WARNING **extreme violence**

WARNING:

*****IF YOU UPSET EASILY, DO NOT READ THIS*******



I don’t know how many are aware of the war, still raging in Rwandan, but its on of the most upsetting things that’s ever happened in my lifetime. Some things sadden, some anger while others just sicken. This does all of them, so upsetting is the only word I can use to discribe it.
This being my one thousandth post, I wanted it to mean something.


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“War continues to rage in eastern Congo. Within that larger war, combatants carry out another war -- sexual violence against women and girls,” said Alison Des Forges, senior advisor to the Africa division of Human Rights Watch.
The report, which is based on numerous interviews with victims, witnesses, and officials, details crimes of sexual violence committed by soldiers of the Rwandan army and its Congolese ally, the Rassemblement congolais pour la démocratie (RCD), as well as armed groups opposed to them – Congolese Mai Mai rebels, and Burundian and Rwandan armed groups.
These combatants raped women and girls during military operations to punish the local civilian population for allegedly supporting the “enemy.” In other cases, Mai Mai rebels and other armed groups abducted women and girls and forced them to provide sexual services and domestic labor, sometimes for periods of more than a year.
Some rapists attacked their victims with extraordinary brutality. In two cases, assailants inserted firearms into the vaginas of their victims and shot them. In other cases combatants mutilated the sexual organs of the women with knives or razor blades. Some attacked girls as young as five years of age and women as old as eighty.
Assailants often attacked women and girls engaged in the usual activities necessary to the livelihoods of their families: cultivating their fields, collecting firewood, or going to market. By doing so, the assailants further disrupted the already precarious economic life of the region.
Medical services in eastern Congo have nearly totally collapsed, leaving most victims of rape and other sexual torture with little hope for treatment of injuries or of sexually transmitted diseases, including testing and post-exposure treatment for HIV/AIDS. Some experts estimate that HIV prevalence among military forces in the region may be higher than 50 percent. Rape in these circumstances can be a death sentence.
The report also documents the rejection of some women and girls by their husbands, families, and wider communities because they were raped or because they are thought to be infected with HIV/AIDS. As one such ostracized woman told Human Rights Watch researchers, “My body has become sad. I have no happiness.”

http://www.hrw.org/press/2002/06/congo0620.htm

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It's hard to even imagine how our world could allow this to go on.

Painfull.

Quote:

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Originally posted here by Tedob1

It's hard to even imagine how our world could allow this to go on.

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Where are the US now? The self imposed Police of the world seem to be turning a blind eye...Oh, that's right, this crime against humanity isn't going to affect the price of oil.......

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Where are the US now?
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where is everybody?

I can't help but cry when I read something like this. It tears my heart in two. I have helped so many people with the organizations I've been involved with. But it's never enough is it? It continues on everyday, and because it's not publicized, people don't think about it.

It's damn unfortunate.

Thank you for reminding all of us how lucky we are...maybe this thread will drive a person to do more....

*sighs*

Where is everybody? "Everybody" hasn't made themselves self imposed rulers of the world. Anyway, I'm getting bored with arguing with the same people about the hypocrisy of the US.


On a side note, congrats on your 1000th post....

I certainly don't mean to downplay the seriousness of this situation, but female sexual abuse and mutilation goes on everyday in every country, more often than you can imagine. I have provided a link here that is to a webpage that gives a very clear (longwinded) explanation of something that I think is a crime against women, and should be stopped everywhere, regardless of religion, and tradition.

http://www.religioustolerance.org/fem_cirm.htm

Deb

Sure thats sad, but I hate how U.N. bosses biger nations into becomeing super heroz. We don't need these organizations to tell US who we need to save and who not 2 and how to prevent WW3. One of the reasons we are in the whole middle east thing is because U.N. and other organizations didn't handle thier crap right. Besides if other countries and thier allies would start handeling thier "OWN" bullcrap no1 would even be here whinning about stuff like this now. Even if we did deside to save them the US and UK would need "permision" to attack if some1 would have handled this crap be4 it erupted the way it did then then it wouldn't be nearly as bad as it has gotten. Instead they let this stuff grow and grow for years now and THAT IS SAD.

