Clinton Advocates The Right Things In Congo

U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton's visit to the Democratic Republic of Congo--particularly her stop in Goma--was a tremendous step toward bringing an end to the violence that keeps that nation on its knees. Not only did her presence draw renewed attention to the epidemic of sexual violence that has victimized hundreds of thousands of Congolese women, children, and even men, but the very specific steps she advocated are exactly the ones I believe need to be taken to bring peace to the DRC. What's more, she pledged specific actions (and money) from the U.S. to move the process along.

During her tour of Magunga Camp, where 18,000 displaced people live in crowded temporary housing after being uprooted by the fighting that continues in the eastern provinces, Clinton pledged $17 million in American aid to help fight the gang rape and sexual mutilation that have destroyed so many lives in the region. At least $10 million will go toward training and equipping doctors to treat the victims of attacks. Some funds will also be used for prevention.

"We believe there should be no impunity for the sexual and gender-based violence committed by so many — that there must be arrests and prosecutions and punishment," she said during a press conference.

Clinton said that the U.S. supports military efforts to pacify insurgents who continue to victimize the population in order to control valuable mineral resources in the region. While acknowledging that civilians suffer from military action, Clinton was very clear in her advocacy of firm action against the perpetrators. Not unsurprisingly, she stopped short of offering U.S. troops to support the effort. She did, however, urge the United Nations to intensify its efforts to defeat the FDLR and other militias.

The Secretary of State pulled no punches when it came to the Congolese army, either. She bluntly said that Congolese soldiers and commanders need to be held accountable for their abuses of civilians as well. Congolese forces have repeatedly been reported to have raped and brutalized villagers in an effort to extort money and supplies from them. Clinton laid much of the blame for that at the feet of the government:

"We believe that a disciplined, paid army is a more effective fighting force. We believe that more can be done to protect civilians while you are trying to kill and capture insurgents."

Clinton also said the U.S. will send a team of legal, financial, and other experts to come up with specific recommendations for overcoming Congo's problems with corruption. She said Congolese President Joseph Kabila accepted that offer during their meeting in Goma.

I found it particularly refreshing that Clinton's remarks went far beyond the usual hand wringing and finger pointing that characterize so much of the rhetoric surrounding the situation in the DRC. She identified the problem (conflict-driven sexual violence), pinpointed its cause (the fight over control of the Congo's mineral wealth), and offered specific, deliverable actions that will help solve it. Are the simple steps she advocated a silver bullet? No, but that's exactly why they stand a chance to make a difference.

Dave Donelson, author of Heart of Diamonds a romantic thriller about blood diamonds in the Congo.

Hope Among The Ruins Of Eastern Congo

While the conflict in the eastern provinces of the Democratic Republic of Congo flares anew, two recent significant events lead me to express some guarded optimism that an end to the humanitarian crisis is achievable.

The first was a meeting held last week between Congo's Joseph Kabila and Rwanda's Paul Kagame, the first time elected leaders of the two countries had met face-to-face in thirteen years. The two-hour meeting took place in Goma, heart of the conflict-ridden eastern provinces, and came just a month after the two countries resumed full diplomatic relations including the exchange of ambassadors.

As I have written in the past, I believe the only route to lasting peace in the Congo is through recognition by both nations that their mutual economic interests are best served by cooperation rather than bloody battle for control of the region's assets. Initial steps in that direction were announced at this meeting, with an agreement to jointly develop natural gas reserves in Lake Kivu, which lies between the two countries, and to revive joint economic and trade commissions that have lain dormant for years. There was also a renewed pledge to close down militias operating in the region.

The second bit of encouragement came during Secretary of State Hillary Clinton's visit to Kinshasa, where she spoke out clearly and forcefully against not only sexual violence against women but identified the armed conflict for control of the Congo's mineral wealth as the root cause of the epidemic of rape and sexual mutilation that has sickened the world. She urged Kabila's government and the United Nations to take the steps necessary to bring an end to the conflict. While she stopped well short of offering U.S. military assistance, I wonder if her remarks presage such a move.

Clinton visits Goma tomorrow, where she is scheduled to meet with victims of rape and speak about the horrors of sexual violence that has claimed hundreds of thousands of women.

Dave Donelson, author of Heart of Diamonds a romantic thriller about blood diamonds in the Congo.

Congo Rape: An Anniversary Prescription

As the Democratic Republic of Congo celebrates forty-nine years of independence today, it is time to make some hard choices to stop the epidemic of rape that has infected the nation like an insidious disease. Hundreds of thousands of women of all ages have been attacked and mutilated, publicly abused and often forced into sex slavery. They aren't the only sufferers; their children are scarred by the crime, their husbands humiliated, their villages destroyed.

