Rape in Zimbabwe in order to "fix" elections

Yesterday it was revealed in a report by the non profit group Aids Free World that it had completed an investigation into allegations of rape in Zimbabwe at the hands of government backed militias. The report states that on at least 70 occasions, militiamen attached to the ruling party raped women in order suppress opposition part political activities. This strategic use of rape has been common in recent times as its perpetrators seek to instill fear in both the women and their immediate families. The living victim then gos on to serve as a reminder if the demands of the particular militia,political party, or religious authority are not met further rapes will occur in the future.

Read the full report here:

http://www.aids-freeworld.org/content/view/339/198/

Read PRI's interview with one of the Directors of Aids Free World:

http://www.theworld.org/2009/12/10/sexual-assault-in-mugabes-zimbabwe/

Women for Women Interantional

After seeing this group on the Oprah Winfrey Show, I will be donating to their cause. Their mission is to halt sexual violence in war zones and to uplift the lives of women. If you have ever read any my previous posts on sexual violence in combat zones you understand how prevalent and under reported the phenomenon is until very recently. Please go to their website and see the work that they are doing.

http://www.womenforwomen.org/

and watch the 60 minutes piece on rape in the Congo:

http://www.cbsnews.com/stories/2008/01/11/60minutes/main3701249.shtml

A Women in Berlin

This is an incredibly important piece of film regarding the use of rape in warfare. I will tie the movie into later research once I see the movie. Here is a story from NPR regarding a survivor of the Russian rape of the women of Berlin after World War II and a review of the movie based on a true account:

http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=106687768


http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xEZxcSf9HwM

War Sex

This is the introduction to my up coming paper entitled War Sex: The Cultural Implications of the Sporadic and Intentional acts of Sexual Violence Committed by the United States Military Since World War I. I plan to have the paper written by the end of April to coincide with National Violence Against Women Awareness Month.

Sexual violence has had a part to play in every war that the United States has conducted since World War I and probably most conflicts before that. Culturally, it is an extremely painful realization. The U.S. military is often trumpeted as the vaunted legion of democracy and the guardian of the ideals that which democracies represent. Most recently, the prima facia pornography of the photos at Abu Gharib changed that popular understanding to a certain extent. However, this episode was not the United States military’s first foray into the world of sexual violence. There have been accounts of the sporadic commission of rape on the battle since World War I. In fact, the first execution of a U.S. Army soldier on foreign soil was for rape in 1917.World War II, Vietnam, and the recent conflicts in Afghanistan and Iraq have all been littered with accounts of sporadic as well as planned sexual violence. More important than chronicling each individual act of sexual violence, this paper seeks to explain how sexual violence perpetrated by the U.S. military has affected art, literature, and film in the western world. The exploration of how cultural output of the United States and other western countries has played a role in enhancing the level of sexual violence in the U.S. military will also be explored. In this way, the feedback loop regarding sexual violence that plays out between culture of the United States and its military can be understood. The review of several works of art, literature, and film from each era provides a glimpse at how cultural understandings regarding sexual violence in combat have changed over the last hundred years and how images from one era affect another in sometimes surprising ways.

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From the Congo to Guantanamo:The Plight of Child Soldiers

Two weeks ago the trial of notorious Congolese militia leader Lubanga Dyilo began in the International Criminal Court. He stands accused of among other things, using children to sow rape, mayhem, and murder throughout the Congo. These children were, as a CNN article points out, socialized to commit unspeakable acts of violence as rape and torture was first utilized on them. The article states: "Lubanga's armed group recruited, trained and used hundreds of young children to kill, pillage and rape. The children still suffer the consequences of Lubanga's crimes. They cannot forget what they saw, what they suffered, what they did," ICC chief prosecutor Luis Moreno-Ocampo said as the trial opened on Monday morning." This type of monstrous socialization is charted in several books such as "A Long Way Gone" by Ismael Beal, and the novels "What is the What" by Dave Eggers, and "Beasts of No Nation" by Uzodinma Iweala which detail the events of wide range of African civil wars. This entire event is juxtaposed by the fact that the United States currently holds a child soldier in Guantanamo Bay. Omar Khadr has been held, without trial for oven 7 years. He was first taken from the battlefield when he was just 15. The evidence that has been proffered against him is dubious at best. It is even alleged that harsh interrogations and even torture had been used on this teenager (Now a 22 year old man). His conditions of detention have been identical to those of all of the other detainees at Guantanamo Bay despite his age. There is little doubt that Khadr was coerced into service by relatives in the same way that child soldiers in Sierra Leon, Liberia, the Congo, Sudan, and numerous other countries have been. Holding Khadr in this manner for the past seven years dilutes the world community's ability to prosecute the real crime in this case: the use of child soldiers in the first place.

CNN trial article:

http://www.cnn.com/2009/WORLD/africa/01/26/congo.hague.trial/index.html