Lwaboshi Bahati (center), with some of his children, banished his wife from their home after she was raped by militiamen in Congo’s running ethnic conflict. But, through a reeducation program, he realized this made his family and society suffer, so he welcomed her back. Mary Knox Merrill / Staff

A Congolese Army colonel, who admits to committing two rapes when he was a militia member, says the program has ‘sensitized’ him to the crime. Mary Knox Merrill / Staff

Police Maj. Honorine Munyole (l.) has been threatened for trying to enforce rape laws in eastern Congo. She talks with Christine Karumba, who runs a Women for Women program that enlists men as allies against rape. Mary Knox Merrill / Staff

Congolese Army officers, whose troops often use rape as a weapon of war, participate in the Men’s Leadership Program, which aims to change the prevalent cultural view that rape cannot be stopped. Mary Knox Merrill / Staff

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Congo: Confronting rape as a weapon of war

In the rape capital of the world, some are seeking to curb sexual violence by focusing on men's role in preventing it.

By Matthew Clark | Staff writer

from the August 2, 2009 edition

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Staff writer Matthew Clark and photographer Mary Knox Merrill report on a women's advocacy group trying to stop rape by soldiers and militiamen in Congo.

Kanyola, Democratic Republic of Congo - First his wife, then his daughter. Five years ago, Hutu militiamen tied up Lwaboshi Bahati and forced him and his children to watch as they raped those nearest to his heart. Then they took everything he owned.

"I was so angry. Up until now, I can't forget. I can't express how bad I feel," says Mr. Bahati, an unemployed former small-business owner.

But at his wife's time of greatest need, he kicked her out of the house. She was defiled; damaged goods. Besides, she might give him the AIDS virus that she must have caught from the militiamen. At least that's how he saw things back then.

"I didn't hate my wife, but I didn't appreciate what happened. I was afraid," Bahati whispers, behind a bush, out of earshot of villagers. For them to know would bring ridicule upon him, the man who couldn't protect his wife.

And Bahati is not alone. Hundreds of thousands of men in eastern Congo are in the same position: The stigma of rape compels them to hide what happened and shun their wives, compounding a horrible situation.

This is what war looks like in what has been called "the rape capital of the world," where the weapon of sexual violence is so commonly used that people seem numb to it. Doctors and activists call it an "epidemic." Five million people have died, and an estimated 50,000 to 100,000 women have been raped in the past decade of tangled conflict among ethnic militias and regional militaries fighting for Congo's mineral riches.

"Even in a wartime setting, Congo is unusual and exceptional," says Michael Van Rooyen, the director of Harvard's Humanitarian Initiative and an emergency physician with experience in international disaster zones. And, he says, it appears that "rape is becoming part of the culture."

Focus on men's role in preventing rape

Because rape is so prevalent in the war-torn east, Congo is perhaps an ideal laboratory for testing the premise of a global trend in the fight against rape: a new focus on men's role in preventing it. Historically, it's been the after-the-fact symptom of the problem – the women victims – that have absorbed attention and resources.

That's why Washington-based Women for Women International set up here to get respected men to show others how devastating rape is to society. That's why Bahati can talk now – even if only in hushed tones – about changing his views and reclaiming his family from the effects of rape.

"While we are an organization that values investment in women, you have to engage larger communities," says Lyric Thompson, policy analyst at Women for Women. "In many places we work, the community leaders are men, so we use men's position of influence. Our program in Congo is a model for other programs. It involves a huge paradigm shift from approaching men as the perpetrators – the enemy – to engaging them as allies; as fathers, sons, brothers."

This past year, thanks to the program, Bahati took his wife back after four years of shunning her. (She also tested negative for the AIDs virus.)

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