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Secretary of State Hillary Clinton continued her tour of the Democratic Republic of Congo today, highlighting the need for a response to the epidemic levels of sexual violence. The World’s Jeb Sharp has details.

Click here for Jeb Sharp’s award winning series on rape in Congo (Jan 2008)

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LISA MULLINS: I’m Lisa Mullins and this is The World. Secretary of State Hilary Clinton spoke out against sexual violence today in the Democratic Republic of Congo. It is the latest part of her seven-country tour of Africa. Clinton visited Eastern Congo where rape is routinely used as a weapon of war. She described it as a crime against humanity and she pledged $17 million in US aid to help treat victims and prevent further abuse. The World’s Jeb Sharp reports.

JEB SHARP: There’s nothing new about the atrocities in Eastern Congo, including the everyday use of rape to terrorize communities in this war zone. Anneke Van Woudenberg of Human Rights Watch is among those who have piled up report after report on the incidence of sexual violence there. She says the stories have lost none of their horror.

ANNEKE VAN WOUDENBERG: The rape of course is not just by one individual. Often it’s gang rapes. And we’re now discovering that many of the victims are indeed children or teenage girls. And really the stories coming out are as heartbreaking as they have ever been. And we are simply not seeing an end to this.

SHARP: For years Van Woudenberg and others have raised alarm bells and pushed for better protection for civilians in Eastern Congo.

VAN WOUDENBERG: What I find shocking is despite the fact that so many of us know about it, have documented it, that it’s not stopping but is in fact increasing.

SHARP: That’s why Secretary Clinton is calling for more accountability for perpetrators. Today she traveled to the city of Goma, where she visited a refuge camp and spoke to victims of sexual violence. At a press conference, Clinton said there should be no impunity for the sexual and gender-based violence committed by so many. There must be arrests and prosecutions and punishments. Earlier she told students in the capital Kinshasa they needed to raise hell with their own government over the issue.

HILARY CLINTON: I hope that here in the DRC there will be a concerted effort to demand justice for women who are violently attacked and to make sure that their attackers are punished. And I hope that students will take the lead in this to speak out because these are fundamental human rights.

SHARP: But rhetoric is one thing, policy is another. One reason the incidence of rape is increasing is a Congolese government offensive against rebels that began last January. According to advocacy groups the fighting has displaced 800,000 people and left thousands of rape victims in its wake. And yet the United Nations and the United States support the offensive. What troubles advocates is that government soldiers have been as guilty as other armed groups of raping civilians in Eastern Congo. That’s why those advocates are calling on Clinton to pressure the government to curb abuses in the army and to help find a better solution to the conflict. Advocates say another reason the rapes have not stopped is simply inaction by the international community. Jan Egeland is a former UN undersecretary general for humanitarian affairs. He spoke about that lack of response at a meeting in June.

JAN EGELAND: I think this is maybe one of the biggest conspiracies of silence of history. And we treat it at best as a humanitarian problem. So you’ve been gang raped; have a blanket. You’ve been gang raped again; have another blanket. Whereas it should be a political and a security and a justice problem.

SHARP: But Egeland says the good news is that powerful institutions like the United Nations are finally starting to pay attention. Last year the UN Security Council passed a resolution enshrining rape as a weapon of war as a threat to peace and security. That move officially elevated its status from a humanitarian concern to a political one. In response, UN Secretary General Ban Ki Moon is now pushing the UN Security Council to launch a commission of inquiry into sexual violence in places like the DRC, a commission that would be empowered to document crimes and point fingers at perpetrators so they can be brought to justice. Secretary Clinton’s high-profile visit to Eastern Congo will help keep the issue on the front burner. What it can’t do is make much of a dent in the suffering there. For The World I’m Jeb Sharp.

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