Women in the Congo

I hope some more people read this.

I know there has to be a way to help . . . but I have no idea how

How do you fight something like this?

That is a good start. I wonder if they got that paypal account going yet.

Congo's one of the countries with the child witch problem as well. That entire country is just fucked. We can throw money at it in bit and pieces but I suspect that we won't see any real progress there until it becomes a world priority - which may very well never happen. Still, that shouldn't stop us from trying.

The article reminded me of what's been going on in Darfur as well. The systematic brutalizing of women, young and old seems to be the same type of tactic utilized by the Junjaweed of Sudan. Its so sad that once they've been raped, they are shunned by their husbands and families, the stigma of their violation continuing to haunt them the rest of their lives. This is the real face of terrorism, if we're supposedly at "war" with terror, then these conflicts are where we should be focused. It must be such a challenge to help these women and children begin put their lives back together again, but I'm glad someone like Eve Esler is out there advocating intervention and assistance to do so.

I remember hearing about a doctor on NPR who was busy constantly treating and operating on women who've suffered from the severe physical injuries of inflicted upon them by their rapists. It was so saddening and gut-wrenching to listen but I forced myself to bear witness to the reality and acknowledge their suffering to the conclusion of the program. I pray the the world finally wakes up and stops pretending that these atrocities don't exist and moves to help prevent them from ever happening again...

Bump.

It may not be terribly liberal of me but I can imagine a foreign policy where civilized nations police War Crimes and Crime against Humanity. The trend of violence against civilians has gone on too long and too far. As of 2001 this is a "Crime against Humanity". Link

I think we have the goodwill now thanks to Obama.

You would need a written definition of "civilised". And a way to remove nations from that list, if they transgressed.

And you'd also have to find a way of including the uncivilised anyway. Because there aren't many civilised nations at all. If any.

Ah! I see you've been schooled in the precepts of relativism. You make an excellent point, but I think there are some tools of leverage that exist (the U.N. for instance). However, that doesn't mean every country recognizes or cares about the U.N. as an authority and then we're back to square one.

Surely though, it can be agreed upon that instances of systematic rape and torture are a form of terror and that any political group that resorts to such tactics is then by definition a terrorist group? Not that everything needs to be defined by the word "terror" here, its just that it has become such a universally recognized term and, therefore, it ought to be prevented and combated as such (I'm of the opinion that all violent forms of repression and human rights violations ought to be added to this category).

Women for Women

Other than signing petitions and writing your representatives you can actively help one women survivor here. This has a multiplying effect, since the first thing these women do is feed, cloth, and send their children and any orphans they are taking care of to school. This organization also organizes charity runs, and other fund raising events.

Bumped and cross-posted from the Feminist Group.
New York Times story is related. I have posted selected portions of the article and only altered the order of the paragraphs put the last three to the end.

And then there's

I really hope the U.N. addresses this quickly...and can also figure out what to do with the violence in that area.