Today, while browsing the IHT I came upon this editorial by Nicholas D. Kristof
World leaders fight terrorism all the time, with summit meetings and sound bites and security initiatives. But they have studiously ignored one of the most common and brutal varieties of terrorism in the world today.
This is a kind of terrorism that disproportionately targets children. It involves not WMD but simply AK-47s, machetes and pointed sticks. It is mass rape - and it will be elevated, belatedly, to a spot on the international agenda this week.
“Rape in war has been going on since time immemorial,” said Stephen Lewis, a former Canadian ambassador who was the UN’s envoy for AIDS in Africa. “But it has taken a new twist as commanders have used it as a strategy of war.”
There are two reasons for this. First, mass rape is very effective militarily. From the viewpoint of a militia, getting into a firefight is risky, so it’s preferable to terrorize civilians sympathetic to a rival group and drive them away, depriving the rivals of support.
Second, mass rape attracts less international scrutiny than piles of bodies do, because the issue is indelicate and the victims are usually too ashamed to speak up.
In Sudan, the government has turned Darfur into a rape camp. The first person to alert me to this was Zahra Abdelkarim, who had been kidnapped, gang-raped, mutilated - slashed with a sword on her leg - and then left naked and bleeding to wander back to her Zaghawa tribe. In effect, she had become a message to her people: Flee, or else.
Since then, this practice of “marking” the Darfur rape victims has become widespread: typically, the women are scarred or branded, or occasionally have their ears cut off. This is often done by police officers or soldiers, in uniform, as part of a coordinated government policy.
When the governments of South Africa, China, Libya and Indonesia support Sudan’s positions in Darfur, do they really mean to adopt a pro-rape foreign policy?
The rape capital of the world is eastern Congo, where in some areas three-quarters of women have been raped. Sometimes the rapes are conducted with pointed sticks that leave the victims incontinent from internal injuries. A former UN force commander there, Patrick Cammaert, says it is “more dangerous to be a woman than to be a soldier.”
The international community’s response so far? Approximately: “Not our problem.”
To read the rest of the article, please go here.
Reading this made me so angry!!! What can the average person, thousands of miles from the scene of the crime, do to help put an end to this? As a woman and as a human being this greatly distresses me and should distress any and everyone. This needs to stop, the entire world should come together to end this brutality.
It is simple to bewall, that these “target children” will be subject to an “international agenda”. What we write down in this kind of notebook? Things we know by advance we’d be able to forget.
Also we could deplore how this sort of international meeting is devised.
This article helps us in questionning about the real implication of international behaviours, when one read they have been incorporating by “sovereign states” for a long time, whose acts lead to those horrors that piece of paper bears us in mind.
Are they about to judge themselves?
Of course, civilians are always represented in all organizations, even in minor number. But what do we really know about them? And the strategy chosen to put them on that civic position?
Africans and many other dying population, truce on them, have been the sufferers of a genocide, for centuries. Nobody’s fooled, nor dupe about.
Many hearts need to save all that. And Hearts don’t need glasses. Heart feels the truth, even if the brain is not always following. Green colour of grassland don’t wear uniform, though It is.
They stole her listening, and yet how could they ever put an end to the music, inner?
Eyewitness of those scenes she is: they won’t be able to wipe out their tormented hands, from the Book of Life.
Don’t accept.
This article helps us in questionning about our real implication in helping each other, and moreover, about our “own paradise”, even if we could consider it in decay.
Yes. The weapon of rape. The action and abuse of. Power. The action and abuse. Of sex. Terror. Thrue my previous work at the womens clinic in Sweden i am sorry to say that this is not only a weapon and strategy used in war. But it also is an increasing problem all over the world. Even though it still happens too often. In silence. Behind the. Curtains. In front of the crowd. Whereever. Whenever. I am one of many. Whom experienced it. And. The children, the young girls, the women i have met. Listened to. Talked with. Hurted.Injured within body and soul. Has been too many. Every week. Every month. Every year. Describing the darkest rooms of. Reality.
Rape.in different shapes. Is for real. And it is. Time. To uncover. To take actions. To say. No. From the bottom. To the top. Without exuses. Empower children and women. And we will. Lighten. The world.
Hace poco leà un reportage en una revista sobre George Cluny que está apoyando y dando a conocer lo de Dafur junto con su padre experiodista el cual le ha enseñado buenos principios, él también sabe como tú que “La gloria es transitoria”.
Sinceramente admiro a estos hombres como el y como tu.
Realmente, lugares como este sin lugar a duda son un infierno para una mujer.
Gracias Paulo por contarnos y hacerte eco de lo que pasa en esta parte del mundo.
Un beso.
It seems that in Cyprus we have mooved far…There is law against bodily or psycological violence even in the family! People started speaking and goverment brings the abusers to the court…I believe that as far as HUMAN RIGHTS are concerned,for European Union is a priority. There was an invasion in my island in 1974 and there were many girls victims of rape.. Goverments use it as a weapon against the local people, in order to achieve their target easily.Where are United Nations, the Human Rights Assotiations, the beautiful words from the powerful Leaders of the World? It seems that when it comes to power and money they forget that we are on this Planet temporarily and we cannot take anything with us , expect our SOULS..LOVE, Thelma
I can hardly bring myself to think about these things in the world -It sickens me that this goes on …More has to be done to stop this brutality ..for women and children I know it happens it just makes me feel really sad that people are tortured like this ..Its everyones problem ..If we are truly all one ,then this affects everyone .Blessings Tania
How indicative is that not a single man has put comment by now ?!
Yes dear Thelma, ashes to ashes - dust to dust, we all become equal at one moment in time. (Thank God) Only the soul remains. It never ceases to amaze me that those who are entrusted with power, forget so easily that they are also humans? The “world police” are always ready to go into action when there is something materialistic to be gained (i.e., oil in Iraq) but obviously the human being does not have enough value. What are they doing in Burma or the Sudan? NOTHING!!!! Why? Because it’s not profitable. Materialism is a people killer, and extraordinarily enough, those who consume happen to be people also. So it’s no surprise to me that the “world police” have now dropped out of the Human Rights council.
So as long as humans keep forgetting that they are humans, there will be no solution and they will unfortunately continue to barbarically rape our children! I will keep saying this at every opportunity, “The world of tomorrow, is shaped by the way we treat the children of today!”, hoping that one day the message is heard.
Love to all “our” children, Paul
How is it that there are so many soldiers willing to rape on command? If there are soldiers who are willing to come forward and speak out about what goes on then maybe their leaders can be held accountable - war crimes.
It horrifies me how the vulnerable of the world are being treated, women but especially children. These men are just plain animals.
RAPE is a crime not against the human body but against the human soul.whole world is busy solving the problem of environment and energy crisis.so called devloped nations are meeting every year to solve the problem of WTO and subsidies but not a single nation pay heed to this very serious issue.It is intolerable in 21st century that human being especially women and children are being targeted.sexual violence was the part of phycological warfare but it can not be justified in today’s world.It must be deal with iron hand.I hope security council will take action againt the culprits of such heinous crime.