Outrage Grows Over Failure to Protect DRC Civilians

By Aprille Muscara
UNITED NATIONS, Aug 28 (IPS) As details emerged this week of the
U.N.'s knowledge of rebel
activity in the villages where nearly 200 women were
systematically gang raped by armed groups in the eastern
Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC) late last month, human
rights groups are demanding an investigation into the U.N.'s
failure to prevent the raid from occurring.

"These scandalous, outrageous atrocities should serve as a
wake up call for the international community," Marcel
Stoessel, Oxfam International's country director in the DRC,
told IPS in a phone interview.

Amnesty International echoed Oxfam's sentiments, calling for
a critical investigation of the U.N.'s inaction.

"The DRC government and the United Nations must urgently
review the failures to protect civilians to prevent such
horrors from being inflicted again," Amnesty International
said in a statement.

Amnesty also urged the immediate gathering and preservation
of evidence in order to bring the perpetrators to justice.

Legally, the responsibility to arrest and prosecute the
perpetrators of the mass rapes lies with the weak and often
ineffective Congolese government, which has been under
mounting pressure to capture and try the individuals
responsible.

A spokesperson for the U.N. said that a team has been
deployed to investigate the incident, and is expected to
finish its work by the beginning of September. The Congolese
government, however, is not involved.

Another official of a human rights group admitted that the
rebels were not likely to be apprehended, much less
prosecuted. He cited a leaked U.N. report, revealed by Le
Monde on Wednesday, which accuses the government of Rwanda
of war crimes, including possibly genocide, in the DRC as
reflecting the history of violence in the region since 1993.

"The report shows that impunity has been the norm," he told
IPS. "In this particular case," he said, referring to the
mass rapes, "it's not, unfortunately, going to be the
exception."

The conflict-ridden DRC has been ranked the number five
failed state by Foreign Policy for the last two years,
worsening two spots since 2007. Rape is systematically used
as a tool of war, with about one case of rape reported every
hour – the perpetrators of which are usually armed men from
rebel groups or the regular Congolese army, according to
Amnesty.

"The government doesn't have a presence, indeed authority,
over the entire territory, which makes it possible for armed
groups to commit these atrocities," Stoessel told IPS. "And
even when the Congolese army is present, they are often
themselves not a protective force and are perpetrators."

Given the DRC's instability, in 1999 the U.N. sent a
peacekeeping force to the country, now called MONUSCO, which
is charged with the protection of civilians. This week, it
was revealed that MONUSCO failed to act despite knowledge of
the rebels' presence in the villages, and failed to respond
timely after eventually receiving information of the mass
rapes.

The Security Council held an emergency meeting about the
mass rapes Thursday, after which Russian Ambassador Vitaly
Churkin and U.S. Ambassador Susan Rice expressed indignation
at the number of questions that remain outstanding regarding
the U.N.'s response to the incident on the ground.

"We're horrified and we're outraged," Rice said.
"It was a
disturbing briefing both for what we learned and what we
don't know still."

Between Jul. 30 and Aug. 3, 200 to 400 armed men allegedly
from the Democratic Liberation Forces of Rwanda (FDLR) and
the Mai Mai Cheka rebel groups ravaged a cluster of villages
in the DRC's North Kivu province. One of the villages was
just 20 kilometres away from a MONUSCO forward operating
base.

A day after the raid began, MONUSCO received information of
rebel activity in the villages. Robert Meece, the U.N.'s top
official for the country, told reporters on Wednesday that
there was no indication of an attack. However, the same day,
an e-mail was sent to U.N. staff urging them to stay away
from the area because the situation was too dangerous, the
New York Times reported Wednesday.

Despite this, MONUSCO did not visit the villages until Aug.
2. At this point, the raid was still taking place, but
according to Meece, the peacekeepers were not informed of
the violence occurring. This alarming lack of contact has
raised questions about MONUSCO's procedures during their
visits and their efficacy in communicating with the very
people they are charged to protect.

"They need to get out of their vehicles, go on foot patrols
right close to these most vulnerable communities and deploy
strategically where civilians are most at risk," Stoessel
said of the peacekeepers.

Another patrol took place Aug. 4, but Meece noted it went in
the opposite direction of the villages.

"Visits alone are not sufficient – that was the clear
feeling of members of the Security Council," Churkin told
reporters after the council meeting. "Every other day, once
a week, is not sufficient for having reliable information."

Peacekeepers did not return to the affected area until Aug.
9, Meece said – over a week after MONUSCO learned of the
rebels' presence in the villages and three days after the
International Medical Corps (IMC) says it alerted the U.N.'s
office of humanitarian affairs of the mass rapes. CNN
reported Thursday that the IMC informed the U.N. of the raid
on Aug. 6, disputing official U.N. claims that it did not
have knowledge of the rapes until Aug. 12.

In response to revelations of the mass gang rapes this week,
U.N. Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon dispatched Atul Khare,
deputy head of the U.N. peacekeeping department, and Margot
Wallstrom, his special representative on sexual violence in
conflict to the DRC. They are expected back in New York on
Sep. 8 and will brief the Security Council.

"We are looking forward to the return of Mr. Khare and a
very serious, sober evaluation – as one council member put
it – of what happened and why. Clearly not everything worked
the way it should have worked under these circumstances,"
Churkin said. "We are going to get to the bottom of it."