Some view rape as a symptom of a larger illness that afflicts the Congo, but I believe it is a disease in and of itself—one that threatens to kill the nation. Like many chronic afflictions, it will only be cured when the root causes of the illness are vigorously treated. To eliminate rape in the Congo, three difficult remedies are required.

The first course of treatment is to end the armed struggle for control of mines and other assets in the Eastern provinces of the DRC. Gang rape is used as a weapon to terrorize the populace around the mines that produce gold, tantalum, and tin and it will continue to be employed until someone conclusively defeats the various armed groups that profit from those mines. These include the FDLR (remnants of the Hutu Interahamwe that fled to the Congo after the 1994 Rwandan genocide), local Mayi-Mayi militia, and even rogue elements of the Congolese army itself.

Just as important is disenfranchising the businessmen and politicians both inside and outside the Congo who profit from the chaos. Non-combatant leaders of these groups, whether they be in Kinshasa, Kigali, Munich, Brussels, or Paris, must be charged with war crimes and turned over to the ICC for prosecution. Their ill-gotten gains should be confiscated and returned to the DRC.

Unfortunately, this treatment will require intervention by a well-equipped, professional armed force ready to complete the job. The Congolese army, the FARDC, is a poorly-led collection of untrained men, many of whom were “integrated” into the national army after fighting against it as members of various rebel militias. Congolese troops, upset over lack of pay, recently fired on UN forces with whom they are supposedly allied.

U.N. forces themselves are fettered by a confusing mandate and troops spread too thinly over a huge area. They recently stepped up the campaign against the FDLR, but haven't shown much success. Retaliation from that action and a joint Congolese-Rwandan campaign earlier this year has actually increased the number of attacks against women in the region.

A competent force from the African Union, European Union, or even the United States, one that doesn't report to those with economic interests in the region, will be necessary to complete this crucial first course of treatment.

The second stage is to prepare the patient to care for himself. The FARDC must be turned into a professional army. Soldiers need to be paid so they have less incentive to extort the civilian population. They must be taught that rape is wrong and perpetrators will be punished. The command structure must be cleaned out and corrupt officers replaced by competent leaders. Recent statements by Africom Commander William E. "Kip" Ward that the U.S. military will be working with the Congolese to raise the professionalism of their armed forces is a welcome start in that process.

The criminal justice system in the DRC needs to be strengthened as well. Steps have been taken in this direction, but much more has to happen before women can safely come forward to press charges against rapists without fear of retribution and with some hope that justice will actually be meted out. The 2006 national law criminalizing rape sounds good--the maximum penalty was doubled to 20 years and rape investigations are to be given priority--but that's just on paper. Until there are sufficient trained policemen and women to enforce them, rapists will continue ravaging society.

The third stage of treatment will perhaps be the hardest of all. A culture of impunity has been created during the years of the rape epidemic and it will probably take many more years of interdiction and education to eradicate it. An entire generation of young men have grown up seeing violence against women as normal. They've been taught that it is perfectly all right to demand sex from any woman at any time and to take it by force if refused. With eighty percent of all children in this generation denied an education by the war in Congo and a million refugees still homeless while the fighting continues, there is no social infrastructure to teach them otherwise.

Support services for the victims of rape have gained traction in the last couple of years and the spotlight on their suffering grows brighter and brighter with films like "The Greatest Silence: Rape In the Congo," "Lumo," and Lynn Nottage's Pulitzer Prize-winning play, "Ruined." Organizations like Women for Women International and Heal Africa are doing wonderful work to give these women back their lives.

But little or nothing is being done to instill a sense of shame and a core of decency to the men who commit these horrors. Until they are treated, the disease will never be cured.

The Congo that achieved freedom from Belgium in 1960 should have become the beating heart of Africa. With $25 trillion dollars in mineral wealth, more than enough potential hydroelectricity to power the continent, and vast regions of fallow land that could feed hundreds of millions of people, the DRC should be a vibrant, booming nation. It teeters instead on the brink of failed statehood; a sad shell of a nation that survives mainly due to the indomitable spirit of its people.

That spirit has survived more than a century of colonial oppression, war, and kleptocracy, but it is threatened now by the debilitating disease of rape. Unless that sickness is cured, the future of this should-be great nation is in serious doubt.

Dave Donelson, author of Heart of Diamonds a romantic thriller about blood diamonds in the Congo.

AMD Changes "Congo" In Response To Letter

The open letter I published here and on Daily Kos last week convinced computer chip giant AMD Corporation to change a product code name, according to an online report on technology site CNET News. I had complained about the company’s recent decision to name a new computer chip “Congo” because of the connection between conflict minerals used in electronic devices and the brutal war in the Democratic Republic of Congo.

In the letter, I pointed out that nearly six million people have died in the Democratic Republic of Congo since 1998 and the death toll continues to mount as fighting over the country's mineral resources continues. Currently, more than a million Congolese have been driven from their homes and farms by the fighting in the Eastern provinces. It is estimated that 250,000 women have been brutally raped and mutilated by armed groups seeking to control communities where mines are located.

