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afrol News, 20 June - Forces on all sides in the Congo conflict have committed war crimes against women and girls, according to a new report released today. Sexual violence, including systematic mass rape, is "rampant" in the embattled zones of eastern Congo Kinshasa. The advocacy group Human Rights Watch (HRW) today released its 114-page report 'The War within the War: Sexual Violence Against Women and Girls in Eastern Congo,' where it details the widespread, and in some cases systematic, use of rape on the part of Rwandan troops and their rebel allies, the Rassemblement congolais pour la democratie, as well as armed groups opposed to them from Burundi and Rwanda, and an ethnic militia groups known as the Mayi-Mayi. Some of the combatants used rape as a form of "punishment" for civilian populations seen to be cooperating with the "enemy", HRW said. In other cases women and girls were abducted and forced to provide sexual and domestic services for periods of more than a year. In other cases combatants mutilated the sexual organs of the women with knives or razor blades. Medical care in the region was practically nonexistent, and rates of HIV were thought to have reached 50 percent among fighting forces, the US-based group reported. "Rape in these circumstances can be a death sentence," it added. The report also documents the rejection of some women and girls by their husbands, families, and wider communities because they were raped or because they are thought to be infected with HIV/AIDS. As one such ostracized woman told HRW researchers, "My body has become sad. I have no happiness." With the collapse of official services, Congolese churches and civil society organizations have used their scarce resources to assist the victims. Local organisations which have also documented sexual violence in the region contributed to the report. - Combatants must direct their violence against recognised military targets, not against hapless women and girls who happen to cross their paths, Alison des Forges of the human rights group said. "Those who abuse women must be held accountable for their crimes." The group frequently investigates human rights violations committed by the Rwandan part of the Congoloese civil war; including Rwanda's local allies. Systematic human rights violations are known to be at least as widespread among the Congolese parties to the conflict, but access to investigate these is generally denied; leaving them undocumented.
Sources: Based on HRW and afrol archives
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