Title: RAPE - A METHOD OF WARFARE IN EASTERN DR CONGO
ICRC provides medical and psycho-social support for rape victims
Date & location: Bukavu, Sange village, South Kivu Province, DRC, 15-24 May 2006
Duration: 5' 19"
Camera: Morris Carpenter
Producer: Jan Powell
Sound: Natural - French, English, Swahili
Source: ICRC – Access all
Reference: VF CR F 00917-C


This report will be distributed free-to-air and rights free over the Eurovision World Feed satellites at 14.00 to 14.10 GMT on Tuesday 25 July 2006.

For full details of the World feed, go to the EBU website and/or see below for timings and technical specification:

For broadcast tapes and information on footage: Virginie Louis, International Committee of the Red Cross, Geneva,

SHOTLIST

00 00 Women at Panzi hospital, the General Referral Hospital for South Kivu Province, in Bukavu, waiting for operations. Many are rape victims.

00 15 Surgical ward in Panzi Hospital, women recovering from operations following damage caused by rape

00 18 Dr Mukwege, Director of Panzi Hospital, gynaecologist and surgeon, examining patients in ward for rape surgery.

00 31 nurses and patients

00 40 INTERVIEW MAWAZO Rape victim, Panzi Hospital, Bukavu (Swahili)

"I was working in the fields when these thugs attacked me. They had knives and guns. They attacked me and the first one raped me. I screamed and struggled. The second one attacked me with a knife, and I was raped again. Altogether I was raped by seven men. I was torn and cut and there was a lot of blood. And when all seven were finished they went away."

translation
"Je partais aux champs et ces brigands m'ont appréhendée. Ils étaient habillés en culottes. Ils avaient des couteaux et des armes à feu. Ils m'ont pris, le premier a usé de mon sexe, j'ai beaucoup crié, le deuxième est passé il m'a placé le couteau. Lui aussi a usé de mon sexe, en tout ils étaient à sept à user de mon sexe. Et puis c'est une déchirure et l'eau a commencé à couler, évidemment avec le sang. Et puis quand tous sont passés à sept, ils ont fui."

01 15 INTERVIEW DR MUKWEGE Director Panzi General Hospital, Bukavu (French)

"s'attaquer à la femme qui est la porteuse de la vie, et surtout avec cette niveau de terreur, je pense que le but est tout a fait en dehors vraiment d'un désir sexuel. Moi je crois que c'est perturber toute une société, c'est détruire en fait la société, l'objectif c'est de pouvoir mettre une société en débandade, en destruction complète."

translation:
"Attacking the woman, the bearer of life, with this level of terror, I believe it has nothing to do with sexual desire. I think its about destabilizing society, trying to destroy society and bring about its complete destruction."

01 38 Exterior shots Panzi Hospital with patients waiting outside for treatment

01 47 INTERVIEW CATHERINE HILTZER, ICRC (English)

"Very often victims of sexual violence are excluded by their own community and even sometimes by their own family, meaning that at a certain point, they may loose their access to their source of income and as well loose their access to the network that should allow them to develop another activity. "

02 11 shots of countryside in South Kivu with people on road

02 22 ICRC vehicle on mud road to Sange village , 5 hours drive from Bukavu

02 33 village in south Kivu, close to border with Rwanda, with women, children, close-ups face

02 48 Sange village, ICRC flag in trees

02 50 Play being acted for villagers, entitled 'The Twenty-fifth Hour' showing woman being attacked and raped by armed soldiers. Intended to teach villagers not to reject and blame rape victims.

03 03 woman being attacked and kicked by soldiers

03 12 Officer says " I have finished the job now its your turn, its an order!"

03 16 audience watching

03 25 soldier says "We'll take everything, and if she resists we'll put a bullet in her head."

03 35 woman on stage singing song to comfort victim of rape - words of chorus mean:

"women are our mothers, they are the heart of our homes, we must not reject them, we must care for them."

