.[8] Even when faced with these obstacles, however, several national and international organizations collected statistics that highlight the severity, intensity, and prevalence of sexual violence in the DRC.

Working with Congolese human rights organizations, International Alert gathered statistics on the types of rape committed in this conflict through interviews with 492 survivors of sexual violence in different regions of the country. The organizations identified four main types of rape and concluded that “The rapes and sexual abuse were committed with unprecedented cruelty, the perpetrators having devised the most humiliating and degrading treatment they could inflict on their victims.”[9]

Individual rape was reported by 105 survivors (21.3%) and described as when a “single perpetrator rapes a single victim,” while 390 women (79%) reported they were raped by two or more attackers. A third form identified was family members forced to rape each other or to watch the attack on a family member, usually their mother or sister. The final category is rape where objects, such as sticks, bottles, bananas, pestles coated in chili pepper, and the butt of rifles are forcibly inserted into victims’ genitals; 61 women (12.4%) interviewed reported this.[10] Many women (71.7%) reported that they were tortured during or after the rape (especially if they resisted) and described being “beaten, wounded with machetes, or [having] their genitals mutilated or burnt with drops of plastic melted by a flame.”[11] These findings provide insight into the types of rape committed, while other organizations gathered data focusing specifically on the number of women and girls subjected to rape and other forms of sexual violence in the Congo.

Malteser International runs a medical-social support program for rape survivors in South Kivu. From 2005-2007 the organization registered 20,517 female rape survivors.[12] Since 2003, the International Rescue Committee has assisted more than 40,000 rape survivors in the country.[13] The number of survivors who came to Panzi Hospital in Bukavu to report rape and/or mutilation increased from 290 in 1999 to 1,289 in 2003.[14] According to data provided by local health centres, as of January 2007, an average of 40 women were raped daily in South Kivu; thirteen percent of these victims were younger than fourteen-years-old, three percent died as a result of the attack, and ten to twelve percent were infected with HIV/AIDS.[15] From January to September 2008, more than 3,500 cases were reported to the Joint Initiative on Sexual Violence in North Kivu.[16] At one hospital in Bunia, more than 7,400 rape victims were treated between 2003 and 2007.[17] According to Human Rights Watch, 16,000 rapes were reported in 2008 alone.[18]

These numbers indicate a serious problem, but they do not fully describe the extent of sexual violence in the DRC. Many survivors of sexual violence do not report the attacks due to fear of reprisal or ostracism, shame, and continued insecurity caused by ongoing violent conflict in the region.[19] Elisabeth Roesch, Gender and Advocacy Advisor for CARE in the DRC underscores this problem, “We know rape is typically under-reported, and feel that this number doesn’t even come close to reflecting the actual number of cases – the actual number is unimaginable.”[20] This sentiment was corroborated in a 2004 report from USAID:

It can be estimated, however, that based on the statistics presented by the two referral hospitals, a minimum tens of thousands of rapes and/or mutilations have taken place since 1996, and untold thousands more back to 1994.[21]

It is important to determine the reasons why rape is such a prevalent, severe, and effective weapon of war in the Congo. According to academic journal articles and reports from human rights organizations and governments, as well as interviews with survivors, humanitarian workers, doctors, and soldiers, sexual violence is used as a systemic and strategic weapon in the DRC because of its effectiveness in accomplishing economic and military goals, the Congo’s hostile political environment, perpetrators’ impunity, the large number of actors in the on-going conflict, and the many physical, psychological, and social consequences associated with rape that benefit perpetrators. Future posts will examine all of these factors in detail in order to better understand the causes and consequences of the widespread use of sexual violence that has been used as a weapon in the DRC for the past 15 years.

