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Clinton Presses Congo on Rape Epidemic
GOMA, DR Congo - Secretary of State Hillary Clinton on Tuesday offered US help to punish perpetrators of soaring sexual violence in the Democratic Republic of Congo as she paid a lightning visit to its war-weary east.
A Congolese rape victim (L) crosses her arms while sitting next to an infant in front of the transit house they stay in, at the Heal Africa clinic in Goma. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton on Tuesday offered US help to punish perpetrators of soaring sexual violence in the Democratic Republic of Congo as she paid a lightning visit to its war-weary east.
(AFP/Roberto Schmidt) Leaving aside her government jet for a small UN plane, Clinton became the highest ranking US official to tour the desolate lakeside town of Goma to highlight a rape epidemic afflicting tens of thousands of women.
Clinton offered personal comfort to two rape survivors, one of whom was violated when she was eight months pregnant with the fetus ripped out.
Speaking later to reporters as she flew on to Nigeria, Clinton said she felt "overwhelmed" by what she saw.
"It is almost impossible to describe the level of suffering and despair," Clinton said of the region torn by conflict with Hutu militants, some tied to the 1994 genocide in neighbouring Rwanda.
Clinton met with President Joseph Kabila in a tent outside the governor's mansion in Goma for what she described as "a very frank discussion" on sexual violence -- including calling on him to arrest key officers accused of rape.
"We believe there should be no impunity for the sexual and gender-based violence committed by so many, and that there must be arrests, prosecutions and punishments."
Clinton pledged 17 million dollars in new US funding for victims of sexual violence. She said the money would go to hire female police officers sensitive to victims' needs and to provide medical and psychological care for some 10,000 survivors.
"In the face of such evil, people of goodwill everywhere must respond," Clinton said in Goma. "This problem is too big for one country to solve alone."
Clinton also offered the help of the US military's Africa command to advise on how to stop sexual assaults, as well as US legal experts to draw up laws to prevent exploitation of minerals -- a key source of funding for the violence.
Congolese forces, backed by Rwanda, launched an offensive in January to flush out the Hutu militant Democratic Forces for the Liberation of Rwanda (FDLR).
Despite her concern about sexual violence, Clinton voiced support for the campaign and called for a regional solution to stabilise the former Zaire, where some 2.5 million people died between 1998 and 2001 in what has been called Africa's first continental war.
"We believe there can be more done to protect civilians while you are trying to kill and capture insurgents," she told reporters after meeting Kabila.
Her motorcade then whisked along one of the town's only paved roads as she headed to a camp for some of the nearly two million people displaced by more than a decade of conflict in the region.
Visiting the Mugunga camp, home to some 20,000 displaced people, the top US diplomat spoke with a 32-year-old mother of six, Chantal Mapemdo, who told her that she and other women were too scared of violence by men to return to lives in the fields.
Staying in the crammed camp with such poor hygiene that diarrhoea is a key threat, Mapemdo has begun an alternative livelihood for women weaving baskets, an initiative Clinton saluted.
Clinton looked at her firmly and said: "I just came back from meeting President Kabila and I told him we want to stop the violence so you can go home."
According to the United Nations, at least 200,000 women have been raped in eastern DR Congo since 1996.
The United Nations says that both militia fighters and troops are responsible for the sexual crimes.
Victoria Akyeampong, the acting representative of the UN High Commissioner for Refugees in DR Congo, said that many fighters operated with virtually no higher command to keep them in line.
"It is not an excuse, but there are unruly troops who have not been paid for months. They decide to pillage what they find and they pillage women and girls as well," Akyeampong said.
Clinton flew back to Kinshasa late Tuesday and later flew to Nigeria, where she will hold broad discussions on building a closer US relationship with the regional power.
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10 Comments so far
Show AllErm, don't we have a rape epidemic here? I saw a figure a while ago that stated 1 in 3 women in America will be sexually assaulted in her lifetime.
Yes, we do have a rape epidemic here in America. Some of us will be raped more than once in our lifetime. As a woman who knows the horror and pain of rape I want women all around the world not to have to go through rape. I am glad she spoke out and showed her support to the women. Here, there, or anywhere women are being raped, we must speak out and try and help those who have suffered and lived through the nightmare.
What a bunch of baloney! Hillary told people that the US government was moving the Pentagon's AFRICOM into the Congo and all this propaganda about her big concern for rape victims is nothing more than camouflage for her militarism and the militarism of Barack Obama. At best, she threw pennies at the rape victims that the government of Congo has been responsible for and gave her backing to yet more of the same. Her visit firmly advances US war making directly into the heart of Africa. Evidently screwing up Somalia is not enough for these imperialists.
