FUUO Daily Dose: Foreign Aid, Rape in the DRC and Foreign Service helps orphanages in Kenya

FUUO recommended daily dosage:

Global Summitt on AID Programs .  This summit will be occurring from today till Thursday.  Global foreign aid and assistance has not reached its potential and has yet to be effectively applied.  The scattered anecdotal success stories are overshadowed by BILLIONS wasted.  Perhaps Dambisa Moyo will deliver the keynote address.


Sexual Violence in Eastern DRC.  Just because you don't hear Secretary Clinton addressing it on CSPAN does not mean sexual violence and rape is not a MAJOR  and CONTINUING problem, especially in the DRC.   I've written about it before late last summer and discussed the logistical challenges to stopping it.
http://fuuo.blogspot.com/2010/08/some-200-women-gang-raped-near-congo-un.html
http://fuuo.blogspot.com/2010/08/secretary-clinton-speaks-out-on-mass.html

 Associates of American Foreign Service Award Winner in Kenya.  This award rewards volunteerism abroad.  These are great stories about the power of motivated and compassionate individuals.  The Association might also be an organization that my fellow FAOs would be interested in joining.

 

Secretary Clinton "Speaks out" on Mass Rapes in the DRC...

One thing that struck me today was how long it took to get the word out to the public and for the mainstream media to pick up this story.  The horrific rapes occurred between 30 July and 3 August. 


http://www.cnn.com/2010/WORLD/africa/08/25/congo.rapes.un/index.html?hpt=Sbin

Let's examine the timeline:

-IMC (International Medical Corps) stated they reported rapes to UN's Office of Humanitarian Affairs on 6 August (3 days after). 
-MONUSCO (UN forces there) state they found 12 August (9 day after).
-U.N. Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon condemned the attacks Tuesday saying he was "outraged." (22 days after)
-I found out and commented 20 days after.  State commented 22 days later. 
-Investigations are 'ongoing.'

       One item that has been continuously harped in various news articles is the fact that these atrocities occurred less than 20 miles from a UN outpost/headquarters (supposedly in Kibua, which is along the 529R Road from Walikale and Goma in the east).  I haven't been able to confirm this though (the main UN headquarters are clear across the country in Kinshasa and it's unclear where these 'headquarters within 20 miles' is physically located).

However, reviewing the attached maps boost one's situational awareness considerably.  20 miles in the Sud-Kivu (South Kivu) province may as well be 1000 miles in this densely forested area. 

The orange tack represents the town of Walikale (a mining town).  The 529R Road runs east from there to Goma.  The rapes have been reported to occur along this road. 

Here's a satellite shot of that road.  Looks like it would be pretty easy to hide away in...

 Some sources in the MONUSCO have stated that they came into the villages but that the rebels fled back into the woods (LFDR and Mai Mai.  However, the UN's official position now states they didn't know they were occurring till 12 August. 

   Also telling is the confusion in the basics of geography and succint language.  Among the incongruities:
-Some reports describe the atrocities as occuring in the eastern congo (vice Eastern DRC, which is the correct location).
-Others describe them as occurring in the town of Luvungi (google map this 'town', you won't find anything in the DRC despite one article describing as a small town with a population on 2,200, although I believe it is there, just not in the online databases I have searched).  
-Some call the province in which the rapes occurred as the North Kivu, others as the South Kivu.

 On the map to the left it clearly shows Goma in the Nord-Kivu (North Kivu) and the rapes happened due West (and a little North) from there, thus they DEFINTELY did not occur in Sud-Kivu.













-Some don't mention Luvungi at all and say the rapes occurred throughout 13 villages along a 20 km stretch in North Kivu (Banamukira territory).  FUUO's position is that this all occurred in North Kivu for the record and most likely within 10 miles of the village of Walikale (the orange tack a few maps above). 

STATE DEPARTMENT PRESS RELEASE (my comments in italics)

Allegation of Mass Rape in the Democratic Republic of the Congo
Washington, DC

August 25, 2010

________________________________


The United States is deeply concerned by reports of the mass rape of women and children in the Democratic Republic of the Congo by the Democratic Forces for the Liberation of Rwanda (FDLR) – an armed, illegal rebel group that has terrorized eastern Congo for over a decade – and elements of the Mai Mai, community-based militia groups in eastern Congo.
Both groups deny the attacks but little is also known about these groups intel-wise...other than that they are bad news...I know of only one interview ever done with FDLR's leader. I was mistakenly referring to Joseph Kony, the leader of the LRA, who is also Bad news with a capital 'B'.
This horrific attack is yet another example of how sexual violence undermines efforts to achieve and maintain stability in areas torn by conflict but striving for peace.


The United States has repeatedly condemned the epidemic of sexual violence in conflict zones around the world, and we will continue to speak out on this issue for those who cannot speak for themselves. Less than a year ago, I presided over the UN Security Council session where Resolution 1888 (2009) was unanimously adopted, underscoring the importance of preventing and responding to sexual violence as a tactic of war against civilians. Now  the international community must build on this action with specific steps to protect local populations against sexual and gender-based violence and bring to justice those who commit such atrocities.


