6 - Mass Rape as a Weapon of War in the Eastern DRC

Summary

Rape is not an accident of war, or an incidental adjunct to armed conflict. Its widespread use in times of conflict reflects the unique terror it holds for women, the unique power it gives the rapist over his victim, and the unique contempt it displays for its victims.

Amnesty International USA, 2005

Introduction

In 2007, the HBO documentary film produced and directed by Lisa Jackson, The Greatest Silence: Rape in the Congo, brought to American public attention, to a greater extent than ever before, the shocking nature of violence against women in the eastern Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC). This chapter has the same objective as the film but with the Africanist academic community in mind, having been written specifically to document the emerging media coverage of and information on this continuing human rights crisis and to encourage active engagement within universities. It begins by outlining the efforts of governmental and nongovernmental organizations to bring the issue to public and academic attention and provides an overview of rape as a weapon of war in general and in the DRC in particular. Above all, it considers how expanding circles of concern are using the mass media, and increasingly new media forms as well, in an effort to encourage governments and the United Nations to control the violence against women in the DRC. The chapter then introduces some of the campaigns that are seeking to treat and prevent both nontraumatic (obstetric) and traumatic (rape-related) fistula, as well as the local and international efforts to protect and empower the victims through bolstering peace and security. After introducing the differences between obstetric and traumatic fistula, the chapter focuses on the symbolic violence and military/terrorist function of rape in a climate of complete impunity. There is also a brief discussion of the limits of hope for any resolution of the conflict in the eastern DRC and thus of the plight of women and girls in these communities. In addition, the chapter provides a brief overview of the broader history of the local and regional conflict, though this aspect of the crisis is largely relegated to references in the end-notes. The conclusion recapitulates the efforts by Amnesty International, the United Nations, the U.S. government, and various local and international organizations to ameliorate this particularly extreme scenario of violence against women.