Woman with Gloria Steinem (2016–…): Season 1, Episode 1 - DRC: Rape as a Weapon of War - full transcript
As rival militias and armies battle for control of mineral-rich territories in the Democratic Republic of Congo, the rape of local women has become a routine military tactic.
I've traveled the world
as a writer and an activist
for my entire life.
What we are talking
about is a revolution.
We are the women
that our parents
warned us about.
And I can tell you
that by confronting the problems
once marginalized
as women's issues,
we can tackle
the greatest dangers
of the 21st century.
[ Women chanting ]
Behind every major crisis,
there's an unseen factor
at play.
A story you're never been told.
The greatest indicator
of the world's
stability, wealth,
and safety
is the status of women.
Rape in times of war
is a form of terrorism
designed to instill fear, create
trauma, and destroy communities.
The victims are attacked,
mutilated, and then shunned.
In the Democratic Republic
of Congo alone,
1.8 million women
have been targets
of brutal sexual assault.
And today in the DRC,
mass rapes are no longer
confined to war zones,
they've become routine.
[ Singing in Swahili ]
Hi.
This is little baby Horeb.
He's super cute.
He's a product of rape,
like most of the kids here.
They're all growing up
in this little community
because just like the women
ashamed from rape,
the products
of the rape, these kids,
are also shamed and ignored.
It's very hard
for them to grow up
in regular Congolese society.
So this is a place
that they can legitimately
grow up and be accepted.
We wanted to find out
why these rapes are happening.
More then 20 years ago,
armed forces from Rwanda
invaded the DRC.
This set off a wave of conflicts
between tribal militias,
ethnic groups,
and guerilla units from other
countries all battling for power
in the mineral-rich hills
of central Africa.
And almost every one
of these groups
has used mass rape of civilians
as a terror tactic.
The war officially ended
in 2003.
The question is, why have
the rapes continued years later.
We went deeper into the region
to find out.
So, we're still in
eastern Congo.
We're just leaving the very
last buildings
that are
under government control.
One of the rebel warlords
has actually agreed
to speak with us,
so he sent some of his soldiers
to meet us,
which just means getting
past these roads first.
Is it far from here?
[ Speaking Swahili ]
Over the years,
groups of local militia,
known as Mai Mai,
have sprung up to defend
against rebel attacks
on their villages.
So we've been walking
for about six kilometers
with these guys guarding us.
We're just getting
to the village
where these rebels
and their warlord are based.
Can you describe what your life
was like before this war?
[ Speaking Swahili ]
Yeung: To this day, 13 years
after the end of the war,
splinter rebel groups
from Rwanda
and local Mai Mai militia
like this one
continue to fight
over territory.
Can you just explain
what your tribe does
and why do you guys still need
to be here
with the heavy weaponry
that you have?
[ Speaking Swahili ]
YEUNG:
As these rapes continue,
the survivors often
have no place to turn,
so many of them end up here.
This is Masika Katsuva.
Around here,
she's known as Mama Masika.
She began bringing survivors
of rape to Buganga Village
in 2000.
Most of them come for medical
and community support.
It's kind
of a mini refugee camp,
so they kind of try to start to
rebuild their lives again.
[ Knocking on door ]
Come in.
Mama Masika?
Hi!
Jambo jambo!
I'm Isobel.
It's nice to meet you.
Hello.
Mama Masika
asks me to wait
while she documents the progress
of Gorgeta, who was brought here
physically and emotionally
drained around a month ago.
[ Speaking Swahili ]
Do you know who these men were?
[ Speaking Swahili ]
With so many women like Gorgeta
falling victim
to this horrific violence,
it's easy to imagine the harm
it's doing to the society
as a whole.
Yeung:
Visiting Mama Masika
in this village
full of rape survivors,
the sheer number
of atrocities and the effect
it's having on society
at large begins to sink in.
[ Speaking Swahili ]
The pain of rape is something
Mama Masika
has experienced firsthand.