Another thing I hate is when we actually solve problems we alway whind up telling these countries that they need to dothis and that...don't get me wrong there is nothing wronge with advice, but a free country should let other countries be the way they wanna be.

that is a very good point, deb.

articles like the one posted above make me realize some of the awful things that are happening in the world. they make me realize it. i doubt that any amount of reporters and journalists and whatever for whomever could possibly cover all of the awful, horrendous, and morally degrading events that occur in the world every day. and then- when an article does come out that touches on the seriousness of the situation, some people say "where is everyone. how can we prevent this situation. why is nobody helping".

if i thought all the time about what was happening in the world, i wouldn't be able to take it. it's my opinion that the US does a pretty good job with our country. and we try to help out with others whenever we get the chance. just my opinion.

giselle

Quote:

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Originally posted here by xTOXICSOLDIERx
There is nothing wrong with advice, but a free country should let other countries be the way they wanna be.

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LOL....Are ya listening, Mr Bush?

again, to quote debwalin, "not to downplay the seriousness of the situation".

Conf1rm3d_K1ll-- I'm pretty sure that all of us are aware of how you feel about the US government, but I'm respectfully asking you to let us have this conversation about a very sad situation without turning it into a debate about whether the US is evil or not? Please?

Deb ;)

When one wonders why the US isn't involved, let history be your gide. Early in the 90s, under President Clinton, Somalian rebels systematically starved millions of their own people. To the rebels, food was power, and the greater control they exerted over the food, the more control they had over the people.

In response, the US attempted to "take out" the leaders of this movement, which failed miserably. For the older ones, you may remember the pictures of American soldiers being dragged through the streets of Mogadishu. In short, the US attempted a covert operation which was successful, but at the cost of American lives. This was deeply embarrasing for the US, to see their own servicemen being mocked by the Somalians that they tried to save.

The point is that we have tried to insert ourselves into foreign conflicts. Unfortunately for us, they haven't turn out too well :(

when u start telling other countires what to do, usuall starts war, but its aginst human rights and africa insnt in the EU or Nato
They more or less do as they want, only charity work can help them, or they apply for political assylum
{this is the true example of third world}
preep

OMFG....Debwalin....where in the hell did you find that article. Thats horrible.

P.S. Confirm3d_Kill or whatever your name is, your a jackass. Walk your ignorant british ass off a short peer.

Thanks for posting this story. It lets us see what we dont want to see. What would the world be like with out the help of the U S? Hum!! The U S has helped out more then anyone else but all we get when it said and done is why didn't you do a better job. And it looks like to me that all we get back is down talk. It is very sad how the world does things. But we can set here and talk about it all day long it is not going to do any good untill everyone pays there 2 cents.

Just sharing
wortcraft

Regardless of the US's help or lack of help in each individual's opinion, all of these situations are horrible crimes against women and all humanity in general. After all we all have mothers, imagine if any of this happened to your mother. The degradation has to be stopped. Obviously this is not going to happen overnight but that doesn't change the horror we feel when we read about it.

If nothing else it makes me grateful for the life I have and that I am not faced with these situations.

It's like the old saying, "the grass is always greener on the other side". These horrific crimes prove that the life we lead isn't so damn bad.

Conf1rm3d_K1ll is not a jackass. He has very strong opinions, and that has never made anyone a jackass in my mind. I usually enjoy his acerbic comments, and he does make some very good points. I just felt that in this particular situation it was taking away from the seriousness of a situation by possibly turning it into a flame war of defending the US and its policies.

I just wanted to clear the air and make sure that he knew it wasn't intended to open him up for stupid close minded comments from others.

Deb :D

In 1995 or 96 the US military sent doctors, nurses, and civil engineers to help the Rwandan refugees. I'm not saying this to defend the US, I'm saying this to let you all know that we care and do what we can. Also, as someone mentioned, we got our butts kicked in Somalia, but we helped too. Many Americans do care about the other people of this world, but even for us in our democratic republic it is hard to get our government to do something sometimes. My heart goes out to everyone we can't or don't help.

Peace.

i aagree with confirmed kill... the us has imposed themselves upon the world and said "we are the world peace keepers" yet the us government turns a blind eye to problems that do not help or would potentially hinder america in any way. if there is something the us can use involved, then they are there. otherwise, the country is left to itself. but... maybe this is somewhat right. maybe the united states should butt out of all other countries affaris. i mean look at the trouble our involvement always gets us. we are now one of the most hated countries in a world. i agree that the things that are happening all over the world are very upsetting and very disturbing. millions of people die everyday. but i don't think the us has the right ot impose it's will against mations for what it feels is "right" or "proper" or "the will of God". and even if it does have the right to impose, it should impose everywhere and not be such a hypocritical force. if you can't help out all over, then they shouldn't claim to want to.

