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“The bodies of our women we made to a battlefield, firing at them with chakabulas wedge between our legs. We scar them like battlefields. Our battle moans echo in their souls. Yet we attempt to celebrate them after desecrating them. We owe it to ourselves to stop using women’s bodies as battlefields.”
These are the words of celebrated Sierra Leonean poet and writer Omar Farouk Sesay who was reacting to an article on sexual violence in Monrovia posted on LEONENET, an internet list serve. The posting titled: “The New War is Rape” highlights post war sexual violence in the capital city of Liberia, Monrovia.
Medecins Sans Frontieres (MSF) stated in that report “the majority of rape victims are children, according to treatment centre statistics”. The report further indicated that the youngest surviving victim is a 21 months old child.
Tupee Kiadi, a Monrovia resident has this to say; “The civil war is over but the new war is rape, especially targeting teenagers and babies”. During the war we had peace-keepers to prevent further violence… but women do not have peacekeepers to stop rape.
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In a tiny room at the Family Support Trust Clinic in Harare, a seven-year old girl sits on a bench playing with a doll. Dr. Richard Gray Choto, the paediatrician charged with her care, asks her a question, “Tell me what happened to you” he says.
She looks down and hesitates for a moment. “Show me what happened to you using the doll you are holding”, he says, trying to coax her into breaking her silence.
The girl is one of tens of thousands of children in Zimbabwe who are believed to have faced sexual abuse in recent years, and Dr. Choto knows the experience she is about to recount could leave permanent psychological scars.
His clinic alone says it has treated over 29,000 children for sexual abuse over the past four years; an average 20 children a day. But the figures, he says, represents just the tip of the iceberg. Many more abused children are simply too scared to ask for help.
“What we can estimate from the statistics is that for every female child that comes here, five haven’t come in or remain anonymous “, he says. “For every male child sexually abused, 20 haven’t shown up”. This was a story on Aljazeera TV presented by Haru Mutasa in Harare on the early hours of Wednesday 25th November, 2009.
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On the same Aljazeera TV the next day, Nisreen el-Shamayleh presented a story “Ending female abuse in Jordan”. According to the UN, 43 per cent of women in Jordan are victims of abuse”.
As part of the 10th International Day for the Elimination of Violence against Women, head of the UN, Ban Ki-Moon called on men around the world to help end violence against women.
He wants prominent male leaders to act as role models to get more men to condemn violence against women, which takes place in many forms and in many countries around the world. For this initiative, the UN head has unveiled a newly created ‘Network of Men’. ……………………………………………………………………………
As part of this year’s activities to mark the 10th Anniversary of the International Day for the Elimination of Violence against Women a 16-day of Activism Against Gender Based Violence kicks off in Sierra Leone with the theme “Commit ? Act ? Demand”.
Non Governmental Organizations and other stakeholders in the country, including media houses, are putting out information as an effort to raise awareness on the issue.
“November 25th is International Day for the Elimination of Violence Against Women and December 10th is International Human Rights Day. The 16 days of activism against Gender Based Violence are planned in between these two events in order to symbolically link violence against women and human rights, and to emphasize that such violence is a human right violation”, a joint press release from GOOPI, Concern Worldwide and Human Rights Commission Sierra Leone states.
National VAW Coordinator and Focal Human Person of Action Aid (Sierra Leone), Zynab Binta Senesie noted that: “As we go through 16 days of activism on gender based violence, we might also want to “Commit . Act . Demand”and end inadequacies in sexual and reproductive health for women in Sierra Leone. This is a major violation of the rights of women, but much priority is not given to it, and it is slowly developing into a national health concern”.
As we raise awareness on Sexual and Gender-Based Violence (SGBV), it is but fitting to explain what is it that we generally refer to as Sexual and Gender-Based Violence. According to an Inter-agency Field Manual prepared by some United Nations bodies, especially the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees: ‘the term Sexual and Gender-Based Violence encompasses a wide variety of abuses that includes sexual threats, exploitation, humiliation, assaults, molestation, domestic violence, incest, involuntary prostitution (sexual bartering), torture, insertion of objects into genital openings and attempted rape’. It is further indicated that ‘female genital mutilation and other harmful traditional practices (including early marriage, which substantially increases maternal morbidity and mortality) are forms of sexual and gender-based violence against women which cannot be overlooked nor justified on the grounds of tradition, culture or social conformity’.
