Unifeed
DRC / WALLSTROM
STORY: DRC / WALLSTROM
TRT: 1:57
SOURCE: MONUSCO
RESTRICTIONS: NONE
LANGUAGES: ENGLISH / NATS
DATELINE: 6 OCTOBER 2010, KINSHASA, DEMOCRATIC REPUBLIC OF THE CONGO
1. Wide shot, press conference
2. SOUNDBITE (English) Margot Wallström, Special Representative of the Secretary-General on Sexual Violence in Conflict, United Nations:
“This is an independent country and with a government, of course, also that has its own responsibilities. There are some things I can do and there are other things that the Government of the DRC must and can do and I hope will do.”
3. Cutaway, journalists
4. SOUNDBITE (English) Margot Wallström, Special Representative of the Secretary-General on Sexual Violence in Conflict, United Nations:
“And I try to understand, of course, what goes on in this country. My mandate is a very precise one which has to do with sexual violence in war and in conflict and to understand how this is being used in this country as a weapon of war, a strategy, or a consequence of war and what we can do to stop this.”
5. Cutaway, journalists
6. SOUNDBITE (English) Margot Wallström, Special Representative of the Secretary-General on Sexual Violence in Conflict, United Nations:
“I don’t think the Congolese ministers have been there. I think this is where we would like to see more of an engagement from the Government and we can work together. I did not see that, I saw that they were willing to share with us, these villagers, their pain and these grandmothers who say that “these young people who came could be my grandchildren. Have you come to rape me?” One of the mothers of Congo. What is going on here and how can you help us to stop this? I can see an honest and open and sincere person and recognize them that when I see them. This is not some sort of theatre. It was an honest and sincere and painful exercise for them but we felt we came as somebody that was willing to listen and willing to act with the help that we can get from the UN presence here and from the civil society organizations.”
7. Cutaway, journalists
United Nations (UN) Special Representative on Sexual Violence in Conflict Margot Wallström said that the Government of the Democratic Republic of the Congo “must and can do” more to stop the use of sexual violence as a weapon of war.
Wallström, who started her week-long trip to the vast country earlier this week, added that the purpose of her visit is to understand how sexual violence “is being used in this country as a weapon of war or a strategy or a consequence of war and what we can do to stop this.”
On Tuesday (5 September) UN peacekeepers and Government forces seized one of the rebel leaders, Sadoke Kikunda Mayele, suspected of being behind the mass rape of more than 300 civilians two months ago in the country’s east.
The joint operation by peacekeepers from the UN Stabilization Mission in the DRC (MONUSCO) and the Government army was launched in the Walikale area of North Kivu province where the rapes were perpetrated.
The attacks, which took place mostly after dark, were carried out between 30 July and 2 August by some 200 members of three armed groups, the Mai Mai Cheka, the Democratic Forces for the Liberation of Rwanda (FDLR), and elements close to Colonel Emmanuel Nsengiyumva, an army deserter who has in the past been involved with the rebel National Congress for the Defence of the People (CNDP).
The known victims include 235 women, 52 girls, 13 men, and 3 boys, some of whom were raped multiple times, according to a UN human rights report issued last month. At least 923 houses and 42 shops were looted and 116 people were abducted in order to carry out forced labour.
On the incident, Wallström said that during her visit she saw that the villagers “were willing to share with us, these villagers, their pain.” She added that the UN “would like to see more of an engagement from the Government.”
MONUSCO noted that the arrest was executed within the framework of the mission’s mandate to support the Government in its struggle against impunity and Mayele had been handed over to DRC military investigators.
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