I'm always surprised that this kind of thing is posted as if it is something new.

In the case of armed conflict, especially in third world countries when no protection systems are in place and at the early stages of the conflict, sexual violence has always posed a life threatening risk to the health and well being of women and girls.

Bosnia, Rwanda,Sierra Leone and Sudan are examples.

Please support humanitarian agencies in their efforts to recruit and fund gender based violence experts and to fund the interventions.

So long a war is raged on people, rather than amongst the assholes that start the wars, we will see the innocent bear the brunt of it. The US needs to reinterpret its policy toward the former third world.

Also, an anal point--the Congo and the Democratic Republic of the Congo are different countries

To help the women in the DRC, you can use this organization:

http://www.healafrica.org/

bittergradstudent, are you saying the US should intervene? Because China has much more influence in the DRC than the US right now. The US does have a very poor history of acknowledging occurring genocides but it isn't able to do much since the Sudan backed government would be unreceptive and antagonistic as seen just from negotiations between the Sudan government and the UN.

This is definitely not a new tactic, but there has been an increase in knowledge and coverage on how rape is used as a tool for genocide and ethnic cleansing campaigns. I hope the coverage of the crisis in the DRC will help influence the way the international community responds, even though they haven't yet, to genocidal campaigns.

I actually just finished a paper about the use of rape as a tool of war and the process of recognizing it as a war crime. It is a horrific global situation and doesn't seem to be getting better anytime soon, thanks to insane amounts of apathy in the international community.

There's a really beautiful film called "The Invisibles" that deals with this issue. I can't find a good link for it . . I saw it at a Doctors Without Borders conference two weeks or so ago.

I'm not advocating for US intervention. I am advocating for a reevaluation of our approach to engaging foreign governmetns, and a public admission of a lot of the things that previous US governments have done in the region.

The US had done a lot to prop up Mobutu Sesse-Seko, for example. The rise of the Chinese in the region has a lot to do with them not having dirtied themselves in the region during the cold war.

Rape has been part of war as long as humans have waged war. So have torture and civilian casualties.

Thanks for posting this much-needed reminder. Someday it may actually sink in with politicians that when you support a war, any war, you are also accepting everything that is part of war.

Me & a few other people are holding a flea market at my school to raise funds for Heal Africa...helping end this revolting situation.

"Also, an anal point--the Congo and the Democratic Republic of the Congo are different countries"

Lemme see if I have this straight:

The Republic of Congo a.k.a. RC Congo on some lists a.k.a. Congo-Brazzaville on some other lists used to be known as Congo for short.

The Democratic Republic of Congo a.k.a. DR Congo on some lists a.k.a. Congo-Kinshasa on some other lists used to be known as Zaire for short. I think the author Emmanuel Dongala is from this one but I'm not sure. This is the one with the gigantic war right now.

Do I have the facts wrong?

Someone suggested to me once that war itself was rape re-enacted on a societal scale, and war-time rapes were personal-scale re-enactments of genocide.

They were so terrifyingly right.

I wish that I could say this was as shocking as it is upsetting, but the use of rape as a weapon is something that is being used all over the world. What bothers me the most is how little coverage it gets, especially when it is coupled with a genocide.

As for US Intervention; I wish it were an option, but as a realist, I cannot see it happening. We have a terrible trackrecord with African Nations at war and, if we are going to be realistic, the Congo is not the only one that we should, morally, be involved in. We should also be trying to handle conflict in Sierra Leon and Sudan, but those are equally as unlikely. (rape is also being used as a weapon in both of those situations)

The real problem is that the world does not have a competant enough international government to put down these sorts of conflicts. The United Nations has the capacity to shut down all three of these major conflicts, but there is so much beaurocracy, so much bullshit politically that no one is able to do anything.

The forgeign policy in our country is a complete and utter failure, and international politics are no better. As against the war in Iraq as I might be (especially given that we could have used our soldiers to help with many more terrible conflicts with much more efficiency and much fewer American fatalities), at least America took a stand against a terrible dictator.

Where is the Adlai Stevenson of our generation, standing up and calling people out about the problems in their countries?