'Horrific' escalation in rape

2005-03-03 21:36

Geneva - Thousands of women, children and some men, aged between four and 80 years-old, have been raped in the Democratic Republic of Congo as wanton violence escalates in the northeastern province of Ituri, the aid group Medecins Sans Frontieres said on Thursday.

"When there's fighting, the number of rapes increases," MSF International (Doctors without Borders) president Rowan Gillies said.

"When the fighting reduces and there are no gunshots, there are still 30 to 40 women a week being raped, even when there's supposed to be security and stability," he added.

Gillies said clinics had reported treating more and more rape victims over the past week as fighting involving local militias, armed gangs, and the UN peacekeeping force surged in the region around the city of Bunia.

"I find these figures horrific and a disgrace that this is happening today," he added.

More than 2 500 people, aged between four and 80, were treated by MSF doctors for wounds suffered as a result of rapes in the provincial capital Bunia alone over the past 20 months.

Seventy-seven percent of them were victims of horrific gang rapes, MSF specialist Francoise Duroch said.

MSF said the rapes, which have been a growing feature in the unstable region near Uganda and Rwanda in recent years, did not appear to be part of a systematic campaign or targeted by one particular ethnic group against another.

"Our impression is it's all over the place. It's civilian, majority military, all different militias, not one particular group against another," Gillies told journalists.

"It's a generalised phenomenon and seems to be becoming more and more common in different parts of the area," he said.

Aid workers do not have access to much of the region because of the violence and MSF estimated that the real number of rapes is likely to be far higher.

"With the stigma involved, the numbers who have been raped is also much much greater," Gillies added.

The MSF chief, who recently returned from Bunia, described the case of a 14-year-old girl who was treated in hospital after being raped by eight to 10 militiamen armed with sticks, guns and knives.

"There was a need to repair the physical damage, but all the other damage we can't do much about," he explained.

Urging more international attention on Ituri, MSF called on the UN's Monuc force to ensure that civilians were not put at risk as it engaged in more aggressive military operations.

- AFP