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WCC condemns sexual violence against women in DR Congo

By: Robert Williams
CP Africa and Middle East Correspondent
Saturday, 5 September 2009, 10:10 (EST)
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The Central Committee of the World Council of Churches (WCC) has urged its member churches “to publicly condemn violence against women” in the DR Congo and declare that “violence against women is a sin”.

The WCC Central Committee in a public statement said, in the Democratic Repuglic of Congo (DRC) “the brutal crimes of sexual violence against women have massively increased and become pervasive in the country, especially since the beginning of the military operations in January 2009”. women in the Democratic Republic of Congo".

The statement, adopted by the committee on the last day of its 26 August – 2 September meeting in Geneva, urges all parties to the armed conflict to commit themselves immediately to putting an end to all acts of sexual violence against women and girls in the DRC.

The statement calls upon the DRC government “to end impunity for rape and to evolve effective strategies to combat sexual violence", bringing "to justice those responsible for committing” it.

“Thousands of women and young girls have suffered due to rape and forced sexual slavery, often being forced also to serve as soldiers”, says the statement.

Distinguished from the neighbouring Republic of the Congo or simply Congo, the Democratic Republic of the Congo often referred to as DR Congo, or DRC has witnessed maximum number of sexual violence against women that prompted U.S Secretary of State Hilary Clinton to publicly appeal for action to end to rampant sexual violence that she called “evil in its basest form” during her visit to the country last month.

The United Nations has recorded at least 200,000 cases of sexual violence against women and girls in the region since conflict in eastern Congo erupted in 1996. Although fighting has eased since a 2003 peace deal, churches in the DR Congo report that as rebel groups continue their activities in the country, women and girls continue to suffer sexual violence by armed men. Some have been brutally gang-raped, often in front of their families and communities. In numerous cases, men have also been forced at gunpoint to rape their own their relatives.

The increasing sexual violence affects especially the region of South Kivu. Non-governmental armed groups and particularly militia from neighbouring countries “commit sexual atrocities that are of an unimaginable brutality, which go beyond rape and aim at the complete physical and psychological destruction of women as sexual slaves, with implications for the entire society”, the statement says.

WCC has been very consistent in condemning the brutality of sexual violence against women in DR Congo. In July, Rev. Dr Samuel Kobia, former general secretary of the World Council of Churches (WCC) had also challenged churches to end their denial of violence against women in Democratic Republic of Congo. “The churches still seem to relegate violence to the private sphere, and still understand violence as only physical,” he said.

“The first and most obvious [effort] is to acknowledge that the violence actually exists,” said Kobia at the opening of the All Africa Conference of Churches (AACC) women’s workshop on Transformation Leadership for Peace, Healing and Reconciliation in Kinshasa, the capital of Democratic Republic of Congo (DR Congo) on 13 July.

“This means taking it out of the private arena and placing it squarely at the altars of our churches, in the seats of our parliament and in the halls of our academies,” said Dr. Kobia.

According to Associated Press Secretary Clinton during her visit announced a package of 17 million U.S. dollars in American aid to respond to an epidemic of rape and other sexual crimes directed mainly at women and girls by government troops and rebel groups fighting in the region.

The central committee statement said, “Churches must publicly condemn violence against women and to make constructive efforts to overcome such violence by declaring that violence against women is a sin and by the development of clear sexual harassment policies that also spell out clearly the consequences of such harassment.”

The WCC Central Committee also encourages member churches "to continue offering solidarity to the women of the DRC so that they know that they are not alone in their struggles". This accompaniment includes public campaigns in the framework of the WCC Decade to Overcome Violence (2001-2010).


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