Jennifer Cocks
October 7, 2010
2:10 pm
On July 30th, rebels in the Democratic Republic of Congo converged on a small village of Luvungi and proceeded to gang-rape roughly 200 local women over the course of three days. While these rapes occurred, the UN had an outpost a few miles away and did not respond. The UN peacekeepers have to shoulder the burden of being the primary law enforcement and security for people living in the eastern part of the Congo, as local authorities are “invisible or drunk.” The Congolese Army is similarly inept at security, as members that were stationed in the Luvungi village abandoned their posts mid-July and trekked to Bisie to extort illegal taxes from the tin ore mine established there. The eastern portion of the Congo is rife with rebels who commit atrocities such as the raiding villages and raping female villagers to increase their negotiating power. UN forces are simply not enough to secure all of the vulnerable villages, though efforts are made escort villagers to marketplaces and some UN peacekeepers setup temporary camps in large areas to provide night watches to protect the locals. Poverty keeps villagers in isolation and reliable communication networks have not yet been established.
This story integrates issues of social class, the inequality of women, and the methods of physical and psychological warfare insurgents are using to create an atmosphere of violence and fear. I think that the general impoverished status of the people who live in the affected eastern region of the country causes their geographic and social isolation and increases vulnerability to attacks. Their subsequent lack of prestige and financial power results in poor security and defense, as they cannot afford to arm themselves and the vast corruption has voided out the effectiveness of local law enforcement and even the military. The very title of this article is very telling about the state of the country; that the UN has become sort of a primary provider of security exemplifies the disarray of the Democratic Republic of Congo itself.
That women are being the primary targets of these militias is tragic; however, I think it’s unusual that the insurgents are using the rapes as a way of gaining credibility and building their reputation, not solely using it to physically and psychologically dominate the locals. I read an embedded article from 2007 that stated the rapes of women in the Congo are unprecedented in brutality and frequency for reasons that are inexplicable by officials and aid workers. In this second article, many of the women were raped so brutally that they will be unable to have children. There really is no alternative theory for the aggressive and brutal rapes of women besides the idea that it increases the negotiating power for the militias. This trend itself is worrying because there is no precedent of this extensive use of rape and violence against women, its origin is unknown. Is this evidence of the evolution of rebel warfare tactics? Are the rebels adopting a violent, never-before-seen misogynist culture? Or are rape victims of the Congo just living examples of the power insurgents have over the population?
Original Article:
http://www.nytimes.com/2010/10/04/world/africa/04congo.html?pagewanted=1&_r=1&sq=women&st=cse&scp=10
Rape Epidemic Raises Trauma of Congo War (second, embedded article from 2007):
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