I have been in Bukavu, Democratic Republic of Congo for the month of December. Christmas at Panzi Hospital was overflowing with raped and tortured women. Many young girls, several under 14, carrying babies. Every day at least 13 new women arrive seeking care to repair the damage done to their bodies from the rapes and sexual torture.
Since Secretary Clinton's wildly publicized and celebrated visit in August, since the UN's report of success for the Kimia II military operation, since the international community in theory woke up to horrors of the merciless economic war in the Congo, the war rages on and takes its toll. I know because I sat with women who live in the bush, many of whom have now been raped two or three times. I sat holding them as their bodies shook uncontrollably, as they leaked urine from fistula, as they compulsively wrung their hands and hid their faces behind their panges and rocked and cried out to God as they told me their stories:
Ntalwinja, who is 50, from Kalehe was raped by the Interhamwe (former Rwandan Genocidaires) in front of her husband, tied to him and their goats and dragged for 12 hours, held as a sex slave for days on end, raped over and over. Left near dead in the bush, she finally returned to find her husband ill, his heart destroyed from what he had witnessed.
Masaura, who was selling fried fish and not a good runner, was grabbed and raped by three Interhamwe soldiers, taking turns and repeating. Finally crawling home, her husband, a gold miner, who had heard she was raped, expelled her and rejected his children because she was pregnant with her rapists' baby.
Mwamirindi was held as a sex slave and pieces of her flesh were cut every few days. She was raped for months and watched them rape her sister in law who they killed and cut open and served for dinner and then when Mwamirindi finally escaped and returned home, she was expelled by her husband who sold her land and house and threw her and her children into the street. Now she is three months pregnant with a baby from the rapes.
Julian, 45, was raped after the Interhamwe broke into her house in the middle of the night and shot her husband and tried to force her son to rape her. When he refused, they shot him, then took her two daughters into the night and she went screaming after them and has never found them and has lost her way.
Ange who was 16 and grabbed by Rwandan soldiers and raped and raped, her insides destroyed...
These horrific acts and thousands more happened in the four months since Secretary Clinton promised action and money, the UN promised protection and claimed it delivered it, and the international community approved their plan. All this happened under the watch of an American President, a Nobel Peace Prize Winner, who has yet to make the destruction of the female species of the Congo anything more than a one-line reference in a speech. As this femicide is spreading to other countries and will continue to spread if he does not make this a front and center issue. In the months where the minerals of the Congo continue to be exploited by the world, where the surrounding countries of Rwanda, Uganda and Burundi have yet to be held accountable for waging a regional war in the Congo for those minerals.
Over twelve years, this war, this brutally inconceivable violence has raged on. Almost six million dead. Almost 500 thousand raped. You tell the story of horror and atrocity one too many times and then you realize nothing is changing and that the world goes on getting its minerals, supporting its luxuries and the death, massacres rapes and tortures of millions do not matter. And then you can't find a real reason for wanting to live in humanity or be part of this world but you don't want to kill yourself so you start screaming out, screaming and screaming out and then you get called intense, angry and then mad. Because that is what people who have crossed over get called.
At what point are we all going to cross over?
http://okonda.com/inthenews.html
You can also contribute for my people
at http://okonda.com/donation1.html
Meanwhile you don’t hesitate to name neighbouring countries, which ALL DID and CONTINUE to suffer from the consequences of 1994 Tutsi Genocide in Rwanda.
To say that this infuriates me would be a understatement .
But yes, I am a tutsi woman, I am undoubtly subjective and you are Eve Ensler, a respect women rights’ activist.
I wish you and all the caring people in the world, not only the courage and strength to "cross over", but
I beg you as an insider now, to watch your words for when you're are listened too (and you are) they become action.
Those who survived the genocide in 1994 (with you all witnessing it WITHOUT taking action), saw the French authorities exporting it in Congo (through the famous pseudo humanitarian "Operation Turquoise") and now we are held responsible of all the mess and crimes in Congo.
Yet our killers are crossing the borders to "support" their companions in Congo , with the active support of the most powerful countries in the world.
Mrs Ensler,
For recovering from the hell of genocide (though with itching scars and open wounds) and taking action for ourselves (where NOBODY DID 15yrs ago), my people, my country deserve MUCH MORE consideration.
Thank you
Jeanine
Kagame may mean well and was probably a sincere patriot to get rid off the fa.scist Havyarimana government but he is still a puppet of the West and you need to deal with that fact.
Jeanine, I want to let you know that I am also a Tutsi and was born in Burundi from my Refugee Parents who fled Rwanda in 60's and I know what is going on in my country and Congo.
Currently, I live in USA . I am not generalizing but I have noticed many of my Rwandese Sisters are not opened minded when it comes to the cause of the suffering and genocide of the Congolese people. One would think we should be more compassionate towards other people who are going through the same horrors of Genocide that happened in Rwanda.
You seem to have bought the Corporate Media's misinfo of what was the cause of the Genocide in Rwanda.
If you want to know the root cause of what has been/is currently going on in Congo, please read my previous messages on this thread and see what Prof. Michel Chossudovsky says about the cause and reasons of Rwanda Genocide in 1994!
Those who survived the genocide in 1994 (with you all witnessing it WITHOUT taking action), saw the French authorities exporting it in Congo (through the famous pseudo humanitarian "Operation Turquoise"....
