Congos Past Still Her Present

This is by far, the most painful post I have ever written.

 Gynaecologist Denis Mukwege, of Bukavu's Panzi hospital, rang his friend Christine Schuler-Deschryver, a human rights worker in the town. He said he had started to see injuries he had never seen before – women who had been raped in terrible ways, whose reproductive organs had been wrecked, who were suffering from fistulas between the vagina and rectum inflicted not just by gang rape but also by attacks with sticks, guns, bottles. "I said to Christine, this is new," he recalls. "Their vaginas are destroyed. I couldn't understand what was going on." (Beginnings of Victory, Valentine & Vigina)

Today I wrote a human interest post that I hope will be read by each person that visits and get passed on, despite its length which I apologise for. My request for your time is not in want of attention for my ramblings but because everyone has the right to human dignity health and safety. At least this is what my country's constitution and my conscious tells me. I hope at the end of this post you will help make that happen.  

One of the most painful, gut wrenching horrors I've ever come across was a documentary on the Rwandan massacre.  I remember watching this documentary through a torrential flow of tears as they showed blood and brain stained walls in a room where heads of babies and young children were bashed against the walls and/or ceilings as a means of killing them, as the killers screamed statements like: "Kill these cockroaches". A whole lot happened in that film but nothing haunts me more than that image.  Eight hundred thousand (800 000) so called cockroaches were killed in a 100 days in 1994, that is 8000 people killed everyday for three months and 10 days. Living, breathing people whose lives ended in the most horrid ways. I cannot believe that in this world we live in, in this day, that this could have been allowed to happen. How could what was allowed with Pol Pot in the 70's  and Adolf Hitler in the 40's, or even Congo's Rape by Leopold in the 18oo's, have been allowed to happen again to Congo in this day and age with all the technology and knowhow we have. The world is a much smaller place than it was back then. But the most perplexing question in my mind is, how does a human being disassociate themselves so much from their humanity that they would not see their victim as the same species they are.

  Very bad

BBC News

I felt like I had no more energy left within me. I felt so weak and feeble and like I had lost all of my intelligence.

Seven of us girls were treated that way. Now, I feel very bad here [pointing to her lower abdomen or reproductive area].

There was no way for me to escape and come back. We were far from here. One day, when they sent me to the market, I saw my uncle. I hid in the car and I managed to get home and now I live with my family.

 It is even more mind blowing that the monstrosity continues with little if any intervention. Today the weapon of  choice is rape (sorry, in actual fact not today, its been going on for more than a decade). Also ironic is how it always ends up being the woman left behind to suffer the consequences of a man's decisions, and they still continue to make those decision as they decide/choose to rape. 

Research statistics are showing that rape in Rwanda has increased to at least a thousand one hundred a day ( listen to this report by The World.org) this is just one type  of crime committed not only by citizens or one rebels but with the greatest perpetrators being the lawmen themselves. Suffice to say there is no rule of law in this country and the rest of the world's politicians only visit when they want to get noticed for an "agh shame" moment and then nicely store it under file 13. I've just learned that taking up Congo rape as a political agenda does not a political career make, the UK Gaurdian reported: 

"There have never been any political careers made by focusing on rape in DRC. A White House aide quoted in the article sums up that reality by saying, "Congo was not going to be part of the Michelle brand", when a bold effort was made to enlist Michelle Obama."

If this was not enough of a travesty, then I don't know what is. There have been extensive reports written on this issue and presented to world governments to no avail. After reading some of the articles I must admit I felt incredibly despondent, it felt as though these people were resigned to this abominable fate. But then I wondered, if the rest of the world had looked on, on South Africa with the odd tear and the occasional wistful expression, would I have been free. After all its only a mere15 years ago that I was able to put my X on the ballot for the first time. Would that have even been possible had the average man and woman of the world not taken up “arms” with SA’s struggle fighters in the fight for our freedom? My ability to walk freely in my land is a direct result the actions of people all over the world who refused to resign South Africa to abomination that was Apartheid. I believe the same is possible for this country's most fragile citizens. 

I came across this Congo Rape issue from a blogger I follow on twitter Kelly Sue and was very moved once again by this countries plight. But being moved is the same as not caring at all if it doesn't galvanize one into some sort of action to help alleviate the suffering of the women of Rwanda. 

It is beyond my powers of reasoning to comprehend how these women live through the atrocities inflicted upon them, I am still struggling to grasp the less frequently reported rape incidents perpetrated against babies in my own country. But even with my incapacity to get a grip of its magnitude, it does not disprove the fact that in the hour it took me to type this post, at least 48 Congolese women and/or children have been raped. The plan is to get as many men and women as possible from all over the world to support at least one of the groups made up of fearless woman who have decided they will no longer silently stand by while these criminals dispossess them  of their right to human dignity. Ironically, a few days I posted a speech by our former president which he made at the adoption of the South African Constitution in 1996. This is an extract from that speech explaining why the Bill of Rights was put in place:

"It gives concrete expression to the sentiment we share as Africans, and will defend to the death, that the people shall govern.
It recognises the fact that the dignity of the individual is both an objective which society must pursue, and is a goal which cannot be separated from the material well-being of that individual.It seeks to create the situation in which all our people shall be free from fear, including the fear of the oppression of one national group by another, the fear of the disempowerment of one social echelon by another, the fear of the use of state power to deny anybody their fundamental human rights and the fear of tyranny.It aims to open the doors so that those who were disadvantaged can assume their place in society as equals with their fellow human beings without regard to colour, race, gender, age or geographic dispersal." (Speech Here)

 I encourage you to please join in the efforts to fight this scourge through the many groups available (the following are only a few of many that can be contacted):

City of Joy by Eve Ensler author of the Vagina Monologues
VDAY.org
RunforCongoWomen
drcsexualviolence.org
Womenforwomen.org