Congo: Reprisals for speaking out on rape

Survivors of a horrific mass rape attack in Congo last year have suffered reprisals for giving evidence against their assailants.

At least 387 people were raped in the Walikale territory in the eastern of the country in late July and early August last year, including men, children and a month-old baby boy.

More than 150 victims and witnesses have been interviewed, but a report by the UN Joint Human Rights Office in Congo yesterday said a judicial inquiry had to be suspended because of the reprisal attacks.

UN High Commissioner for Human Rights Navi Pillay urged the Congolese government to do more to stop the violence and called on the international community to better equip the UN mission in Congo.

She said: "The government should pursue its efforts to bring perpetrators to justice and ensure that victims and witnesses are protected, given the high risk of reprisals."

Luzolo Bambi, Congo's minister of justice and human rights, said the government was determined to fight impunity. He said he has given orders for criminal proceedings into the rapes, that investigations have opened and that there will be a trial.

He said: "There are people in custody including an officer general of the army for rapes and other crimes."

The UN mission in Congo was criticised following the Walikale attacks because the rapes occurred within 12 miles of a UN peacekeeping base. It took days for help to arrive, even though a peacekeeping patrol escorted commercial trucks through one of the villages, Luvungi, while it was held by the fighters.

Victims told doctors they had been attacked by a mixed group of fighters.