The sexualized tactic of brutality will not be contained in it’s [DRC's] heart of darkness…

A new press release issued by UNDP states concern about the increasing reports of sexual violence in Kenya as election violence continues. Excerpt from the release is below:

Hospitals and health organizations in Kenya are pressed to treat the rising number of rape victims. Reports from Nairobi indicate that some hospitals saw the number of rape cases double within days after violence erupted as a result of the disputed presidential election, which took place 27 December 2007. Medical personnel say that for each of the new cases they are treating, there are many more victims who fail to seek help – either because of security reasons or the fear of stigmatization.

While sexual assault against women has always been a consequence of war, in recent decades it has reached epidemic levels. Wherever there is conflict –in Darfur, the Democratic Republic of Congo, Kosovo, Liberia– women and girls have been systematically raped. An estimated half a million women were raped during the 1994 genocide in Rwanda. In Croatia and Bosnia-Herzegovina, approximately 60,000 women were raped in the war. The scale of violence against women in conflict situations is staggering, yet there is no evidence this epidemic is abating. The early warning signs in Kenya make that all too clear where, like in other conflicts, women and girls are targeted.

other reportings:
BBC News

IRIN News: “she said, noting that in Kenya’s case, it was too early to tell whether the rapes were gratuitous or targeted, although investigations had begun. “

PlusNews

(refugees hiding out in an abandoned Catholic Mission)

War in the Congo is threatening to erupt again a fighting between rebel Tutsis and the government forces flare. The disatrous war in the Congo was a direct result of the 1994 genocide in Rwanda. Refugees, including Hutu rebels who partook in the genocide of the Tutsis, feld to the Congo. The region was destabalized as aid was exploited by Hutu militias while civilias received little. In 1996, the most intense war Africa has seen to date–claiming more lives than WWII–began.

 We are still dealing with the the ripple effect of the Rwandan genocide in the Congo. Activist, policy makers, and aid workers must keep such “ripple effects” in mind with the Darfur genocide as refugees flood Chad and the Central African Republic.

 Just a few thoughts for the blog while I am here in Ghana. Not much time for more. Please post thoughts and interesting finds!

 Katie

As many already know, I’m headed off the Ghana today! The blog may be a bit spotty, but I’m still going to be writing while I’m away and updating the blog when I get the chance–so keep checking back!

I will miss all of my amazing family and friends in the US and am expect lots of emails : ) orlemanski@gmail.com

 Love you all!

Katie O

(Chief Prosecutor Luis Moreno-Ocampo)

There is a man named Ocampo. He will bring the criminals of the regime to justice. The killing will stop and we will return to our villages in Darfur, says the women rebel to her fellow women comrades as they carry their guns through the countryside.

This man of whom the rebels speak is Luis Moreno-Ocampo, prosecutor is the International Criminal Court (the first global court devoted to prosecuting crimes against humanity). He and his team have gathered evidence and are ready to try the first darfur war-crimes cases.

Can it be done? Moreno-Ocampo believes the court will be successful. His belief in his case and the court are buoyed by his involvement in the successful prosecutions of war criminals in his home country of Argentina.

His case is solid. The warrants have been issued for Ahmad Muhammad Harun, Sudan’s former Interior Minister who Moreno-Ocampo has charged with orchestrating the slaughter in Darfur and for Ali Kushayb, leader of the janjaweed militia who continue to carry out the genocide (janjaweed means devil on horseback in Arabic).

(WANTED: Harun and Kashayb)

However problems persists. The Sudanese government does not recognize the ICC and has not turned over the men to the court. Justice may not be servede because of the world wide push for a truce in Darfur. With a negotiated peace may come some type of pardon for the criminals. “The world is complicated,” says Moreno-Ocampo.

–Debbie Orlemanski

See the documentary Darfur Now to learn more about Luis Moreno-Ocampo, the ICC, and the continued genocide in Darfur.

(Two young girls who were raped in the DRC and are too young for fistula surgery. It is not permitted to show the faces of these young girls.)

I have been thinking about a response my sister made to one of my posts about rape as a weapon of war (“Women in the Congo” 10/09/07). She wrote:

Do you think all of the focus on the word “genocide” makes issues like this one harder to act on internationally, when a gender, not a race or ethnic group or nationality, is being attacked, and not necessarily being “exterminated” but attacked with a specialized, sexualized tactic of brutality? Have there been political or anthropological analyses of this outbreak/growth of extreme violence against women in the Congo?

