Gang-Rape, HIV/AIDS, Fistulas, Death

by Alex DiBranco · 2010-02-09 18:00:00 UTC
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Nicholas Kristof writes about a 14-year-old girl tied up spread-eagle, gang-raped, raped with sticks. Over the course of the abuse, her insides were literally torn up, causing her to constantly leak waste. The girl became pregnant, but couldn't deliver the baby through her child's pelvis. A doctor sliced her open, without anesthesia or sterilizing the old knife, to remove the stillborn baby and to save her life.

Of course, this isn't in the United States, or most of the country would be horrified and up in arms. It's in to the Congo, where there is a massive surplus of gang-rape, HIV/AIDS, fistulas, and death. Years of war have killed millions, while many more women and girls have suffered extreme sexual violence and mutilation, contracting HIV/AIDS and other health problems.

In another column last month, following the earthquake in Haiti, Kristof wrote: "Sometimes I wish eastern Congo could suffer an earthquake or a tsunami." Why hope for natural disaster to strike an already war-torn country? Seem like a controversial wish. Kristof continues, "so that it might finally get the attention it needs." After all, war that just goes on and on, with the same killings and torture, the same rapes and abuse, the same spread of disease, blah blah, ho hum. But a major earthquake or tsunami doesn't come every day, and the extent of humanitarian aid matches the novelty of the event. After all, Haiti itself had long been struggling with desperate poverty and other problems before it was physically shaken down, yet it couldn't get much international attention for those every day troubles.

Unfortunately, even if a giant wave washed over Congo, the international aid probably still wouldn't be enough to solve its severe problems. And, Kristof points out, it isn't just aid that they need. For one thing, Congo needs us to stop buying conflict minerals that fuels warlords' campaign, as the Enough Project points out. Are we willing to not spend money on their behalf, or at least make sure what we're buying is rape, violence, and death-free?

Photo credit: Julien Harneis

Alex DiBranco is a Change.org Editor who has worked for the Nation, Political Research Associates, and the Center for American Progress. She is now based in New York City.
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