Of Witchcraft and Warlords

As Professor Kolber noted several days ago, Congolese are attacking witchcraft with cringe-worthy means. The situation in the Congo is a matter of revived interest personally, due to my involvement on the board of a nascent citizen-journalist NGO based in the Congo and neighboring Rwanda. The problems in the Congo are not limited to deprivations of manhood: The country is mired in a war that has killed 5.4 million people—that’s severalfold the Rwandan genocide and well over ten times the estimated toll of the war in Darfur. The war in the Congo faces little resistance internationally, despite its politics, despite reports of U.N. malfeasance, and despite the death count. The country needs international attention, perhaps a grassroots movement that can serve to motivate action. Bono, are you listening?

Wealthy by African standards, the Congo is hijacked by its own citizenry, especially with respect to the legal rights of the countless women who are the victims of the most brutal rapes imaginable—often at the hands of military personnel sent to protect them. An HBO documentary that debuted in April details the horrors these women experience, from the act of rape, to the murdering of their families, to their social ostracizing, to the impotence of the legal system to address their claims—a system that only recently implemented laws against rape, and that fails to support the enforcement of those laws. The Balkan war tribunal established rape as a war crime, but perpetrators of this crime in the Congo have yet to be brought to justice in any forum. In fact, the International Criminal Court has barely waded into the mire to prosecute those responsible for the atrocities of the war.

As one male interviewed in the documentary stated: ‘If a society does not protect its women and children, what kind of society is it?’ Given the extent of the damage in the Congo, unwavering international support for its citizenry—in the form of, at least, dedication to the prosecution of those permitting the rampant savagery against innocents—is wholly warranted. If a society does not protect its women and children . . . .