Your daily Selection of IRIN Africa PlusNews reports, 8/19/2005

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CONTENT:

1 - CENTRAL AFRICAN REPUBLIC: The plight of rape victims endures

1 - CENTRAL AFRICAN REPUBLIC: The plight of rape victims endures

BANGUI, 19 August (PLUSNEWS) - Nearly five years after Congolese rebels

introduced rape as a psychological weapon in the Central African Republic (CAR),

individual victims and the nation as a whole are still dealing with the fallout.

Despite the anguish, victims or witnesses of rape in the capital, Bangui, are

willing to talk about their trauma. One such person is secondary school teacher

Bernadette Sayo, who was widowed in 2002 when rebels of the Mouvement de

libération du Congo (MLC) killed her husband while she watched, and then raped

her.

The MLC, headed by Jean-Pierre Bemba, had been invited by President Ange-Felix

Patassé to shore up his government against André Kolingba, who tried to unseat

him in a bloody, abortive coup on 28 May 2001. Bemba's fighters ran amok -

looting, killing men and raping women in Ouango in the eastern area of the

capital, where Kolingba and his Yakoma people were based.

The situation worsened in October 2002 when rebels headed by Francois Bozize -

then army chief of staff, now president - successfully seized power.

Again Patassé received Bemba's support and the latter's men claimed the " spoils "

of war: again, they raped women like Sayo and sodomised men in the northern

sector of Bangui, predominantly a Bozize stronghold. It was a barbaric episode

that Sayo has found hard to forget.

" Despite my unceasing efforts to talk about it and get some [cathartic] release,

I am still upset, " she said.

Women and girls of all ages - some younger than six years, some older than 60 -

were not spared. Now, many married women face divorce; others have contracted

HIV-AIDS; some have had babies.

Sayo is the founder and chairwoman of OCODEFAD (L'Organisation pour la

Compassion et le Développement des Familles en Détresse), which aims to take

legal action against rapists and their accomplices, create income-generating

activities for the victims, and advocate women's dignity. She says the NGO has

registered 800 victims of rape and 16 conflict-born babies, and has been the

only organisation caring for victims since Kolingba's attempted coup.

OCODEFAD has also documented 140 men, such as Jacques Sanzé, who were sodomised

or forced into sexual intercourse with female MLC rebels: acts intended to

humiliate, debase and stigmatise them.

ENDLESS HUMILIATION

Most rape victims say they are still shamed and rejected by their communities,

and many try to avoid humiliation by staying indoors; many girls have dropped

out of school because insensitive classmates laugh, rather than sympathise, with

their ordeal; older victims feel ostracised by their neighbours, husbands and

relatives.

Fana Moussa, 26, says she can no longer marry because men avoid her and she is

viewed as the " wife of the Banyamulenge " , as the MLC men are known in CAR.

" I feel rejected by those around me, " she said. " In fact, I am ashamed when

people see me. "

As a Muslim, Moussa says her rejection is near total - her husband no longer

wants her, and other Muslims say she has violated the Koran, even though she is

a victim of rape.

" This woman, like all others in this neighbourhood, committed adultery, which is

forbidden by the Koran, " said Hassan, a businessman and Moussa's neighbour, who

did not reveal his surname. " She is impure and there is no question of marrying

her or even having sexual relations with her - it would be sacrilege for a good

Muslim to live in marriage with her. "

Such sentiments have forced Moussa and other Muslim women in a similar situation

into reclusive lives in the northern end of Bangui.

The ordeal of rape victims is being perpetuated: ostracism has forced households

to break up; family support structures have fallen apart - rape victims often

have little or no money and find it difficult just to get food; some children

have dropped out of school because parents can no longer pay the fees.

Their needs are great. " We want free psychological, medical and social care for

the victims first; free schooling for the children, and state protection because

we are very vulnerable people and we have no security, " Sayo said.

However, s M'Baga, director of cabinet at the Ministry of Social Affairs,

said, " The Ministry of Social Affairs and of the Family is fighting to provide

social, financial, medical and sociological care to the rape victims. "

LITTLE HELP AVAILABLE

According to Sayo there has been no recent tangible aid to rape victims from a

government that owes its civil servants 40 months in salary arrears. The

government has said it is trying to have the International Court of Justice in

The Hague review the case of rape victims.

With the exception of help from the UN Development Programme in 2003, no

international organisation had so far paid attention to the plight of the

victims, Sayo commented. As a result, HIV-positive rape victims are dying

because they cannot afford antiretroviral medication.

The public had thought rape would end with Bozize's seizure of power in

mid-March 2003, but the practice continues - this time by Central Africans.

Victims have often blamed soldiers, saying they rape with few or no legal

consequences, and this is backed up by police reports showing that regular army

soldiers are to blame, said a high ranking police officer who spoke on condition

of anonymity.

Thus, rapists appear to be undaunted by President Bozize's request that the

judiciary deal severely with the culprits. In 2004, a group of soldiers found

guilty of rape were discharged from the army and imprisoned, but for the most

part perpetrators either escape police custody or are freed by fellow soldiers

and other security agents.

LEGAL ACTION

Despite her lack of trust in the military, beth Mayongo, 50, still believes

in the judicial system.

" We only want justice, and only this will console us of this humiliation

inflicted on us by the killers [Patassé and Bemba], " she said.

OCODEFAD has filed a complaint against Patasse and Bemba at the International

Court. However, the NGO says it needs money to initiate legal aid on behalf of

individual victims, and to help improve their lives. M'Baga, of the Ministry of

Social Affairs, said help may come in the form of a US $55,000 World Bank

emergency aid project grant, called LICUS.

" OCODEFAD will be the main beneficiary of this grant under the LICUS project, "

he noted.

M'Baga said he hoped the grant would open the way to another 200 million CFA

(approx $377,323) grant by the World Bank, which is likely to be negotiated in

September.

The money is earmarked for sustaining profitable income-generating activities

initiated by any NGO caring for rape victims, such as Sayo's.

[ENDS]

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