I echo the response about the rape epidemic here in the US. When I read that Hillary was offering "the help of the US military's Africa command to advise on how to stop sexual assaults..." Ridiculous, when the US military, just like every other military force, is responsible for rape as part of every military occupation - including UN peacekeepers - I kid you not! This is documented fact.
In the unlikely event that the US military has some expertise in stopping rape, instead of perpetrating it, I wish they would bring that expertise to bear in the US. Maybe to the defense of US servicewomen who are even more likely to face rape and sexual assualt than civilian women in the US! Especially since the wall that prevents US military from operating inside the US was toppled by the Bush administration and continues to be trampled by the Obama administration as well.
Maybe the real motive here is more about "US legal experts to draw up laws to prevent exploitation of minerals -- a key source of funding for the violence." Mineral rights in Africa? Rewind! So what big corporation stands to get rich off the backs of those raped women in the Congo? For shame!
you said it! the u.s can point the finger and demand everyone clean up their human rights violations, but seems unable to set the example. MEN are the rapists and must become pro-active to stop the problem. hillary's just saying "no" makes no diff!
Aw, come on guys! We need to give some credit where credit is due, and Hillary's visit to the Congo is a positive, welcome step after the last 8 years of Bush tyranny. It helped give notice to the perpetrators of these horrible crimes that their behavior won't be tolerated by the U.S. or the world community in ANY country. Just think of the inspiration and hope one of the most powerful women on Earth has given to the thousands of poor women struggling to deal with these issues.
Hillary is turning out to be a fine Secretary of State and should be supported in her efforts to bring peace and equality around the world, even if some of her rhetoric might be construed to be "over the top" at times.
Hilary Clinton seems very concerned about rape in the Congo.
As has been noted in comments here, she does not seem to be
especially concerned about rape in the US.
She also seems not to recall that her husband supported an
embargo that killed about 850,000 children and hundreds of
thousands of adults in Iraq. She apparently has forgotten that
he bombed a pharmaceutical factory that supplied medicine to an
entire country. She has forgotten that he supported dictatorships
throughout Central America.
Further, she has not noticed that the Obama Administration has
supported Bush-era torture programs,continues to occupy Iraq and
Afghanistan, and supported a savage Israeli attack on Palestinians
a few months ago.
So, rape in the Congo is bad, but killing millions of people, occupying
sovereign nations, bombing civilians and torturing people -- as long as
the US does it -- seem to be quite okay. Wow -- what a feminist leader Hilary Clinton has turned out to be.
The miners do get all-liquored up and wild from time to time, but that's nothing new on the frontier.
"Calm down boys!" said the white woman on a flying white Boeing horse, coming to the rescue of women on the essential western commodities frontier, an 1849 Sierra-like gold rush for colton, copper, gold, diamonds, timber, ...
Clinton looked at her firmly and said: "We need your stuff! We'll send you a blanket."
Next stop for the white knight-ess: Nigeria where the natives are also restless. And Shell and Chevron are in trouble...
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Now just what would that special advice by the US military consist of?Why has it taken this long for the US "legal experts" to make laws that prevent exploitation of minerals, meanwhile over 6 million have died as international corporations exploit minerals,use Africans as slave labour, and turn a blind eye to the most sadistic violence that even Hitler had not dreamed up.Would she spell out just how innocent victims are going to be protected from militarist policies of AFRICOM?
The money for 10,000 victims is a pittance! All the figures that I have read are a gross underestimate. This article is meant for home consumption. No African women or child or man for that matter will rest any easier for Mrs Clinton's words.
NOW, LET'S SEE HER GET THESE LAWS PASSED THAT DEAL WITH THE CORPORATIONS AND LET'S SEE THE US TAKE THE LEAD IN STOPPING SUPPORT FOR CORRUPT DICTATORS!
Rape always happens in war, even when not intentional or conscious policy it is used the same way it is used in normal life--as an intimidation technique and expression of rage. Hillary Clinton is as guilty as anyone in the world of encouraging this as a chief architect of the foreign policy of the US, which relies on force, threats, intimidation, invasion and torture by US and other forces to satisfy the corporate-government agenda. Her indignation is arrogant hypocrisy, and we need to make clear to her and the Obama administration that as long as its policies cause rape, death, maiming and other suffering they have no right to scapegoat others and escape blame themselves.