Outbreak of Violence in Guinea Creates Opportunity for Sexual Abuse

As if men were impatiently waiting for a "chaotic opportunity," as soon as the conflict broke out in Guinea, sexual violence including public rape of women hiked unprecedentedly. The Republic of Guinea, estimated population of 10 million people, is located on the West coast of Africa. The only French colony, to reject de Gaulle's new community, gained its independence in 1958 with elected president Sekou Toure. Former president Toure, like many other leaders in Africa, remained in power until his death in1984, giving way to military coup leader Lasanna Conteh; who was later elected democratically as president in 1993 which marked the beginning of civilian rule in Guinea.

According to the CIA Factbook Guinea has always had a history of authoritarian rule since its independence from France. As stated earlier, President Conte came to power through military means. Though there were reports of fraudulent elections, President Conte was re-elected in 1998 and again in 2003. Similar to Toure's, Conte's death in 2008, resulted in another "bloodless" military coup, this time with Captain Moussa Dadis Camara as military leader. Capt. Camara suspended the constitution as well as political and union activity in order to lead the country by military rule.

Despite, regional instabilities surrounding Guinea, it has managed to maintain some level of general peace, yet has fallen short of its own internal vulnerability of subtle political and economic crisis. The CIA Factbook suggests, "declining economic conditions and popular dissatisfaction with corruption and bad governance prompted two massive strikes in 2006, and a third nationwide strike in early 2007" and now even more evident in the most recent violent outbreak on September 28, 2009.

Al Jazeera News reports that Captain Camara's military government crackdown on 50,000 opposition leaders gathered at the Conakry Sports Stadium to protest ruling military power recommendation to enter into a national unity government, resulted in the deaths of at least 157 people with reports of widespread brutality and sexual violence against women. Within the space of 3-4 weeks (i.e., October 30, 2009), the African Union (AU) imposed sanctions on military rulers in Guinea mainly because of the intensity of violence and human rights abuses.

According to France 24 in the midst of "blood bath and harrowing tales" an estimated 30 women have allegedly being brutally raped by soldiers. Stories from eyewitnesses, survivors and others:

"They raped me. I went out of the stadium naked, naked, naked," a political activist said (quoted from France 24)

"I went back behind the gate, I found another soldier there. He took his gun (…) and he forced it into the vagina of a girl,” an eyewitness said (quoted from France 24)

"Group rape, rape in broad daylight on a pitch…really that is unusual in Guinea… and that is worrying. They are afraid to come and even we are not very comfortable talking about these rapes because we worry about the consequences of speaking out," a doctor said, (quoted from France 24)

“I can’t sleep at night, after what I saw, and I am afraid. I saw lots of women raped, and lots of dead.” said one middle-aged woman (quoted from New York Times)

"I saw a women who was stripped naked...They tore off tore off her clothes. They surrounded her. They made her lie down. They lifted up her feet, and one of the soldiers advanced. They took turns." (quoted from Politics Daily)

"I affirm, in categorical fashion, that women were raped, not just one woman," said Mamadou Mouctar Diallo, 34, an opposition leader (quoted from Feministing)

" They especially tore into the women. They were seeking to humiliate them" said former opposition prime minister, François Lonsény Fall (quoted from Feministing)

So, rape as a weapon of war appears to be endemic, premeditated, systematic, and unending. What do you think should be done to protect women and girls from sexual violence during violent conflicts in Africa?

Compiled by Veronica P. Fynn

RESOURCES
Videos

Warning! Emotional Scenes

Amid the Blood Bath, Harrowing Tales of Rape
Outcry as Dozens are Killed at Conakry Protest
The Coup Seen from "Baghdad"
Mon Pay Va Mal
Scores Killed at Guinea Protest
Guinee, Conakry

Weblinks
Guinee Conakry
Afrique Index
Guinea News
Al Jazeera
Guinea News
CIA Factbook
History World
Politics Daily
New York Times
France 24
Feministing

The War in Sri Lanka

The reporter on Dateline opened with a heart breaking statement which reflect yet another failure of humanity "it's a terrible thing to contemplate but for more than 25 long and bloody years, Sri Lankans have been killing themselves in a vicious civil war." It is estimated that over 150,000 civilians have been killed during this war mainly by indiscriminate shelling and human shielding with majority of such deaths being women and children.

