Ban calls DRC rapes an outrage

2010-08-25 07:47

Edith M Lederer

New York – The UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon expressed outrage on Tuesday at the rape and assault of at least 154 Congolese civilians by Rwandan and Democratic Republic of Congo rebels, calling it "another grave example" of the level of sexual violence and insecurity in the country's volatile eastern region.

UN spokesperson Martin Nesirky said Ban is sending Assistant Secretary-General for Peacekeeping Atul Khare to Congo immediately to help investigate and is also sending his Special Representative for Sexual Violence in Conflict, Margot Wallstrom, to take charge of the UN's response and follow-up to the attacks.

Ban also called on all armed groups to lay down their arms and join the peace process and urged the DRC government to investigate the attacks, bring the perpetrators to justice, and end the insecurity in the east, Nesirky said.

According to an American aid worker and a Congolese doctor, the rebels gang-raped nearly 200 women and some baby boys over four days within miles of a UN peacekeepers' base in an eastern Congo mining district.

Will F Cragin of the International Medical Corps said on Monday that aid and UN workers knew rebels had occupied Luvungi town and surrounding villages in eastern DRC the day after the attack began on July 30.

Cragin told The Associated Press by telephone that his organisation was only able to get into the town, which he said is about 16km from a UN military camp, after rebels ended their brutal spree of raping and looting and withdrew of their own accord on August 4.

Terrible incident

Nesirky said on Monday that a UN Joint Human Rights team verified allegations of the rape of at least 154 women by combatants from the Rwandan rebel FDLR group and Congolese Mai-Mai rebels in the village of Bunangiri. He said the victims are receiving medical and psycho-social care.

Nesirky said the UN peacekeeping mission has a military company operating base in Kibua, some 30km) east of the village, but he said FDLR attackers blocked the road and prevented villagers from reaching the nearest communication point.

"The secretary-general is outraged by the rape and assault," Nesirky said on Tuesday. "This is another grave example of both the level of sexual violence and the insecurity that continue to plague" DRC.

Wallstrom condemned the rapes "in the strongest possible terms".

"It should be noted that this incident represents a very extreme case in terms of its scale and the level of organisation of the attacks," she said in a statement on Tuesday.

Wallstrom said the "terrible incident" confirmed her findings during a recent visit to DRC "of the widespread and systematic nature of rape and other human rights violations".

- SAPA