V DAY and the City of Joy

V-Day in Conjunction with UNICEF local non-profits in the Congo have opened up a center in the Congo for women who have experienced sexual violence known as City of Joy. It just opened on February 4, 2011 See how they built it
here:

Building the City of Joy from V-Day Until the Violence Stops on Vimeo.

Visit the V-DAY Congo Campaign site for more information: http://drc.vday.org/

The Next Resource Wars will be in Africa

While wars are raging in Afghanistan and Iraq (Yemen & Pakistan too for those who are keeping score at home) the next big wars will not be centered in the Middle East. Africa is home to many of the rare earth minerals that fuel the technology of the 21st Century and the Congo has many of the best reserves. Amidst the turmoil of the lame duck session of Congress President Obama revealed his strategy for dealing with the Lord's Resistance Army in the Congo. It is becoming apparent that instability in the Congo is against the national interests of the United States. The strategy which is discussed heavily in Foreign Policy Magazine, is murky at best and like many advisory efforts looks as if it is headed for an escalation. More over, the Congolese Army is often not a competent or ethical partner. The only good news that has come out of the Congo as of late has been the indictment of a high level war criminal at the International Criminal Court.

Vermont Students as Activists for the Congo

Several students from Saint Michael's College here in Vermont are making headway in their campaign to end U.S. support for Rwanda and Uganda. Both nations allegedly have made forays into the Congo and their soldiers have committed rapes and other atrocities. This effort is part of the Dear Hillary Campaign which was founded at the college. Early this year Secretary Clinton stated that the situation in the Congo was a matter of national security and it is hoped that advocacy such as this will help the U.S. live up to that assertion.

Security Council was Briefed on Congo Rapes

On October 14 the United Nations Security Council was briefed on the recent rapes that happened under noses of U.N. peacekeepers. PRI'S " The World" discusses various strategies for dealing with the situation in the Congo including an interesting program that tries to address the problem through the rapists who are often children themselves. A fictionalized account of one such case is detailed in the novel Beasts of No Nation.

Congo's Lastest Horrors

News regarding rape in the Congo rarely lets up. This article from Salon details the new allegations of the rape and murder of Congolese women at the hands of Angolan government officials. It also gets into the failure of the integration of women into the peacekeeping process on the 10 year anniversary of the U.N. resolution that was supposed to make it so.

Margot Wallstrom and the Security Council

Margot Wallstrom, the United Nations Special Representative on Sexual Violence in Conflict informed the United Nations Security Council this week regarding the mass rape of men, women, and children in Kampal, Democratic Republic of the Congo that occurred this summer in areas patrolled by United Nations peacekeepers. Wallstrom has spent much of the last month touring the DRC taking testimony from victims. Wallstrom and others have found fault with the lack of resources devoted to the U.N. DRC Mission and response of the peacekeepers involved in it. While it seems like, a far away problem the Congo is becoming an increasingly important supplier of rare earth minerals to the United States.

Gang Rape in the Congo

Two weeks ago it was reported that several hundred women were gang raped, sometimes in front of their families by rebel militia groups in an area patrolled by the United Nations. This came at a time when Margot Wallstrom was touring the region. It is just another sad chapter in the history of this conflict. Today the U.N. Undersecretary for Peace Keeping apologized for the incident. I have spoken about the appalling lack of resources devoted to the problem in the past and their is current little indication that the United Nations will be able to change the situation in the future.