Non riporto questo articolo di Eve Esler per nutrire ulteriorermente istinti violenti - come possono essere anche quelli intenzionati a combattere contro le ingiustizie - ma per mettermi sempre più al servizio di una realtà non violenta, amorevole e sana, in favore della vita e della vitalità. Preferisco essere a favore di qualcosa di luminoso, piuttosto che contro quello che avverto come malvagio. Forse spostando in questo modo il pensiero, sarà in futuro, più facile sfamare il bene.
Mi auguro che questo articolo, che suscita sgomento e pena, generi anche compassione e nutra sentimenti di solidarietà e fratellanza. E, certo, spero possa generare un movimento più vasto verso la protezione, la cura e la rinascita di questo popolo addolorato.
La bambina Noëlle e la coscienza dell’Occidente
di Eve Esler
Rio de Janeiro (Canale del Mozambico) - (...) I'm not the first to report the rape, mutilation and atrocities suffered by women in the Democratic Republic of Congo. On this subject, there are relationships that have been going on since at least 2000. And I'm not the first to tell these stories of rape, even as a writer and as an activist against sexual violence against women. Over the past ten years I have heard dozens of stories of women raped, tortured, burned and mutilated, Bosnia, Kosovo, the United States, in Ciudad Juarez (Mexico), from Kenya to Pakistan, Haiti, the Philippines, Iraq and Afghanistan. And although I know that it is misleading to compare them with each other, I can not help but do it in front of the terrible atrocities and suffering I have discovered in the Congo. Here, violence against women seems to tend to one, terrifying purpose: the annihilation of the female gender. Violence against women in the DRC is not even categorize as femicide, but it has absolutely specific aspects that must be analyzed as such. Delineate a state of total emergency. Women are raped and killed at any moment, and despite all affannino in the DRC is to say that these horrible acts of violence, be denounced, no one acts. Due to popular superstition to the effect that a man who violates women very young or old, gets special powers, girls less than twelve years of age and women more 'than eighty years are victims of continued violation. The rapes are often in front of their husbands and children. With the aggravating circumstance of cruelty. We know of HIV-positive soldiers sent to control the villages that violate and maim women. There are reports of hundreds of cases of fistula in the vagina and rectum caused by 'Canes and introduction of weapons or collective rapes. These women are no longer able to control urine or faeces. After being raped, are even abandoned by families and communities. However, the most terrible crime is the passivity of the international community, government institutions, media ..., the world's total indifference to this carnage. I spent two weeks in Goma and Bukavu, interviewing women survivors. Some were of Bunia. I have collected at least eight hours of interviews a day, I had lunch and went to therapy sessions with them. I cried with them. The level of atrocities is beyond belief. Nowhere I saw this type of sexual violence, torture them, these cruelties. In the state of violence in which the year found in eastern Congo, the adultery of women has become, as I said a survivor, a "national sport". "We have seen nothing, the animals are treated better than us." Said a woman admitted to hospital in Goma. From the evidence collected, it appears that all the troops, without exception, are involved in rapes: the FDLR and the Interahamwe, the Congolese army and troops also ONU per il mantenimento della pace. Aids, mancanza di prevenzione e protezione, e sanzioni non sono un deterrente per nessuno. Ho trascorso una settimana presso l'Ospedale Panzi, in un villaggio di donne violentate e torturate. Queste donne si sono messe in coda per raccontarmi le loro storie, i traumi enormi, il profondo dolore. Era come assistere ad una scena di un film di horror futuristico. Mi hanno raccontato storie di madri che hanno visto uccidere i figli con brutalita’ e cinismo. Altre sono state costrette, con la minaccia delle armi, a mangiare escrementi, bere l'urina o mangiare bambini morti. Altre ancora sono state testimoni della mutilazione genitale dei mariti, e violentate per settimane da gruppi di uomini. (…) Voglio parlarvi di Noëlle. I changed his name to protect her because he is only nine years, is a child. Since I've known, lives inside of me, chasing me, impels me to act as a reminder. Noëlle is lean, smart and lively. For the damage he has suffered, his body is slightly bent, awkward, full of anxieties. The anguish is felt even in his little finger. He tells his story as if it had happened yesterday, for her time