Rwanda Rebel Leader Callixte Mbarushimana Sent to the International Criminal Court

The head of the Rwandan rebel group FDLR, Callixte Mbarushimana, accused of commiting war crimes in the Democratic Republic of Congo have been extradited from France to the Hague. Callixte Mbarushimana was arrested in Paris last October, following a request from the International Criminal Court. The Hutu rebel leader has denied accusations that he ordered his FDLR fighters to kill and rape civilians.

Mr Mbarushimana, 47, faces five counts of crimes against humanity and six counts of war crimes, including charges of murder, torture, rape, inhumane acts and persecution, and destruction of property.

A French court has previously rejected an appeal against Mr Mbarushimana's extradition but ruled he should not be sent to Rwanda, where his lawyers say he would not get a fair trial.

ICC chief prosecutor Luis Moreno-Ocampo said the prosecution of the FDLR leaders "will provide the opportunity to demobilise this armed group".

"Rape can no longer be used as a weapon of war. In the ICC era, the fate of leaders and commanders who plan or oversee campaigns of mass crimes against civilians is to face justice," he said.
Mr de Merode said he had had reports in recent days of more than 700 FDLR fighters coming into Virunga park territory.

FDLR fighters were accused of raping hundreds of people in eastern DR Congo last year, although the group has denied responsibility. Some FDLR leaders allegedly took part in the 1994 slaughter of some 800,000 ethnic Tutsis and moderate Hutus in Rwanda. After a Tutsi-dominated group took power ending the genocide, some FDLR members fled into what is now DR Congo, sparking years of unrest in the region.

Rwanda has twice sent its troops into DR Congo, saying they are needed to stop Hutu fighters, such as the FDLR, from using Congolese territory to attack Rwanda. This led to the six-year conflict in DR Congo and the deaths of some five million people. The FDLR is now one of the most powerful rebel forces operating in the east of the country, where they are believed to make millions of dollars a year by controlling mines rich in gold and other minerals, and extorting money from local people.

Mr Mbarushimana, who has been living in Paris, has described the FDLR as a freedom movement, fighting "to liberate the Rwandan people from the yoke of the fascist regime" of the Rwandan Patriotic Front (RPF), which is still in power in Kigali. (BBC)

UN Finds more Congolses Rape Victims

Alert Net reports that U.N. investigators have found many more women than previously thought were raped by Congolese soldiers during a New Year's rampage, the United Nations said on Tuesday, and demanded harsh punishment for the perpetrators.
Congo on Friday arrested a senior army commander accused of ordering the rapes in Fizi on New Year's Day. The arrest followed the detention of 10 other soldiers earlier in the week.
Human rights officers from the U.N. peacekeeping mission had originally said more than a dozen women were raped. But investigators have since documented at least 67 victims in South and North Kivu provinces, including a teenager and two pregnant women.

Run for Congo Women!
(Sunday, April 3rd 2011 in London!)

Help Women for Women International raise funds and awareness of women's situation in war torn  eastern Congo by participating in a run for the women of the Congo. For more information visit: http://www.womenforwomen.org/help-women/run-for-congo-women-london.php

An American in Congo

Inspirational video where Nicolas D. Kristof of the New York Times interview Lisa Shannon, founder of Run for Congo Women.

Run for Congo Women!

Another inspirational woman is Lisa Shannon. In 2006, Lisa Shannon’s life changed. She was watching an episode of “The Oprah Winfrey Show,” on which Women for Women International founder and CEO Zainab Salbi was explaining the crisis facing women in the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC). “I learned about Congo, widely called the worst place on earth to be a woman,” Lisa said. “Awakened to the atrocities—millions dead, women being raped and tortured, children starving and dying in shocking numbers—I had to do something.

”Moved by DRC survivors’ stories, Lisa took action, sponsoring two women in the DRC and starting a program called Run for Congo Women.

Lisa began running alone, raising nearly $28,000 on her first run. The movement has since expanded to runs and walks throughout the United States. Run for Congo Women participants have raised more than $600,000—enough money to sponsor 1,444 women in the DRC.
During January and February 2007, Lisa traveled to Eastern DRC’s South Kivu province, and returned again in May 2008 and February 2010. Experiences from her trips inspired her book, “A Thousand Sisters” (Seal Press, 2010). “‘A Thousand Sisters’ is a portrait of the world’s deadliest civil war through the intimate lens of friendship,” Lisa said. (Run for Congo Women)

Visit Run for Congo Women here:
http://www.runforcongowomen.org/about.html

Huffington Post Interview with Zainab Salbi

The Huffington Post recently interviewed Zainab Salbi, founder and CEO of Women for Women International, a grassroots humanitarian and development organization helping women survivors of wars rebuild their lives. Click on the link bellow to read the article!

