The truth about rape in conflict
"We Congolese women, we are doing what we can to help each other.Women here have long felt neglected-but we hope this feeling will one day be over." (Testimony of a Congolese woman)
"I was raped by them in front of my husband. They held him down while they did it. I was released afterwards because my husband and children pleaded with them, and cried saying "They will kill maman." I was raped by more than three men. I cannot remember the exact number because I lost consciousness. Afterwards a neighbor helped me, because I was bleeding. She boiled water and some herbs for me." (Human Rights Watch interview, Bukavu, October 16, 2003)
"I was raped by seven child combatants, who were aged between fifteen and sixteen years old, on the way to Kailahun. I was raped in my vagina and anally. Other rebels and also civilians saw me being raped but the civilians were too afraid to protect me...Since my rape, I have only experienced irregular periods and belly is always swollen like I am pregnant." (Human Rights Watch interview, Lebanese Camp, March 2, 2002.)
"We were hiding in the mosque when two rebels dressed in civilian [clothing] entered. It was dark but they shone their flashlights looking for girls and said, 'We are coming for young girls.for virgins, even if they tie their heads like old grandmothers, we will find them.' They also said that if the people did not hand over the young girls, they would open fire on all of us." (Human Rights Watch interview, Freetown, May 1, 1999.)
"After raping her they killed her by shooting into her vagina. No action was taken."
"We heard the Janjawid decide to open fire on the mosque and so we decided to run out. They captured the women.The men were holding their throats and sitting on their bodies so they could not move, and they took off their clothes and then used them as women. More than one man would use one woman. I could hear the women crying for help, but there was no one to help them." (A woman speaking to Amnesty International about an attack on Djorlo, Chad, on 7 November 2006).
"A stick was pushed into the private parts of an 18-year-old pregnant girl and it appeared through [the abdomen]. She was torn apart.They [army-backed paramilitaries] stripped the women and made them dance in front of their husbands. Several were raped. You could hear the screams coming from a ranch near El Salado." (Testimony from a displaced person interviewed by Amnesty International on 21 November 2003.)
"We Congolese women, we are doing what we can to help each other.Women here have long felt neglected-but we hope this feeling will one day be over." (Testimony of a Congolese woman)
"At the beginning of our work with women war survivors we felt fear and anger, pain and helplessness, but we made a decision to work on changing the conditions of our lives and the lives of women around us. It was a personal and political decision of feminists to oppose male violence against women, which included nationalist hatred, ethnic cleansing, mass rapes in war, prostitution for the soldiers, 4 million refugees, half a million dead and many injured. We decided to transform anger into action and in the last few years we organized initiatives for women."
"After my relative declined to give me a job at his shop, I went to a labour market where two men hired me for construction work for 50 Afghani (US $1) a day. They took me into an empty house where they both forcefully had sex with me." (statement of 12-year-old boy
"My daughter and I were kidnapped while we were shopping. We stayed there for 19 days.I was nine months pregnant at the time.We were tortured very much.They raped me. I had just one week to deliver the baby.but she was dead inside me." (testimony of Iraqi Refugee Mother, Women's Commission for Refugee Women and Children: Iraqi Refugees in Jordan: Desperate and Alone")
"A woman would never go to report a rape to the HNP [Haitian National Police]," said a Haitian woman, "she is likely to be raped by them again."
ليست هناك تعليقات:
إرسال تعليق