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WORLD NEWS Saturday 6 OctOber 2018

Sexual violence, a savage feature of conflict over centuries

JOHANNESBURG (AP) — Council in December 2015.
Through the ages, sexual ___
violence has been a sav- CONGO
age feature of armed con- The sprawling central Af-
flict, often systematically rican nation where Nobel
inflicted by combatants on laureate Mukwege works
girls and women in what was once called "the rape
the world today defines as capital of the world" by
a war crime. It happened Margot Wallstrom, then the
in the time of the ancient U.N. secretary-general's
Greeks and Romans, and special representative on
in modern times, too: Mass sexual violence in conflict.
rape occurred in World "Women have no rights
War II, as it did during the if those who violate their
Balkan wars and the Rwan- rights go unpunished," Wall-
dan genocide in the 1990s. strom said in 2010. "Our aim
The atrocities unfold as vic- must be to uphold interna-
torious fighters sweep into tional law, so that women
seized territory, using sexual — even in the war-torn
violence out of a sense of corners of the world — can
impunity or entitlement or sleep under the cover of
as a way to terrorize and justice." Yet rape remains a
punish communities. Inter- weapon of war and pow-
national humanitarian law, In this Wednesday, Nov. 22, 2017 file photo, "F," a 22-year-old who says she was raped by mem- er in Congo, especially in
including the Geneva Con- bers of Myanmar's armed forces in June and again in September, cries as she speaks during an the east, which has seen
ventions, seeks to prevent interview in her tent in Kutupalong refugee camp in Bangladesh. more than two decades
warring sides from engag- Associated Press of bloody conflict among
ing in such abuses. armed groups. Some are
While the regulation of war- calm conflicts around the the centuries. One of the were killed, several thou- fighting for control of the
time conduct is inherently globe. worst occurred when the sand are missing and many country's mineral wealth,
difficult, the awarding of There have been steps for- Islamic State group com- Yazidi women were cap- intensifying the cycle of
the Nobel Peace Prize on ward. Last month, a mili- mitted what a United Na- tured, taken as sex slaves violence.
Friday to a Congolese sur- tary judge in South Sudan tions commission of inquiry and subjected to horrific Women have suffered as
geon and an Iraqi woman sentenced 10 soldiers to called genocide and other abuse. rebels and soldiers carry out
who speaks out for those prison for a 2016 rampage crimes against the Yazidi in This year, The Associated sexual violence and rape.
like herself who have been in which five international 2014. Press interviewed Farida Mukwege and his team
raped helps to shine global aid workers were gang- The militants swept into Sin- Khalaf, who was 18 when have treated thousands of
light on the crimes. Dr. De- raped. In December, a mili- jar, the Yazidis' ancestral she was captured and sold women, many who have
nis Mukwege and Nadia tary court in eastern Congo homeland near the Syrian into slavery and endured been gang-raped. His work
Murad are honored for sentenced 12 militiamen to border, in August 2014 after four months of rape, tor- made him a target: Armed
campaigning against sex- life in prison for the gang- capturing the northern city ture and beatings until she men tried to kill him in 2012,
ual violence as a weapon rapes of dozens of children of Mosul and declaring an managed to escape from forcing him to temporarily
of war. as young as 11 months old. Islamic caliphate in large her Islamic State captors. leave the country.
Officials and military com- Here are some recent cas- areas of Iraq and Syria. The AP does not generally "There is impunity in rape
manders must take the es in which sexual violence Tens of thousands of Yazidis identify the victims of sexu- and violence," Solange Fu-
lead in discouraging a occurred on a large scale escaped to Mount Sinjar, al assault but Khalaf went raha Lwashiga, a women's
culture of sexual violence during conflict: where they were surround- public, writing about her rights activist in Congo,
among combatants un- ___ ed and besieged. The U.S., experience in "The Girl Who told the AP. "Unfortunately,
der their authority, activists ISLAMIC STATE GROUP/YA- Iraq, Britain, France and Beat Isis: My Story." people look for power by
agree. Even the United Na- ZIDIS Australia flew in water and New Nobel winner Murad dehumanizing people," she
tions has struggled with al- The Yazidi community, one supplies until Kurdish fight- was among those who fled said. "Rape is a manner of
legations of sexual violence of Iraq's oldest religious mi- ers opened a corridor to al- from IS and told the world seeking power and dehu-
and exploitation against norities, has been subject- low them to flee. about those horrors, ad- manizing the Congolese
the peacekeepers sent to ed to brutal attacks over About 5,000 Yazidi men dressing the U.N. Security societies."q