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A report released Tuesday, September 7, 2010 showed that, despite United Nations (UN) peacekeepers stationed throughout the African country, nearly 500 citizens of the Democratic Republic of Congo, Africa were raped by the government troops and rebel militias.
The United Nations website describes the peacekeeping as “a unique and dynamic instrument developed by the Organization as a way to help countries torn by conflict create the conditions for lasting peace”. This group of people has the job of stabilizing on-ground situations. People who make up the peacekeepers include human rights monitors, humanitarian workers and experts in communications and public information.
The peacekeepers of the UN have a pretty self-explanatory job. They are in countries of war and violence, with the sole purpose of keeping the peace, and making sure it lasts. Countries with high poverty, violence, and starvation rate need the peacekeepers the most. These places are called Least Developed Countries (LDC).
By the standards set by the UN itself, the Democratic Republic of Congo is a LDC. The Congolese are facing violence, poverty, and a stunt in human development. All of this results from the aftermath of the Second Congo War, which began in 1998. The war left 5 million people dead from violence, famine, and disease, and left the country is a state of economic, political and social disaster.
Even though peace accords were signed in 2003, there is still a large amount of violence in the country. This violence has affected many of the Congolese from the eastern part of the country. Military violence can be seen at any point in the country, at any time of day.
Margot Wallstrom leads a UN office that focuses on the acts of sexual violence found in armed conflict. She believes that the rapes “were not an isolated incident but part of a broader pattern of widespread systematic rape and pillage”. Rape and pillage, by anyone’s standards, is not peaceful.
UN officials first disclosed these rapes in August. Details range from multiple women gang-raped, to militiamen in North Kivu forcing their hands into the sexual organs of women to search for possibly hidden gold. Militiamen surround the village to prevent anyone from running away.
But women aren’t the only ones facing these horrible acts. Men have been raped multiple times for the same purposes. Any male who tries to defend a woman will be beaten and/or murdered. Men are forced to watch their children, wives, and loved ones, as they are brutally violated.
2010 was declared The International Year of Youth by the United Nations. The goal is to give children a strong voice. To let them know that they matter. Yet, hundreds of children are subject to the violence that goes on in Congo. A large amount of these rapes and torturous events have been against minors. This takes away their voice, and goes against everything that the United Nations is fighting for.
Taking away these children’s voices prevents growth for Congo’s future. It allows for a future where these acts take place. Not punishing these criminals gives the belief that this is okay. This belief can lead to more and more rapes. The sexual acts will become more gruesome, more violent, and more despicable, until it can not even be mentioned.
It will also pave the way for criminals in other underdeveloped countries. There are already criminals in other countries that are committing these same acts of violence. These criminals that have not yet been seen, and might not ever be seen if the UN does not step up to meet their goal. What this means is that eventually, we could see these patterns increasing throughout other countries on Earth.
The peacekeepers are given more than a billion dollars a year to help fund these places. These billions of dollars are being wasted, if goals are not met. While the UN is not there to do the impossible mission of putting these acts to a halt, they are doing nothing to prevent it, either. That is there job. To prevent these acts, to decrease the amount of people permanently scarred by these acts of inhumanity.
Refusal by the UN to do their job, and engage in their commitment, will lead to a dark future for the Congolese, and people like them. The people of the United Nations need to begin to do everything in their power to help. Sending more people and becoming more active is the light these people need, to lead them to a better tomorrow.