At the League of Nations conference in 1933 Raphael Lemkin, a polish Jew, argued to outlaw “race murder”. He was laughed out by people who believed that this crime took place too seldom to legislate. In 1941, Lemkin managed to escape the Holocaust with his life and became convinced that the “crime without a name” needed a word that would connote the ultimate moral imperative and thus trigger action. He invented the word “genocide” in 1944. The word genocide today signfies the massive and intentional annihilation of an entire group (the specifics of the legal definition are more detailed) based upon nationality, race, ethnicity, or religion.

But what if there existed an unlegislated horror as hideous as extermination? An unparalleled tool of destruction that leaves its victims silent and mutilated, but alive. And what if, to an unprecedented and undeniable degree, the victims were targeted not for what they had done, said, or believed–but for what they were?

In the same way that Raphael Lemkin was moved to speak out about race murder after over 1 million Armenians were annihilated by the Turk regime in the early 20th Century, so too have a few brave witnesses been willing to speak out about the tens of thousands of women brutally raped every year in the Congo. U.N. crisis expert Kathleen Cravero has said that although rape has always been used as a weapon of war, the type of brutality inflicted on women today is unprecedented. She notes that not even history’s most notorious warmongers would have mutilated women’s bodies in the same way as the Congolese rebels and militia are doing. We are in the midst of a 21st Century crime without a name.

Dr. Denis Mukwege works in the Congo to provide support and treatment for women who have been raped and tortured during the conflicts that officially ended in 2003 but have raged unabated for the women of the region. “At the beginning I used to hear patients’ stories,” Dr Mukwege says. “Now I abstain.” The stories I have read are descriptions of hell too hideous to report here. Recounting the traumas, tortures, and the hell lived by these women on such an undistiguished forum seems trivializing. I can imagine few forums with the strength to bear the weight of their stories.

(Women at Dr. Mukwege’s Panzi Hospital)

And just as others dismissed the universal importance that Lemkin argued of race murder, people today claim that the accounts coming out of the Congo are unique and specific to that conflict–not something that could affect the greater part of the world. But the changing nature of conflict, a root cause according to Cravero of the increasing vulnerability and brutalization of women, is not limited to the Congo. Wars are being waged to a much lesser extent between countries with formal armies and increasingly within countries between militias and rebel groups without formal observances of conduct rules. Sudan, Iraq, Israel-Hezbollah, Somalia, Afghanistan, Sri Lanka, Uganda, Colombia… This changing nature of conflict isn’t unique to the Congo. Unfortunately neither will the sexualized tactic of brutality against women, as Julie succinctly described it, be contained in its heart of darkness.

Like Lemkin we must name the horror. Eva Ensler, author of the Vagina Monologues, calls it “femicide”–the attempted destruction of women. The word has been used quietly in places like Guatemala and the border towns of Mexico for years, but never has the international community acknowledged it with an international convention. The word in unknown, the crimes are unnamed, and we are poised to make the same mistake. “Lemkin,” they said, “this crime that you describe takes place to seldom to legislate.” Six years later Hitler would invade Poland, and Lemkin would lose 49 member of his family in the Holocaust.

(Kathleen Cravero stands with her arms crossed on her chest to show support for the effort of ‘Stop Rape Now: UN Action Against Sexual Violence in Conflict’ the new joint initiative involving 10 UN agencies.)

• November 14th, 6-7:30, Center for American Progress 10th Floor (1333 H Street NW, Washington DC 20005) Attend a presentation by Dr. Mohammed Ahmed on “Today in Darfur: What’s Really Happening on the Ground.” Dr. Ahmed, who treats torture survivors in Darfur, has worked tirelessly to create a network of health providers to care for victims of torture and sexual violence, which has become a hallmark of the brutal genocide in Darfur. He is in town to receive the 2007 RFK Human Rights Award. Talk to Matt, I’m pretty sure he’s planning on going.
• Educate Yourself
• UNICEF campaign to end the femicide in DR Congo. Write a letter addressed to His Excellency, the President of the Democratic Republic of the Congo, Joseph Kabila Kabange. Demand that he take action to stop the attacks on women and support the hospitals and services that are helping women to heal. Send it to:
  

  U.N. Action Against Sexual Violence in Conflict,
  P.O. Box 3862
  New York, NY 10163

  Your letter will be delivered to Kabila.

