UN says mass rapes in Walikale a continuing hazard

The U.N. Security Council met with Margot Wallstrom at their upon her return from the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC) where she visited rape victims.

Widespread night time attacks carried out between July 30 and August 2, earlier this year, involved some 200 members of the three armed groups - the Mai Mai Cheka, the Democratic Forces for the Liberation of Rwanda (FDLR), and elements close to Colonel Emmanuel Nsengiyumva, an army deserter who has in the past been involved with the rebel National Congress for the Defence of the People (CNDP).

Recounting the words of a victim, Wallstrom said "a dead rat is worth more than the body of a woman" to the armed combatants in the DRC, highlighting "how human rights violations against women are still the lowest on a fool's hierarchy of war time horrors."

The known victims include 235 women, 52 girls, 13 men, and 3 boys, some of whom were raped multiple times, according to a U.N. human rights report issued last month. At least 923 houses and 42 shops were looted and 116 people were abducted in order to carry out forced labour in the Walikale region in eastern Congo.

Wallstrom welcomed the recent arrests of 'Lieutenant Colonel' Mayele, a commander of the Mai Mai Cheka and of Callixte Mbarushimana, a Rwandan rebel leader.

A U.N. report last month said Colonel Mayele led the coalition of militiamen that attacked the town of Luvungi on July 30, which led to the mass raping of at least 303 people.

French authorities arrested Callixte Mbarushimana on an International Criminal Court (ICC) warrant on suspicion of war crimes and crimes against humanity allegedly committed in the eastern Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC) last year.

Wallstrom said the council must use its powers to end impunity for rape in Congo and elsewhere.

"We must seize the momentum of these arrests to begin turning the tide of impunity. The arrests must serve as a warning to perpetrators of sexual violence everywhere, and we cannot underestimate the importance of such actions for the victims and their communities. This represents a glimmer of hope for them; a moment of solace that the world is not blind to their plight," she said.

The special representative also pointed out that "the mass rapes in Walikale demonstrate a nexus between the illicit exploitation of natural resources by armed elements and patrons of sexual violence."

She encouraged "more concerted attention on this aspect" saying that "mass rapes that occurred in Walikale should also be investigated from the angle of the competition over mining interests as one the root causes of conflict and sexual violence."

The Walikale region is rich in cassiterite, the raw material used to make tin.

The United Nations peacekeeping force MONUSCO -- the world's largest U.N. peacekeeping mission -- was criticised for failing to prevent the mass rapes, which took place just 20 miles (32 km) from a U.N. base.

Congo's eastern provinces are under siege by Rwandan Hutu FDLR insurgents and Mai Mai militia who have lingered in the vast mineral-rich zone since Congo's 1998-2003 war.