Sources:

[1] Amnesty International USA, “Stop Violence against Women: Rape as a Tool of War: A Fact Sheet,” Amnesty International USA (2007), http://www.amnestyusa.org/women/rapeinwartime.html (accessed January 26, 2010).
[2] Jeanne Ward, “Broken Bodies-Broken Dreams: Violence against Women Exposed,” OCHA/IRIN (November 2005): 177-189.
[3] Patricia Weitsman, “The Politics of Identity and Sexual Violence: A Review of Bosnia and Rwanda,” Paper prepared for the Annual Meeting of the International Studies Association (2007): 3.
[4] Jeanne Ward, “Broken Bodies-Broken Dreams: Violence against Women Exposed,” OCHA/IRIN (November 2005): 177.
[5] Watchlist on Children and Armed Conflict, “Struggling to Survive: Children in Armed Conflict in the Democratic Republic of the Congo,” Watchlist on Children and Armed Conflict (April 2006), http://www.watchlist.org/reports/files/dr_congo.report.20060426.php?p=11 (accessed January 17, 2010).
[6] CARE International, “Tens of Thousands More Women and Girls at Risk of Rape and Attack in DRC, Warns CARE,” CARE International (November 6, 2008), http://www.care-international.org/Tens-of-thousands-more-women-and-girls-at-risk-of-rape-and-attack-in-DRC-warns-CARE (accessed May 20, 2009).
[7] Chris McGreal, “Hundreds of Thousands of Women Raped for Being on the Wrong Side,” The Guardian (November 12, 2007), http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2007/nov/12/congo.international (accessed January 19, 2010). AND Watchlist on Children and Armed Conflict, “Struggling to Survive: Children in Armed Conflict in the Democratic Republic of the Congo,” Watchlist on Children and Armed Conflict (April 2006), http://www.watchlist.org/reports/files/dr_congo.report.20060426.php?p=11 (accessed January 17, 2010).
[8] Birthe Steiner, Marie T. Benner, Egbert Sondorp, K. Peter Schmitz, Ursula Mesmer and Sandrine Rosenberger, “Sexual Violence in the Protracted Conflict of DRC: Programming for Rape Survivors in South Kivu,” Conflict and Health vol. 3 (2009): 3.
[9] International Alert, “Women’s Bodies as a Battleground: Sexual Violence Against Women and Girls During the War in the Democratic Republic of Congo,” Réseau des Femmes pour un Développement Associatif (RFDA), Réseau des Femmes pour la Défense des Droits et la Paix (RFDP), International Alert (2004) : 33.
[10] Ibid., 33-34.
[11] Ibid., 34-35.
[12] Birthe Steiner, Marie T Benner, Egbert Sondorp, K Peter Schmitz, Ursula Mesmer and Sandrine Rosenberger, “Sexual Violence in the Protracted Conflict of DRC: Programming for Rape Survivors in South Kivu,” Conflict and Health vol. 3 (2009): 3.
[13] Wairagala Wakabi, “Sexual Violence Increasing in Democratic Republic of Congo,” The Lancet vol. 371 no. 9606 (January 2008): 15.
[14] Marion Pratt, Ph.D. and Leah Werchick, J.D. with Anaia Bewa, Marie-Louise Eagleton, Claudine Lumumba, Katherine Nichols, and Lina Piripiri, “Sexual Terrorism: Rape as a Weapon of War in Eastern Democratic Republic of Congo,” USAID/DCHA Assessment Report (March 18, 2004): 11.
[15] Claudia Rodriguez, “Sexual Violence: Weapon of War, Impediment to Peace,” Forced Migration issue 27 (January 2007): 45-46.
[16] CARE International, “Tens of Thousands More Women and Girls at Risk of Rape and Attack in DRC, Warns CARE,” CARE International (November 6, 2008), http://www.care-international.org/Tens-of-thousands-more-women-and-girls-at-risk-of-rape-and-attack-in-DRC-warns-CARE (accessed May 20, 2009).
[17] Wairagala Wakabi, “Sexual Violence Increasing in Democratic Republic of Congo,” The Lancet vol. 371 no. 9606 (January 2008): 15.
[18] Human Rights Watch, “Stopping Rape as a Weapon of War in Congo,” Human Rights Watch (September 18, 2009), http://www.hrw.org/en/news/2009/09/18/stopping-rape-weapon-war-congo (accessed January 5, 2010).
[19] CARE International, “Tens of Thousands More Women and Girls at Risk of Rape and Attack in DRC, Warns CARE,” CARE International (November 6, 2008), http://www.care-international.org/Tens-of-thousands-more-women-and-girls-at-risk-of-rape-and-attack-in-DRC-warns-CARE (accessed May 20, 2009).
[20] Ibid.
[21] Marion Pratt, Ph.D. and Leah Werchick, J.D. with Anaia Bewa, Marie-Louise Eagleton, Claudine Lumumba, Katherine Nichols, and Lina Piripiri, “Sexual Terrorism: Rape as a Weapon of War in Eastern Democratic Republic of Congo,” USAID/DCHA Assessment Report (March 18, 2004): 11.

