UN’s Margot Wallstrom
Monusco, Kinshasa, DRC 08 Oct 2010
United Nations (UN) Special Representative on Sexual Violence in Conflict Margot Wallström said that the Government of the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC) “must and can do” more to stop the use of sexual violence as a weapon of war; on Tuesday (5 September) UN peacekeepers (MONUSCO) and Government forces seized one of the rebel leaders, Sadoke Kikunda Mayele, suspected of being behind the mass rape of more than 300 civilians two months ago in the country’s east.
Wallström, who started her week-long trip to the vast country earlier this week, added that the purpose of her visit is to understand how sexual violence “is being used in this country as a weapon of war or a strategy or a consequence of war and what we can do to stop this.”
The joint operation by peacekeepers from the UN Stabilization Mission in the DRC (MONUSCO) and the Government army was launched in the Walikale area of North Kivu province where the rapes were perpetrated.
The attacks, which took place mostly after dark, were carried out between 30 July and 2 August by some 200 members of three armed groups, the Mai Mai Cheka, the Democratic Forces for the Liberation of Rwanda (FDLR), and elements close to Colonel Emmanuel Nsengiyumva, an army deserter who has in the past been involved with the rebel National Congress for the Defence of the People (CNDP).
The known victims include 235 women, 52 girls, 13 men, and 3 boys, some of whom were raped multiple times, according to a UN human rights report issued last month. At least 923 houses and 42 shops were looted and 116 people were abducted in order to carry out forced labour.
On the incident, Wallström said that during her visit she saw that the villagers “were willing to share with us, these villagers, their pain.” She added that the UN “would like to see more of an engagement from the Government.”
MONUSCO noted that the arrest was executed within the framework of the mission’s mandate to support the Government in its struggle against impunity and Mayele had been handed over to DRC military investigators.
United Nations Organization Mission in the Democratic Republic of Congo: MONUSCO
Courtesy of Maxims News Network on Youtube