Rape in Congo: Speaking to Soldiers

The piece below was written by Jocelyn Kelly, the Research Coordinator at the Harvard Humanitarian Initiative, as part of this week's theme looking at rape as a weapon of war.

Jocelyn writes about interviewing soldiers who've committed rape, in an attempt to better understand how to prevent rape in the future.

The conflict that has torn apart communities in eastern DRC is unimaginable to many of us. Hearing stories from the region, people wonder how it is possible that humans find such varied ways to hurt each other. But viewing such violence as incomprehensible or unimaginable can keep us from predicting, addressing and preventing it in the future.

Many of us confronted with a tragic event will ask, “How could something like this happen?” It is a question posed almost rhetorically, a way to vocalize shock and incomprehension. In the field of humanitarian research, however, we seek to answer this question. It is not rhetorical, but imperative.

This past December, I traveled with a team of Congolese mental health workers to interview members of the Mai Mai militia, a local rebel movement. Talking with one of the many armed groups in the region is a way to begin the long process of studying how sexual violence in eastern Congo has become so common and virulent. To truly understand a conflict, it is necessary to ask questions not only of those who experience violence, but also of those who perpetrate it. And to realize these are not two distinct groups.

Our team rented a house in a mining town in Eastern DRC near a forest where many Mai Mai rebels scrape out a living. With goats peering in the windows and sound of children playing in the background, we conducted one-on-one interviews with soldiers to find out about their experiences with the war. Almost everyone we talked to spoke of the traumatic experience that fueled his decision to join the the Mai Mai, a local group ostensibly created to protect the civilian population.

Story after story told of the violent death of a loved one during the war and the feelings of rage and helplessness that caused men to join the militia group. Violence begets violence, however. The Mai Mai have long been implicated in the same acts of raping and looting that that were meant to defend against.

In our interviews, we asked only general questions about a respondent’s experiences with the war: what his daily life is like, what his greatest problems are. At the Harvard Humanitarian Initiative where I work, we aren’t concerned with whether a particular man committed a particular crime. That is the realm of the ICC and national court systems, not of a research organization.

We are concerned, however, with landscape of conflict and violence. We would like to identify trends in soldiers’ responses, to understand what their lives look like and perhaps identify points for intervention to mitigate violence.

Though it is clear that sexual violence is rampant in the DRC, it remains unclear who the worst offenders are and how the conflict has evolved over time. Roughly 21 distinct armies, rebel factions and local militia have been identified in the region, and there could well be other splinter groups that pass under the international radar. Alliances and ideologies within and amongst the groups shift fluidly to achieve the ultimate goals of survival and wealth accumulation. The profile of violence in each group may be different, just as their reasons for committing violence may vary.

The next step of our research will be to speak with other armed factions to find the differences and similarities between these groups. One of the ultimate goals of the project is to understand the reasons and motivations behind the highly brutalized forms of rape that have proliferated in eastern DRC.

The tangled web of allegiances, the unrestricted impunity and a need to one-up the next armed group on brutality may account for the brutal rapes in the region. But we cannot take for granted we understand the impetus for this violence. Men may rape because there is opportunity, because they are compelled by their commanders and peers, or because there is a clear order to try to morally destroy communities. All of these motivations may play a role in the conflict and all need to be addressed differently. Each carries specific implications for protection of women and ways to prevent violence

The question of “how could something like this happen?” has morphed in this context. We must now ask, “How did something like this happen?” and more importantly, “What can we do about it?

[To read other pieces in this week's series, see here.]

[Mai Mai soldiers in Congo - Photo from The Guardian / EPA]