According to the CIA - World Factbook, as the first Sinhalese arrived in Sri Lanka (an island in the Indian Ocean of southern Asia), from northern India in the late 6th century B.C. Buddhism was introduced into the culture. Tamil Kingdom in northern Sri Lanka was established in the 14th century. Most of Sri Lanka's coast was controlled by the Portuguese and Dutch around the 16th and 17th centuries until the island was ceded to the British in 1796. In 1802, Sri Lanka became a crown colony and gained its independence in 1948, changing its name from Ceylon to Sri Lanka in 1972.

Some have argued that the root of Sri Lanka's conflict is linked to British colonial rule. That is, after the British granted political independence to Ceylon by way of pressure from Sinhalese nationalist, subsequent disagreements between the Sinhalese and Tamil ethnic communities rose up during construction of the country's first constitution after British rule. Formation of the Tamil United Liberation Front (TULF) resulted in unfriendly behavior. Anton Balasingham who was employed by the British High Commission in Colombo, later immigrated to Britain and started the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelem (a separatist group) around the early 1960's. By 1972 several Tamil youths, including Velupillai Prabhakaran, joined forces to establish the Tamil New Tigers, later transformed into the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE) argued to have been formed around a racist ideology.

The war in Sri Lanka as noted above dates back to the early 1980's as tensions between the Sinhalese majority and Tamil separatists mounted into a brutal civil war that has lasted this long. Though several efforts have been made to cease-fire (2002), fighting between the LTTE and government forces intensified in 2006. By May 2009, the government announced the death of LTTE leader Velupillai PRABHAKARAN and assures the world of an end to Sri Lanka's war.

With the "ending of the islands decades-old civil war" came "illegal hostages" of Tamil civilians by the government. On September 11, 2009, amidst international concern for over 300,000 Tamil civilians, the Government of Sri Lanka sent home 9,920 villagers that were being held for "screening." The Associated Press writer, Bharatha Mallawarachi reports that "these displaced ethnic Tamils were confined to overcrowded, military-run camps with poor sanitation and restricted movements."

Apart from creating hundreds of thousands of refugees, and internally displaced persons, Sri Lanka's war has attracted criticism from human rights groups because of their abductions and recruitment of children under 18 years of age as child soldiers - a blatant violations of the UN Convention on the Rights of the Child - Optional Protocol. Human Rights Watch reports that "despite promises to investigate abductions of children by the pro-government Karuna group, Sri Lankan authorities have taken no effective action and abductions continue...the armed opposition Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE) also continue to recruit children in Sri Lanka and use them as soldiers." From 2003 to 2008 UNICEF recorded over 6,000 cases of child recruitment by rebel groups in Sri Lanka, the Economist Reports on July 16, 2009.

In spite of the above terror, danger to human life, and grave humanitarian concerns Medicine Sans Frontieres (MSF) reported that Sri Lanka is among the top 10 countries around the world that receive very little international media attention. As the health situation for many Sri Lankan women and children worsen, MSF writes "the war in Sri Lanka has ended but the suffering continues."For example, MSF distributes high energy porridge to 23,000 children under five, pregnant and lactating women and people over 60 in 11 of the camps everyday, some doctors see close to 300 patients a day and people in the camps are challenged on a day-to-day basis with dealing with the trauma experienced in the conflict.

As caring citizens of the world, the least we can do is at least inform ourselves about the plethora of injustices and inequalities existing in such a disparate world. To sit supinely and do nothing is a moral offense!

Written by: Veronica Fynn

Resources
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sri_Lankan_Civil_War
http://satp.org/satporgtp/countries/shrilanka/database/annual_casualties.htm
http://www.tamilnet.com/
http://www.defence.lk/new.asp?fname=20060808_05
http://www.apwld.org/ejk.htm
http://www.hrw.org/en/news/2007/03/27/sri-lanka-karuna-group-and-ltte-continue-abducting-and-recruiting-children
http://www.unicef.org/media/media_21990.html
http://www.msf.org/msfinternational/invoke.cfm?objectid=0666283D-5056-AA77-6C9161A428E1F7AA&component=toolkit.pressrelease&method=full_html

UPDATES
November 10, 2009: Landmines, Unexploed Ordnance a Barrier to Return

Video Links
Official Website of the Sri Lankan Government
Life as a Sri Lankan War Refugee
Sri Lanka War
"Sri Lanka War on Tamil" - Hunting the Tigers
Sri Lanka Photo Gallery by National Geography

