Rape as a Weapon of War

[malasadas.livejournal.com]

Libyan rebels in Misrata have released evidence to international reporters about the scope of atrocities commited by Gaddafi's troops including the systematic rape of women, ordered by officers, done in front of family members and recorded on cell phone cameras by the rapists. Rebels, examining the phones hoping for information about the enemy came across the videos and have released them to the press. Human rights advocates claim that in Libya women who claim to have been raped are most often confined to "rehabilitation centers" and a woman burst into a Tripoli hotel last month to tell reporters she had been raped by Gaddafi forces was initially taken away but possibly spared confinement due to the publicity her story generated.

This news comes on the heels of a study published in the last month claiming that rape in the Democratic Republic of Congo has reached nearly 1000 a day -- and not always in the active conflict areas. In the Hague, judgement is expect shortly for Pauline Nyiramasuhuko who as Rwanda's Minister of Family and Women's Development not only helped plan the genocide, but also actively encouraged Hutu militia to rape women before murdering them. As of 2003, 5000 children were alive who had been born of those rapes while other Tutsi survivors have contracted AIDS as a result of being raped.

War rape is not new, but human rights groups believe that recent episodes cannot be explain simply as the by-product of war's brutality but have been unleashed as actual means of conducting war. Rape in war encourages targetted populations to flee making ethnic cleansing possible. Rape can spread HIV and other diseases among the raped population. Rape "plants" the ethnic and population imprint of the invading or conquering militia upon the existing culture and population. In a sexually conservative country like Libya, rape can permanently remove women from being eligible to marry.

These news stories raise two difficult questions. The first is what can possibly been done and from where to stop rape as a war atrocity?

The second is more sticky, I'll admit because it has to do with whether or not Western media and leaders are placing too great an emphasis on war rape at the expense of other issues that greatly impact the populations in these war zones. The Nordic Africa Institute has released criticisms of the recent Congolese study partly because the data is old and they question the methodology. More deeply, they criticize that the researchers do not account for how culturally different women will reply to a question about sexual behavior of any kind. They point to evidence they have that some women in Congo, knowing full well that international aid groups are deploying large resources for victims of sexual violence in the war, will present themselves as victims as well to obtain basic health services and that people trying to provide those kinds of services are hard pressed to get the attention of donors who are drawn to the stories that fit their notions of brutality in both war and possibly prejudices against Africa as barbaric. It isn't that rape is not a problem in Congo -- it is that every other interconnected problem is currently being neglected as the international aid community gets swept up in the sensationalism of the study.

And, of course, this community has had excellent previous discussions on the dangers of African countries being entirely dependent upon aid, although how that can apply to a conflict zone like Congo while the fighting still goes on, I do not know.

Is there a way to approach both problems here? Because my sense of outrage at the use of rape as a war weapon is also grappling with the dangers of ignoring other problems because of that outrage.

Comments

[policraticus.livejournal.com]

If you aren't willing to go in their and kill Libyans (or Congelese or Tutsis or whoever) in large enough numbers that the war ends decisively and forever, then you can sit and wring your hands and feel outraged but war rape and other atrocities of war aren't going to stop.

Not for nothing, you should ask the Germans about war rape and the long term consequences of a society brutalized by war. There is a whole generation of rape babies in Germany who are now reaching retirement age, after all.

[underlankers.livejournal.com]

You could also ask the million or so women in the former USSR victimized by the husbands of those same German women and the descendants of all those rapists about the same thing.

[malasadas.livejournal.com]

This isn't about to turn into WWII wank is it?

[underlankers.livejournal.com]

Nope, it isn't.

[policraticus.livejournal.com]

Absolutely.

[jonathankorman.livejournal.com]

kill Libyans (or Congelese or Tutsis or whoever) in large enough numbers

I confess that I have developed a reflexive skepticism when someone says “what we need is more ruthlessness.” (http://miniver.blogspot.com/2006/05/whatever-it-takes.html)

[rasilio.livejournal.com]

I don't think he was advocating it, I think he was saying that it is the only thing that will stop it and if we're not willing to do that (and we shouldn't be) then maybe we should just but out of other countries problems

[jonathankorman.livejournal.com]

That is certainly a plausible unhappy reading.

[sandwichwarrior.livejournal.com]

Makes sense though

[policraticus.livejournal.com]

The lesson is go big or don't go. If you say you want to end the atrocities in Grozney, or Misrata, or Kigali, or Srebrenica or [insert name here] you cannot do it by dithering and half measures. The lesson is, if you aren't willing to be ruthless enough to win a war, whatever that means, then you are't actually willing to go to war. What I am saying is stop pretending to care about the fate of the people in Misrata. We care about them only slightly more than we cared about the people of Kigali and that's not saying very much.