While use of the term "Congo" was certainly inadvertent and many, especially in the tech world, felt I was making a mountain out of a mole hill, the company recognized that the code name was ill-chosen. Here's what they told CNET News reporter Elinor Mills:

Contacted for comment this week, AMD spokesman John Taylor said the company "truly regrets" causing any offense, even unintentionally. "It was an oversight not to see that (the code name) could be viewed in an entirely different context," he said.

AMD began using the name "2nd Generation Ultrathin Platform" instead of Congo as part of a natural pre-launch naming transition, Taylor said. "The Daily Kos blog helped finalize and expedite a process that was already in motion," he added. "We're striving for that codename to be retired."

I appreciate AMD’s response to the naming issue. What’s equally important is their statement that AMD adheres to the Electronics Industry Citizenship Coalition (EICC) Code of Conduct, which is researching extractive metals supply chains for tin, tantalum, and cobalt.

Thanks to all who joined in the complaint to AMD by communicating with the company in response to the original post.

Dave Donelson, author of Heart of Diamonds a romantic thriller about blood diamonds in the Congo.

"Ruined" Benefit For Congo Women

If you haven't yet seen "Ruined," Lynn Nottage's Pulitzer-prize-winning play about rape in the Congo, make sure to attend the June 14 matinee in New York. Proceeds from that performance will go to support women in the Congo through the work of Friends of the Congo and Congo Global Action. I saw the play early in its NY run and can't say enough about it's importance in understanding the terrible effect of terror rape on the victims and society in the DRC.

Following this special performance, filmmaker Lisa Jackson will moderate a panel of Congolese women who will speak out about the continuing violence. The participants include Amini Kajunju, Georges Malaika Foundation; Marie-Claire Faray, Common Cause UK; Marie Mossi, National Network of Women; Gorethy Nabushosi, Congo Restoration; and Maman Jean Kasongo, Fondation Shalupe. In addition to Friends of the Congo and Congo Global Action, the panel is sponsored by the Ellen Stone Belic Institute for the Study of Women & Gender in the Arts and Media Columbia College Chicago.

This video underscores the importance of this event:



The play and panel discussion will be at the Manhattan Theater Club, New York City Center at 130 West 56th Street. Tickets are available through the box office or Friends of the Congo.

Dave Donelson, author of Heart of Diamonds a romantic thriller about blood diamonds in the Congo.

Rape Testimony Moves U.S. Senate

Chouchou Namegabe Nabintu testified this week before the Senate Committee on Foreign Relations Subcommittee on African Affairs and the new Subcommittee on International Operations and Organizations, Human Rights, Democracy and Global Womens Issues, moving the audience with her eloquent appeal for US help in stopping terror rape in the Democratic Republic of Congo.



Senator Barbara Boxer said after Chouchou's testimony that "In the Senate today, the silence on this issue has ended."

The hearing was titled "Confronting Rape And Other Forms Of Violence Against Women In Conflict Zones Spotlight: DRC and Sudan". Also testifying were Melanne Verveer, US Ambassador-at-Large for Global Women’s Issues, Esther Brimmer, US Assistant Secretary of State for International Organization Affairs, Phil Carter, Acting Assistant Secretary of the Bureau of African Affairs, Eve Ensler, founder of V-Day, Robert Warwick, Country Director of Southern Sudan International Rescue Committee, Neimat Ahmadi, Save Darfur Coalition, and John Prendergast, founder of The Enough Project.

Dave Donelson, author of Heart of Diamonds a romantic thriller about blood diamonds in the Congo.

UN Talks While Congo Civilians Suffer

The UN Security Council meets today to discuss the situation in the eastern provinces of the Democratic Republic of Congo, where the civilian population bears the brunt of the fighting between rebel groups including the FDLR, various Mai Mai militia, and the LRA and the Congolese army (FARDC) operating with the Rwandan and Ugandan armies. While joint operations were declared successful by the governments involved and the UN hailed the strides toward peace, the people of the region continue to suffer at the hands of all the combatants.

Human Rights Watch reports that the FLDR killed, raped, and kidnapped hundreds of civilians during and after the joint Congo-Rwanda military campaign in North Kivu earlier this year. Among the atrocities reported, the HRW report cites:

As Rwandan and Congolese coalition forces advanced toward the FDLR's former headquarters at Kibua, in Ufamandu, North Kivu, the FDLR abducted scores of local residents from neighboring villages and took them to their camp, apparently intending to use them as human shields against the impending attack. Witnesses said that when coalition forces attacked Kibua on January 27, the trapped civilians tried to flee. The FDLR hacked many civilians to death and others died in the crossfire.

