They had walked through the banana groves and up the empty red dirt roads. Among them was a mother of two, clutching a child at her breasts, a pregnant woman holding her belly, a girl in a tattered blue school uniform skirt.
By any measure, the war in this country is among the cruelest in the world, and these are the survivors of one of its cruelest weapons. They and countless others have been raped by soldiers spreading terror through the countryside; of this group, only the 13-year-old girl, who screamed with all her might as her attacker grabbed and tore at her clothes, had been spared.
The three sought help at a mobile medical program at a long-abandoned health clinic in this small town in eastern Congo. They came to get tested for AIDS, get checkups for the babies and talk for a while with someone who would listen. The medical convoy brought a doctor, a lab technician and two midwives, and the women of Burhale had sent word through the banana groves and had gone to fetch those they knew to be in need of help. They were not hard to find: The fighting between armed factions claiming control of this region over the last couple of months has left a trail of rape victims.
In Bukavu, the nearest big city, an average of 20 village women a week trickle into Centre Olame, a church-run rape victim center. On a recent morning, Mathilde Mahindo, who runs the center, pored over data from the week before. The victims ranged in age from 17 to 48. Most had been raped multiple times, one by 10 men. The husband of one victim was abducted. Another woman was raped with her mother.
Every week for nearly five years, Mahindo, has stared at lists like this one. She still cannot explain why it is happening, nor how to exorcise it. Discussing sex is taboo in Congolese society, Mahindo said, and talking about sexual assault is even less acceptable. There are no rituals in the culture to remove the stain of rape -- not from the victim, her family or her community.
Culture of war
"Rape doesn't have a place in the culture," she said. But it has now become a part of the culture of war in this country.
"Even if everyone wants to close their eyes and ears, we have to create a scandal," Mahindo said. "Because what is it for? It is to exterminate a community."
No one knows how many have been raped during Congo's four-year war. It is clear that especially in this part of the country, South Kivu Province, sexual attacks have become endemic and have gone virtually unpunished, as soldiers from one armed group after another have seized villages, pillaged homes, taken women and girls at gun and knife point. Neither 4-year-old girls nor 80-year-old grandmothers have been spared. Judging by the new cases before the mobile medical clinic, many have been raped by several men.
For women in rural eastern Congo, rape is an occupational hazard. Here women work the fields. They trek for miles to fetch water and firewood. They walk to and from market, usually on long empty stretches of country road or through dark forests where screams get drowned. Doctors, social workers and human rights investigators say all armed groups operating in the region are guilty of the crimes, from Rwandan factions to Mai-Mai militias supported by the Congolese government to the ethnic Hutu fighters who work alongside them.
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