Sexual Violence: An Introduction

The number of reported cases of sexual assault and other forms of sexual violence worldwide do not come close to revealing the actual number. Underreporting may be caused by a variety of factors including the fear of not being believed by the police, self-blame, fears that other people will blame them for what happened, not equating what has happened to them with the legal definition of rape, or fears of being re-victimized by the criminal justice system during a trial.[1] Through available statistics, however, it is widely accepted that “sexual assault is a pervasive problem in all societies.”[2]

Though the physical and psychological consequences of sexual violence will be discussed more fully in another post, it is important to briefly discuss some of the most common here in order to highlight the severity of this crime. Common consequences include genital injuries and gynecological complications, bleeding, sexually transmitted infections including HIV/AIDS, chronic pelvic pain, pelvic inflammatory disease, and urinary tract infections. Psychological effects may include shock, anxiety, depression, post-traumatic stress disorder, disturbed sleep, relationship problems, and loss of self-esteem.[3]

Whether sexual violence occurs in conflict or during times of peace, the effects on women are horrific. Further, all rape stems from the same roots – hatred of women and the desire to control or inflict pain. Many of my posts about sexual violence, however, will focus more on sexual violence during conflict for several reasons. First, throughout much of military history, sexual violence has been used by soldiers for a variety of reasons including punishing the enemy, spreading fear, controlling civilian populations, or as part of a campaign of expulsion or ethnic cleansing. However, despite its long history, women’s experiences of sexual violence during conflict have remained largely hidden. It was not until widespread and systemic sexual violence was reported during the war in Bosnia in the early 1990s that international and scholarly attention began to shift to women’s experiences of sexual violence during war.

As Susan Brownmiller points out, rape in war is nothing new.[4] In recent history, mass rape was used in numerous conflicts, including the 20,000 Chinese women raped, sexually tortured, and murdered in Nanking in 1937 and the rape of 200,000 women in Bangladesh in 1971.[5] Rape was also widespread in both World Wars and more recently in Europe in Bosnia,[6] as well as in numerous conflicts in Latin America and Africa. Brownmiller also emphasizes an important point concerning the depictions of war rape and the attention these crimes traditionally received by the international community:

The plight of raped women as casualties of war is given credence only at the emotional moment when the side in danger of annihilation cries out for world attention. When the military histories are written, when the glorious battles for independence become legend, the stories are glossed over, discounted as exaggerations, deemed not serious enough for inclusion in scholarly works. And the women are left with their shame.[7]

In other words, despite the use of rape throughout the centuries, most historical instances of sexual violence never received adequate attention or prosecution.[8] Rape was often viewed as an “inevitable by-product” of war and ignored in military histories, military tribunals, and international humanitarian law, even when rape and forced prostitution were mass and systemic.[9]

Second, due to the large number of women who have been subjected to sexual violence in recent conflicts, it is imperative that this phenomenon be publicly discussed and examined in order to better understand how it occurs and then what steps must be taken in order to eradicate it. Finally, since sexual violence in many societies is an issue shrouded in shame and secrecy, especially if victims belong to the “losing” side of a conflict, allowing women to speak publicly about their experiences serves a two-fold purpose. It promotes dialogue on a sensitive topic and encourages the international community to hold perpetrators accountable. It is for these reasons, therefore, that several of my posts will discuss the theoretical explanations for rape during conflict, as well as examine several specific country case studies in order to better understand this crime against humanity.

Before examining theoretical explanations, however, it is important to first discuss sexual violence in the former Yugoslavia and Rwanda. These are two of the most notorious cases of sexual violence in recent history and through an analysis of these two cases, many scholars have developed theories to help explain why sexual violence is often used in such a widespread and systemic nature in many of the world’s recent conflicts.