One witness at Kibua saw FDLR combatants kill at least seven people, including a pregnant woman, whose womb was slit open. Another saw an FDLR combatant batter a 10-year-old girl to death against a brick wall.

The FDLR warned in a letter to the governor of South Kivu that civilians who supported the government forces would be considered combatants and slaughtered. The Congolese army announced after the withdrawal of Rwandan forces from North Kivu that the campaign would now turn to South Kivu.

"The FDLR have a very ugly past, but we haven't seen this level of violence in years," said Anneke Van Woudenberg, senior researcher in the Africa division at Human Rights Watch. "We've documented many abuses by FDLR forces, but these are killings of ghastly proportions."

But the FDLR isn't the only group to commit atrocities. HRW said many rapes and assaults on civilians by Rwandan troops were reported by civilians fleeing the fighting as well.

The aid agency Oxfam, quotes UN figures that say that since mid-January, when Congolese and Rwandan troops attacked the FDLR, another 250,000 civilians have been newly displaced in the provinces of North and South Kivu. Rwandan troops withdrew from the DRC at the end of February, but the Congolese army continues to pursue the FDLR in South Kivu. Meanwhile, FDLR units have reoccupied the territories they fled during the joint campaign.

The situation in the north is no better, according to Oxfam. In Haut Uélé, the Ugandan rebel group known as the Lord's Resistance Army, has displaced nearly 200,000 people since December, in part out of retaliation for a Ugandan military offensive against the group. Ugandan troops withdrew last month, having accomplished little except to destroy the lives of thousands of Congolese.

Marcel Stoessel, Head of Oxfam in the DRC said:

"The war is far from over for ordinary Congolese. These terrible human tragedies are happening in remote areas far away from television cameras, but this does not make the suffering less real for those concerned.

“Homes and shops are being looted and ransacked, women and girls are being raped, and civilians are being forced to flee, many for the third or fourth time. We are helping them pick up the pieces by increasing our emergency work. It is tragic to see Congo’s civilians caught up in this awful violence yet again.”

Meanwhile, the UN Security Council meets today to talk about the situation. Last year, they promised an additional 3,000 troops to aid the 17,000 blue helmets already in the Congo protect the civilian population. Not only have none of those additional troops arrived, there have been no reports that they are even en route.

No one expects much from the additional troops anyway. The original Security Council mandate called for UN troops to protect UN relief operations and Congolese civilians, but their record has been dismal. Civilian casualties in the eastern provinces continue to mount and the epidemic of terror rape continues to destroy the lives of hundreds of women and their families.

Dave Donelson, author of Heart of Diamonds a romantic thriller about blood diamonds in the Congo.

Rape Ignored By Media For Ten Years

Terror rape in the Congo became widespread ten years ago, yet it is only recently that the worldwide media establishment has paid more attention to this crime against humanity than to the killing of gorillas in the Democratic Republic of Congo, according to Chouchou Namegabe, a radio journalist from Bukavu whose appearance on a panel in New York I wrote about recently. Her words resonate in this video of the event.



Women's eNews staff reporter Dominique Soguel moderated the event and published an account of it as well.

Dave Donelson, author of Heart of Diamonds a romantic thriller about blood diamonds in the Congo.

A Season In The Congo

New York's Castillo Theatre presented an inspiring production of Aime Cesaire's A Season In The Congo Sunday, followed by a panel discussion of current issues in the Democratic Republic of Congo that perfectly complimented the many issues raised by the play, which centers on the rise and fall of Patrice Lumumba.

Cesaire, one of the greatest French language poets of the 20th century, wrote the play in 1966, just five short years after Lumumba was assassinated. The struggle for control of the Congo's wealth which caused Lumumba's murder continues today, as several members of the panel pointed out.

The production itself was spirited and intense, with a cast of over twenty actors drawn from the youth programs of the All Stars Project and the adult volunteers of the theater. A groups of dancers from Brownsville, Brooklyn, also took part and dozens of volunteers of all ages made up the production team. The play was directed by Brian Mullin.

Four separate actors took on the lead role of Patrice Lumumba, a directorial decision that added much nuance and depth to the character. The martyred leader was portrayed by Jube Charles, Christlabelsay Elian, Diana Lumaque, and Shaakirah Medford.

The panel discussion was moderated by Carolyn Kresky, a three-time Emmy Award winning broadcast journalist and a founder of the Castillo Theatre. She asked the participants to draw on their own experiences with the Congo of today to the events depicted by the play. There were many connections.

Maurice Carney, Executive Director of Friends of the Congo, pointed out that America has been involved in the Congo since 1885, when it was the first nation to officially bless King Leopold's claim to sovereignty over the territory. He also explained that control of the Congo's wealth is a world issue, with implications for not just the DRC but the continent of Africa as well. He quoted Lumumba in the last letter he wrote to his wife just before his death:

"We are not alone. Africa, Asia, and free and liberated people from every corner of the world will always be found at the side of the Congolese."