• Run for Women in the Congo

Responsibility to Protect,
Katie

Hejewa Adam’s village was attacked and destroyed by Janjaweed militias and government forces. When she fled, her three-month-old son was beaten to death as he clung to her back. Faced with abandoning her home forever or bringing justice and peace back to Sudan, she joins the rebels.

Each of the six stories including Hejewa’s in the new documentary Darfur Now is an inspiration for people everywhere to become involved to resolve the conflict and bring hope and peace to the people of Darfur. The struggles of each of these individuals outlines a different facet of the ongoing crisis in Darfur – but they all point to the need for immediate action.

View the film trailer:

Genocide Intevention Network’s Adam Sterling tells about his appearance in the documentary “Darfur Now”:

What do George Clooney, Don Cheadle and presidential candidates John McCain, Hilary Clinton, and Sam Brownback have in common? They all appear with me in the new documentary Darfur Now!

About 18 months ago, I was introduced to Ted Braun, the director of Darfur Now. We met for coffee in Los Angeles and about a week later he gave me a call and asked if he could follow me around with a camera crew for a couple of days. I had just finished college at UCLA and was working as a waiter five days a week and traveling to Sacramento to lobby for our Sudan divestment bill the other two days. I told Ted that I had to work the next day and to my surprise, he showed up at my restaurant! It was a unique experience and it took me a few weeks to stop talking to the cameras (a big “no-no” in documentary filmmaking).

As the co-founder of the Sudan Divestment Task Force and member of the Genocide Intervention Network, it has truly been an honor to appear as one of six featured subjects in Darfur Now, a theatrical documentary produced by Participant Productions (Inconvenient Truth) and Warner Independent Pictures. Although I may be biased, it is truly a wonderful film and a great advocacy tool that has the potential to shine a powerful light on the crisis in Darfur.

Darfur Now opens nationally this weekend, and I strongly encourage everyone to check out the film. Depending on how well it does, the distributors will determine how many more theatres to send it to. We’ve got a chance to see Darfur Now across the country next to movies like Saw IV and Fred Claus, so please check out the showtimes below and spend a couple of hours checking out Darfur Now this weekend. And don’t forget to bring friends!

– Adam Sterling, Genocide Intervention Network

• Click here for Darfur Now showtimes
• Email us for more information on group sales, Darfur Now house parties, and special promotions (including a phone call with Don Cheadle!)

Katie

CrisisWatch recently publicized a list of nine conflict situations that have deteriorated during the month of October. Pakistan ranked high on the list, being at risk for escalating conflict in the unfolding month of November.

Currently under the military dictatorship of Gen. Pervez Musharraf—and more recently his emergency rule—Pakistan suffers from thirty years of corruption, drugs, military rule, rising Islamist extremism and a general decline in education and health standards. Religious extremists play an increasingly important role in providing education and other services to the poor, resulting in the radicalization of areas of the country.

Pakistan’s Kashmir conflict with India has caught the world’s attention with both states employing high-profile nuclear brinkmanship. The conflict in Pakistan’s Balochistan region is less well-known. Musharraf’s government has used increasing force to impose force over the region in which Baloch militants are demanding political and economic autonomy citing the absence of real democracy in Pakistan.

Provincial elections are supposed to be held later this year or in early 2008. Opposition leader Benazir Bhutto returned to Pakistan on October 18th to lead her party—the Pakistan Peoples Party—in the parliamentary elections scheduled to begin early 2008. Benazir Bhutto has twice served as Prime Minister of the country before living in exile for 8 years due to corruption charges that some say were politically fabricated. If she can win a change in the law, she will run for prime minister for a third time, something now legally barred.

Bhutto’s triumphant return to crowds of hundreds of thousands was literally blasted into chaos by two bomb explosions that killed 140 of her supporters and nearly missed her bus. Bhutto remains a polarizing figure with an outspoken stance on terrorism, publicly criticizing suicide bombings as being against the teachings of Islam—a unique stance among Pakistani politicians. Some argue that allegations of her corruption, her pro-American agenda, and the questionable murder of her brother in 1996—a time when Bhutto ruled and her brother may have been challenging her power in the Pakistan Peoples Party—is jeopardizing the hard-won progress in grassroots democracy within the country.