Displaced Iraqi Women Resist Returning Home

“A stable Iraq requires the full participation of women in Iraqi society, but displaced women will not return home if they believe their lives will be put at risk by doing so…” Melanie Teff, Refugee International, July 15, 2009

Video: Women are weapon of war

Since the United States of America invaded Iraq in 2003, over 4 millions Iraqis have been forced to flee, including 2.8 million internally displacements persons in 2008. The Internal Displacement Monitoring Group reports that these IDPs are distributed throughout the country, however there appears to be a high number of IDPs in the central provinces (1.1 million) and northern and southern regions (800,000). Major reasons why Iraqis are displaced, IDMC suggests, are 1) military operations, 2) generalized violence, 3) policies of former government of Saddam Hussein, including arabization” of Kudish areas, 4) destruction of marshlands in southern Iraq, and 5) repression of political opposition.

Video: Iraqi Women Speaks Out

Women make-up a significant amount of Iraqi displaced peoples. According to the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR), 49 per cent all IDPs in Iraq are women. Refugee International (RI) July 15, 2009 report argues that uprooted Iraqi women are increasingly susceptible to exploitation and abuse because of extreme financial pressures. The report states that domestic violence are higher among displaced population in northern Iraq and that displaced women are more vulnerable to forced early marriages, prostitution, and trafficking. Returning home, as one of UNHCR proposed “solution” to forced displacement is not currently an option for most displaced Iraqi women for several reasons.

Despite relative peace, improved security and tough camp living characterized with continuing uncertainties, Iraqi women are refusing to return home because their rights are somehow jeopardized. IRIN confirms that, “Iraqi women will resist returning home, even if conditions improve in Iraq, if there is no focus on securing their rights as women and assuring their personal security and their families’ well-being.” For example, an assessment carried out by the International Organization for Migration (IOM) in February 2009, confirms that 81 per cent of the 1.6 million post-Samarra IDPs cited food, clean water, sanitation, electricity, access to employment, health care as priority needs. Further, approximately 297, 000 returnees also faced harsh conditions of damaged property, infrastructure and loss of livelihood, reports IOM.

Video: The Rape and Muder of Abeer Qassim Hamzar

Violence against women is of utmost concern as honor killings, burning and other attacks on women are on the rise, RI reports. The Kurdish Regional Government (KRG), unlike the Government of Iraq, has suspended laws to reduce “honor” crimes and has increased penalties. The RI Field Report confirms that, high levels of chronic disease, complicated by the psycho-social stress of war and displacement is common among many Iraqis. Displaced women reportedly are disproportionately affected by the national government’s inability to distribute medical resources to the region. Similarly, education for displaced children, are extremely difficult as Arabic-language schools were already over-crowded before the displacement problem.

With these and more complicated situation for Iraqi women, RI recommends greater financial support for Iraqi displaced people and development of stronger laws enforcement and judicial structures in Iraq to limit violence against women.

REFERENCES
http://www.brookings.edu/~/media/Files/rc/papers/2009/0702_iraqi_displacement_ferris/0702_iraqi_displacement_ferris.pdf
http://www.irinnews.org/report.aspx?ReportId=85362
http://www.refugeesinternational.org/sites/default/files/071509_iraq_womensrights_0.pdf
http://www.internal-displacement.org/8025708F004BE3B1/%28httpInfoFiles%29/7CC8ADC4D8E2DF8CC12575A60052DB24/$file/GO_08_iraq.pdf
http://www.internal-displacement.org/8025708F004BE3B1/%28httpInfoFiles%29/7CC8ADC4D8E2DF8CC12575A60052DB24/$file/GO_08_iraq.pdf
http://www.iom.int/jahia/Jahia/pbnAF/cache/offonce?entryId=22764
http://www.refugeesinternational.org/press-room/press-release/displaced-iraqi-women-increasingly-vulnerable-exploitation-and-abuse

Compiled by Veronica Fynn

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Displaced Women and Girls in the Swat Valley of Pakistan

The Swat Valley, known as the Switzerland of Pakistan, is located in the North-West Frontier Province of Pakistan. The Valley has been under serious attacks by the Taliban since 2007, creating humanitarian concerns, thereby forcing inhabitants to migrate due to imminent danger and violence caused by the conflict.

