"Father" in the DRC
"This year I am once again operating on women whose genitals were destroyed by rape and other atrocities. There are many women who are barely getting by, and rape is continuing. The rainy season is coming soon in North Kivu and the vulnerability of women is increasing."
Denis Mukwege
Denis
Mukwege is a Congolese gynecologist. He founded and works in Panzi
Hospital in Bukavu, where he specializes in the treatment of women who
have been gang-raped by Rwandan militia, Mukwege has ... Wikipedia
Awards: United Nations Prize in the Field of Human Rights
Dr. Mukwege is a singular human being. He has dedicated himself to the surgical and psychical rehabilitation of women and girls who have experienced unbelievable human rights violations. Thousands of women were dying of complications from the injuries they sustained from brutal rapes. Inspiring this man to found the Panzi Hospital in eastern Congo. And he made it his mission to help whomever among these desperately injured women he could.
His humanitarian work takes place under horrendously difficult circumstances and an obvious lack of enthusiasm of the government of the Democratic Republic of the Congo, although foreign governments do recognize and support his work. His single-minded rescue of dreadfully harmed women has garnered him huge admiration from other organizations such as NGO Physicians for Human Rights, who also support his work financially.
Dr. Mukwege's work has several dimensions; the care of broken women and girls who have been horribly mutilated through repeated rape - and a hoped-for cultural change that would convince men of the region to honour and respect woman, and turn them away from violence and rape as a weapon. Government troops are as guilty as the rampaging militias the troops attempt to hunt down; they all rape vulnerable women and girls.
Rape as a weapon of war has been methodically incorporated into the operations of both government and rebel forces. Dr. Mukwege's courage in publicly and loudly advocating on behalf of woman has made a target of him. DRC's President Laurent-Desire Kabila has no interest in protecting this gynaecologist who has put the safety and security of his country's women at the top of his personal agenda, but not President Kabila's.
The Democratic Republic of the Congo is battling an insurgency led by Rwandan Hutus who had sought haven in this hugely populous African neighbour, and they continued their depredations against Congo-based Tutsis, after their failure in the unspeakable carnage of the Rwandan Genocide and the ascension to power of the Rwandan Tutsis. Uganda and the current Tutsi-led government of Rwanda have attempted to plot an overtake of DRC.
Against this backdrop of competing interests and military clashes with countless lives lost to brutalities, there is the dreadful plight of the Congolese women. A week ago there was an assassination attempt on the life of Dr. Mukwege. Four would-be assassins forced their way into his home, they shot and killed his security guard, and fired at Dr. Mukwege, but he managed to escape.
He has since taken his family for safety away from the DRC.
Violence has once again broken out in his home city of Bukavu, causing aid organizations concern for the safety of their locally engaged staff in the region. For the time being this brave man and his family are safe, removed from the conflict. He is also away by necessity, from the hospital he founded, unable to perform his life-saving surgery on women who require it.
Most of these women have no one else to care about them, to care for them. Because they have been raped, their families' honour has been disgraced, and they have been disowned. They view him as their 'father', for they have no one else to cling to for help and emotional support.
Labels: Africa, Chaos, Conflict, Crime, Sexism, Societal Failures
posted by Pieface @ Wednesday, October 31, 2012
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