[dukexmachismo.livejournal.com]

You can't save a village without destroying it.

[policraticus.livejournal.com]

That really depends on the village.

(http://photobucket.com/images/wwii%20berlin)

[rasilio.livejournal.com]

A more appropriate interpretation is...

"sometimes saving a village requires exterminating the one next to it"

[jonathankorman.livejournal.com]

Fair enough.

I'd take that a step further and say that actually, we don't have any reliable way of ending genocide and other atrocities in civil strife no matter how committed we are. (Example: Iraq.)

[underlankers.livejournal.com]

Rape has always been an atrocity of war, not just as the byproduct of it, but occasionally as the goal of it. This is so whether we're talking WWII or the Serbian genocides where they did this, or the Bangladeshi genocide. Unfortunately the best way to stop it is to strictly mandate and enforce the laws of war, but this will never happen so long as there is a single hyperpower that has military hegemony.

[blue-mangos.livejournal.com]

That report by the Nordic Africa institute seems like a lot of ass-covering to me, plus a little bit of down-playing the issue, which has been the problem all along. Rape in war has not been recognized until recently as an act of war, it was always viewed as a private sex crime, if it was acknowledged at all.

While I agree that we can not ignore all other problems at the expense of one, it is high time the issue receives recognition and funding to help the countless victims.

I have no idea what an effective way to stop the practise would be, or if it could ever be stopped entirely, but I think the UN resolution in 08 regarding women's safety in war zones is a good start. Also, education in understanding rape and help, both medical and psychological, for the victims are vital. I realize this doesn't solve the problem but it will at least play a role in the healing process.

[blue-mangos.livejournal.com]

Also I should add that although I focused on women in my response, simply because all the links in the OP did, rape as a weapon is also being used against males, which is equally tragic and a problem that deserves more recognition than it is currently getting. It's ignored simply because the victims are not speaking up out of shame and cultural biases.

[malasadas.livejournal.com]

I'm not sure they are taking it as "ass-covering" -- for starters, I have no idea what they would need to cover!

I do think there is a good point there -- the rape problem is shocking and attention getting for donors, but it also plays up to stereotypes of Africa as a barbarous place and risks "dorwning out" the huge need for attention to an entire chain of problems that remain unseen.

[blue-mangos.livejournal.com]

I took it as covering the fact that the problem had been ignored for so long. But, that's just my read on it.

I don't really think rape plays into any stereotypes about Africa, it's not like it's a problem isolated to that area, sadly it is a travesty played out all over the world. While I get that the controversy over this issue risks overshadowing the other problems, no one is denying the other problems exist, nor have they ever. This is a problem that has been denied, and I don't want to see it go back into the shadows now that it's finally been acknowledged.

[malasadas.livejournal.com]

Since we can't go a day without topics on American tax and budget fights, I have no idea why a week between topics of brutality and its consequences is any kind of burden.

But hey if nervous and inappropriate laughter is a good coping mechanism, feel free....

[dukexmachismo.livejournal.com]

I suppose a joke equating American taxes with rape wouldn't be a good idea right now...

[mrbogey.livejournal.com]

I think someone ought to do something about it.

The Rape of Rome

[sophia-sadek.livejournal.com]

The topic reminds me of some of the differences in war reporting concerning the siege of Rome by Alaric in 410 CE. Many Christian writers focused on atrocities committed against Roman civilians by the rabble that sacked the city, especially rape. Augustine, on the other hand, admired the way that the Goths protected the sanctuary of the Pantheon. He was not as anti-Arian as some of the other reporters. The Christian writers did not recount the atrocities committed against the Goths by the Orthodox such as turning Gothic teens into sex slaves and slaughtering a significant number of Goth women.

On a side note, one of the CIA officers who worked with the Mujaheddin in Afghanistan (it may have been Gary Schroen) recalled an incident when a Russian prisoner was raped by the Muj. The Muj invited the officer to join them in their activity. (Why is it that such things bring to mind the inhospitable element in the town of Sodom?)

On another side note, the Mahmudyah Massacre (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mahmudiyah_killings) started as a planned rape of an Iraqi teenager by US soldiers.

One of the best ways to avoid rape during armed conflict is to avoid the armed conflict in the first place.

Re: The Rape of Rome

[malasadas.livejournal.com]

One of the best ways to avoid rape during armed conflict is to avoid the armed conflict in the first place.

That's a great lesson for imperial powers that choose their wars -- not sure how much that lesson helps a Tutsi woman in 1994...even blaming her plight ultimately on Colonial shenanigans that set up ethnic conflicts, the genocide wasn't initiated by an empire.

[raichu100.livejournal.com]

Anyone here read Half the Sky?