It is difficult to read this story without feeling something in the pit of your stomach. Its amazing that things like this still go on today, and not only go on, but dont get the publicity they so deperately deserve. Surely, the rapes of "tens of thousands" is, at the very least, equivilant to whatever was going on in Iraq? Granted, it doesnt "threaten" us per se, but....
One horrible excerpt:
Some of the victims have been gang-raped or abducted by combatants for long periods of sexual slavery. Others were mutilated or, if they fought back, killed.
Could you imagine? Choosing to be raped repeatedly. CHOOSING it rather than being killed? Even worse, all accounts of the situation point to the fact that girls as young as THREE YEARS OLD are being raped. THREE??
Personally, if I was the President, I would invade this country tomorrow and knock this off. I cannot even fathom not having a situation like this as a top priority.
One other just gut wrenching excerpt:
"Perpetrators of sexual violence are members of virtually all the armed forces and armed groups that operate in eastern Congo"
The raping is being done by ALL involved parties? Basically, there is NO knight in shining armor (aka the US Army) to come save you. Anyone in any army coming to your house is going to rape you. Its a given.
The BBC provides us with one of their typically good reports on the situation.
Surely the below quote means SOMEONE should be paying attention:
It has already sucked in the armies of six neighbouring countries, and left the population prey to the depredations of a host of competing armed groups.
This is made even worse, i would think, by the fact that apparently, the Congo was not always that bad. These people dont deserve to live in peace just like the rest of us?
Here is the CIA factbook on them.
And Here are recipes that are indiginous to the region, just for some fun.
And if I can throw in one quick "poke" at the Christian Right...where are they on this? Rape is, imo, widely regarded in this country as the single worst thing you can do to another human being (although pedophiles will argue that point). So why wouldnt rape, on a MASS scale, garner the condemnation and, more importantly, the attention, of the "morally correct"?