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DARFUR-ACT Jun-22-2005 (1,140 words) With photos. xxxi
Ecumenical aid effort helps sexual violence victims in Darfur
By Paul Jeffrey
Catholic News Service
ZALINGEI, Sudan (CNS) -- Kaltouma Harroon Musa cooks her family's meals over a wood stove in her hut of dried mud and thatch on the edges of this desert outpost, but obtaining the firewood for that stove can be dangerous.
A relief operation that brings together church agencies from around the world has helped her build a new stove that consumes much less fuel, and as a result may have saved Musa from horrible violence.
Musa lives in the Hassahissa refugee camp where she is one of 2 million black Africans in the Darfur region of Sudan who fled from attacks that have killed as many as 180,000 people, according to U.N. estimates, and left hundreds of villages in ashes.
Some of the attackers -- members of Arab militias that allied themselves with the government's campaign against the two regional rebel groups -- lurk around the camps. According to refugees and aid workers, any man who wanders far from the camps in search of firewood is likely to be killed. Many families choose to send women to fetch firewood. Although several women also have been killed, they are more likely "only" to be raped.
The government in Khartoum has been condemned internationally for its scorched-earth policies, which many have called genocide. What is clear for many in Darfur is that rape has been used systematically as a tool of war.
"The women in these camps come from villages that were attacked, and they watched their husbands and fathers and sons be slaughtered. When the attackers were done with the men, they raped the women, even the old ones. Then the women ran away and came here to the camps, but if they leave the camp to get firewood they're captured and raped by force again," said Alawia Ahmed, a community-care advocate with the ACT/Caritas Darfur Emergency Response, a joint effort of Action by Churches Together, a global alliance of Protestant aid organizations, and Caritas, the international network of Catholic relief and development agencies.
The ecumenical effort is supported by Catholic Relief Services, the overseas development and aid agency of the U.S. bishops. CRS also operates its own program for displaced Darfurians in the far west of the country and for refugees who have fled across the border into Chad.
Local authorities in Darfur have done little to stop the sexual assaults on displaced women, many here have said.
"The women go to the police, but the police don't record these things in their papers," Ahmed told Catholic News Service. "They tell the women they won't help them because they allegedly fight against the government. They simply won't help them. Unless they see an attack on a woman right in front of them, they let them do what they want."
In a workshop sponsored by the ACT/Caritas program, Ahmed helped Musa make a more efficient stove from clay and dung and a few bricks. Musa then trained 10 other women in three weeks how to make the stoves.
"The stoves are saving our lives," she said.
"Before they had to go out every day for firewood, but now they may go only once a week. With one piece of wood you can cook your meals all day. It's cleaner, healthier, and doesn't contribute as much to desertification," Ahmed said.
The rape of displaced women as they search for firewood is a sensitive issue here. Two workers with Doctors Without Borders were arrested in May and charged with publishing false information and spying on the Sudanese government. The charges stemmed from a March report by the medical agency documenting the rape of 500 displaced women over the course of four-and-a-half months. According to the report, more than 80 percent of the victims said their attackers were soldiers or members of government-allied militias.
The arrest of the two, who were released on bail but not allowed to leave the country, provoked protest from relief agencies and several foreign governments. On June 20, agency officials in Khartoum announced that the charges against the two had been dropped.
Many suggest the report barely scratched the surface.
"What the media have reported is not even 10 percent of the cases." said Dr. Bushra Gamar, program manager in Darfur for the Sudan Social Development Organization, one of the local partners of ACT/Caritas. "It is a shame for us. In many cases we cannot take action because we have no evidence. But we're hoping to recruit lawyers and we'll deal with this issue very strongly. Even if they hang us, we will do it."
The arrival of African Union troops in recent months has helped in a few places. The troops are few in comparison with the size of the region and the tasks they face, and their mandate has been limited to providing protection to African Union police who are monitoring a shaky cease-fire between the government and two rebel groups.
Aid groups have argued for expansion of the African Union's mandate to include protection of the civilian population. In several places African Union soldiers have mounted firewood patrols -- accompanying displaced women as they set off in search of firewood.
Patrick Musibi, ACT/Caritas field coordinator in Zalingei, said the presence of the troops had "made women secure." But he said the union remains underfunded and understaffed.
"The current number of troops must increase dramatically if we're going to see more impact on the ground," Musibi said.
He said the ACT/Caritas program has encouraged women who've been victims of the assaults to speak out.
"A lot of people, especially women who have had to face such atrocities, have so much bottled inside them," Musibi said. "There was no psycho-social program that I know of to help these women deal with these experiences until our program recently started one. But before that, when women members of our staff were doing other work, they would take whatever opportunity to get these women to discuss what happened, and bring them to a level where they can openly discuss what happened to them."
That process is a critical step in mobilizing organized support for the women, said Bjorg Mide, director of the ACT/Caritas program. But many rapes have resulted in pregnancies, and women have faced rejection from their families as a result. In some cases, they have been driven out of the family home to fend for themselves.
"Children are supposed to be welcomed and accepted by the woman, her family and the community," Mide said. "But it's not easy when the child is the result of a rape. Nonetheless, love for a child can be there despite the fact that it was caused by rape. We have seen that, and can testify that it's possible for people in very difficult situations to mobilize love for these small creatures."
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Copyright (c) 2005 Catholic News Service/USCCB. All rights reserved.
This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or otherwise distributed.
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