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When one hurts or kills a women
one hurts or kills hummanity and is an antrocitie.
Gino d'Artali
and: My mother (1931-1997) always said to me <Mi
figlio, non esistono notizie <vecchie> perche puoi imparare qualcosa da
qualsiasi notizia.> Translated: <My son, there is no such thing as so
called 'old' news because you can learn something from any news.>
Gianna d'Artali
SPECIAL ABOUT DR DENIS
MUKWEGE (Democatic Republic Congo)
Since long I've know and read
about the Congolese Dr. and gyneacologist Denis Mukwege living and
working in Congo and because of the greusomeness and neverending number
of rape victims he, in 1999, decided to open a hospital, Panzi, only to
try and help them and he figaratively speaking fought to death in trying
to do so. The perpetrators: rivaling tribes in war raping the women of
other tribes as a trophee and proof of their 'bravery'. Dr. Mukwege
literary saved thousands of women ('till today about 60.000 and counting) and
not only deserves a minutes long standing ovation. Since 2008, Mukwege
has been awarded dozens of prizes in recognition of his work, including
the UN Human Rights Prize (2008), in 2014 he was awarded the European
Parliament's Sakharov Prize for Freedom of Thought and the Seoul Peace
Prize (2016) and the Nobel Peace Prize (2018). All because in his words
<You can and must end the use of sexual violence as a weapon of war in
armed conflict only by abolishining it.> Together with the Yazidi
activist
Nadia Murad, Dr Mukwege received the
2018 Nobel Peace Prize <for his efforts to end the use of sexual
violence as a weapon of war and armed conflict.> He has also been
granted honorary degrees from the Universities of Edinburgh and Harvard.
A 2015 documentary entitled
'The man who mends women - the wrath of
Hippocrates' illustrates his life and work. The film was subtitled in
all EU official languages with the support of the European Parliament. Something he more than well deserves and especially his
goal of what to do with the money. He not only deserves our deepest
respect but also our full support, to start with for the victims and
last but not least Dr. Denis Mukwege.
With this special I'll take you on a journey wich will take you along
his road of high- and downlights.
Gino d'Artali
Indept investigative journalist
This is part 2 which will take you on his hazardous but still immensily heroic journey but of which dr. Mukwege said: <I did and do it for the women.> from 31 Oct 2021 'till 5 Oct 2013
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Who is Dr |
RELATED
De Volkskrant
29 0ct 2021
Interview Denis Mukwege
by Greta Riemersma
<<'When a war lasts a long time, as in Congo, things happen that have not
happened anywhere else'.
Congolese gynecologist and Nobel laureate Denis Mukwege and his team have
treated 70,000 raped women, a fraction of the many hundreds of thousands
estimated in war-torn Congo. He wrote a book about his experiences: The Power of
Women. Congolese gynecologist Denis Mukwege (66) still remembers when he decided
to become less of a doctor and more of an activist. One day in 2011, a woman who
had been hospitalized 11 years earlier arrived at his Panzi Hospital in Bukavu,
eastern Democratic Republic of Congo. At the time, a rape had destroyed her
lower abdomen and left a child in her womb. She was able to recover physically,
but mentally it was more difficult: she didn't want to know anything about her
child. After birth, she named her daughter Wakubenga, she who is scorned.
Psychologists at Panzi Hospital convinced the woman that the baby was also a
victim. And now the woman was standing in front of him again, accompanied by
Wakubenga, who is now 11 years old. The girl who was born from a rape had been
raped herself and became pregnant. Mukwege was furious. He realized he needed to
speak out louder about the horrors in Congo, where sexual violence has been used
as a weapon of war for 25 years. Mukwege was in Amsterdam last week for the
presentation of the Dutch version from his book The Power of Women, in which he
looks back on experiences with women who made him who he is, such as Wakubenga.
The contents are a punch in the stomach, which he succinctly summarized during
an interview at the Embassy Hotel: At the Panzi Hospital, he and his team
treated 70,000 raped women a fraction of the many hundreds of thousands
estimated in Congo. The <rape virus> (its term) is part of a battle centered on
Congolese soils' coveted minerals such as gold, copper, diamonds, cobalt and
coltan the latter two indispensable in electronics. An opaque tangle of
politicians, senior military and businessmen earns a lot of money from its
exploitation. They are powerful elites from Congo and neighboring countries
Rwanda and Uganda, who finance extremely violent rebel armies with only one
goal: to get their hands on the mineral resources. In particular, the
resource-rich Eastern Congo, where Mukwege works, is having a hard time. Mukwege
has been seeking worldwide attention for this horror for years. He addressed
world leaders at the European Parliament, the United Nations and the G7. He has
won several human rights awards, the largest of which was the Nobel Peace Prize
(along with Yezidi activist Nadia Murad) in 2018. Increasingly, he also
denounced mass rapes in other countries, such as what happened to Bosnian women
and Yazidis. He continued to work as a doctor in the Panzi Hospital.
....
Mukwege, calmly from behind a glass of mint tea: 'The youngest victim I treated
was a six-month-old baby, the oldest woman was over 80.' And they were both
raped?
'Yes, this shows that for most perpetrators mass rape is not a question of
sexuality, it is a weapon. Women are the foundation of a society, they have
children and usually take care of them. Added to this in Congo: if it is known
that they have been raped, they lose their value. They are often abandoned by
their men and ostracized by their community. If you destroy women, you destroy
our society.' Is that what the rich elites want: to plunge Congo into chaos, so
that they can easily exploit the resource-rich soil. 'Mass rape is intended to
destroy the social fabric. Society is being weakened, so that you can use people
as you want, so that they can easily be chased out of the mining areas or go to
work in the mines for almost nothing.' Your book says you were happy with every
prize you got, but afterwards you were disappointed. The situation in Congo did
not change, it only got worse. Did that happen to you after the Nobel Peace
Prize in 2018? Soft sigh. "We are still fighting and in some places the
situation has indeed gotten worse." Are you referring to Kipupu in eastern
Congo, where there was a massacre last year? Yes, hundreds of people were
killed there. In Beni and Ituri, both also in eastern Congo, people have been
beheaded and the heads thrown into the streets so that everyone could see how
cruel the attackers were. There are commanders who bury women alive.'
Buried alive?
'Yes Yes. That only happens in Congo. It is commanders from the Congolese army
who do this. Everyone knows that! There is total impunity.' It seems that Congo
is degenerating. Is this what happens when a country has total impunity?
'Absolute. I show in my book how shocked I have often been. I tried to
understand: what is happening here? During a war there are no laws, no beliefs,
no values, which gives people the idea that they can do anything. And when a war
lasts a long time, as in Congo, things happen that have not happened anywhere
else. The Second World War lasted five years, the war in Bosnia four years, the
genocide in Rwanda four months. This has been the case in Congo for 25 years. If
the rule of law ceases to exist, if the population no longer receives any
protection, if there are no more role models to follow, a country can find
itself in an indescribable situation.' I read that you often get the question:
what is wrong with those Congolese men?
'Yes, but what those men do can happen anywhere. It also happened during the
Second World War, the Japanese had sex slaves, the Russian liberators assaulted
German women. Only the war in Congo lasts longer, causing the perpetrators to
slide further and further.'>>
https://www.volkskrant.nl/mensen/als-een-oorlog-lang-duurt-zoals-in-congo-gebeuren-er-dingen-die-nergens-anders-zijn-gebeurd~b3cedb9d/
Part of the article (quotes) have been translated from Dutch to English by Gino
d'Artali
copyright Womens Liberation Front 2019/cryfreedom.net 2022
