rape as a mechanisms of mass oppression

[justabit]

I have been following the various threads on rape and find they live on in your brain long after you leave the computer. I wanted to post something about what recently happened in Congo but didn't feel that any of the threads were the right place. I'm not expecting a discussion about Congo just wanted to share the information with such a bunch of aware women. As you will know women in Congo (and Liberia and many other places) contend with this abuse of power daily and it happens at such a level that it has become normalised. We don't even hear about it any more. I will post next an extract about recent attacks in Congo which only make news when the scale of atrocity is so high.

UNITED NATIONS, Aug 26 (Reuters) - The Security Council demanded on Thursday that all steps be taken to prevent a repeat of a recent mass rape in Congo as council members voiced open dissatisfaction at the late response of U.N. forces.

U.N. peacekeepers in the Democratic Republic of Congo have said they were only informed of the incident more than a week after it happened, even though they had a base just 20 miles (30 km) from the scene in the country's violent east.

That led council members to suggest, at an unscheduled meeting called by the United States and France, that the 20,000-strong MONUSCO peacekeeping force needed at least to improve its communications with the local population.

Rebels from the Mai Mai militia and Rwandan Hutu FDLR occupied the town of Luvungi in North Kivu province from July 30 to Aug. 3, raping and assaulting at least 154 civilians, according to U.N. figures. One aid group has said many women were gang-raped by between two and six armed men.

The attack has stung the United Nations, whose peacekeeping force in Congo is its largest anywhere. Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon has made protecting civilians and combating sexual violence central themes of his stewardship of the world body.

Thanks for this justabit. The use of rape as a weapon of war is so horrific and I think disturbingly widespread. There is a chapter on it in this Amnesty report
And there's a BBC piece on ithere.
I think it's really important to raise awareness of this issue because it's so often overshadowed by other war atrocities and it's so incredibly damaging to the women and children themselves and to their communities.

I thought it was interesting that some of the reporting of the Congo situation mentioned that many women and baby boys were raped. I'm not sure what that means? Were no baby girls raped? Did they fall into the definition of women? Or is it more shocking that they were baby boys rather than baby girls?

Hmmmm. Something about that disturbs me greatly.

I read about this in the metro this morning (so this incident has made it to a pretty well circulated and read audience).

I never know what to say, it's just so horrifying. What can be done? I don't know what can be done. It's just mind-blowingly awful.

I also noticed the "women and baby boys" thing as being rather odd, I sat on the train this morning and wondered what it meant. What on earth does it mean?

Hello BTW justa thanks for posting this. It's im.so.not.telling here in case you hadn't guessed!

If you read Niall Ferguson's The War of The World there is an interesting concept of rape in wartime as a form of weapon. It is certainly not a new phenomenon: the invading force using this method to dominate the populace.

In the rape of Nanking a Japanese officer was questioned over the Chinese women actually being raped to death. To quote:

"Frankly speaking, you and I have diametrically different views of the Chinese. You may be dealing with them as human beings, but I regard them as swine. We can do anything to such creatures."

Rape can either be used to show superiority over "sub-humans" such as that example and what went on with German then Soviet soldiers or it could be, as with the animal world, the dominant male showing "who is boss", the lion who massacres the cubs of the previous alpha male. It was said that in Berlin over 100,000 women were raped, and that is only the ones who came forward. The book Woman In Berlin puts the experiences across well.

Thank you just for highlighting this. I believe though I may be wrong that it was in Rwanda many years ago that some in troops slashed and discarded their blue begets at their inability to intervene against atrocities. I may need to be corrected. but it shows that the presence of the un has never been any kind of grantee of protection. I still believe it is the best hope though. in this case, as others have pointed out, at least it has reached the public eye. I am sure the vast majority don't.

Thank you just for highlighting this. I believe though I may be wrong that it was in Rwanda many years ago that some in troops slashed and discarded their blue begets at their inability to intervene against atrocities. I may need to be corrected. but it shows that the presence of the un has never been any kind of grantee of protection. I still believe it is the best hope though. in this case, as others have pointed out, at least it has reached the public eye. I am sure the vast majority don't.

Rape has always been part of the conquering ritual. I don't know why, really - arguments have been made for propagation of the winner's tribe, but that doesn't explain why boys are also raped nor why women are generally raped so brutally they die.

This is from the Annals of Asul Nasir-Pal, an Assyrian king from c.870 BC.
"600 of their fighting men with (my) arms I destroyed; 3,000 of their captives I consigned to the flames; as hostages I left not one of them alive; Hulai the governor of their town I captured by (my) hand alive; their corpses into piles I built; their boys and maidens I dishonored."

The Annals repeat this boast, with precise numbers and rapes, for each of the 39 cities Asul conquered.

There is a lot of rape in the Bible (on God's instruction) - and that's ignoring the mass rapes undertaken as part of the Israelites' serial demolishment of cities, which were tactfully mistranslated as 'taking spoils and livestock'. Joshua was practically identical to Asul Nasir-Pal, except that Joshua publicly murdered more of his captured kings.

There's no doubting that the 'inner crocodile' is alive and well in us today, as throughout history. Although some reptiles pair-bond, I don't know whether a fight between males would entail the winner fucking the loser's mate ...

And then the UN "peacekeepers" decide raping is fun as well

UN 'peacekeepers' rape women and children

SOrry I'm refering to the COngo SGM. I see the UN hasn't changed since the Bosnian war . A leopard never changes his spots?

I don't think any men who go into war zones have got any education.

YOu don't think Tony would have sent his sons in do you? The ruling elite have always used poor boys as cannon fodder, always will.

BUt even so, I don't think it's got anything to do with education. I think middle class, educated men would behave in the same way. I think many men do it for the thrill, the testosterone high and to earn stripes in front of the other men.

That is why women need real power in international politics to stop all this nonsense

oh god that article is horrifying, as a member of the armed forces I'm utterly ashamed that supposedly disciplined people act, or indeed, even have the urge to perform these acts.

GOt to tell you a good one.
In Japan the US gives its troops on the military base IMMUNITY from rape.

Yep.
WHen they rape a Japanese girl in Okinawa (as they often do) the Japanese are not allowed to prosecute or take it further and AFAIK they are not brought to justice