and 'stopped. "One night the Interahamwe came to our house. They looted, left nothing untouched. Then they took my mother on the one hand, and my father and me to another. They took me into the woods. One of them pushed something inside of me. I do not know what it was. Another Member said, "I do not do ',' do not hurt a child." But what he said. I was crying, I started to bleed. He went again, I fainted. They took me with them, and I spent two weeks with the soldiers. Everyone was raped, again and again. Sometimes they used sticks. One day I did go away, I left the woods. I reached the walk home of my uncle, I was weak, I had a fever. But he wanted me. I'm gone, I was able to reach my house, go discovered that my father had been killed, my mother had come back but she was in poor condition. I began to lose urine and feces, can not control myself. I realized that I had done the same with my mom, she has made it clear what had happened and brought me to this hospital. I'm glad to be here. Nobody laughs at me if I lose my pee. At the village boys insulted me. But I have no shame, Allah will judge those men who do not know what they did. I would just return to normal. I would also like to know how they killed my father. Every time I think of him, tears come.. " Dr. Mukwege, which, as I have seen in this hospital, is considered a kind of "saint", he told me that the urethra Noëlle is destroyed and you can not perform surgery because the girl is too young and not there is' enough fabric to work. We have to wait at least eight years. Otto anni di vergogna e di umiliazione. Otto anni in cui Noëlle sarà costretta a ricordare giorno dopo giorno quello che gli uomini le hanno fatto nella foresta, prima ancora che lei avesse l’età giusta anche solo per sapere cos’e’ un pene. Noëlle e’ completamente incontinente. "E terribile quello che sta succedendo a queste giovani, mi ha detto il dottor Mukwege, quando arrivano hanno paura anche di me perchè sono un uomo. A volte ci vogliono settimane prima di riuscire a visitarle. Per aiutarle, gli regaliamo caramelle e piccole bambole. Anche le più anziane soffrono tantissimo, sono indebolite da stupri torture e brutalità. Non hanno praticamente nessun sostegno. Dopo aver vissuto simili atrocità, non sono more 'able to work in the fields, carrying weights, so they no longer have an income. They come here limping, supported by sticks made by hand. Many have told me that "the wood and 'full of dead," and could not take "five steps without tripping over a body.." During the week I spent in Panzi, the government cut off water. So the hospital, where hundreds of women are hospitalized injuries, remained dry. In another hospital, sixty miles away, there was nothing to eat (two children died of hunger in one day). The women who arrive at hospitals remain there for months, they must first heal and then, since they have been raped and dishonored, they have un luogo cui fare ritorno. Il villaggio le respinge, non possono neanche lamentarsi perchè gli stupratori potrebbero addirittura comprare il loro rilascio, tornare indietro a violentarle di nuovo, e ucciderle. Mentre scrivo questo testo, ci sono donne e ragazze che stanno subendo violenza, madri costrette ad essere testimoni, in tante sono infettate da virus. Dove è la nostra indignazione occidentale? Dov’è la nostra coscienza? Nel 1999, sono tornata negli Stati Uniti da un viaggio in Afghanistan, ancora sotto il governo dei talebani. Le condizioni delle donne era tremenda, anche per loro non c’e’ stata nessuna reazione generale, non si muovevano leader, canali televisivi, riviste...Solo un giornale aveva denunciato quella condizione, ma il mondo non si muoveva, non interveniva ad aiutare le donne. Sappiamo ciò che è accaduto dopo. Non solo l'11 settembre, ma la reazione al quel tragico fatto, 11 settembre, quindi l'invasione dell'Iraq, la giustificazione dell'attacco preventivo, l'aumento della militarizzazione, la violenza e il terrore che ancora oggi continuano. Le donne sono al centro di ogni cultura e società. Anche se non hanno potere o diritti, il modo in cui vengono trattate o no, indicano che la società si sente a posto con la propria vita. Le donne del Congo sono forti, potenti, visionarie e solidali. Con poche risorse potrebbero essere le leader del paese, e tirarlo fuori dal suo attuale stato di caos e di povertà. Invece rischiano di essere annihilated, and with them the country's future. The Democratic Republic of Congo is the heart of Africa, the dynamic center and the promise of the future. If you allow the destruction of her women punished not only kill the life in Congo, but the entire African continent. Document in the original language here: http://macua.blogs.com/moambique_para_todos/2009/02/feminic% C3% no-additive congo.html