Sexual Violence in the Former Yugoslavia
Rape, sexual violence, and sexual slavery were used extensively in Bosnia during the 1990s.[10] The historical events leading up to the war in the former Yugoslavia are beyond the scope of this post, however, certain elements of the conflict as they relate to sexual violence are important. After Joseph Tito’s death in 1980, long-standing ethnic and religious tensions flared up again along with increased nationalistic sentiments.[11] Many Serbs believed they had been treated poorly during Tito’s time in power and had suffered more than people in other regions through “economic and political discrimination at the hands of the Croats and the Slovenes.”[12] These ethnic and political rivalries, as well as strong nationalist sentiments prevalent in the country after Tito’s death, set the stage for the resulting violent conflict.[13]

By 1991, Serbia desired to create a Greater Serbia in order to unite all Serbians in one state that would include a large portion of the territory of Bosnia, while at the same time Croatia planned on creating a Croatian territory out of the remaining sections of Bosnia. This desire for territory led to a clash over Bosnia between these two powers.[14] In 1992, when Bosnia declared its independence from Yugoslavia, war erupted. Mass rape was used as a weapon in this conflict and the majority of rapes were committed by Serbian men against Muslim women.[15]

Rape spread terror across the conquered territories… It often involved gang rapes that were performed in public places as a spectacle that would terrorize the local population and induce them to flee the region….Women were also transported from rape camps to the front lines for the entertainment of soldiers. Women in the camps were raped frequently, with an alleged strategy by their captors to impregnate them in an effort to breed Serbian children.[16]

Approximately 200,000 people died in the war, two million were displaced, and at least 60,000 women were raped.[17]

Sexual Violence in Rwanda
Catrien Bijleveld et al. discuss how rape was used deliberately in the Rwandan genocide to destroy “in whole or in part” the Tutsi community.[18] The authors estimate that a little more than 350,000 women, mostly Tutsi, were raped during the genocide.[19]

During the Rwandan genocide, neighbours killed their own neighbours with machetes and knives while the Hutu government publicly exhorted Hutus on the radio to attack Tutsi men, women, and children.[20] Mass rape was an important component of the genocide:

Frequently, rape was merely a prelude to death. Some of the women were penetrated with tools of all sorts—spears, gun barrels, bottles or the stamens of banana trees. Women’s sexual organs were mutilated with machetes, boiling water and acid…Assailants sometimes mutilated women in the course of a rape or before killing them. They cut off breasts, punctured the vagina with spears, arrows, or pointed sticks, or cut off or disfigured body parts that looked particularly ‘Tutsi,’ such as long fingers or thin noses. They also humiliated the women.[21]

Christopher Mullins examines the “nature and dynamics of sexual violence” during the 1994 Rwandan genocide through an analysis of testimonies given to the International Criminal Tribunal for Rwanda (ICTR).[22] He identifies three main forms of sexual violence during the genocide. First, opportunistic rapes were a product of the chaos of the genocide, they did not seem to be controlled or organized, and were motivated by individual desire for sexual gratification or pre-existing ethnic tension. This was the least common of the three categories of rape. Second, sexual enslavement involved cases where women were abducted or detained, usually in the home of an Interhamwe, for the specific purpose of on-going rape and other forms of sexual violence. Finally, structured genocidal rapes were carried out as part of the genocide, were often ordered and/or encouraged by those in positions of authority, and were “accompanied by additional forms of violence, humiliation and mutilation.” These rapes were the most common of the cases analyzed by the author and were part of a larger plan to eliminate an entire group of people.[23]

It was the widespread sexual violence in Rwanda and Bosnia in the early 1990s that began to awaken the world to a long-standing practice perpetrated by soldiers and members of armed groups throughout history. Despite this realization, however, sexual violence continues to be used as a strategic weapon in conflicts throughout the world.

