I would like to welcome all leaders assembled here in Lusaka today to discuss various issues of concern in the Great Lakes region. I would specifically like to call upon the leaders of the Great Lakes Region to keep Gender and HIV foremost on the agenda as they deliberate in today’s third International Conference on the Great Lakes Region (IC GLR).

 

I am particularly reminded of the rape campaign in Rwanda which was extensive. It was not just rape in the simplistic sense of ‘forced intercourse’ it was used as a weapon to humiliate the enemy - men who are meant to protect “their” women, the rape victims. Some estimate that every woman who survived the Rwanda genocide was a victim of sexual violence - about 250,000 to 535,000 rape victims during those 100 days – at least as many people as the citizens of Windhoek.

Testimonies before the International Criminal Tribunal of Rwanda report gang rapes, sexual torture and humiliation, sexual slavery, and other varieties of sexual abuse. It is no wander that in just a year later, in 1995, UNAIDS reported that about 24% of pregnant women from rural areas in tested HIV positive as a result of rape and displacement. The success of the rape campaign is demonstrated by the fact that 67 percent of genocide rape survivors reported being HIV positive in a 2001 study.

 

Rwanda is by no means unique. Other countries of the Great Lakes region have been marred with horrific and saddening reports of bloody wars. The casualties we hear of tend to begin with the language of the ‘number of troops lost’, and yet more devastating and long lasting are the women who have to survive with the trauma of rape, slavery and torture, often who also have to raise the child of their enemy. We cannot deny that this unnecessary, unacceptable and preventable fate increases the likelihood of testing HIV positive.

 

The great lakes region comprises Zambia, Angola, Democratic Republic of Congo, Republic of Congo, Central African Republic, Sudan, Kenya, Uganda, Rwanda, Burundi and Tanzania. With the exception of Zambia and Tanzania, the rest are scarred with conflict, the most recent being in Kenya, CAR, DRC and Sudan, the latter two of which still rage on.

 

Human Rights Watch has identified a number of cases where razor blades were used to slice the genitalia of women in the DRC. Other instances involve women being raped and then shot in the vagina with a gun, or being raped with a knife, thereby mutilating and causing irreversible damage. These horrific Acts simply have no space in our world and no effort should be spared to end such atrocities immediately.

 

Even after the real war comes to an end, another one is born. Rape is still being perpetrated in a number of hot spots, despite most of the countries in the region being in a post-conflict situation. Angola just last month reported that on a national level, there are 10 rape cases per day!

 

Even with these sad reports, women have not just been the victims – they have been the victors as well. Women in the Great Lakes Region are also on the frontlines urging the end to conflict and providing the support that allows their families and communities to survive. Starting from 2004, over 100 women’s groupings with the support of the UN have fought to get their voices heard at the IC GLR Summit. Sadly even today, they continue to remain on the periphery of formal peace and reconstruction processes – few women are in positions of influence both at the peace keeping level as well as in the halls of peace negotiations.

 

I would like to urge our governments to take ownership in preventing rape in conflict situations and in addressing such consequences in post conflict situations. May we emulate the leadership of the United Nations Secretary General, Ban Ki Moon who is faithfully executing Security Council Resolution (SCR) 1325 and reinforcing it with SCR 1820 which recognises rape as a punishable war crime. The SG has demanded severe "disciplinary action" against the Indian troops charged by a UN probe of sexually exploiting local women and children in Congo.

 

I hope that the IC GLR special fund for reconstruction and development (SFRD) supports governments to compensate rape victims and pay for their medical and psychological treatment. Services to address such violence do exist in the region but they are often scattered and inhibit, rather than facilitate, timely and efficient responses, such as timely Post Exposure Prophylaxis for rape victims to prevent HIV infection. In a recent study by UNIFEM and the National University of Rwanda, survivors reported that the way police, hospitals and courts are set up does not provide an appropriate atmosphere to report on violence – again not a situation unique to Rwanda.

The fund can also foster support for women to play a key role in the prevention and resolution of conflicts in their respective countries. Their perspectives and experiences are critical to stability and inclusive governance. Recovery also provides a chance to strengthen gender justice through the formulation of laws, judicial systems and political processes that uphold women’s equality.

 

All countries in the region must make rape a punishable offence that should be enforced in national courts of the Great Lakes countries. I would like to commend countries like Mozambique who have stiff penalties for sexual violence offenders, and Rwanda for launching a Gender Desk within the Ministry of Defence as well as the Isange Centre, which protects women from further violence, offers crime investigation, medical testing and referrals to courts of law as well as treatment for physical and psychological trauma. Let us have more of such responses and learn from the pioneering work being carried out in Rwanda, enough talking: it is time to ACT. Peace with sexual violence is still war.