The Rwanda Genocide was not caused by the French, but rather it was planed by the USA to have a pretext of having a presence in Central Africa, and in particular in Congo and own/loot its mineral wealth from Diamond, to Gold and not to mention Coltan which is one of the rare computer commodities that has contributed for almost two decades, to the economic growth of Defense Contractors and electronic companies that sell airplane engines, cell phones, computer chips to say the least. Remember that Coltan is only found in Congo, almost 85% of it is found there.
Read below the true facts of why Genocide happened in Rwanda in 1994 and if you want to know the nature of the fake Virgin Apparitions of Kibeho that were used to prepare the psychological mind of Rwandese before Genocide, you may need to know what "Operation Blue Beam" is all about.
The US was behind the Rwandan Genocide:
Rwanda: Installing a US Protectorate in Central Africa
by Michel Chossudovsky
http://www.globalresearch.ca/articles/CHO305A.html
IMF-World Bank policies and the Rwandan holocaust
By Michel Chossudovsky, Third World Network Features.
http://www.hartford-hwp.com/archives/35/033.html
So many women in my country do scream out, over and over, do turn mad and are called « hysteric » or in the best case « too emotive ».
And many of them die of « it » , if not of AIDS caught from the SAME Interamhamwe during the Tutsi genocide in 1994 (when rape was first used as a weapon of war in the region), if not of the SAME interahamwe still hunting them, if not of all the reasons which I can sum up in two: helplessness and hopelessness.
I am a Rwandan woman and it happens that I grew up in DRCongo( Goma, Bukavu)
You can’t imagine how I am, we Rwandan are wounded, as individuals and as a country.
You can witness the sufferings in Congo but hopefuly (no irony here) you can’t « get it ».
In a article published last year, you once stated that : "If we were holding accountable leaders of the FDLR, for example, who are in France and who are outside of the country, and they were held as war criminals so they couldn’t control things in"
A few weeks ago, the MONUC released its last report on the DRC: http://www.un.org/sc/committees/1533/egroup.shtml
With ALL the Security Council permanent members HEAVILY involved in the minerals traffic,and its own members accused of rape , no wonder the UN has failed to deal with this problem.
(to be continued...)
United States involvement in Congo and the Credit Crunch
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-2CSGjIyE-0
THE TRUTH IS COMING OUT little by little of what our leaders are/have been doing in foreign countries, and probably the internet will set us free one day.
The US was behind the Rwandan Genocide:
Rwanda: Installing a US Protectorate in Central Africa
by Michel Chossudovsky
http://www.globalresearch.ca/articles/CHO305A.html
IMF-World Bank policies and the Rwandan holocaust
By Michel Chossudovsky, Third World Network Features.
http://www.hartford-hwp.com/archives/35/033.html
Please know, you are making a difference by continuing to speak out about it.
Clearly, we are all screwed up in our priorities as we here in the West .
We feed ourselves a constant diet of celebrity gossip crap, rather than paying attention to the femicide and autrocites happening in other parts of the world.
Your message made an impact on me, when I saw and heard the many speakers at VDAY to the tenth in New Orleans. I am taking steps in my own life to put my money where my mouth is, when it comes to helping women over oppression. But it's a long haul.
Keep up the good work!
Could Hillary do more? Could Obama? Could the UN? Of course. But how about the men committing these atrocities? They're the ones that are truly responsible. Just because it's easier to rattle the cages of folks who are listening doesn't mean it's fair--or effective in changing policy, raising consciousness or funds. Looks to me like it just brings out the "I told you so" crowd for yet another round of potshots.
And what exactly does Hillary have to do before she stops getting sliced with the double edged feminist sword? Of course I expect the politicians I love to live up to my best hopes and expectations. But let's mete out the blame equally when they inevitably fail.
(and fanned)
You may need to know how Hillary Friend, Lanny Davis, lobbyied Congress to help the Hondura Coup Leaders to succeed in overthrowing a Democracy.
Keep in mind that Obama was against the Coup.
Maybe you need to know more how Lanny Davis, Hillary Friend, helped the Hondura Coup Leaders, in lobbying Congress.
http://www.democracynow.org/2009/7/15/honduras
If Hillary cares less about the people in Hondura, do you think she is going to worry about the Congo People?
The United States and Great Britain's implication is becoming very clear. These two great powers consider Rwanda and Uganda their staunch allies and, some would argue, client states. These two countries have received millions of dollars of military aid, which, in turn, they use in Congo to cause destruction and death.
http://www.globalresearch.ca/index.php?context=va&aid=12404
Basically, the USA's war foreign policy against Congo was driven by the lobbying of the USA electronic companies and Defense contractors such as Lockeed Martin, Cisco, Alcatel and hundreds of other companies to access Coltan for almost free, to be used for their airplane engines, phones, and computer chips, ......and to own and loot Congo Gold which was to back up the USA $ currency that is currently collapsing.
As a liberal Democrat, I hate to say this, Bill Clinton, Madeleine Albright and Susan Rice have bloods in their hands.
I think how we take care of the most vulnerable reveals how evolved we are, why not expand Medicare to include women and children, we take care of those above 65 why not take care of those under 18 and women, that woukd be a great starting place.........anyway blessings to all who take care of the victims and lets pray that someday soon we create a world where rape and all violence is unthinkable............