“Rape”, the document went on, “the most often cited form of sexual violence, is defined in many societies as sexual intercourse with another person without his/her consent. Rape is committed when the victim’s resistance is overwhelmed by force or fear or other coercive means”.
“Sexual and Gender-Based Violence has acute physical, psychological and social consequences. Survivors often experience psychological trauma: depression, terror, guilt, shame, loss of self-esteem. They may be rejected by spouses and families, ostracised, subjected to further exploitation or to punishment. They may also suffer from unwanted pregnancy, unsafe abortion, sexually transmitted diseases (including HIV), sexual dysfunction, trauma to the reproductive tract, and chronic infections leading to pelvic inflammatory disease and infertility.”
Sexual and Gender-Based Violence is said to be common in situations of armed conflict and internal strife. It is therefore not surprising that during the rebel war in Sierra Leone reports of the incidence of rape and other forms of sexual and gender-based violence were very common. Like other forms of torture, it is often meant to hurt, control and humiliate, while violating a person’s physical and mental integrity.
Sexual and Gender-Based Violence can occur during all phases of a person’s life. Contrary to widely held views that young girls and women who dress provocatively are inviting rape, rape or an attempted rape has occurred where no such provocation manifest itself. The 21-month old baby in Monrovia who is a survivor of SGBV is a testimony to that. There are reports of old ladies being raped or rape attempts made on them.
Quite recently in Sierra Leone there are allegations of rape or attempted rape when armed robbers broke into people’s homes at night. Similar allegations were made by some women who were at the SLPP headquarters during the crisis which occurred early this year. Girls and women have reported incidences of rape or attempted rape when returning home from a night out. All of these situations are evidences of unprovoked dress pattern.
Sexual and Gender-Based Violence is said to be a violation of human rights, yet it occurs so frequently in most societies. It is therefore imperative to examine what is being done to check this scourge, particularly in Sierra Leone.
The active players in this, before now, were very minimal, but as awareness increases so has the number of stakeholders who see it as societal ill. In the main there are NGOs (national as well as international), UN agencies and government ministries.
Speaking with the Minister of Social Welfare, Gender and Children’s Affairs, Dr. Soccoh A. Kabia, who is also the National Chairman of the National Committee on Gender Based Violence (NacGBV) I was informed that after the war SGBV was identified as the biggest threat to stability. To address this concern, he said the Gender Acts were passed and that the two other Bills which were not passed are in the process of becoming law.
Dr. Kabia stated that his ministry is being restructured with a view to not only address SGBV issues but also to be in the position to tackle a wide range of other social problems including children’s rights and welfare.
Specifically speaking on SGBV, the minister noted that there is one social worker in all police stations as his ministry’s support to the Family Support Unit and that there are now two Safe Homes (one in the North and the other in the Western Area) for victims of SGBV.
The Co-Chair of NacGBV, Assistant Inspector General of Police, Mr. Francis A. Munu made some very startling revelations regarding the issue of SGBV. He revealed that in some village settings, a chief will impose fines on a man who rapes a woman in a sacred bush but that the fine will be for desecrating the bush and not for the injury or damage suffered by the woman or girl.
He further noted that the total number of court convictions regarding SGBV is disproportionately lower than the reported cases heard. This he attributed to several reasons. He said sometimes the slow dispensation of the justice system frustrates the victims. ‘The frequencies with which some cases are adjourned dampen the resolve of the victim to the point that she eventually gives up’, he mentioned.
“At other times the perpetrators are high community men who bring their influence to bear on the traditional justice system. Sometimes through corruption, they can bribe the police or witness not to come to court, or sometimes threaten witness to stay out of court until the case is thrown out”, he declared.
Assistant Inspector General of Police Munu stated that ‘rape, indecent assault, carnal knowledge and teenage pregnancy is the most common complaints the police receive with regards SGBV but because these are trivialized so the trauma and psycho-social injury sustained by the victim is under-estimated.
As I was speaking with AIG Munu in his office, Inspector Moses E.M. Kargbo walked in from a training organized by International Rescue Committee (IRC), an international NGO that runs the Rainbo Centres for victims of SGBV. With a certificate in hand for (Sexual Violence Prosecution, Investigation and Advocacy) he informed me that out of 720 cases brought to court in 2008, only 2 were convicted and even there it was because the victims’ parents were determined.
The two victims were aged five and seven years and were violated by a 72-year
By Ibrahim Labor Fofana