UN humanitarian chief promises justice for victims of sexual violence in DR Congo
After meeting today with sexual violence victims in the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC), Under Secretary-General for Humanitarian Affairs Jan Egeland pledged to fight “the culture of impunity that has too long held sway in this country.”
Mr. Egeland, who is on the third day of an eight-day visit to three central African nations, spent time in the eastern province of South Kivu at a hospital specializing in the treatment of sexual violence victims.
Among the patients Mr. Egeland met there were three women who had been assaulted within the past three months. One of them had lost the use of her hands after being tied up and raped repeatedly for a week.
“There must be justice for the wrongs that have been done to you,” Mr. Egeland promised the women. “Those guilty must be punished. I will take your story to the world.”
Meanwhile, the UN Special Representative for Children and Armed Conflict, Radhika Coomaraswamy, welcomed the conclusions reached yesterday by a Security Council Working Group that reviewed Secretary General Kofi Annan’s report on the DRC.
The Working Group recommended conveying its grave concern about repeated violation of Council resolutions by the leaders of the Mouvement Revolutionnaire Congolais (MRC) to the Sanctions Committee on the DRC.
In a breakthrough brokered by the UN in July, the MRC, a major rebel coalition in the eastern part of the country, agreed to lay down its weapons.
The Working Group also reiterated the responsibility of the UN mission in the DRC to help the Government apprehend child abusers, specifically dissident General Nkunda.
“Yesterday was an important landmark in the fight against impunity for those who commit grave violations against children during armed conflict,” said Ms. Coomaraswamy, who called the Working Group’s recommendations “a long-awaited sign … of serious censure and possible repercussions for parties who continue to abuse children in situations of armed conflict.”