CONFERENCE: Ottawa Conference Raises Awareness of Sexual Violence in the Congo
Rampant sexual violence against women in the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC) was the sobering topic of a conference held Saturday morning at the Bronson Centre in Ottawa.
“We've invited you to a very serious morning—not an easy morning,” said organizer Daniel Stringer as he opened the conference, called Breaking the Silence on Sexual Violence in the Congo.
Moderated by former MP Hon. David Kilgour, the conference focused on the systematic raping of women by soldiers in the army, invading opposition tribes, and even security forces who are supposedly there to help and protect the people.
The rapes are used to intimidate, demean, and humiliate the women as they are the backbone of the rural communities in the Congo.
for the brutal violation of women. Nor is there support for the victims who are shunned and ostracized by family and community alike. If a pregnancy occurs, the child is also marginalized. A husband will often divorce his wife if she is raped.
A rape occurs every minute in the Congo, leaving thousands upon thousands of females of all ages traumatized for life, and families destroyed.
“Rape is a weapon of war and a way to stop the development of the country,” said keynote speaker Dr. Eric Schiller of Canadians for Human Rights in the Congo.
He talked about “heroes on the ground” who will bring peace to the country. For example, members of the Hutu and Tutsi tribes, who have fought each other for centuries, formed a farm cooperative and are now working together.
“The Congo government is corrupt so there is no hopeful sign [of bringing peace] from this government,” Schiller said.
“Groups working for peace need to be credible, transparent, and brave such as Kairos Canada,” he added. Kairos is an ecumenical group that supports grassroots changes rather than bringing humanitarian aid. It works with NGOs in the country to educate people and carry out the projects.
Reverend Oscar Boloko, a Congolese now living in Canada, talked about wanting to give back to his home country.
“The good news is that Congo is a land blessed with so many resources—that's the good news. But governing or sharing the resources with the people becomes another problem. That is why we say we have to look for a way forward,” he said.
Boloko further explained that the problems in the Congo started in 1994 when bordering country Rwanda was undergoing a genocide. When Rwandans escaped to the Congo they didn't want to return to their home country because they saw the natural resources in the DRC.
Canada has given $18 million to the Congo in financial aid, but Boloko wants our government to do more.
“Our government can cut all financial aid, like the United States, to Rwanda. United States has done that, Germany and Netherlands have done that, but we in Canada have never done that.”
‘Psychological Silence'
As a Congolese women's rights activist, speaker Andrea Boweya has interviewed many women who have been gang-raped and left for dead.
“Breaking the silence is such an appropriate focus today, for in fact, the act of rape is driven not only by cultural, societal, and of global silence, but by the reality of psychological silence for both women and men,” said Boweya.
“The women are silenced by the intense psychological effects of shock, disbelief, shame, and feelings of powerlessness. The intensity of internal noise compared to the lack of relevant support and resources forces her to be silent.”
Men who commit the rapes are “driven by a desire for power and control, [and] ultimately create an increasing reality of out of control. … The fact is that the same act of rape that forces silence on the woman becomes the drug of numbness of the perpetrator.”
However, Boweya said that “the power of silence can be broken.”
“Maybe in our private thoughts we may think that we can't make an obvious mark or change in government … but maybe we can, one person at a time. Healing comes from listening.”
A panel of four speakers was then set up and each had a few minutes to talk about the situation in the Congo.
Andre Bourassa, VP and director general of SOPAR-Limbour, an international development NGO, feels that any solution will have to occur in the Congo first.
“I think there's a failure there to have something emerge from Congo, a unified position that proceeds in a very democratic way and is able to project something which will be amenable to support by outsiders,” he said.
Two Congolese women, Annie Chebey and Deborah Kitumaini, are widows whose husbands were murdered by armed forces. They both asked for others' suggestions on how Canada can help with the situation in the Congo.
Instability, Government Corruption
Panelist Holly Dunn lived in the Congo to research how conflict is resolved in the province of Kivu. While sexual violence of women is a weapon of war, domestic violence is also an everyday occurrence due to gender inequality, she said.
“So while focusing on sexual violence and rape as a weapon of war is important, I do also think that we have to look at the other ways that women are disadvantaged due to the instability and conflict in the region.”
Dunn described how corruption and the official response to accounts of sexual violence are handled. When some women protested a recent bout of “rape robberies” a local territory administrator came to speak with the protestors.
“What he told them in private was that if they didn't disperse he was going to bring in security forces and possibly open fire.”
Everyone agreed that the lack of concern and engagement by the DRC is a large part of the problem, and that the problems in the Congo are complicated and will require a long time to resolve.
However, by letting the world know about what is happening to women in the DRC, the conference was a first step in effecting a positive change.