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/rahim-kanani/an-indepth-interview-with_2_b_807029.html

This Week in the News...

50 Women Raped in DR Congo Revenge Mission

The UN reports that at least 50 women were raped in Fizi, eastern Democratic Republic of Congo by government troops during an operation to avenge the death of one of their colleagues. A spokesman for the Congolese army, Major Vianney Kazarama, put the number of rapes at 14 and said that eight personnel had been disciplined, including a major.

Amnesty International said the events in Fizi "are another telling example of the consequences of the virtual impunity the Congolese forces benefit from."The failure to hold the Congolese army to account when they fail to carry out their protection role or commit crimes themselves in turn encourages further violations." (AFP) http://www.google.com/hostednews/afp/article/ALeqM5hq4yGBHJTcmJWI0Ove5VuRTNfvCg?docId=CNG.1dbfe6d8f8f5ba10e4851c9b3c4ea749.b21  

DR Congo Mass Rape Suspects Arrested

The UN says a former rebel commander integrated as a colonel into the Congolese army has been arrested over the rapes of dozens of women in eastern Democratic Republic of Congo on New Year's Day. Lt. Col. Kibibi Mutware has been identified by some victims and witnesses as the commander of the punitive mass rapes against residents of Fizi town. Seven other soldiers have been arrested. (The Telegraph)http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/worldnews/africaandindianocean/democraticrepublicofcongo/8269853/DR-Congo-mass-rape-suspects-arrested.html

DR Congo to Try Troops Accused of Mass Rapes

The DR Congo government will take ten soldiers to court for alleged rapes and lootings in the troubled eastern province of South Kivu, a United Nations spokesman said on Wednesday. UN spokesman Martin Nesirky said the governor of Congo's South Kivu province informed the UN peacekeeping mission in Congo, known as MONUSCO, that the ten detained soldiers would be tried in a court in Fizi, the region where the attacks are alleged to have taken place. "He (the governor) expects the proceedings to start next week," Nesirky said at the UN headquarters in New York. MONUSCO has called for "prompt actions to ensure that all the perpetrators are brought to justice," Nesirky said. He added that two senior officers linked to the incident -- both of them majors -- have fled. (rnw) http://www.rnw.nl/international-justice/article/congo-try-troops-accused-mass-rapes

Economist Article: "War's Overlooked Victims: Rape is Horrifyingly Widespread in Conflicts all Around the World."

"SHORTLY after the birth of her sixth child, Mathilde went with her baby into the fields to collect the harvest. She saw two men approaching, wearing what she says was the uniform of the FDLR, a Rwandan militia. Fleeing them she ran into another man, who beat her head with a metal bar. She fell to the ground with her baby and lay still. Perhaps thinking he had murdered her, the man went away. The other two came and raped her, then they left her for dead.

Mathilde’s story is all too common. Rape in war is as old as war itself. After the sack of Rome 16 centuries ago Saint Augustine called rape in wartime an “ancient and customary evil”. For soldiers, it has long been considered one of the spoils of war. Antony Beevor, a historian who has written about rape during the Soviet conquest of Germany in 1945, says that rape has occurred in war since ancient times, often perpetrated by indisciplined soldiers. But he argues that there are also examples in history of rape being used strategically, to humiliate and to terrorise, such as the Moroccan regulares in Spain’s civil war." (The Economist)

To read the full article go to: http://www.economist.com/node/17900482

Video: "Rape, as a Weapon of War: Destroying the Glue of a Society." http://www.economist.com/blogs/multimedia/2011/01/rape_weapon_war

MSF Frontline Podcast, MSF Responds to Incident of Mass Rape in the Congo

Bemba Trial Marks the First Major Prosecution of Rape as a Weapon of War

 

The prosecution of Jean-Pierre Bemba (the former vice president of the Democratic Republic of Congo) currently taking place at the International Criminal Court (ICC) in the Hague is unique, in that it is the first time that sexual violence is central to an ICC case. Bemba, is on trial for war crimes  and crimes against humanity allegedly committed in the Central African Republic between 2002 and 2003. Bemba allegedly allowed his troops to murder, pillage and rape. The prosecutor of the ICC Luis Moreno-Ocampo has described Bemba's military campaign in the Central African Republic as systematic rape to assert dominance and resistance.