She and two of her daughters
are survivors
of violent sexual assaults.
[ Speaking Swahili ]
Yeung: This is the real tragedy
of rape in the DRC.
Not only are the women
brutalized,
they also lose all status
in society.
Survivors are often shunned
by their communities
and driven from their homes.
[ Speaking Swahili ]
Yeung: With no home
to go back to
and no other source of income,
the women rent plots of land
and grow just enough staples
to feed the village.
They sell the excess
to pay for supplies.
They are somehow surviving,
but still in constant danger.
There are rebels
all around this region,
so it's still
a really vulnerable place
for women to be farming.
Militias like the one
we visited say
they need to exist
to protect their communities.
But several Mai Mai groups
have been publicly accused
of perpetrating their own rapes
and murders.
Because it's obviously so hard
to control all your troops
as a general,
do you think that it's possible
that any of your soldiers
could have ever raped anyone?
[ Chuckles ]
[ Speaking Swahili ]
This is where we're
gonna spend the night.
Everyone's kind of still eating
and chattering around us,
but we've got a bunch
of guys and soldiers
with their AK-47s
and their RPGs guarding over us.
Don't know if that makes me feel
safer or not, but...
Oh.
For the people of eastern Congo,
the raids, rapes,
and fighting in their land
never ended with the war.
The reason is simple.
The DRC is sitting on a fortune
of precious metals and minerals,
and all of these armed groups
are desperate to get
their share.
Yeung: This is one of hundreds
of mines in this district,
which they are mining
for gold and coltan
and various other minerals,
which is where the majority of
the wealth comes from in Congo.
Eastern Congo is one
of the world's
top five producers of coltan,
a mineral essential
to the production
of laptops, tablets,
and cell pones.
Prices for coltan are soaring,
making the mines
high-value targets
for different rebel groups.
These groups raid the mines
and then use the spoils
to buy weapons and supplies.
This makes working conditions
extremely dangerous
for these women
who have no choice
but to work here
after losing their farms
and families
to the same rebel raiders.
[ Speaking Swahili ]
So when was the last time
they came here?
[ Speaking Swahili ]
And what happened to the women
working here in this mine?
[ Speaking Swahili ]
So are you safe working here?
[ Speaking Swahili ]
If rebels showed up right now,
it's really...
not easy to escape.
I mean,
there's nowhere to run to.
These women are completely
helpless and vulnerable.
And these miners
aren't the only ones at risk.
This plague of sexual violence
has been spreading
beyond the conflict zones
and into everyday life.
So we're at Panzi Hospital
in Bukavu.
This is a place
where women come from all
over eastern Congo
from miles and miles
to come and seek medical help
for rape with extreme violence.
This place was set up by
Dr. Denis Mukwege,
who we're about to meet.
In the town's clinic,
we have two tents.
Dr. Mukwege is
a Nobel Peace Prize nominee
and the world's leading expert
on treating victims
of gang rape.
[ Speaking French ]
Dr. Mukwege takes me to
the hospital's pediatric room
to see for myself.
- Bonjour.
- Bonjour.
Bonjour.
[ Speaking French ]
Yeung:
How old is your child?
[ Speaking French ]
Six years old.
[ Speaking French ]
We have a protocol of how
to treat this kind of lesion.
We have five classes.
So here we have when only
the skin was touched.
Yeung: The physical effects of
rape on a child
can be devastating.
In some cases,
the vagina and anus
are completely destroyed,
leading to incontinence
and infection.
In the worst case,
the child's abdomen
is punctured,
which is usually fatal.
[ Speaking softly in French ]
Yeung: This child's injuries
are healing.
She will not need surgery.
[ Speaking French ]
Yeung: Seeing
a six-year-old child
who's been raped really brings
home how horrific all this is.
Why do you think it is
that we're seeing the increase
in rape incidences
amongst children
and various different provinces?