[1] “Prevalence of Sexual Assault.” Stop Violence against Women: A Project of the Advocates for Human Rights (February 1, 2006). http://www.stopvaw.org/Sexual_Assault_as_a_Form_of_Sexual_Violence.html (accessed July 23, 2010).
[2] Ibid.
[3] “Health Consequences of Sexual Assault.” Stop Violence against Women: A Project of the Advocates for Human Rights (February 1, 2006). http://www.stopvaw.org/Sexual_Assault_as_a_Form_of_Sexual_Violence.html (accessed July 23, 2010).
[4] Susan Brownmiller, “Making Female Bodies the Battlefield,” Newsweek vol. 121 (January 4, 1993): 37.
[5] Ruth Seifert, “The Second Front: The Logic of Sexual Violence in Wars,” Women's Studies International Forum vol. 19, no. 1-2 (Jan-Apr 1996): 37. AND Susan Brownmiller, “Making Female Bodies the Battlefield,” Newsweek vol. 121 (January 4, 1993): 37. AND Julie Stone Peters and Andrea Wolper, “Gendered War Crimes: Reconceptualizing Rape in Time of War,” in Women’s Rights, Human Rights by Rhonda Copelon (Routledge, 1995), 197-198.
[6] Michela Wrong, “The Hierarchy of Horrors,” New Statesman vol. 136, issue 4864 (October 1, 2007): 23.
[7] Susan Brownmiller, “Making Female Bodies the Battlefield,” Newsweek vol. 121 (January 4, 1993): 37.
[8] Nancy Farwell, “War Rape: New Conceptualizations and Responses,” Affilia-Journal of Women and Social Work vol. 19, no. 4 (Winter 2004): 390.
[9] Julie Stone Peters and Andrea Wolper, “Gendered War Crimes: Reconceptualizing Rape in Time of War,” in Women’s Rights, Human Rights by Rhonda Copelon (Routledge, 1995), 197-198. AND Nancy Farwell, “War Rape: New Conceptualizations and Responses,” Affilia-Journal of Women and Social Work vol. 19, no. 4 (Winter 2004): 389.
[10] Devorah West, “Radical Racial Ideals and Sexual Violence: Rwanda, Bosnia, and Nazi Germany,” Research Experience for Undergraduates Program (Brown University, Santa Fe Institute, Summer 2005): 21. AND Inger Skjelsbaek, “Victim and Survivor: Narrated Social Identities of Women Who Experienced Rape during the War in Bosnia-Herzegovina,” Feminism & Psychology vol. 16, no. 4 (November 2006): 373.
[11] Cindy S. Snyder, Wesley J. Gabbard, J. Dean May and Nihada Zulcic, “On the Battleground of Women's Bodies: Mass Rape in Bosnia-Herzegovina,” Affilia vol. 21, no. 2 (Summer 2006): 184.
[12] Devorah West, “Radical Racial Ideals and Sexual Violence: Rwanda, Bosnia, and Nazi Germany,” Research Experience for Undergraduates Program (Brown University, Santa Fe Institute, Summer 2005): 23.
[13] Cindy S. Snyder, Wesley J. Gabbard, J. Dean May and Nihada Zulcic, “On the Battleground of Women's Bodies: Mass Rape in Bosnia-Herzegovina,” Affilia vol. 21, no. 2 (Summer 2006): 184.
[14] Ibid., 189.
[15] Ibid., 189.
[16] Ibid., 190.
[17] Patricia Weitsman, “The Politics of Identity and Sexual Violence: A Review of Bosnia and Rwanda,” Paper prepared for the Annual Meeting of the International Studies Association (2007): 12. AND Ruth Seifert, “The Second Front: The Logic of Sexual Violence in Wars,” Women's Studies International Forum vol. 19, no. 1-2 (Jan-Apr 1996): 35.
[18] Catrien Bijleveld, Aafke Morssinkhof, and Alette Smeulers, “Counting the Countless: Rape Victimization During the Rwandan Genocide,” International Criminal Justice Review vol. 19, no. 2 (June 2009): 208.
[19] Ibid., 208.
[20] Patricia Weitsman, “The Politics of Identity and Sexual Violence: A Review of Bosnia and Rwanda,” Paper prepared for the Annual Meeting of the International Studies Association (2007): 16.
[21] Ibid., 17-18, 20.
[22] Christopher W. Mullins, “’We Are Going To Rape You And Taste Tutsi Women:’ Rape During the 1994 Rwandan Genocide,” British Journal of Criminology vol. 49, no. 6 (2009): 719.
[23] Ibid., 726-728.