Lisa Jackson, whose film "The Greatest Silence: Rape In The Congo" has truly opened the world's eyes to the epidemic of terror rape in the war zones of the eastern provinces, spoke about the passivity of the United Nations in today's Congo and how it has not changed in the last fifty years.

Noella Coursaris Musunka said that her recent experiences in the Congo convinced her that the country needs a new Lumumba. The internationally acclaimed model is the founder of the Georges Malaika Foundation, a nonprofit organization dedicated to providing educational opportunities for young girls in the Democratic Republic of Congo.

Panelist Deborah Green was the Political Director of the Rainbow Lobby, an independent people’s lobby that aided the democracy movement in the Congo from 1986 to 1992. She drew a direct connection between the use of inter-tribal strife featured in the play and the similar strategies used by today's warlords and behind-the-scenes operators in the DRC.

Joseph T. Mbangu is a Congolese attorney and an activist based in New York City. He was studying law on the border of Rwanda when the genocide began. He fled the area, completed his law degree and immigrated to the US in 1999. He believes the play was very timely given the nascent movement among the Congolese Diaspora and others to bring the nation into its rightful place in the sun. He, too, quoted Lumumba, citing words he spoke during his inauguration:

"The Congo has been proclaimed a Republic and our beloved country is now in the hands of its own children."

From the applause that greeted that line, I believe the audience fully agreed.

My thanks to Misengabo Esperance Kapuadi for her gracious permission to use her photographs of the event.

Dave Donelson, author of Heart of Diamonds a romantic thriller about blood diamonds in the Congo.

Congo Rape Draws More Media Attention

The bravery of rape victims never ceases to amaze me. As more and more continue to speak out, the media is paying more and more attention, which is the only way the epidemic of terror rape in the Democratic Republic of Congo will ever be stopped.

This Associated Press report appeared this weekend in the NY Times and is gaining wide distribution. It deserves to be printed in ten-foot letters on a banner hung from the UN General Assembly building.

The world should applaud and honor the courageous women quoted in the piece, Zamuda Sikujuwa, Honorata Kizende, Kasongo Manyema, and the others who cast aside their shame to Break The Silence.

Dave Donelson, author of Heart of Diamonds a romantic thriller about blood diamonds in the Congo.

Women Voices Raised Against Congo Rape

Yesterday's Break The Silence Forum provided an excellent overview of the rape epidemic that continues unabated in the Democratic Republic of Congo. The program at the New School in Manhattan featured a screening of "The Greatest Silence: Rape In The Congo" followed by an informative panel discussion. Many eyes were opened by the presentations.

Jennifer Thomas-Boateng, the Program Coordinator for the Women's International League for Peace and Freedom, NY Metro Chapter, began the program with a powerful discussion of how corporate interests around the world are fueling the war in Congo. She termed several firms "corporate rapists," including Cabot Corporation and OMG Group, who process minerals that are illegally mined in the DRC, as well as contractors Bechtel, Brown & Root, and MPRI, who are major suppliers to the armed forces of Uganda and Rwanda, nations that have played significant roles in the violence in the DRC.

Actor Vinie Burrows gave a brief history of Congo from King Leopold II to the present, highlighting the continuing theme of exploitation that has marked the nation's history.

Misengabo E. Kapuadi, a founding member of the Georges Malaika Foundation, spoke about the growing role of the Congolese diaspora in breaking the silence. She quite eloquently pointed out that we were gathered not just to celebrate International Women's Day, but to make sure women in the Congo are not forgotten.

"The stop the rape, we have to stop the conflict," she said. "To stop the conflict, we have to stop the economic exploitation of the Congo."

Nita Evele, representing the Friends of the Congo and Congo Global Action, gave an impassioned explanation of how terror rape has grown to epidemic proportions in the DRC. The Congolese army, she pointed out, is made up of former rebel groups--the same people who victimized the civilian population for years. Many of the soldiers were children when the fighting started in 1996, and were themselves traumatized.

The rebel forces use terror rape to control villages near the mineral deposits and rich farmlands they covet. The idea, as Nita put it, is to "kill the soul and spirit of the people by inflicting harm that hurts forever." Raping and killing children in front of their mothers, forcing children to rape their own mothers, humiliating men and boys by raping them, and using guns, sticks, knives, and other foreign objects to destroy a woman's ability to reproduce are some of the abominable tactics these criminals use.

The event was sponsored by Women's International League for Peace and Freedom and Friends of the Congo, as well as Project Africa at the New School, Black Radical Congress, Granny Peace Brigade, Barnard Center for Research on Women, and Medgar Evers College.

Dave Donelson, author of Heart of Diamonds a romantic thriller about blood diamonds in the Congo.

