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    November 14, 2011

Husbands in Prison While Rapists Roam Free in DRC

   Heather Murdock | Goma, DRC
   Justine Masika runs Synergy of Women for Victim of Sexual Violence. She
   says while rape convictions are more common these days, the rich and
   powerful still enjoy impunity.
   Photo: VOA - H. Murdock
   Justine Masika runs Synergy of Women for Victim of Sexual Violence. She
   says while rape convictions are more common these days, the rich and
   powerful still enjoy impunity.

   The Democratic Republic of Congo has one of the highest rates of rape
   in the world, with one recent report from the American Journal of
   Public Health, estimating that a woman is raped almost every minute. In
   North Kivu, one of the country's most volatile provinces, officials say
   efforts to prosecute rapists are frustrated by flawed laws that pack
   the prisons with poor young men, while the real rapists remain free,
   deep in the countryside.
   Inmates here in Goma's central prison say they have no beds or
   blankets, and eat only a few hundred calories a day. Many say their
   only crime was being poor.
   This man, Edouard, says his troubles started when he fell in love and
   got married. His wife's family originally agreed to the match, for a
   nine-goat dowry. A poor man, Edouard had only three goats - worth about
   $150. His brothers-in-law took him to the police, and accused him of
   rape. Now he is serving his second year of a 15-year sentence.
   Regional Justice Ministry Detention Specialist Jules Simpeze says
   Edouard's case is not uncommon. He says of the 400 men in the central
   prison in the regional capital, Goma, for rape, 380 are non-violent
   offenders.
   Simpeze says most violent rapes take place in the countryside, far from
   law enforcement officials. By the time a victim can report an attack,
   he says, the rapist is long gone. Many rapists, he adds, are members of
   Congo's many armed groups, which all operate outside the law.
   The men in prison for rape, Simpeze says, are usually convicted for
   violating Congo's 2006 rape law, which makes the age of sexual consent
   for a female 18 years old. But the law itself, he says, is flawed
   because families in the countryside often do not know the age of
   consent, and their daughters marry much younger. The U.N. says the
   majority of girls in the Congo marry between the ages of 15 and 19. And
   so this leaves young husbands vulnerable when a family's squabble over
   a dowry turns into a rape charge.
   Regional Minister of Justice Francois Tuyihimbaze Rucogoza agrees the
   rape laws do not account for local customs. But he defends them as
   necessary. He says strict law enforcement is reducing sexual violence
   in Congo by creating a deterrent. More people now know that if you
   rape, you can go to jail.
   Rucogoza does admit that the laws are not enough. He says law
   enforcement is held back by the fact that they cannot get to the
   violent rapists. Roughly the size of Western Europe, the Congolese
   countryside is hard to travel, with thick jungles, few or no roads in
   many places, and sparring militias.
   Like Simpeze, Rucogoza says the laws were written under pressure from
   international aid organizations that help rape victims in Congo. He
   says these organizations inflate the rape numbers to attract donors,
   pressuring law enforcement officials to fill the jails with bodies,
   whether actual rapists or not.
   Frank August Muteba-Mukute, a lawyer who represents men accused of rape
   in Congo, says it is not just disputes over money that create bogus
   rape cases. Since the laws came into force, people have also used them
   to punish their enemies.
   But activists say without strict rape laws and constant pressure to
   enforce them, the flood of victims pouring into hospitals and aid
   centers will never cease. Justine Masika, the director of victims'
   rights organization 'Synergy of Women for Victims of Sexual Violence,'
   says that while the government has prosecuted more rapists in recent
   years, it is still only the poor who go to prison.
   She says rich people, high-ranking officials and militants still do not
   usually go to jail for rape, despite the increasing number of
   convictions. But poor men with young wives often do.

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