U.N.: Brutality against women in Congo 'beyond rape'

[Sapphire Blue]

U.N.: Brutality against women in Congo 'beyond rape'

GENEVA, Switzerland (Reuters) -- Extreme sexual violence against women is pervasive in the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) and local authorities do little to stop it or prosecute those responsible, a U.N. investigator said on Monday.

Rape and brutality against women and girls are "rampant and committed by non-state armed groups, the Armed Forces of the DRC, the National Congolese Police, and increasingly also by civilians", said Turkish lawyer Yakin Erturk.

"Violence against women seems to be perceived by large sectors of society to be normal," she added in a report after an 11-day trip to the strife-torn country.

Erturk, special rapporteur for the United Nations Human Rights Council on violence against women, said the situation in South Kivu province, where rebels from neighburing Rwanda operate, was the worst she had ever encountered.

The atrocities perpetrated there by armed groups, some of whom seemed to have been involved in the 1994 Rwandan massacres in which 800,000 people were killed, "are of an unimaginable brutality that goes far beyond rape", she said.

"Women are gang-raped, often in front of their families and communities. In numerous cases, male relatives are forced at gun point to rape their own daughters, mothers or sisters," she said.

After rape, many women were shot or stabbed in the genital area, and survivors told Erturk that while held as slaves by the gangs they had been forced to eat excrement or the flesh of their murdered relatives.


Continued @ http://edition.cnn.com/2007/WORLD/africa/07/30/congo.rape.reut/

Statement of Prof. Yakin Ertürk, Special Rapporteur of the United Nations Human Rights Council on violence against women, its causes and consequences, delivered on 27 July 2007: http://www.unhchr.ch/huricane/huricane.nsf/view01/B5D0053875B01B8CC1257328003A8FEE?opendocument

[Katherine Brengle]

1. I'm sorry, I can't read the rest...

I've read so many accounts like this, sometimes it's just too much to take. I don't know how the fuck people think they can treat others like this - why? Why.



I am heartbroken.

[frogcycle]

7. you and me both

there are plenty of so-called humans that are just plain aberrant. Mentally and/or psychologically defective, beyond any hope of reform.

It is hard to comprehend that it exists, impossible to understand how/why it can.

Any other species would quickly eliminate such aberrations. Humans have both the blessing and the curse of advanced brains capable of complex thought. Like the Force in Star Wars, though, there is a good side and a dark side to that. Being capable of appreciating beauty, imagining utopia is balanced by being capable of enjoying cruelty, imagining heavenly rewards for evildoing.

I think it will continue to get worse. Like the Eloi and the Morlocks in Well's The Time Machine, we are degenerating into two species.

Edit to add: the Eloi are the Morlocks food supply



Eloi Morlocks

http://colemanzone.com/Time_Machine_Project/eloi.htm

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Time_Machine

[wicket]

12. I can't either

Way too triggery for me, but I will K & R.

[Liberal_in_LA]

16. U did read the worst part. Just a short bit of article followed the rest.

I know how you feel though. I've avoided reading news article sometimes.

[Greeby]

2. Holy Jeebus!

:wow:

[MissB]

3. The human race is its own worst enemy.

[Fridays Child]

6. Before we condemn the entire human race...

...let's not forget that this is violence perpetrated by men against women. I understand that there are no impermeable boundaries when it comes to human behavior but there are some pretty bright lines between males and females. It's fair to say that women would not initiate or participate in this level of violence. Nor, as leaders, would we preside over it.

[YOY]

8. Yes, Thatcher was a saint...

:eyes:

We're all human.

[yardwork]

9. Unfortunately, women have proven themselves to be equally ruthless.

Women participated in Nazi atrocities. Women participate in genocides.

[Katherine Brengle]

17. Yet it is true that the vast majority of violence in the world is perpetrated

by men, not women. And it is most often perpetrated AGAINST women and children, not other men.

Male violence is far more prevalent than female violence.

[TheWraith]

13. And you feel the same way about black people, right?

Just checking: after all, by your logic, these crimes were committed by black people, therefore all black people must be barbaric savages in your mind. All Japanese people too, since they're all guilty of the crimes of Unit 731. And on...

And after all, it's not like Queen Mary I of England oversaw the persecution and torture of thousands for religious reasons, or that there were devastating wars waged between Mary of Scots and Elizabeth I. Queen Isabella's fostering of the Inquisition, or Empress Dowager Cixi's despotic rule over the disintegration of Imperial China...

[Name removed]

15. Deleted message

Message removed by moderator. Click here to review the message board rules.

[Name removed]

4. Deleted sub-thread

Sub-thread removed by moderator. Click here to review the message board rules.

[BlooInBloo]

5. Sigh.

[derby378]

10. And here's the punchline, sickening as it may be...

They're all going to get away with it. Why? Because Generalissimo Numbnuts had to get us mired in Iraq instead. Wheeeeee. I feel safer and more secure now, don't you?

:mad:

[Katherine Brengle]

18. Do you honestly believe our gov't would step in if we weren't occupied

(pun intended) in Iraq?

I do not. We have watched in silence as similar things have happened all over the world.

[derby378]

19. With the right President in charge...

...we just might. You need to remember that China is making a lot of new friends in Kenya, Nigeria, and elsewhere in Africa, and it would be great if we could start persuading African nations that we still have something to offer.

[DeSwiss]

11. Will It Never End??

I've got to get off this thing now....

K&R - People need to read THIS!!! Dammit!

[wicket]

14. kick

:kick: