Congo war leaves legacy of sexual violence against women

Desiree Zwanck, a gender adviser to Heal Africa, says that civilian rape and military rape are actually mirror images of the same phenomenon: a lack of respect for women. "Wartime violence against women, and ... mass rape … is a magnified and very intense version of inconsideration, you could even say misogyny, that exists in most male-dominated societies," Ms. Zwanck says.

Part of Zwanck's work at Heal Africa involves mediating between rape survivors and their families, in part to help overcome the gender biases that she says underpin sexual violence. One useful tool, she says, is microcredit.

"A lot of families here are in such dire need that they are actually more inclined to accept the woman back into the household when there is an economic incentive for it," says Zwanck. "[Women] themselves feel this gives them an added value, and that their families and communities respect them more, when they are able to manage their own funds, their own livestock, or their own little boutique."

Other groups conduct outreach programs aimed at men, explaining what rape is and trying to instill a respect for a woman's right to refuse sex. But the message, says HHI's Kelly, isn't getting through. "It's great in our Westernized world that we all know more or less what sexual violence is and why it's wrong, but those messages aren't necessarily being conveyed to the youth of the DRC," she says. "They see sexual violence ... on a massive scale. They also don't see anyone getting punished for it."

Weak law enforcement

Congo has strong laws against sexual violence, but observers say they're rarely enforced. "It's difficult to prosecute perpetrators because they can buy off the police or a judge," says Ms. Kahatwa. "There's no guarantee of justice."

ABA's law clinic, funded in part by the US State Department, has guided more than 200 cases through the courts. Kahatwa says there have been only 30 verdicts so far, 28 of them convictions. The guilty have been sentenced to 20 years in jail.

Maria Eriksson Baaz, who interviewed 226 soldiers in eastern Congo and the capital of Kinshasa for Sweden's Nordic Africa Institute, found that soldiers themselves insist that only tough punishment can curb the crime.

Her report quotes one soldier's explanation of the need for public trials. "His wife will start to cry, his children will start to cry: 'Ahh, Papa.' Then other people who are watching will understand; they will start to be afraid: 'Ahh, so that is the way it is.' "

But Kapila says the long-term violence eastern Congo has experienced won't simply be adjudicated away. "You can't stop the violence in one generation," he says. "It will be at least a couple of generations."

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• Mothers in Congo get help in raising children of rape
• Rape in Congo: What got me was the laughter
• Congo: Confronting rape as a weapon of war

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