Just wanted to give a little background because Congo is a former colony of Belgium...
There may be no oil in Congo, but the economic resources of the DR Congo are immense.

In 1960, Congo became independent from Belgium. Immediately after that, the country faced a coup by the province of Katanga. A year later, Patrice Lumumba (prime minister) was killed by Mobutu's troops. Belgium set up a high court last year to investigate the involvement of the Belgian army in that murder. It's not only the US who are involved in shady business...

And that's where it all went wrong: in 1965, Mobutu seizes power: he renames the country to Zaire. Zaire becomes a base for operations against Soviet-backed Angola, powered by the USA (and, amongst other European countries, Belgium). Zaire and Mobutu became synonyms of corruption.
After the Cold War, The US of A lost their interest in Zaire. In 1997, Rwandese Tutsi's invade Zaire, install Kabila as president and rename the country Democratic Republic of Congo.
Rwanda and Uganda back a new rebellion against Kabilla (supported by Angola, Namibia and Zimbabwe). An estimated 2.5 million people have been murdered since then...

The fundings for the war come from the country's natural resources, abused by both parties.

IMO, there's no way to stop a war like this, other than controlling those resources. Belgium controlled Congo's resources for decennia, and all was well (although we abused most of it to enrich ourselves, the situation of the average Congolese was way better than it's ever been after the independence).

The Americans aren't the ones abusing women, and neither are the Europeans, the UN and what more...
It's some power-hungry *******s who think everything is allowed to gain personal wealth... Take away the resources, and they won't bother anymore. Giving those countries charity help is wrong, imo: it's just a temporary solution that only makes the situation worse (as most if it will end up in the hands of the leaders, selling the food to buy weapons - ironically enough, those weapons are also supplied by the ones supplying food...).
The Democratic Republic of Congo is rich enough; they don't need food, they don't need money.
All they need is someone to distribute it well...

i agree negative, but who has the right to go in and distribute it? when the US was under british rule (back before the revolution), the colonies were treated unfair. The US gained it's freedom from a hard fought revolution. no one came in and "freed" us. i agree that it is unfair what is going on in dr congo. i would go as far as to say i feel it is wrong. but i am not sure who has the right to get involved other then the people who live there.

lord > Agreed... I hope I didn't give the impression that another country should 'invade' Congo and take care of business. When I said "All they need is someone to distribute it well...", I was referring to the Congolese people themselves. The problem though is that the Congolese don't have a 'democratic' background, they have no-one that is capable of distributing those resources rightfully... Hopefully, one day, somebody will stand up and make it his business to lead Congo to a real democracy...

wow, this is surely a good point.

it makes me realize that the world around me, isn't as good as I thought it to be :(..

Quote:

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Originally posted here by fr0z3n
wow, this is surely a good point.

it makes me realize that the world around me, isn't as good as I thought it to be :(..

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That's all I was trying to say.

Quote:

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Originally said by Timothy Mcveigh

Look over your shoulder....the revolution is coming

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the world is small after all...., something on my background..belong to india where ethnic conflicts between the hindus and muslims trace their history back to the british raj times..india like other countries is divided into various states..one of them is alled gujarat, the capital is Ahemdabad, its a nasty city, full of muslim and hindu ghettos, and where even a accidental remark from the other community can lead to mass scale slaughters..riots and massacres, and believe me am not exxagerating the words..there has been particularly gruesome incident during the recent riots..

One pregant muslim woman was caught in the mob fury between warring factions, she tried to hide from the hindu mob, one man a hindu , maybe he was insane..wielding a sword in hand saw her cowering in a burning house, dragged her out on the road, cut open the poor womans belly and pulled out the semi-developed foetus out, he cut the cord and waved it at the crowd, all this while the woman was very much concious, infact while i rite this my hands r shaking thinking abt the act..so inhuman, so shitty..

the woman survived..

the man is arrested and being prosecuted..

i feel ashamed.. :(

1st world countries have over the last years given money and food to 3rd world countries-like Congo-. But i think the biggest problem with these poor countries is even though they get help they arent willing to help themselves. They always go back to the same attrocities and start asking for more supplies. Correct me if im worng but the 1st step for 3rd world countries is to with some international help establish stable governments and manage the resources in their land properly.

When I was 12, I started volunteering in a local animal shelter. I thought it would be neat to help needy animals find good homes, to get to work with them all day. Instead most nights I went home in tears.

