Telegraphe Congolais

We're not kidding

Every day, I see something that validates this quest to make a film about rape in east Congo. Of course I would have preferred to focus on another topic, I'll admit-- the subject is relentlessly unpleasant, and there are many fascinating stories to tell about the region... you could choose not to focus on the horrors in Africa that are all most outsiders hear about.

But we really had no choice. The problem is so bad-- to talk about anything else would be like ignoring a raging city fire to talk about the architecture.

In this Times article from the U.N., I'm wondering if the North Kivu rights organization mentioned is DOCS, or the Pole institute. A shame it wasn't attributed. But to get a sense of the magnitude of the trauma in Goma and its environs:

...in North Kivu in the Democratic Republic of Congo, a local rights organization
reported more than 2,000 cases of "gender based" violence in April alone. United
Nations officials determined that 50 percent of the victims were minors and that
the number of rape victims in the region was more than 25,000 for the year.

posted by LouisAntoine @ 9:36 AM