"Ruined" Exposes Horrors of Congo Rape

The Pulitzer flags should be flying over Lynn Nottage's acclaimed play, Ruined, which I saw recently during its NY run. The play exposes the horrors of terror rape in the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) through the stories of victims of the crime.

Nottage chose to write a play about the strife in the Congo much the same way I was drawn into the crisis with Heart of Diamonds. She started out to write something else--in her case, an adaptation of Bertolt Brecht's Mother Courage--but was compelled by the reality of the modern tragedy in the DRC to create an entirely different work. The world should be thankful she made that choice.

Ruined centers on Mama Nadi and her tavern cum whorehouse in the Ituri region of the Congo. The stories of Mama Nadi's "girls" are told in a swelling chorus of pathos among a parade of soldiers, rebels, miners, and traders who show up looking for relief from the violence wracking the countryside.

Each of the women tells a story of how they were victimized by the conflict. Josephine (played by Cherise Boothe), the daughter of a village chief, had been cast adrift when the social structure of her homeland was destroyed by war over the region's mineral wealth. Salima (Quincy Tyler Bernstine) was snatched by rebels and used as a sex slave for five months before she returned to her village, only to be rejected by her husband and family.

The plot revolves around Sophie (Condola Rashad), who was "ruined" by a gang of rebels who mutilated her genitals in an act of terror rape all too common in the Congo today. Rashad's performance perfectly captures the tragic effects of the crime. Her sweetly innocent face contrasts sharply with the awkward way her body moves in response to the constant pain from her injuries.

In an telling touch, most of the soldiers, rebels, and miners are played by the same cast members in alternating roles, emphasizing the shifting nature of loyalties and alliances in the real conflict playing out today in the Congo.

Mama Nadi is the star of the play and Saidah Arrika Ekulona portrays her as a flamboyant, strong-willed survivor, hard-crusted but soft-hearted, a woman for the ages. Her bravery in the face of the ever-heightening violence is the pillar that supports the entire play.

The emotional climax comes early in the second act (in a scene that reminded me greatly of Ogastine's story in Heart of Diamonds) when Salima delivers a soliloquy about her horrific experience. The audience literally gasped when she described the details of her capture, then you could hear them squirming uncomfortably as she told how she was used as a sex slave. The theater was struck silent when she related her return to her village expecting succor only to be given the back of the hand and driven away by her husband.

The heart-wrenching, mind-stopping production premiered last fall at Chicago's Goodman Theatre and moved to Manhattan Theater Club's Stage 1 at City Center (where I saw it) this month for a limited time. The run in New York has been extended, but it will probably end soon, so I strongly recommend you order tickets today.

Dave Donelson, author of Heart of Diamonds a romantic thriller about blood diamonds in the Congo.

Chicago Reader Views "The Greatest Silence"

The third in a series of notes from my correspondence with a discerning reader in Chicago. He writes:

Last night, I watched a documentary called "The Greatest Silence: Rape in the Congo". It makes clear that rebel soldiers are not just raping, but torturing. As insightful as it was, however, it failed to address a question I have been unable to answer with my research: What benefit is derived by the rebel militia groups from rape and torture?

Soldiers/rapists in the bush were interviewed in the documentary and explained that they raped because they were told it was necessary to effectuate the safety and protection they received during battle from drinking a "magic potion". Another soldier explained, basically, that he rapes simply because he doesn't get a lot of sex and has needs. As perverse as those explanations are, they are at least the product of reason, albeit faulty. They did not address why they force siblings to have sex, why they twist the heads off of young children and why they mutilate women's genitals. What motivates this kind of behavior? Any ideas?

My response:

This is a question I've heard often and one I struggle with myself. As Lisa Jackson's film so eloquently shows, individuals justify horrible acts of rape and mutilation for their own personal reasons--motivations beyond the ken of people like you and me.

Their leaders, though, have a fairly clear reason for encouraging these crimes: to intimidate and thereby control the civilian population. I often use the term "terror rape" because it is an act of terrorism little different in purpose from suicide booming in the Middle East or mass decapitation ordered by drug lords in Central America.

The terrorist wants to be feared, so the more outlandish the act, the further outside the bound of humanity, the more fear it can create. Fearful people do as they are told. They hand over food and money when ordered to; they work for nothing in mines or fields; they refuse to identify criminals to the authorities.

Terror rape is one of the most execrable tactics of war.

Dave Donelson, author of Heart of Diamonds a romantic thriller about blood diamonds in the Congo.

Rape Insights From Congo Ambassador

Last night in Manhattan I talked to the Ambassador to the UN from the Democratic Republic of Congo, Ileka Atoki, as I gave him a copy of Heart of Diamonds. We met at a screening of Lisa Jackson's documentary, "The Greatest Silence: Rape In The Congo." Ambassador Ileka shed some interesting light on how the tactic of gang rape became so widely used in the DRC. He also spoke about what needs to be done to eradicate it. I couldn't agree with him more.

