Rape in Darfur

As independence day came to an end here in the US, I watched a PBS special Heart of Darfur. What is going on in Darfur is completely devastating, including extreme sexual violence as a war tactic by the Janjaweed militia, that only continues to escalate.

Will the coming election bring progress as well as attention?

Both USA Today and CNN have recently reported on the astounding rape incidences in Darfur, but it is not a recent development. Rape has been a weapon of war in many instances of our lifetime. According to the documentary and NYTimes columnist Nicholas Kristof, Mia Ferrow has caused the most consequential awareness, and she notes in an entry from July 1st on Huffington Post, that "almost 100 percent of women living in aid camps have been raped."

The UN only just recognized rape as a "wartime weapon", this June.

On 8/24/2004, an Advocate with Refugees International, Fidele Lumeya wrote "The fate of a raped woman in an Islamic fundamentalist society such as that in Sudan is already sealed. Rape survivors are more often than not rejected for being a visible reminder of the shame inflicted on the community by the rape act."

The G8 summit is coming up this week July 7-9th.



http://www.stoparmstosudan.org/