Information service of the Pontifical Mission Societies since 1927
Bukavu (Agenzia Fides)- “Action aimed to humiliate and kill a whole community using exceptional and at times systematic action perpetrated in one village or another”. This is goal of sexual abuse of women in south Kivu, in the east of the Democratic Republic of Congo, by armed gangs with which the area is infested. This was stated in a report sent to Fides by Rev. Justin Nkunzi, head of the Justice and Peace Commission of the archdiocese of Bukavu. The violence reported occurs in area of Walungu, in the district of Kaniola.
The report is based on a survey involving 100 people, including 65 victims of abuse, all of whom said such crimes have never been seen before in this area. “These facts have no cultural basis and cannot be explained” the report affirms. “This is unimaginable barbarism” which must be told “very often the silence of the good is more frightening than the barbaric acts of the bad”.
To grasp the significance of this abuse it is necessary understand the role of women in the society of the Bashi, the local people. “A woman is first of all a mother” the report affirms “She gives life, the most sacred thing in African tradition. Hence the respect and consideration for women in this area”. Women have a decisive role as mothers and educators. When a woman has a child she loses her name and becomes “the mother of…”. In the family of the husband the wife represents her own family: to humiliate her means humiliating her whole family clan. Beating a wife is a disgraceful action and a symbol of weakness.
“So in the Bashi culture, violence against a woman means violence against one's own mother. The Bashi people have customs and traditions which protect women and their dignity” the report says. So what is the root of this violence? It is a cunning act of war against the local people: they strike women in order to strike the whole community. “In this context abuse of women is a way of inflicting death on the whole community. It strikes the community at the heart. Rape as a war tactic is planned by men who are very familiar with the Bashi people. A community solution must be found for this community tragedy” the report concludes. (L.M.) (Agenzia Fides 29/10/2007 righe 30 parole 420)