[ Speaking French ]
Yeung: In fact, of the
1.8 million rapes
committed in the last 20 years,
only a fraction of the cases
have ever gone to trial.
That means the vast majority
of rapists in the DRC
remain completely free.
[ Speaking French ]
Yeung: We're just entering
the village of Minova,
which is right on the border
between North Kivu
and South Kivu.
Back in 2012,
this is where government troops
swarmed in and raped well
over a hundred women.
According to survivors,
the culprits
were not foreign rebels
or unregulated militia --
they were the DRC's own army.
In response, the government
took an unusual step
for the DRC.
They held a military trail
to bring the perpetrators
to justice.
39 soldiers,
including
five high-ranking officers,
were brought up on charges
of rape, looting,
and failure to maintain
control of troops.
After a six-month trial,
a verdict was reached.
Only two junior
soldiers were convicted.
We're just outside Goma,
and we're gonna go talk
to some of the perpetrators
of the Minova rape.
We were told that to get access
to these prisoners,
we should first interview
the vice governor of Goma.
[ Speaking French ]
Yeung:
Even though the vice governor
had said we should be admitted,
when we tried to go inside
with our cameras,
we were refused.
[ Speaking Swahili ]
The minister
that we spoke to was
telling us how great
their justice system is,
how many men have been convicted
of rape in the last few years,
how man prisoners
they're holding in here.
They haven't let us see
a single prisoner.
So it's impossible to tell.
I don't know how the justice
system is working at this point.
What is clear
is that every single month,
Panzi Hospital documents
nearly 100 new cases
of sexual violence
against women and children,
and these are just the cases
that are reported.
Without an effective
judicial process consistently
handing down real punishments,
this statistic is not going
down any time soon.
So what hope is there
for the DRC?
For the women and girls
in Mama Masika's village?
[ Speaking Swahili ]
Since we filmed
this piece in the DRC,
Masika Katsuva
died suddenly
from complications of malaria.
It's a profound loss
of a woman who changed
the lives of countless people.
Meanwhile, the rapes continue.
As we've seen in many parts
of the Congo,
sexualized violence from war
has been normalized.
Until that is remedied,
any other hope for peace
will be in vain.
as a writer and an activist
for my entire life.
What we are talking
about is a revolution.
We are the women
that our parents
warned us about.
And I can tell you
that by confronting the problems
once marginalized
as women's issues,
we can tackle
the greatest dangers
of the 21st century.
[ Women chanting ]
Behind every major crisis,
there's an unseen factor
at play.
A story you're never been told.
The greatest indicator
of the world's
stability, wealth,
and safety
is the status of women.
Rape in times of war
is a form of terrorism
designed to instill fear, create
trauma, and destroy communities.
The victims are attacked,
mutilated, and then shunned.
In the Democratic Republic
of Congo alone,
1.8 million women
have been targets
of brutal sexual assault.
And today in the DRC,
mass rapes are no longer
confined to war zones,
they've become routine.
[ Singing in Swahili ]
Hi.
This is little baby Horeb.
He's super cute.
He's a product of rape,
like most of the kids here.
They're all growing up
in this little community
because just like the women
ashamed from rape,
the products
of the rape, these kids,
are also shamed and ignored.
It's very hard
for them to grow up
in regular Congolese society.
So this is a place
that they can legitimately
grow up and be accepted.
We wanted to find out
why these rapes are happening.
More then 20 years ago,
armed forces from Rwanda
invaded the DRC.
This set off a wave of conflicts
between tribal militias,
ethnic groups,
and guerilla units from other
countries all battling for power
in the mineral-rich hills
of central Africa.
And almost every one
of these groups
has used mass rape of civilians
as a terror tactic.
The war officially ended
in 2003.
The question is, why have
the rapes continued years later.
We went deeper into the region
to find out.
So, we're still in
eastern Congo.
We're just leaving the very
last buildings
that are
under government control.
One of the rebel warlords
has actually agreed
to speak with us,
so he sent some of his soldiers
to meet us,
which just means getting
past these roads first.