According to the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugee (UNHCR), over 2 million people have been displaced as fighting intensified between Pakistan Military and the Taliban. A major reason why the crisis has not been a humanitarian catastrophe, Jonathan Alpeyrie of Eurasia Insight reports (July 17, 2009), lies in the fact that, Pakistani families in secured areas have offered to host about 80 percent of internally displaced persons (IDPs). The UNHCR reports today (July 29, 2009) that thousands of displaced Pakistani families are returning home under a government-sponsored repatriation programme though many fear re-displacement hence refused to return.

As always, UNHCR are often pressured to manifest one of its "solution" for forced movement by heavily favoring "voluntary" repatriation. During such process, women and girls are usually subjected to all forms of violence and human rights abuses, including their right to health and education. Worth noting is the infamous Maulana Fazlullah, an Islamist militant leader of Tehreek-e-Nafas-e-Shariat-e-eMohammadi (Movement for the Enforcement of Islamic Law). Fazlullah, nick name "Radio Mullah" and his group are responsible for banning girls education in the Swat District. According to Changing Up Pakistan, some 400 private schools with enrollment as high has 40,000 girls have been shut down. Ten girls' schools that tried to open after the January 15, 2009 deadline were blown up, adding up to the over 170 schools already bombed or torched.

Video: Taliban in Control of Pakistan's Swat Valley

There were over 350 privately owned schools in the Swat Region, each having a separate section for boys and girls, BBC reports. But over the past year, except for 96 schools, all were ordered to close down resulting in blatant violation of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights and other international human rights laws. Of the estimated 1 million children displaced by the violent conflict, UNICEF utmost priority has been to ensure that some 700,000 school-aged children are able to return to classes in September this year.

As gender equality (goal # 3 of the Millennium Development Goals) is pre-requisite for any nations development, it is important to support and ensure that Pakistani women and girls, who are already suffering from the impact of violent displacement, be given access to health and education; even as they embark on returning home.

Video: Swat Valley's Humanitarian Crisis

Your comments are welcome.

Written by: Veronica Fynn

UPDATES
November 10, 2009: Bomb-Blast Victims Lack Trauma Care, Counselling
Bomb-blast victims lack trauma care, counselling
September 4, 2009: Executions Continues in Swat Valley
August 15, 2009: Suicide Bomber kills at least five in Swat Valley
August 14, 2009: Pakistan's dancing girls return after Taliban defeated in Swat Valley
August 2, 2009: Displaced return to Swat Valley

Sexual Violence in the DRC

Why do men use sexual violation as a weapon of war? Is it because women are pre-disposition biologically and/or socially? Biological predisposition entails their unique reproductive ability to bear children and social pre-disposition encompass their socially ascribed roles as care-taker and care-giver. Rape and all forms of sexual violence is more than prominent in the DRC, especially in in the Kivu Provinces. According to the United Nations High Commission for Refugees report on May 8, 2009, there are "some 1.8 million Internally Displaced Persons in North Kivu as a result of fighting and instability since late 2006. At least 75 percent of the displaced live with host families. Approximately 100,000 IDPs are temporarily accommodated in 11 UNHCR-run sites across the province," (UNHCR Briefing Notes, 2009).

WATCH CONGO REBELS - DRC

It is extremely worrisome to know that this tragical war, branded as "Africa's World War" is more of a war on women. Women and girls unfortunate to be displaced or transitioning to a "place of refuge" are at risks of being gang raped, violated and abused. Women should not have to bear the brunt of African men selfishness, greed and political gimmicks. Moreover, although over 5.4 million people have died in the terrible war, their stories and cries never make it to the Western media. It is worth noting that the war in the DRC is not just marely a war of justice and equality, it is a war fuel by Western neo-liberalism (capitalism), corruption and insensitivity. Illicit trade of diamonds, small arms, Cassiterite and coltan (in our cell phones) drive the massive killing of innocent people in the DRC.

WATCH THE GRAND THEFT CONGO - DRC

The question for discussion is what can be done to reduce the suffering of women and girls in the DRC? Do you think the African Commission on People's and Human Rights have some stake in restoring lasting peace in the DRC? How can African women in the diaspora contribute to raising the profile of IDP women and girls in the DRC? Your contribution is of OUT MOST RELEVANCE!!!

SEXUAL VIOLENCE IN CONGO

Written by: Veronica Fynn

UPDATES
August 28, 2009: DRC Displacement Update
August 11, 2009: Hilary Clinton Condemns Impunity in Eastern Congo
August 10, 2009: Healing the Wounds of Sexual Violence in DRC

Do women have rights in war? What do you think?