04 08 women working in the fields

04 27 women walking along paths to fields

04 33 INTERVIEW MAWAZO Rape victim, Panzi Hospital, Bukavu (Swahili)

"I want them to take the weapons away from these men and put them in prison. That's what I want to happen."

04 43 DR MUKWEGE Director Panzi General Hospital, Bukavu (French)

"Mais le grand problème en fait dans l'est du Congo c'est que tout ces actes là se posent dans l'impunité totale. Et je pense que quand les gens ils pensent qu'ils peuvent faire n'importe quoi sur leurs semblables sans lois, sans poursuite ça, ça continue. Là, vraiment , c'est un appel à toutes les bonnes volontés, à toute la communauté internationale, les hommes de bonne volonté de pouvoir se lever comme un seul homme pour dire assez, il faut que ça s'arrête."

"The great problem here in eastern Congo is that these acts of rape take place with complete impunity. And I think when people think they can do whatever they like to their fellows, with no legal redress, no follow up, then it will go on. This is really a call to all decent people, to the international community, to every well meaning person, to take action together and say enough, it has to stop."

05 19 ENDS


RAPE - A METHOD OF WARFARE IN EASTERN DR CONGO
ICRC provides medical and psycho-social support for rape victims


DR Congo is emerging from a decade of conflict. A peace agreement was signed in 2003 and calm is returning to much of the country. However, armed groups still occupy remote areas of eastern DRC, terrorising local people, and raping and abducting women and children.

Many victims are gang raped and may also be shot or violated with knives. Some are so badly wounded they require major surgery. In Bukavu, capital of South Kivu province, over 3,500 women were operated on in the main referral hospital last year, following violent rape. There are plans to treat 4,000 more cases in 2006. Rape victims are referred to Panzi Hospital from all over South Kivu Province because they are too serious or complex to treat locally. Thousands more cases of sexual assault go unreported and untreated. According to Dr Mukwege, Director of Panzi Hospital, violent rape is being used to terrorise and destroy whole communities.

Among the victims in Panzi hospital is Mawazo, a 22 year old from the village of Shabunda, close to the border with Rwanda. She was raped in 2002 by seven armed men while working in the fields near her village. Two years later she was abducted by the same armed group and held captive for several months. She became pregnant and was abandoned to give birth alone in the forest. Her baby died but she managed to find her way back to her village. Mawazo is now in Panzi hospital for surgery to repair the damage caused by gang rape and obstructed labour. Hundreds of women stay at Panzi hospital, recovering both mentally and physically before they are fit enough to undergo surgery.

According to Katherine Hiltzer of the ICRC in Bukavu, women who are victims of rape suffer not just the physical assault but also the social consequences afterwards. Many women find themselves in a desperate situation, rejected by their husbands, families and communities, held to blame for the assault, or considered carriers of disease. If they become pregnant they are further stigmatized. They find it difficult if not impossible to work and support their children.

As part of an ICRC programme to help victims of sexual assault in South Kivu, a play has been developed to educate local people on the need to support not reject rape victims. Called 'The Twenty-fifth Hour', the play calls on communities to give an extra hour in the day to consider the taboo subject of rape and the consequences on the victims. The play is here performed at Sange village, in a remote area close to the Rwandan Border where rape by armed groups has become commonplace.

The ICRC programme for victims of sexual violence in South Kivu Province offers medical and psycho-social help. Women who can be treated in the first 72 hours receive a cocktail of drugs including the 'morning-after pill' and treatment for HIV and other sexually transmitted diseases. The programme also offers psychological help, and somewhere safe to stay and talk to other women who have suffered similar experiences. There are plans to expand this support to North Kivu, once the security situation allows.

Exactly how many women are affected by sexual violence remains unknown though it is clear that the numbers run into many thousands. To date, few of the perpetrators have been brought to justice. Bringing an end to the scourge will require concerted action on many fronts and, according to Dr Mukwege, effective prosecution of those responsible for the crime.