Congo Teach In: Educate and Activate

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Congo Teach In Educate and Activate

• An educational tool brought to you by

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The Democratic Republic of the Congo (formerly
known as Zaire)
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Roots of the conflictColonization

• 1880s Belgiums King Leopold II takes personal
  control of the Congo territory
• 8-10 million people die as a result of violence,
  forced labor, and starvation
• 1908 Leopold transfers control of the Congo
  Free State to the Belgian government

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Roots of the conflictDecolonization the Cold
War

• 1960 Independence
• 1961 Prime Minister Patrice Lumumba assassinated
• Congo as a U.S. ally
• Strategic minerals
• A central location for projecting military power

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Roots of the conflictMobutu Sese Seko

• 1965 Becomes President through military coup
• Establishes Africas greatest kleptocracy

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Ripples of genocide

• 1994 Mobutu shelters genocidal leaders exiled
  from neighboring Rwanda
• 1997 Rebellion sponsored by Rwanda Uganda
  ousts Mobutu

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War in the DRC, 1998-present

• Africas First World War the deadliest in the
  world since World War II
• 45,000 deaths per month (2008, Intl Rescue
  Committee)
• Estimated 5.4 million deaths (IRC)

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• An increasingly localized battle for control of
  natural resources
• Sexual violence used by all sides to displace,
  control, and traumatize
• The UNs largest peacekeeping operation
  (2000-present)
• Thousands continue to die

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The Resource Curse

• Natural resources finance armed groups committing
  sexual violence in eastern Congo 
• Diamonds, tin, and 25 of worlds tantalum
  minerals
• columbite-tantalite
• Consumers in the United States unknowingly
  contribute to the conflict by purchasing these
  products
• The Congos vast resources have never benefited
  its people

(coltan)
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The suffering continues

• Despite 2003 ceasefire
• Systematic and widespread crimes against humanity
  continue
• 1,500 Congolese die daily from hunger,
  preventable disease, and other consequences of
  violence and displacement
• Half of deaths are children
• 1.3 million displaced

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Humanitarian crisis

• More than 200,000 women and girls raped since the
  beginning of the conflict
• More than 33,000 children taken by armed groups
• child soldiers
• sex slaves
• Sexual violence continues at horrific rates

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Violence against women in the DRC

• Eastern Congo is the most dangerous place in the
  world for women and girls
• Rape on a scale seen nowhere else in the world
• Sexual violence to subjugate and humiliate
  populations they seek to control
• Unparalleled physical as well as emotional trauma

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• Nothing I ever experienced felt as ghastly,
  terrifying and complete as the
• sexual torture and attempted destruction of the
  female species here. The
• violence is a threat to all young girls and
  village elders alike are at risk. It is
• not too strong to call this a femicide, to say
  that the future of the Congos
• women is in serious jeopardy,
• Eve Ensler, founder and artistic director of
  V-Day (www.vday.org)

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Violence against womenthe numbers

• Approximately 3,500 reported incidents of rape in
  North and South Kivu in the first six months of
  2008

• 50 of survivors were under the age of 18
• Doctors Without Borders says 75 percent of all
  rape cases it deals with worldwide are in eastern
  Congo

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Violence against womenroot causes

• The weak state
• A culture of impunity
• Gender inequality
• Economic interests natural resource exploitation

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Many women wait weeks for surgery to repair
injuries from rape and torture. Women waiting
for fistulae and vaginal reconstruction surgery
at Panzi Hospital, Bukavu. Photo Paula
Allen/V-Day
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Women who develop fistulae are often left
incontinent. Urine left behind by survivors at a
meeting. Photo Paula Allen/V-Day
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JANET

• When I hear a boom, I am terrified. The pain I
  felt when they took my leg over my head as they
  raped me. The leg was loose and they were pulling
  it. I was screaming, the pain was so great. I had
  2 surgeriesnothing they could do. Head of the
  thigh bone was gone. I will be on crutches for
  the rest of my life. I've always been courageous.
  Always will be courageous. If the military want
  to kill me for telling my story, I am ready to
  die.
• September 12th, 2008, Goma, DRC

