I just don't know where to start in describing what I've experienced yesterday night... There is no proper way how to begin writing about such a thing...
Annually, when I'm in Prague at that time, I attend the human rights festival called One World. Perhaps you've heard of it.
Yesterday afternoon, going straight from work, I chose to see a film called The Greatest Silence: Rape in the Congo, by the bravest director I've ever met in my life: Lisa F. Jackson.
I've chosen the film not knowing much about it, it was the first film I saw at the festival this year. But, it shook me to the core. I'm still shaking inside with disgust even now. This morning, I woke up with images of the faces of the women I saw in the film...
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Congo is a landlocked country in Central Africa, neighbour of troubled countries Rwanda, Uganda, situated next to the Great Lakes, and has one of the richest world's natural resources ranging from gold, coltan (used in all cell-phones and laptops, and in Congo can be basically picked up from the ground without any need to dig for it), cassiterite or tin.
Congo, a Belgium colony, gained independence in 1960. After a short independence, it has been taken over by the rule of one man Mobutu, who renamed the country Zair and continued the same dictatorian regime, until 1997, when Kabila, leader of the Rwandan troops, took over the country and named in Democratic Republic of Congo.
And that is when the civil war in Congo started. A war between some 100 different rebellion groups, the worst of which being
- the Hutu fighters who ran from Rwanda after the Rwandan war, believed to be responsible for the worst massacres of Tutsis,
- the Mai Mai soldiers, isolated Congolese soldiers, who are very superstitious and believe that having sex with a woman before battle will bring them good luck,
- rebells from Uganda, now fighting in southern Congo, probably supported by the government of Sudan
All of the soldiers are of course fighting each other as well, trying to reap as many of the country's natural resources as possible. The situation is the worst in the eastern and southern part of Congo. And the only "enemy" they have is the weak and undisciplined Congolese army.
The war has already claimed over 5.5 million lives of the Congolese, almost the same number as the Holocaust in the WWII in Europe. Most of these, however, did not die of violence but from diseases, malnutrition, infections, and starvation.
Among the worst atrocities happening in Congo now is sexual violence on the Congolese women. There are over 100,000 women who have been raped in Congo since the civil war started in 1997, often by several men at a time, or taken as sex slaves in the camps of these soldiers. One would think that the rapists were mainly the Rwandan or Ugandan soldiers. That the Congolese army, despite weak, would defend their women against these attacks. The biggest surprise is that the Congolese soldiers rape their own women as well...
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Lisa went to Congo by herself, funded the film with her own money at the start, got herself a local interpreter willing to help her interview the victims and armed with just her camera, she went to the war zone to interview the women victims.
In the documentary, she, in her own narrative voice describes how meeting these women, looking to their faces, sharing her terrible experience of brutal rape together with these women made her feel. Brave as she was, she met the women lying in the hospitals, treated after their wombs had to be removed due to severe brutal injuries, and interviewed the doctor working at the private hospital in Panzi, where the victims find refuge and the needed medical treatment. The doctor said that he has never seen injuries like that before. After having several cases where the women's insides were totally damaged, he started to ask what was going on. The answers he got were the following:
Most women have been raped by several men at a time. Some soldiers were shoving objects inside the women including guns and wooden sticks, tearing their wombs and bladders. The women have to undergo complicated surgeries, and their recoveries often take several months, even a year.
The hospital is packed. Hundreds of women are waiting for beds to become free to be treated in a provisional tent outside the hospital. Some make it to the hospital in time. Some have to walk for months to get there. Some never make it there.
Lisa brought presents with her for the Congolese women – nail polishes, perfumes, and other small gifts, but in the documentary, she says "How ridiculous these presents seem to her, these women need their lives back."
For all these numbers, there is just ONE policewoman, representing the anti-sexual violance squad, her HQ being in a small shack, where she works together with some three other people, one old typewriter, not even having enough paper. Lisa followed her as she daily tours the rape victims, encouraging them to speak out, which in many cases, is really difficult as the women are afraid of being murdered or raped again.
The title of the movie is "The Greatest Silence", because the victims are often too scared or ashamed to speak of what happened to them, abandoned by their husbands, face humiliation from their neighbours and often hide in the forests since they are so ashamed of having been raped to go outside. Their men just don't defend them. Either they can't as usually they are outnumbered by the soldiers, attacked in their homes and left totally helpless, forced to watch their wives being raped, or, if they resist, killed. The women in such cases are left with children to take care of, with everything stolen from them and their husband's dead body to burry..
The women, who are taken as sexual slaves by the Rwandan soldiers experience even worse atrocities. One women said when she was pregnant with one of the rapists' child, her other children were forced to walk on her belly until she miscarries. Then she was forced to drink the blood from her womb...
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The biggest problem apart from the fact the women will not report the rapes is the impunity, which makes it even harder to stop the violence on women. When, however, a woman agrees to report the rape and the rapist manages to be jailed, he is often left out for some $2 or less.
The local government and the high classes remain indifferent to all what is going on. All they care about is their own wealth and well-being, neglecting everything else.
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When the HBO got involved, Lisa went back to interview the soldiers, under the protection of the UN convoys.
After locating two separate groups, willing to be interviewed, the responses she got really struck me to the core.
The Congolese soldiers justified the rapes with the fact that they have to be in the forest, fighting, so they "need it", and the women have to have sex with them. If they don't want to, they threaten them or call friends to hold her. The number of women they raped range from 2 to 25, some said they can't even remember.
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During the debate which followed after the film, Shannon Methan, from the International Rescue Committee, a NGO involved in helping the women in Congo, offered facts about how many of the UN soldiers served in the region – only 17,000 for the entire country the size of Western Europe compared to the 60,000 in Kosovo during the civil war there. Lisa was quick to add not to forget since the country is lacking good roads, has hilly mountains with thick forests, the access for the UN convoys to check everything is near to impossible. Doing the numbers, Shannon said it is not even one-tenth of humanitarian aid per person as in the other regions. Lisa just shook her head in disbelief.
The top question is WHY doesn't the country get as much attention as the other conflicts? Is the natural resources everyone can exploit while the country's at war? Is it because it's Africa?
The natural resources seem to be a curse for the Congolese. There is USD 1 million worth mined each day in Congo, of which the Congolese don't see anything.
Where do these resources end up? In the laptops we use, in the mobile phones we call from.
As I type this, on my laptop, even I am guilty of contributing to the violence in Congo... We should, at least try to make a difference to help stop it.
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In the end, Shannon presented us all with a way how to help:
- to challenge the big mobile phone and laptop producers to publish their sources of coltan
- use pressure and lobby our governments not to stay indifferent to what is going on
- persuade the EU that violence against women should be high on the priority list for the EU
And with the last point – all of us can help.
Such as Slovenia was lobbying in the EU against violence against children, the Czech Republic should take on that effort together with the effort to stop violence against women.
The IRC created a petition, which, when signed by as many people as possible would be enough to persuade the EU parliament to implement measures into their policies to significantly join in the effort to stop the violence.
All you need to do is to add your signature and send a letter to the EU here:
www.ircuk.org
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After the debate was over, I just could help myself and went to exchange couple words with the bravest director.
When you shake Lisa's hand and look into her eyes, you can see an extraordinary woman. A woman who was not only able to fight her own tragedy, but went even further to help women who the world has forgotten. I told her she's the bravest director I ever met. The way she smiled at me was so sincere and so deep that I will never forget it...
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more links:
Wikipedia
La Times
Global Security
Human Rights Watch
Publish What You Pay
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