Rape as a weapon of war is nothing new, of course, nor was it invented in the Congo. According to Ileka, the current Congo rape epidemic began in earnest in 1998 when the armies of Uganda and Rwanda (among others) invaded the DRC ostensibly to destroy groups seeking to overthrow their governments which had taken refuge in Congo. Their rebel quarry, including the Hutu Interahamwe responsible for Rwanda's 1994 genocide, used gang rape as part of their arsenal of terror. The horrible tactic was soon adopted by the Congolese armed forces, who were (and are still) mostly uneducated, underpaid, ill-motivated youths, as well as their allies, the Mai-Mai militia, whose leaders encourage the superstition that raping a woman makes them fiercer warriors.

Lisa Jackson's film, which first aired on America's HBO last spring and is now being distributed around the world (see my previous posts about it), is a raw portrayal of the epidemic of violence against women that is destroying the fabric of life in Congo. I've seen it several times and the impact grows with each viewing. Lisa interviews rape victims, the people who struggle to care for them, and even several young men who committed the crime. Their cold-blooded accounts are the stuff of nightmares.

According to some estimates, a woman is gang-raped in Congo every eight minutes today.

Ambassador Ileka said that a recent DRC government study shows that many of the crimes are now being committed not only by the various armies and militias vying for control of the eastern provinces, but by civilians--men who were demobilized after the war officially ended in 2003. They view rape as their right.

He also pointed out that an entire generation of young men, boys when the war began, have grown up with violence against women all around them. It is part of the fabric of their lives. With eighty percent of all children in this generation denied an education by the war in Congo and a million refugees still homeless while the fighting continues, there is no social infrastructure to teach them it is wrong.

There is no easy solution and it may well take more than one generation to eradicate the plague. Awareness of the epidemic is growing, largely through the tireless efforts of Lisa Jackson and others like her. But true change, as Ileka said, will be possible only with an end to the fighting. Nothing substantive can be accomplished while more than twenty armed groups vie for control of Congo's riches. The current UN-sponsored peace talks and some very recent diplomatic and military maneuvers by the DRC government are the slimmest beginning of that process.

When the conflict finally ends, prosecution of perpetrators can help stop the practice. The DRC passed a clear stringent law criminalizing crimes of violence against women, but it is basically unenforceable under current conditions. Longer term, attitudes can be changed through education. Like many other repugnant beliefs that worm their way into the social fabric, though, the impunity with which rapists view their actions will not be eradicated overnight by either teachers or prosecutors.

Sadly, nothing will bring back the lost lives of the thousands of women and girls who have been brutalized.

Dave Donelson, author of Heart of Diamonds a romantic thriller about blood diamonds in the Congo.

Congo Doctor Awarded For Rape Fight

A leading voice against terror rape in the Democratic Republic of Congo, gynecologist Denis Mukwege, has been awarded the 2008 Olof Palme Prize for his work to help women victims of rape and war crimes. Last year, I wrote here about his moving testimony before the US Congress.

Dr. Mukwege's Panzi Hospital, located near Bukavu, the capitol of South Kivu province, was founded when he realized how many of his patients were seriously injured or contracted diseases after being raped. Today, the facility receives some ten women rape victims each day, with more than a quarter of the patients requiring surgery after their ordeal.

The prize committee said that Dr. Mukwege

"serves peace, understanding and solidarity in a way worthy of imitation through the work with the women who are the most exposed victims of this conflict."

All sides of the ongoing conflict in the DRC have used gang-rape and mutilation of women as a weapon of terror. Forty-five women report being raped every day in South Kivu province alone, according to a report issued last year by the Scottish Catholic International Aid Fund. Estimates of non-reported rapes are triple that number.

Dr. Mukwege will receive his award of a diploma and $75,000 at a ceremony at the Swedish parliament on January 30. The Olof Palme award is aimed at promoting peace and disarmament and combating racism and xenophobia. It was created in memory of a popular Swedish prime minister who was gunned down by a lone attacker in February 1986, shortly after leaving a Stockholm cinema.

Dave Donelson, author of Heart of Diamonds a romantic thriller about blood diamonds in the Congo.

Lisa Jackson Film Strikes Close To Home

Last month, Lisa Jackson's hard-hitting documentary, "The Greatest Silence: Rape In The Congo," ended a world tour with a special screening before the Congolese National Assembly in Kinshasa. Afterward, an audience of more than 600 politicians, diplomats, and dignitaries who viewed the film listened to rape survivor Marie Jeanne M'bsweshe plead with them to "get rid of the bandits" that make life hell for women in eastern Congo.