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LUMO

• They shoved grass in my mouth and tied me with
  my clothes. After, I couldn't walk. They used my
  clothes and dragged me on the ground. The next
  day a hunter found me. I was hospitalized for
  three years. I have fistula from the rapes. I
  still after 9 operations have fistula. I was
  going to be married. My husband left me after the
  rapes. He got his dowry back. My friend ended up
  dying.
• September 12th, 2008, Goma, DRC

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The latest cycle of violence

• Since August 2008, fighting has intensified
  between the Congolese army and rebels loyal to a
  renegade general named Laurent Nkunda (arrested
  Jan. 2009)
• 250,000 people displaced by recent fighting
• Sexual violence against women and girls and
  forced recruitment of men and boys remain daily
  threats

IDP camp in Kibati, November 2008
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What should we be demanding from the
international community?

• Peacemaking
• Protection
• Punishment
• Prevention

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A call to the world from the women in the DRC

• In September 2008, in Bukavu and Goma, 12
  women survivors of sexual violence publicly
  testified about their experiences and together
  with other activists across the region issued a
  Call to the World. They called for
• The international community must act on behalf
  of Congolese women and girls whether or not it
  serves their economic or political
  self-interest.
• An end to the stigmatization of women survivors
  of sexual violence
• A commitment by the Government on all levels,
  local, provincial, national and international to
  protect women and girls
• A deeper commitment from the United Nations to
  keep women and girls safe
• An end to impunity and strengthening of the
  judicial system
• Urgent and necessary medical and psychological
  support for survivors
• The solidarity of men
• We make up more than 52 of the population but
  there are fewer than 10 women in positions of
  authority, in violation of our own constitution.
  Support women in taking leadership positions and
  power in the DRC

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Lead Your Leaders

• Sign the RAISE Hope for Congo petition to the
  President of the United States, urging him to
  take immediate action to end the suffering of
  women and girls in eastern Democratic Republic of
  the Congo.
• Call your Senators and Representatives and urge
  them to pass the International Violence Against
  Women Act (IVAWA).
• Call 1-202-224-3121 from 900am- 600pm EST, Mon-
  Fri
• Write to the President of the DRC, Joseph Kabila
  to urge him to put an end to the rapes by holding
  perpetrators accountable.

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Join the Movement

• Sign up for the Enough Projects RAISE Hope for
  Congo campaign to protect and empower Congolese
  women and girls
• Learn how you can work with other students to end
  the conflict in Congo through STAND, the
  student-led division of the Genocide Intervention
  Network
• Join V-Day and UNICEF (in partnership with UN
  Action Against Sexual Violence in Conflict) in
  Stop Raping our Greatest Resource Power to
  Women of the Democratic Republic of Congo. You
  can also sign up to participate in V-Days
  Spotlight Campaign on the women and girls of the
  DRC and help raise funds to build the City of Joy
  in Bukavu, South Kivu, DRC.
• Share this presentation with your friends and
  communities.

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Learn More

• Books
• King Leopolds Ghost by Adam Hochschild
• All Things Must Fight to Live Stories of War and
  Deliverance in Congo by Bryan Mealer
• In the Footsteps of Mr. Kurtz by Michela Wrong
• Documentaries
• White King, Red Rubber, Black Death on
  colonial-era brutality
• Lumo on one womans struggles and triumphs in
  Congo
• Other
• The ENOUGH Project Strategy Papers on eastern
  Congo.
• Rape of a Nation by Marcus Bleasdale.
• Women left for deadand the man whos saving them
  by Eve Ensler in Glamour Magazine.
• Covering the War in Eastern Congo A special
  report on Dateline.

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YOU ARE PART OF THE SOLUTION
Join us!