Rape atrocities have ravaged Congolese communities since the war began
nearly 10 years ago.
Once these young women reach Dr. Mukwege's examination table, he says,
their horrific stories seem to resonate in unison: The militia came,
speaking a different language. They broke into the house at night. They
made the father transport on his back everything they stole from the
house. They took the mother and children to a place where others in the
village were gathered. Then, in front of the whole village, they
indiscriminately raped the children and mothers.
"I feel like I have ten thousand testimonies," says Mukwege, who
recently testified before a U.S. Senate subcommittee and met with
congressional officials in Washington to bring awareness to the rape
atrocities in eastern Congo. In early
April, the respected gynecologist
and Congolese native sat down for a question-and-answer session at our
Baltimore headquarters.
*How do you approach treatment for these victims of brutal rape?*
We treat an average of 10 women and young girls a day, whose lives have
been shattered from savage rape. The women coming to the hospital are
the worst cases. As far as treatment, we start with the counseling,
because most of them have psychological problems.
We often have to perform surgery to restore the function of mangled organs.
But foremost, as a doctor and a Christian facing something like this,
the first thing we ask them to do is to reconcile with themselves. Maybe
I have to accept that I have no legs, I have no uterus or I have an
incurable disease, but I have to accept what I am and that other people
did this to me. I have to move forward.
*Could you explain the longer impact
these attacks have on families and
villages?*
I have some patients who came for treatment and when they returned home,
their whole family was killed because the attackers thought they told
what happened to them. We have many more cases like this.
This tactic that the militia is using has traumatized residents in
eastern Congo. These are the worst acts of terrorism: to make people
leave their homes, abandon their fields, abandon their livestock. The
bandit becomes the master of the territory where he knows everyone is
afraid. Those who fear, flee. It's a terrible weapon. It destroys for a
long time. When you rape women the way it has been done in the Congo,
things are never normal for them again.
*Is there one case or person you've met whose story is still etched in
your thoughts?*
Once I was talking to a young girl, Luisa. Her mother was raped in her
presence. At age 8, her
attackers completely destroyed her genitalia.
But a lot about her astonished me to the point of tears. I asked her
what she wanted to happen to the people who did this to her and she said
they must be pardoned because they don't know what they do.
She was able to respond this way in spite of her suffering. Now 10 years
old, she is unable to hold her urine. When you examine her you realize
that her whole reproductive system was destroyed. Her father, who was
abducted, never came back. She'll say, "I'm still waiting for my
brothers to come back." She doesn't realize that her whole life has
been
destroyed.
*As you head back to the Congo and back to this reality, are you hopeful
for peace and reconciliation?*
My biggest fear is that it's almost completely neglected by everyone.
When the women testify as to what happened to them, [members of the
international community] cry, and after
that life continues.
We still have so much work in front of us. I'm not talking about 10
people. I'm talking about tens of thousands of people. Also, we know
there are many women who were raped three years ago who didn't get
treatment. If I could be optimistic for a moment, peace will be coming
soon.
*CRS' Work on Sexual Violence in Democratic Republic of the Congo*
In 2004, CRS helped train more than three dozen local women in Maniema
province in psychosocial counseling, so they could help other survivors
of sexual attacks. These women worked at a support center in the
provincial capital, Kindu, to provide confidential counseling to
survivors of sexual violence and their families.
More recently, CRS has worked with Panzi Hosptial in Bukavu, South Kivu.
Panzi is the leading institution for the care and treatment of Congolese
women who have been raped. CRS support to Panzi has aimed
to address two
of the major obstacles to care and treatment for victims of sexual
violence: the lack of trained health care personnel and the geographic
distance between where the attacks occur and the location of treatment
centers. As part of the Axxes project, funded by the U.S. Agency for
International Development, CRS facilitated the training of four medical
doctors and four nurses at Panzi hospital. The trainees subsequently
returned to treat victimized women in health centers and hospitals in
more remote rural areas of the province.
CRS also provided funding to repair a Panzi Hospital building that was
damaged from the earthquake in February 2008.