Sexual violence harms more than its immediate victims. It denies and destroys our common dignity, it shreds the fabric that weaves us together as humans, it endangers families and communities, it erodes social and political stability, and it undermines economic progress. These travesties, committed with impunity against innocent civilians who play no role in armed conflict, hold us all back.


When I visited the DRC last year, I learned an old proverb -- “No matter how long the night, the day is sure to come.” In the depths of this dark night of suffering and pain, my thoughts and prayers are with the victims and their families. The United States will do everything we can to work with the UN and the DRC government to hold the perpetrators of these acts accountable, and to create a safe environment for women, girls, and all civilians living in the eastern Congo. 

There is no doubt that Secretary Clinton's statement is heartfelt and while a large portion of it strikes FUUO as rhetoric, that is only because she (State) are keenly aware of the monumental undertaking that must be done and achieved to create this 'safe environment
It is FUUO's belief that creating this safe environment means infrastructure.  And the ability to maintain that infrastructure.  We are talking about roads, mass transportation, effective and reliable communication, to name only a small portion of requirements)  This is not something that the United States is currently structured or positioned to do (or the UN for that matter...but I won't get started on that rant). 


But there is a way...but this will require a 'radical' departure in how the "Trinity" (DOD, State, AID) do business...

Some 200 women gang-raped near Congo UN base

This article literally makes my stomach turn.  Women and babies raped.  Absolutely evil.  The UN Peacekeeping Mission needs better forces/training. 

Where is the African Union on this? 

With the Marines leaving Iraq (and Afghanistan eventually), can we tie their future deployments into training the African and Regional Standby forces/brigades to better combat these soul-less rebels? 

Will the African Union engage and better organize these standby forces?

Will the African Unon call for a timely investigation?  It's been three weeks already!

And I won't even start on the effectiveness of the United Nations as an organization.  You would think they would be shamed into action by such atrocities.  Granted I recognize the difficulties presented to the out-matched UN forces there in Africa, HOWEVER, perhaps they need a better public relations director (Martin Nesirky).  That person should be CALLING GLOBAL ATTENTION to this and seeking a solution. 


Some 200 women gang-raped near Congo UN base



Rwandan and Congolese rebels gang-raped nearly 200 women and some baby boys over four days within miles of a UN peacekeepers' base in an eastern Congo mining district, an American aid worker and a Congolese doctor said.

Will F. Cragin of the International Medical Corps said Monday that aid and UN workers knew rebels had occupied Luvungi town and surrounding villages in eastern Congo the day after the attack began on July 30.

More than three weeks later, the UN peacekeeping mission in Congo has issued no statement about the atrocities and said Monday it still is investigating.

More than three weeks later, the UN peacekeeping mission in Congo has issued no statement about the atrocities and said Monday it still is investigating.

Cragin told The Associated Press by telephone that his organization was only able to get into the town, which he said is about 10 miles (16 kilometers) from a UN military camp, after rebels ended their brutal spree of raping and looting and withdrew of their own accord on Aug. 4.

At UN headquarters in New York, spokesman Martin Nesirky said Monday that a UN Joint Human Rights team verified allegations of the rape of at least 154 women by combatants from the Rwandan rebel FDLR group and Congolese Mai-Mai rebels in the village of Bunangiri. He said the victims are receiving medical and psycho-social care.

Nesirky said the UN peacekeeping mission has a military company operating base in Kibua, some 30 kilometers (about 19 miles) east of the village, but he said FDLR attackers blocked the road and prevented villagers from reaching the nearest communication point.

Civil society leader Charles Masudi Kisa said there were only about 25 peacekeepers and that they did what they could against some 200 to 400 rebels who occupied the town of about 2,200 people and five nearby villages.

"When the peacekeepers approached a village, the rebels would run into the forest, but then the Blue Helmets had to move on to another area, and the rebels would just return," Masudi said.

There was no fighting and no deaths, Cragin said, just "lots of pillaging and the systematic raping of women."

Four young boys also were raped, said Dr. Kasimbo Charles Kacha, the district medical chief. Masudi said they were babies aged one month, six months, a year and 18 months.

"Many women said they were raped in their homes in front of their children and husbands, and many said they were raped repeatedly by three to six men," Cragin said. Others were dragged into the nearby forest.

International and local health workers have treated 179 women but the number raped could be much higher as terrified civilians still are hiding, he said.

"We keep going back and identifying more and more cases," he said. "Many of the women are returning from the forest naked, with no clothes."

He said that by the time they got help it was too late to administer medication against AIDS and contraception to all but three of the survivors.

Spokeswoman Stefania Trassari said her UN Organization for the Coordination of Humanitarian Aid was monitoring the situation but that access for humanitarian workers remains "very limited due to insecurity."

Luvungi is a farming center on the main road between Goma, the eastern provincial capital, and the major mining town of Walikale.