Foreign Correspondence

[fuagf]

""It is now more dangerous to be a woman than to be a soldier in modern conflict.""

This was prompted by a letter, in front of me, from Amnesty International, with the
above headline .. it mentions, amongst others .. (tiny nibble from a very long one) ..

The case of Tatiana Ume and her sisters

Tatiana Ume is a 17 year-old teenager who is married with a little two-year old boy. She was living with
her family in the Logo 200 area of Bunia. She is neither a Hema nor a Lendu. However, her story is a clear
reflection of the hell of hundreds of women in this conflict. Ume’s mother is Nande(25) and her father Muboa.

On 10 May, following the withdrawal of the Ugandan military, the Hema UPC militia systematically combed Area 200 searching for non-Hemas. The news spread around the neighbourhood. Ume and what remained of her family decided to flee, after the killing of her husband and two-year old son, with machetes a few days before. On the evening of the 10th, a large crowd of thousands of inhabitants from the outlying areas of Bunia was leaving the town heading for North Kivu. Ume, who was then eight and a half months pregnant, followed this wave of fleeing civilians. She was accompanied by her mother and two of her sisters, Chantal (aged 14) and Yvette (12). She was following a column of close to 100 people without knowing exactly where it was going. After six days walking, the convoy that she and her family were following reached a checkpoint set up by Hema UPC militia.

Her mother’s throat was cut for failing to pay the $US100.00 ransom demanded by the militia. She died immediately. Her sister Chantal was shot in the head for bursting into tears at her mother’s killing, and her twelve-year old sister was dragged off before her eyes into a nearby clearing where she was raped by a group of five armed militia. "I have not had any news of her since, because I was ordered to depart immediately if I did not want to suffer the same fate. Many people were raped and killed at that check point".

Completely exhausted, Ume continued her forced march alone for six more days. On the seventh day, she went into labour and gave birth to a little girl in the bush, at the village of Gogo, at a place called Machine, with the help of unknown women, who were companions on the march. She lost a lot of blood and had to continue her long walk the next day with her new baby. She finally arrived in Oicha where she registered as a displaced person. Two days before our interview, her little girl, aged two weeks, had died of anaemia and bronchitis. Now she feels: "today my life means nothing. My sisters were raped and killed. I have no more relations, I have no children, I have no parents, I have nothing. I only ask God to take away my life so I can find peace. I am good for nothing".

In many African societies, there is a taboo about discussing rape in public. The situation in Ituri is the same. Sexual violence is rarely reported, and the victims bear the physical and psychological scars of the attack and its consequences, including a deep sense of shame and isolation. Most women from Ituri chose to remain silent about the experience and even their own families do not help them overcome the ordeal. As a result, many do not receive any medical attention and develop sexually transmissible diseases and other problems that will remain with them for the rest of their lives.

Many of the female victims found by Amnesty International who do decide to speak about their situation, are faced with the reluctance of the family - who views a public admission as a loss of honour - and, above all, a lack of support structures to register their experiences. In fact, the CPI is often not regarded as efficient or reliable, and the absence of police and of a judicial structure can make their step seem futile.

http://www.amnesty.org/en/library/asset/AFR62/032/2003/en/dom-AFR620322003en.html