So – what can be done to prevent the gross sexual violence that is taking place in the DRC?
-First, says Kalume, the international community has to step up the protection and take much more affirmative action to prevent further violence. Second, the long-term protection from sexual violence will only come through a restoration of sustainable state authority in Eastern DRC. The sexual violence in Congo will only end when the war ends. In order to end the war, we need to address the underlying causes of the conflict and implement a coherent political strategy. The UN’s Security Council and influential regional states should play key roles in the implementation of this strategy. The women of eastern DRC can’t afford to wait any more, appealed Kalume. –And in the name of humanity, neither can the rest of us.

Kalume has his own story to tell. His dedication to help raped women derives from being a survivor of the genocide in Rwanda in 1994. After his wife was brutally murdered in front of him back then, he managed to escape back to his village Bukavu in the DRC. That is where he has since settled and dedicated himself to  inform the international community on the sexual violence in his home country. One of the ways he has done this, is to contribute to ‘The greatest silence,’ American documentary film maker Lisa Jackson’s by now famous film on rape in the DRC. (Left, Jackson at work on her film, interviewing soldiers in Eastern DRC). In Norway, Kalume spoke on the occasion of the Norwegian premiere of Jackson’s film, whose purpose is to give the survivors of rape a voice and to urge the international community to engage themselves to help these women.

Kalume goes along with this mission, and goes on to elaborate on the consequences of rape. -When a woman is raped, and particularly when it happens in front of her family, the impact is very severe. Needless to say, the physical, medical consequences are in themselves terrible, with one in five among the victims suffering fistula problems and / or getting infected with sexually transmittable diseases, including HIV / Aids. In addition, though, come the social and psychological effects, that are equally dramatic. And with these effects, it is not only on the woman who’se been raped that suffers. When it comes to the social and psychological trauma, it is the entire family, at times even the whole village. Hence, rape is an effective tool to destabilize a family, and even a community.

Out of fear for the consequences, women are often afraid of telling anyone they’ve been raped. And there are good reasons not to. Survivors of rape are often rejected by their men and entire families. The men feel shame for having been unable to protect their women, but are also disgusted with the idea that someone else has had sex with their wife. For good reason, they also fear diseases. This way, the men are also made victims of the widespread use of rape as a weapon of war. But the women’s victimization and stigmatization go well beyond the realm of the family. Women are often stigmatized by their entire communities. Finally, they are denied the justice they are entitled to under both Congolese and international law.

-For all these reasons, it is crucial that MONUC has the means to give physical protection to civilians, Kalume stresses. -Even though MONUC is the biggest peacekeeping mission in UN history, it is not enough with 17.000 soldiers in a conflict that has taken more than 5.5 million lives. Kalume adds that due to its failure to provide protection, MONUC is experiencing a legitimacy problem. Hence, in order to regain the confidence of the Congolese people, MONUC ought to be strengthened. Look no further than the fact that in the DRC, impunity for rape is near absolute. According to the widely accepted principle of a state’s responsibility to protect its own people, the Congolese government, therefore, has failed. According to the same principle, when a state fails or neglects its responsibility to protect, the responsibility transfers to the international community. For the women of Eastern DRC, however, such principles have made no difference. To them, only action will matter. And for as long as the international community has failed as well, they are left to fend for themselves. –This is where Norway can make a difference, says Kalume, and in so many ways, at so many levels.

-In addition to strengthening the MONUC contingency, he goes on, -there is a lot of work to be done on the ground, by locals, with local resources, among locals and for locals. Most importantly, the perpetrators have to be approached, head on. More often than not, they are the foot soldiers of the conflict. They are young men, with little or no education, and no payment to speak of.  But they are armed. That is the crucial difference between them and the civilians. And because of this imbalance, the entire situation opens up for total exploitation. As a matter of fact, the most common experience is that the rapes happen during looting. When ordinary men become thieves and rapists, however, the moral breakdown is complete. Therefore, a big effort has to be made to change the attitudes of these men, to bring a moral impulse back into them. After years of moral anarchy, it won’t be easy. And it will take time. That is why we have no time to lose, concludes Kalume, already on his way back to Bukavu.

Written by Cindy Robles, a HRHF volunteer, this article has been edited and prepared for publication here by HRHF / Niels Jacob Harbitz.