War and rape have in common the fact that they both involve the concept or characteristic of attack. They irrevocably damage the private humanity of individuals and destroy the way of life of entire nations. One cannot try to eradicate rape in war conflicts without trying to eradicate war altogether. Doing only the former and leaving out the latter is a form of hypocrisy or foolishness aimed at cheating the general public about one’s supposedly humanitarian intentions of caring for the victims of sexual violence during armed conflicts.
Unfortunately that is the hidden agenda of the London’s global summit to end sexual violence in conflict: to give clean conscience to world warmongers that they are doing the right things for the victims of arms and weaponry which are utilized in the conflicts that create those victims. The global summit starts today June 10th. It is surprising that the same location of Excel Centre where it is staged this week hold from time to time exhibitions of the latest military equipment and technology. It is very ironic. I hope I am not the only one able to make the analogy.
As a community activist I get sometimes invited to be involved or participate in events like these. That was for example the case for this summit. I got approached by the metropolitan police to inform me about it. I told the police agent that I could not stand Angelina Jolie and William Hague in their hypocritical campaign on sexual violence in conflicts knowing the role of their US and UK governments in causing humanitarian atrocities committed against women, men and girls in the Great Lakes region. If US and UK in the lead had for example stopped from backing presidents Museveni of Uganda, Kagame of Rwanda or Kabila of Democratic Republic of Congo, the hundred thousands of victims of rape from wars that these leaders were involved in would not exist.
At the summit, since governments where sexual violence in conflicts is prevalent will be represented, I hardly imagine for example what the Rwandan representative will be doing there. The Rwandan government has for almost two decades been instrumental in creating favorable conditions for committing massive rapes in Eastern Congo by arming several militia groups to cause permanent insecurity, this in order to enable the exploitation of mineral resources. More than five hundred thousand Congolese women, girls and even men have been raped in the process. That is what emerges from many reports by international institutions including UN and Human Rights Watch.
There will be many humanitarian cases caused by sexual violence in conflicts that will be talked about at the summit. The Evening Standard reported on Monday 9th June the situation of Lejla Damon, 21, who was born from rape in Bosnia that her mother did not want to touch at birth, because if she did she had announced that she would strangle her. In order to save the child, she was taken away from her when she was only nine days old. Stories that are told in The Greatest Silence: rape in the Congo documentary, are also telling.
War is rape and rape is war. You cannot deal with one without dealing with the other. Let’s be less hypocrite and address the causes instead of trying to cure the symptoms. The organizers of the summit might fool those ignorant of their own role in backing the like of Kagame or Museveni in the Great Lakes region. But they won’t fool me because I am aware of their closeness with these criminal leaders who are today responsible of these massive rapes that have destroyed entire communities for the sake minerals that benefit US, UK, Canadian, Israeli and other multinationals.