I went home in tears because yet again I had watched an animal so terrified of humans that it couldn't even move be put to sleep. Because I had watched another animal so physically multilated that it wasn't even recognizable be put to sleep. Because I had failed, yet again, to socialize an animal, because that animal had terror of humans so imprinted on it that no amount of time would fix it.

Stories like this one remind me of my year there, and I am not surprised. I wish I could be. I wish to every God I have ever heard of that I could say this shocks me. I wish I could say that I believe that some day the world will be a better place.

But I don't.

I wish that I could say that I believe, maybe in my lifetime, maybe in my children's, but someday that the world -will- take a stand. That it -will- say with one clear, loud, undeniable voice "THIS IS WRONG". But I don't. I can't.

Because every time I see an 8 year old African girl on 60 minutes talking about how her rapist thought raping her would cure him of A.I.D.S, I'm reminded of holding a kitten as it died because someone punctured it's eyeballs for amusement.

Because every time I see stories of Rwandan women being gang-raped, or Afghanistan women stoned in the streets for leaving their brutal abusive husbands, I'm reminded of the American statistic, that one women is raped every 30 seconds.

So yes fr0z3n, the world around you isn't as good as you thought it was. It's a shithole, and it's getting worse.

It's not going to get better. Not until it becomes more expensive to our government, and all other governments, and our businesses and all other businesses, to ignore it than to do something about it. Till it costs them more to pretend the problem doesn't exist, than to fix it.

Shaq made more for one Nike advertisment, than their entire Indonesian workforce in a year. It's cheaper to leave people on welfare, than to give them the training to work. It's cheaper to put people in jail, than to create early intervention programs to keep them out of jail in the first place.

I wish I could say I believe this will change.

But I don't.

-Keisha

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Originally posted here by Keisha

It's not going to get better. Not until it becomes more expensive to our government, and all other governments, and our businesses and all other businesses, to ignore it than to do something about it. Till it costs them more to pretend the problem doesn't exist, than to fix it.

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I think that we don't have to worry if the World will become better or not... We have to care about our lives and how make them better as possible, and try to make people around you better, not a person who you never seen or meet. If everybody around you can be happy, and they do the same to others, them world would be ok too IMHO...


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mOTA

i have to agree with mOTA at least to some degree. although there are tragedies all over the world, we need to focus on the problems around us before fixing every one elses. i mean even in the united states there are hundreds of thousands (if not millions) of homeless people with nothing to eat and no where to live. they have no health care and are sick with numerous, painful diseases.and this is in the US, a place that is supposed to be one of the better nations. you should always deal with the problems at home before trying to help your nieghbor. and in cases like congo, there is not much to be done, at least not by us.

BWAHAHAHAHA - To all you pussies and bitches that gave me negative antipoints regarding my post. You can suck my mother ****ing dick. Especially you insignificant little twits that are to cowardly to append your name to it.

To all of you little morons that think what you say here matters to anyone, or that you giving me negative antipoints hurts me or is going to stop me all I have to say is: HAHAHAHAHAHAHA, grow a brain dick wad(s).

Kindly eat **** and live you silly twats.



-Quad a.k.a AntiHero

:D <---------Me laughing at you all.

It is really good to raise awareness of current issues in the world when it's so easy to forget anything outside your own immediate jurisdiction. But at the same time it's so easy to hear about the **** going on and want to give up and cry; don't. Taking it upon yourself to bear the weight of the world helps nobody, it renders you in an emotional state whereby your rational thought is clouded by personal feeling, and means you are less able to deal with events. Feel, but don't react in hopelessness, there is always a difference that can be made. And there's also a beautiful world where great things happen too, where strangers can meet and leave a mark on the net and be accepted and understood all over the world. Remember how much has been achieved as well. Don't blame a country, especially not one as big as America; the US is not a corporate entity, it is the home to many many individuals with independent thoughts and ideals. They aren't all evil and they aren't all saints, they are bound by soil.

Sorry, mini-rant over, just wanted to redress the balance and think about some good. Also, there must be a way that some difference can be made when you can get a collection of people as large and varied as AntiOnline all thinking the same things and endorsing similar goals; I wonder if in some minor way we can use this gathering of good people to extend some sort of support to those suffering, I'm gonna go back and work on this. It seems a great opportunity when so many people can be reached so quickly and easily?

My 2 cents!

XXX