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Systematic sexual violence used as a weapon of war
Riu
Posts: 186 Forum Member
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It is strange how something so truly and utterly devastating to the lives of so many people is so silent and unreported here as it is silent and unreported in so many other places.
There is a summit today in London that seeks to address the issue of systematic sexual violence used in war as a weapon on a population.
Not unsubstantiated claims or reporting - but factual.
A verbal tanslated account of one persons experience will stay with me for a long time.
It is simple, short, stark, factual, imeadiate and encapsulates within the words the experience of many.
'' ... my daughter asks me who is her father. I cannot tell her. I don't want her to know and there were so many. I never saw their faces. How could I identify them. How can you see faces when they hit you in your eyes. When there is a gun in my mouth. And a man between my legs. and he goes and another one is there and another and another ... ''
War in and of itself is a brutal thing.
When it is waged on those of a population that are innocent of anything other than living in a place where war passes through it is brutal, brutish and dehumanising.
The aim of the conference is to bring together countries to try to find a way to halt the use of sexual violence as a weapon of war.
I hope with all my heart that something will be achieved.
https://www.gov.uk/government/topical-events/sexual-violence-in-conflict
https://www.gov.uk/government/topical-events/sexual-violence-in-conflict/about
There is a summit today in London that seeks to address the issue of systematic sexual violence used in war as a weapon on a population.
Not unsubstantiated claims or reporting - but factual.
A verbal tanslated account of one persons experience will stay with me for a long time.
It is simple, short, stark, factual, imeadiate and encapsulates within the words the experience of many.
'' ... my daughter asks me who is her father. I cannot tell her. I don't want her to know and there were so many. I never saw their faces. How could I identify them. How can you see faces when they hit you in your eyes. When there is a gun in my mouth. And a man between my legs. and he goes and another one is there and another and another ... ''
War in and of itself is a brutal thing.
When it is waged on those of a population that are innocent of anything other than living in a place where war passes through it is brutal, brutish and dehumanising.
The aim of the conference is to bring together countries to try to find a way to halt the use of sexual violence as a weapon of war.
I hope with all my heart that something will be achieved.
https://www.gov.uk/government/topical-events/sexual-violence-in-conflict
https://www.gov.uk/government/topical-events/sexual-violence-in-conflict/about
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Comments
The trouble with this kind of well-meaning conference is that all the civilised nations will agree that systematic rape is a terrible thing and commit to doing all they can to prevent it whilst the truly savage armies of Africa and the Far East will carry on as they always have. Exactly the same thing happened with banning landmines.
I first learnt about this from a WWII documentary that features a male veteran who was a POW in Italy. It was used to humiliate him enough to break him (they suspected him as the ringleader of an attempted breakout), but he was tough enough to endure it all. I have since found out that rape is very much part of all types of war. Not just against soldiers, but also people who're suspected of helping the enemy or being collaborators, e.g. villagers. I think some Vietnam-war films highlight this.
Let us know when it's happening in a place we have a vested interest in....
It makes me turn over to somewhere women are really repected, like the rappers on Radio 1
There appears only a thin veneer between order and chaos and there are always men for whom it takes just the flick of a switch to pass from one to the other.
To be honest Im ashamed of my own gender sometimes.
Weapon Of Terror maybe.
The mass raping of an opposing army is not a attacking strategy I've read about much in the annals of warfare.
If it's anything it's the subjugation and punishment of non combatants by an occupying force.
The invading Russians did it against the German civilians in 1945 as revenge for the German invasion of Russia.
The invading Japanese did it to the Chinese civilians in 1937 just because they regarded them as sub-human.
Yes basically. Our population is one that doesn't like the thought of UK soldiers dying in war, and crimes "bring back our troops" if less than ten are killed in one day. Imagine the hysteria that would be generated if the Battle of the Somme happened today!
Our people are also very selfish. They say wars that are happening in other countries are none of our business.
What this all means is that a thousand women could be raped every day in the DRC but we will not do anything to stop the wars there.
We're in afghhanistan but we daren't be as brutal as is necessary to defeat the Taliban, so they execute women frequently. Our population says we should get out of Afghanistan. Then more women will die.
http://www.theguardian.com/society/2011/jul/17/the-rape-of-men
(May be uncomfortable reading.)
This is the hard truth.
The fact is that this has always been the case, since the beginning of time, it's not something that is restricted by geography or gender or century.
Well meaning as this conference I am finding it slightly annoying as a) I don't think it will achieve much and b) it's as though the people involved have only just realised it is one of many unpleasant facts of conflict.
LOL sweets on tills??? That's a women's thing?
Since 1945, which "truly savage" armies of the Far East have perpetrated systematic rape?
<filler>
don't be.
There are many, many people diametrically opposed to those who sanction, order or enact such actions on women, men and children. A lot of those people are male. Gender alone does not make a person culpable.
It is a weapon.
It is used in these circumstances as a strategy of war. It is intended to affect a population to bring about calculated result
Systematic sexual violence is not gender specific. The ratio of male to female vilolations documented does not diminish the effect on either sex and is not relevenat - the act being committed on them is.
It is to try to end impunity for sex crimes committed in war zones.
... "It's an immense and complex problem but it's progress that 123 governments have sent their representatives here to talk about something that many of them would not have talked about at all two years ago." ...
Everything has to have a begining somewhere.
Perhaps it'd be more useful if Angelina Jolie and her colleagues spent a bit more time in Kampala or Kabul, getting the message across there?
No shit Sherlock?
Precisely, they should go to Africa and tell them, but I doubt if the third world savage militants would take any notice.
You nearly seem to be lamenting the fact that something like the Somme wouldn't be tolerated by the population of Britain today.
We daren't be as brutal as necessary? Seems like your answer to this particular issue is for us to bring MORE VIOLENCE. Somewhat counter-productive one would think.
Jesus...