Local view for "http://purl.org/linkedpolitics/eu/plenary/2008-01-17-Speech-4-189"
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"en.20080117.20.4-189"2
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"Madam President, the appalling mass rapes taking place in the Congo are being systematically organised and this means they are also being used as a military strategy, and that is not just war but sexual terror against women. The brutal rapes are now being used by each of the warring factions in eastern Congo, whether they are local tribal militia or national army soldiers, as a symbol or power and as a means of intimidation.
It is precisely the weakest in society, namely women, children and even babies, who are being barbarously abused, deliberately injured, mutilated, infected with HIV and other infectious diseases and even killed. We know, and have heard, that the level of brutality exceeds the powers of human imagination and we now urgently need to see rape being condemned at long last as a crime against humanity, as a war crime and as a form of torture. Moreover, when the rape victims return traumatised and alone to their villages after painful operations – with many of the women losing all their genital organs – they find little or no shelter there.
I can therefore only support the remarks made by Mr Borrell and Mrs Scheele: we must also use European money to set up women’s dormitories that can serve as a kind of refuge for those returning from their stay in hospital, and where they can then try to build a new life. Indeed, in addition to the physical violence endured, the psychological violence that the victims have suffered is terrible beyond measure.
We know that most of these attacks have been carried out by rebels, but almost one fifth of the recorded incidents can be attributed to government troops and police, and it is indeed shameful that not a single culprit has yet been arrested or even charged. The time for empty talk is therefore past. We need political action from the UN and the European Union, for if we …"@en1
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