Is it far from here?
[ Speaking Swahili ]
Over the years,
groups of local militia,
known as Mai Mai,
have sprung up to defend
against rebel attacks
on their villages.
So we've been walking
for about six kilometers
with these guys guarding us.
We're just getting
to the village
where these rebels
and their warlord are based.
Can you describe what your life
was like before this war?
[ Speaking Swahili ]
Yeung: To this day, 13 years
after the end of the war,
splinter rebel groups
from Rwanda
and local Mai Mai militia
like this one
continue to fight
over territory.
Can you just explain
what your tribe does
and why do you guys still need
to be here
with the heavy weaponry
that you have?
[ Speaking Swahili ]
YEUNG:
As these rapes continue,
the survivors often
have no place to turn,
so many of them end up here.
This is Masika Katsuva.
Around here,
she's known as Mama Masika.
She began bringing survivors
of rape to Buganga Village
in 2000.
Most of them come for medical
and community support.
It's kind
of a mini refugee camp,
so they kind of try to start to
rebuild their lives again.
[ Knocking on door ]
Come in.
Mama Masika?
Hi!
Jambo jambo!
I'm Isobel.
It's nice to meet you.
Hello.
Mama Masika
asks me to wait
while she documents the progress
of Gorgeta, who was brought here
physically and emotionally
drained around a month ago.
[ Speaking Swahili ]
Do you know who these men were?
[ Speaking Swahili ]
With so many women like Gorgeta
falling victim
to this horrific violence,
it's easy to imagine the harm
it's doing to the society
as a whole.
Yeung:
Visiting Mama Masika
in this village
full of rape survivors,
the sheer number
of atrocities and the effect
it's having on society
at large begins to sink in.
[ Speaking Swahili ]
The pain of rape is something
Mama Masika
has experienced firsthand.
She and two of her daughters
are survivors
of violent sexual assaults.
[ Speaking Swahili ]
Yeung: This is the real tragedy
of rape in the DRC.
Not only are the women
brutalized,
they also lose all status
in society.
Survivors are often shunned
by their communities
and driven from their homes.
[ Speaking Swahili ]
Yeung: With no home
to go back to
and no other source of income,
the women rent plots of land
and grow just enough staples
to feed the village.
They sell the excess
to pay for supplies.
They are somehow surviving,
but still in constant danger.
There are rebels
all around this region,
so it's still
a really vulnerable place
for women to be farming.
Militias like the one
we visited say
they need to exist
to protect their communities.
But several Mai Mai groups
have been publicly accused
of perpetrating their own rapes
and murders.
Because it's obviously so hard
to control all your troops
as a general,
do you think that it's possible
that any of your soldiers
could have ever raped anyone?
[ Chuckles ]
[ Speaking Swahili ]
This is where we're
gonna spend the night.
Everyone's kind of still eating
and chattering around us,
but we've got a bunch
of guys and soldiers
with their AK-47s
and their RPGs guarding over us.
Don't know if that makes me feel
safer or not, but...
Oh.
For the people of eastern Congo,
the raids, rapes,
and fighting in their land
never ended with the war.
The reason is simple.
The DRC is sitting on a fortune
of precious metals and minerals,
and all of these armed groups
are desperate to get
their share.
Yeung: This is one of hundreds
of mines in this district,
which they are mining
for gold and coltan
and various other minerals,
which is where the majority of
the wealth comes from in Congo.
Eastern Congo is one
of the world's
top five producers of coltan,
a mineral essential
to the production
of laptops, tablets,
and cell pones.
Prices for coltan are soaring,
making the mines
high-value targets
for different rebel groups.
These groups raid the mines
and then use the spoils
to buy weapons and supplies.
This makes working conditions
extremely dangerous
for these women
who have no choice
but to work here
after losing their farms
and families
to the same rebel raiders.
[ Speaking Swahili ]
So when was the last time
they came here?