The prosecutor of the International Criminal Court (ICC) said soldiers from the Movement for the Liberation of Congo (MLC) under the command of Jean-Pierre Bemba invaded houses in groups of three and four. He said they stole all they could carry and raped the occupants - women, children and men alike. The crimes were “unspeakable”, Moreno-Ocampo said, as he began the prosecution case against Bemba at the ICC. (IRIN)

But none of the soldiers who committed the alleged crimes were in the dock in The Hague on 22 November at the opening of the trial. Nor was anyone charged with ordering them to rape, pillage and kill. Instead, the Democratic Republic of Congo’s Bemba stands accused of failing to control his troops. It is the ICC’s first-ever case dealing with the doctrine of command responsibility, the idea that leaders both military and civilian are responsible for the acts of their subordinates. (IRIN)

The idea that commanders should be held responsible for crimes committed by their troops is nothing new in international law. German and Japanese officials were held accountable for crimes committed by their troops at the Nuremberg and Tokyo tribunals in the aftermath of World War II. One of the best known cases was the trial of Tomoyuki Yamashita, a Japanese general convicted of commanding troops responsible for atrocities in the Philippines. (IRIN)

Hopefully, the recent prosecution of Bemba will lead to more commanders being prosecuted for sexual violence committed by their troops. An end to impunity might be too optimistic, however, the Bemba trial might make other commanders think twice before letting lose their troops. Now worrying about being held accountable not only for what they did, but also for what they did not do. One can dream right?

For more information go to:
http://www.irinnews.org/Report.aspx?ReportID=91485
http://www.womensenews.org/story/rape/110105/bemba-icc-trial-showcases-war-rape-prosecution

Interview with the Special Representative to the Secretary General on Sexual Violence in Conflict

The Security Council Votes to Name Alleged Rapists in Armed Conflict

On December 16th the Security Council voted in favour of Resolution 1960, agreeing to name and shame individuals and parties to armed conflict that are "credibly suspected" of committing acts of sexual violence. Secretary General Ban Ki-moon will compile a list of perpetrators which will be used "for more focused United Nations engagement with those parties," including imposing targeted sanctions. (AP)

 The Special Representative to the Secretary General, Margot Wallström welcomed the adoption of the resolution, saying that the new system of monitoring and accountability should "shatter the vicious cycle of impunity for wartime sexual violence." Wallström also said: "Today's resolution will help ensure that mass rape is never again met with mass impunity. Instead of serving as a cheap, silent and effective tactic of war, sexual violence will be a liability for armed groups. It will expose their superiors to increased international scrutiny, seal off the corridors of power and close all exits to those who commit, command or condone such acts." (AP)

Human Rights Watch called the council's decision to publish an annual list of alleged perpetrators "a tremendous step toward ending this horrendous practice." "Today is a big day for women worldwide," Marianne Mollmann, the organization's women's rights advocacy director, said in a statement. The new resolution will provide the international community "with an additional tool to offer justice to thousands of victims of wartime rape," she said. (AP)

The resolution repeated the council's demand "for the complete cessation with immediate effect by all parties to armed conflict of all acts of sexual violence" and called on parties to armed conflict "to make and implement specific and time-bound commitments to combat sexual violence." (AP)

Cynics will say that Resolution 1960 is yet another UN Resolution aimed at putting an end to sexual violence in conflict with little actual bearing on the situation on the ground. Nevertheless, 1960 can be viewed in a larger context. 10 years after Resolution 1325 (women,peace,and security) a ground breaking step in addressing sexual violence, this recent resolution is an important manifestation of the Security Councils continuous determination to address the issue and hold those responsible accountable. What remains to be seen is how effective focused UN engagement with parties of armed conflict  and targeted sanctions will be.

Access Resolution 1960 (2010) here:
http://daccess-dds-ny.un.org/doc/UNDOC/GEN/N10/698/34/PDF/N1069834.pdf?OpenElement

Call for action!

The Swedish Society of Obstetrics and Gynecology (SFOG) invites, together with the Finnish, Norwegian, Danish and Icelandic societies of Obstetrics and Gynecology, the global medical community to appeal for peace and an end to the sexual aggression in the Congo. Sign their petition here!


http://www.stopthewarrapes.com/about.aspx