THERE IS A DEVIL LIVING IN YOUR COMPUTER

 

Your computer and other tech gadgets have a little devil living inside them. It is a mineral called "coltan". For the love of the profit for this mineral we are using every day, rebels and members of various militias in Congo are raping and torturing women and children.

 

 

 

 

Tales of rape in DR Cong

There were many little houses in the military camp where girls and men stayed. Then, the military men took us as their women; they didn't consider the fact that we were still children.

At any time they wanted, they came and had sex with us. There were so many men. You could have one man who had sex with you and then he left. Then, a second came and then went back to his home and so on.

They did what they wanted with me. Even if you refused, they did anyway - they would insist.

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/shared/spl/hi/picture_gallery/05/africa

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Sexual Violence in the Democratic Republic of Congo

In the eastern Democratic Republic of the Congo, the prevalence and intensity of rape and other sexual violence has been described as the worst in the world by an article ^[1] on September in the Washington Post.

Fighting in this region broke out in 1998, and is a fight between three national armies, which includes Congo, Rwanda, and Uganda.^[2]However the fighting includes many other groups such as rebel groups and local militias.^[3]The war began over elections and foreign power intervention. However another reason that these militias groups are so involved is because of money. A very rare mineral Known as Coltan is found in many electronics is being mined illegally for the profit by many of these soldiers that are also causing the violence to women.

Three million people have bean-estimated dead since this war began,^[4]and Tens of thousands of women and girls have been raped in the Democratic Republic of the Congo.^[5] It is estimated that there are as many as 200,000 surviving rape victims living in the Democratic Republic of the Congo today.^[6][7] This however is only a small portion of the of the actual number of rapes due to the fact that many women do not want to come forward and discuss this issue due to fear and humiliation.^[8] In the Democratic Republic of Congo sex has frequently been described as a "weapon of war" by commentators.

These women are being severely injured by these soldiers and the people that are supposed to be helping them such as the RCD.^[9]These women are terrified and are no longer going about their daily routine work, which is having a major effect on their economy.^[10]They are too scared of soldiers to go into the fields and work and therefore many people are going hungry. These issues are all of major concern and this is the first time that women are talking about their fight.

Violence

Louise Nzigire, a local social worker, states, "This violence was designed to exterminate the population." Nzigire observes that rape has been a "cheap, simple weapon for all parties in the war, more easily obtainable than bullets or bombs."^[11] Women in this area are condemned at birth.^[12]There have bean 50,000 reported cases however this is only a small fraction of what the true number is because women are afraid of what there family may think.^[13] They have no one to protect them from the terrible reoccurnaces of violence. Women young and old have bean victims to this sexual abuse.

There are women, girls as young as 5 and as old as 80, who have been systematically raped several times, tortured and injured by fire arms^[14]

The acts of violence are so horrendous and unstoppable. Many women have had their genitals cut off with a razor blade or have bean shot in the vagina.^[15]Women are being raped with sticks and having other devices inserted into there vagina's.^[16]They have no choice but to give into these attacks because if they do not the soldier will just call for reinforcements or call for back up^[17] In one incident four soldiers cut off the breast of a women who resisted and mad her hold it in her hand as they raped her.^[18]

These groups have bean known to force attack entire villages and drag women out to the woods. Once there these women are forced to be sexual slaves and do whatever there masters want until they become pregnant in which case they move on to the next village. Women are so terrified that this will happen to them that they flee into the woods with there children however if there children are too loud they bury them alive to keep from being heard.^[19]This may seem as a horrible act however it is the only thing that they can do to protect themselves and there families from the harm because. Families are sometimes violated together. These families are being traumatized together and these villages are being torn apart because of it.

"They forced a women to have sexual relations with her son. If she refuses, they kill her....They obliged a boy to have sex with his mother, if not they kill him."

after this violence in some cases mother's children will be killed and the mother will be forced to eat her own child.^[20] The RCD, which was created to monitor these crimes, is also very guilty of these types of sexually related crimes.^[21]All armed forces in the conflict are guilty of rape, though the militia and various insurgent groups have been most culpable.^[22] Of particular medical concern is the abnormally high proportion of women suffering vaginal fistulae, usually as a result of being gang raped. The nature of rape in the conflict is, beyond the physical and psychological trauma to the individual women, and is contributed to the spread of sexually transmitted diseases, including HIV, in the region.^[23]

Kahindo Ndasimwa, dressed in little more than rags, told of how militia attacked her village one night two years ago, forcing her to flee into the bush. Four men then repeatedly raped the 40-year-old - their legacy a continual stream of urine down her legs. (BBC, 2004)^[23]

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/User:Airving11

See also books by Stephanie Nolen