Gen. Musharraf declared emergency rule on Saturday, November 3^rd justifying the move with pro-democracy and anti-terrorist jargon. It is difficult to imagine that the suspension on the Constitution, the dismissal of the Supreme Court (the Supreme Court could bar Mucharraf from another term as president), the silencing of privately owned television stations, and the arrest of human rights activist and other lawyers will have any affect on the tribal regions of Pakistan where Al-Queda and other groups reside. After a meeting with Musharraf, Western diplomats say their fears that the general was vanquishing his political rivals more than fighting terrorism were reinforced

Protests to Musharraf’s emergency rule began on Monday and have continued today. Some 3,000 protesting lawyers (out of Pakistan’s 12,000 lawyers) have been rounded up by authorities in clashes with batton-weilding police officers. The ousted chief of justice of the Supreme Court urged people to continue defying the emergency rule. “The lawyers should convey my message to the people to rise up and restore the Constitution,” the chief justice, Iftikhar Muhammad Chaudhry, told dozens of lawyers on speakerphone at a meeting of the Islamabad Bar Association before his cellphone line was cut. He urged them to go to “every corner of Pakistan and give the message that this is the time to sacrifice. I am under arrest now, but soon I will also join you in your struggle.”

Graça Machel remains one of the most respected, charismatic, and influential leaders of the African continent. Machel was born in Mozambique in 1945 and became a freedom fighter against Portuguese colonialism during the mid ‘70s. After independence, Machel was the only woman to hold a post in the new government’s cabinet. As the Minister of Education and Culture, Graça Machel worked relentlessly to educate as many Mozambicans as possible—eventually increasing the number of children in school from 400,000 when she arrived to 1,500,000 when she left office.

Her dramatic but humble commitment to children’s and women’s rights, education, and development soon earned her recognition beyond Mozambique and Africa. In 1993, the UN asked her to conduct and lead a study of the impact of armed conflict on children. The groundbreaking report presented by Machel in 1996 forever changed the world’s policy on protecting children from being brutalized, used, and murdered as part of adult conflicts. I recently heard someone describe Machel’s command of communication as Shakespearean: exquisite in presentation and relentless. I certainly found this to be true in her writings:

I come from a culture where traditionally, children are seen as both our present and our future, so I have always believed it is our responsibility as adults to give children futures worth having.

I have been chilled listening to children who have been so manipulated by adults and so corrupted by their experiences of conflict that they could not recognize the evil of which they had been a part.

These are the stories behind the figures given in this report — figures of such magnitude that they often hide the impact of these horrors on each child, each family, each community.

Machel continues her global activism today tackling issues from education to HIV/AIDS to land mines. Most recently, Machel confronted the genocidal Khartoum regime during a trip to Sudan with the Elders Project. The Elders is a small gathering of independent world leaders including Graça Machel, Nelson Mandela, Desmond Tutu, Jimmy Carter, Aung Sun Suu Kyi, and Mary Robinson among others. The Elders project is free from political, economic, and military pressures and its only stated agenda is that of “humanity”. Each Elder speaks not for a government but as an individual with their own moral imperatives.

I was fortunate to be able to sit in on an absolutely incredible debriefing of the Elders’ trip. The anecdotes and stories shared during this off-the-record meeting blew me away. Graça Machel is apparently so well-known and loved on the continent that as she walked through the refugee camps in Chad and Darfur, villagers, refugees, and African Union forces would crowd around her crying out “Mother! Mother!”—hardly taking notice of Desmond Tutu. It seems she represents to them a worthy vessel in which to send out their complex message of hope and fear. When Graça speaks, she will demand the world to acknowledge our obligations. Those within her reach will listen—not because she is an elder of our global village—but because she will have reminded us of an important point. Not to feel these losses and not to acknowledge these gross atrocities against innocence, manifests another type of loss: that of one’s own humanity.

Graça Machel wrote the preface to the 2004 Global Report on Child Soldiering and signed off with this:

Finally: a message to all activists – in families, in governments, in civil society groups – who work with such commitment and courage.

To all of you, throughout the world: your determination to bring an end to the[se abuses], your perseverance and your unstinting efforts in the face of grave dangers are shining examples of what true humanity and commitment mean.

You keep alive the flame of hope and the belief that by working together we can create a world where children can grow up with love, in dignity and in peace.

South African Civil Rights leader Nelson Mandela is married to Graça Machel.

Responsibility to Protect,
Katie