This extraordinary event took place in the National Assembly Hall in front of an audience that included Vital Kamerhe, President of the National Assembly, Kengo Wa Dondo, the President of the Senate, Deputy Prime Minister Nzanga Mobutu, the new Gender Minister, Marie Ange Lukiana Mufankolo and hundreds of other parliamentarians, ministers, dignitaries and members of the international community. The event was organized under the auspices the British Foreign and Commonwealth Office.

Madame M'Bweshe pointed to the machete scar on her forehead, to the teeth bashed out by her rapists, and described her husband's murder and her own torture and rape in gut-wrenching detail. National Assembly President Vital Kamerhe congratulated the woman for standing up and being so forceful and brave. He added,

"The title of this film 'The Greatest Silence' is quite evocative because I am sure that at the end of its screening the conscience of each of us will be touched and we will decide to stand together, particularly we men, in order to put an end to sexual violence against women. From this very moment, we ought to be able to say, 'Never again!'"

The film, produced and directed by Lisa F. Jackson, won a Special Jury Prize at the 2008 Sundance Film Festival, was broadcast in the US on HBO in April and has been seen by audiences in over 50 countries. It inspired a UN Security Counsel resolution, opened a US Senate hearing, and has been screened in the British House of Commons, the International Criminal Court and the US Department of State.

I've seen the film and written about it several times. I'll be attending a special screening sponsored by the Council on Foreign Relations next week in New York.

Dave Donelson, author of Heart of Diamonds a romantic thriller about blood diamonds in the Congo.

The Greatest Silence: Rape In The Congo

Lisa Jackson's moving documentary, The Greatest Silence: Rape In The Congo, airs this Thursday on HBO2 at 10:30 PM Eastern Time. Rape is taking place on an epic scale in the Democratic Republic of Congo, destroying the lives of thousands of women and their families. Emmy®-winning filmmaker Lisa Jackson shot this inspiring documentary in the war zones of the DRC. It's not to be missed.

Dave Donelson, author of Heart of Diamonds a romantic thriller about blood diamonds in the Congo.

A Refugee Story

The refugee count keeps climbing in the Democratic Republic of Congo as fighting between the Congolese army and rebel warlord Laurent Nkunda drives more and more people from their homes. Recent tallies by the United Nations add more than 250,000 people to the rolls of displaced persons, bringing the total to over a million.

Numbers are only part of the story, of course. It's highly likely that a huge percentage of these people will eventually become casualties, killed by starvation and disease, dying of despair. I wrote about the plight of refugees in the Congo in this passage from Heart of Diamonds:

"That is Ogastine," Frannie explained quietly. "She was raped by seven men in front of her husband and children. One of them used a plantain to humiliate her even more." Bobby turned the camera on Frannie, who ignored it and kept on talking. "She had to take her children and go live in the hills when her husband kicked her out."

"Why did he do that?" Valierie asked.

"He was sure she had contracted a disease from the men who raped her, so he didn't want anything to do with her anymore. Her children all died in the bush. There were three of them."

As Frannie told Ogastine's story, Valerie felt the anguish draw around her like a dark curtain. She mentally pushed it back so she could focus on Frannie and the story. "How did her children die?" she asked gently.

"I don't know for sure, but probably from what you and I would consider a minor disease. It could have been just a simple infection. Like most of these kids, they were probably under-fed to start with. Weak. That means just about any medical problem becomes life threatening. The massacres and battle get press coverage, but nobody ever reports on how many people die from the real effects of civil war. Disruption of the food supply and lack of medical care kill a lot more people than bullets. More than five million have died in the Congo since 1998. The shame is, almost all of them die from treatable diseases like malaria and diarrhea, aggravated by living in a permanent war zone."

Dave Donelson, author of Heart of Diamonds a romantic thriller about blood diamonds in the Congo.

A People Destroyed

Blood continues to flow despite the signing of a peace agreement intended to stop the horrendous violence in the eastern provinces of the Congo. The agreement has been largely ignored by the alphabet soup of militias, army factions, guerilla bands, and outright criminal enterprises terrorizing the region. It is a humanitarian nightmare that may never end. Here is a short passage on the subject from Heart of Diamonds.

I hope you will make a donation to help the victims of rape, terror, and violence in the Congo. Women for Women International is one organization doing great work there Any bit you can send them will be appreciated and do a world of good for some people who really need it.

Dave Donelson, author of Heart of Diamonds a romantic thriller about blood diamonds in the Congo.

The Anguish of Rape

Terror rape is an act that humiliates the woman, destroying her self-worth and interest in living. These effects are compounded when women are rejected by their husbands. Families are destroyed, women and children turned into refugees with no resources. Here is a short passage on the subject from Heart of Diamonds.

Your donation to Women for Women International will help the victims of rape, terror, and violence in the Congo. Large or small, anything you can send them will be appreciated and do a world of good for some people who really need it.

Dave Donelson, author of Heart of Diamonds a romantic thriller about blood diamonds in the Congo.