[ Speaking Swahili ]
And what happened to the women
working here in this mine?
[ Speaking Swahili ]
So are you safe working here?
[ Speaking Swahili ]
If rebels showed up right now,
it's really...
not easy to escape.
I mean,
there's nowhere to run to.
These women are completely
helpless and vulnerable.
And these miners
aren't the only ones at risk.
This plague of sexual violence
has been spreading
beyond the conflict zones
and into everyday life.
So we're at Panzi Hospital
in Bukavu.
This is a place
where women come from all
over eastern Congo
from miles and miles
to come and seek medical help
for rape with extreme violence.
This place was set up by
Dr. Denis Mukwege,
who we're about to meet.
In the town's clinic,
we have two tents.
Dr. Mukwege is
a Nobel Peace Prize nominee
and the world's leading expert
on treating victims
of gang rape.
[ Speaking French ]
Dr. Mukwege takes me to
the hospital's pediatric room
to see for myself.
- Bonjour.
- Bonjour.
Bonjour.
[ Speaking French ]
Yeung:
How old is your child?
[ Speaking French ]
Six years old.
[ Speaking French ]
We have a protocol of how
to treat this kind of lesion.
We have five classes.
So here we have when only
the skin was touched.
Yeung: The physical effects of
rape on a child
can be devastating.
In some cases,
the vagina and anus
are completely destroyed,
leading to incontinence
and infection.
In the worst case,
the child's abdomen
is punctured,
which is usually fatal.
[ Speaking softly in French ]
Yeung: This child's injuries
are healing.
She will not need surgery.
[ Speaking French ]
Yeung: Seeing
a six-year-old child
who's been raped really brings
home how horrific all this is.
Why do you think it is
that we're seeing the increase
in rape incidences
amongst children
and various different provinces?
[ Speaking French ]
Yeung: In fact, of the
1.8 million rapes
committed in the last 20 years,
only a fraction of the cases
have ever gone to trial.
That means the vast majority
of rapists in the DRC
remain completely free.
[ Speaking French ]
Yeung: We're just entering
the village of Minova,
which is right on the border
between North Kivu
and South Kivu.
Back in 2012,
this is where government troops
swarmed in and raped well
over a hundred women.
According to survivors,
the culprits
were not foreign rebels
or unregulated militia --
they were the DRC's own army.
In response, the government
took an unusual step
for the DRC.
They held a military trail
to bring the perpetrators
to justice.
39 soldiers,
including
five high-ranking officers,
were brought up on charges
of rape, looting,
and failure to maintain
control of troops.
After a six-month trial,
a verdict was reached.
Only two junior
soldiers were convicted.
We're just outside Goma,
and we're gonna go talk
to some of the perpetrators
of the Minova rape.
We were told that to get access
to these prisoners,
we should first interview
the vice governor of Goma.
[ Speaking French ]
Yeung:
Even though the vice governor
had said we should be admitted,
when we tried to go inside
with our cameras,
we were refused.
[ Speaking Swahili ]
The minister
that we spoke to was
telling us how great
their justice system is,
how many men have been convicted
of rape in the last few years,
how man prisoners
they're holding in here.
They haven't let us see
a single prisoner.
So it's impossible to tell.
I don't know how the justice
system is working at this point.
What is clear
is that every single month,
Panzi Hospital documents
nearly 100 new cases
of sexual violence
against women and children,
and these are just the cases
that are reported.
Without an effective
judicial process consistently
handing down real punishments,
this statistic is not going
down any time soon.
So what hope is there
for the DRC?
For the women and girls
in Mama Masika's village?
[ Speaking Swahili ]
Since we filmed
this piece in the DRC,
Masika Katsuva
died suddenly
from complications of malaria.
It's a profound loss
of a woman who changed
the lives of countless people.
Meanwhile, the rapes continue.
As we've seen in many parts
of the Congo,
sexualized violence from war
has been normalized.
Until that is remedied,
any other hope for peace
will be in vain.