Where rape is a weapon of war

She told the audience she had made a promise she would tell the women’s story. But because of speaking out, she eventually had to run for her life and when she fled the Congo, she had to sell her children’s shoes to pay to cross the border. She now has six daughters and works with Caritas Australia.

She said the role of the multinational mining companies had to be addressed before the conflict in the Congo could end. She called on Australians and mining company shareholders to persuade Australian companies involved in Congo mining to sign on to the Extraction Industry’s Transparency Initiative. In that way the companies could avoid signing contracts with rebel groups.

The DRC is one of the richest countries in Africa in its resources and natural abundance. The mineral assets are huge, the southern province of Katanga alone is estimated to have 34 per cent of the world’s known cobalt reserves and 10 per of the world’s copper. This is matched by impressive agricultural lands and forests second only to the Amazon basin in size and reserves of timber.

This potential wealth has been described as the scourge of DRC since initial encounters with Europeans. In recent times it has fuelled a bitter and extended series of conflicts compounded by dictatorial government and entrenched corruption. Few benefits reach the general population.

Caritas Congo reported that fighting had continued despite the Congolese Government’s approval of a UN ceasefire plan for all sides to withdraw their forces by September 17, 2008. This followed an initial signing of a ceasefire in January 2008.

UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon recently visited North Kivu, where clashes between the Congolese armed forces (FARDC) and the mainly Tutsi rebel group known as the National Congress in Defence of the People (CNDP), have taken place over the past six months, displacing about 250,000 people, on top of the 800,000 already uprooted in the province.

He and Mrs Ban Soon-taek visited some of the women and girls who have been victims of sexual violence at the Heal Africa Hospital, in the provincial capital of Goma. (February 2009).

According to the UN Children’s Fund, an estimated 200,000 women and girls have been assaulted in the past 12 years. Sexual violence is known to be prevalent throughout Congolese society, but the area most affected has been the eastern part of the country, particularly the Kivu region.

After her Brisbane address, Ms Mitshabu said that she believed the mandate of UN peacekeepers should be strengthened and their numbers increased. As things stood, the UN peacekeepers could only observe what was going on but could not protect citizens. Peacekeepers were also in need of more training in gender abuse situations, she said.

There was massive rape continuing in the Congo but there were no headlines, she said. The Congo story did not get much coverage because she thought the media had become de-sensitised.

“People don’t want to hear,” she said. “The story is so dreadful.”

Congolese people had the capability of developing their country but they needed funds through NGOs. But even more, they needed people to constantly advocate on their behalf - to tell their story.

She called on her audience to speak out about the Congo rapes and to tell Australia’s Foreign Minister, politicians, radio stations, local papers and parishes how, in the 21st century, massive rape was being used as a weapon of war.

“It is silent genocide,” she said.