Gang rapes in Congo 'crowning failure of the United Nations'

Four armed men barged into Anna Mburano's hut, slapped the children and threw them down. They flipped Mrs Mburano on her back, she said, and raped her, repeatedly.

It did not matter that dozens of United Nations peacekeepers were based just up the road. Or that Mrs Mburano is around 80 years old.

As soon as they finished, they moved house to house, along with hundreds of other marauding rebels, gang-raping at least 200 women.

What happened in this remote, thatched-roof village on 30 July and continued for at least three more days has become a searing embarrassment for the UN mission in Congo.

"Congo is the UN's crowning failure," said Eve Ensler, author of The Vagina Monologues, whose advocacy group, V-Day, has been working with Congolese women for several years.

She said: "If the women being raped were the daughters, wives or mothers of the power elites, I can promise you this war would have ended about 12 years ago."

Luvungi, a village of about 2,000 people, is a crucible where so many of Congo's intractable problems converged: the scramble for minerals; the fragmentation of rebel groups; the poverty that keeps villages cut off and the disturbing fact that in Congo's wars, the battleground is often women's bodies.

People in the Luvungi area are now taking no chances. After the rapes, the UN set up a small base here, and just the presence of 20 or so Indian peacekeepers sees countless refugees from surrounding areas camp out at night around them.

In mid-July, the Congolese Army contingent stationed in Luvungi pulled out. The UN later learned the soldiers had marched off to Bisie, where there is a huge tin ore mine - and illegal taxes to be extorted.

Shortly after the rapes, the government ordered mines in eastern Congo temporarily closed, to starve armed groups of income. But the government does not control many mines.

"The government's able to dominate only the road," explained Lieutenant Colonel RD Sharma. "The rest is the negative forces."

The negative forces stormed into Luvungi on 30 July, at around 8pm. According to UN reports there were around 300 men, a mix of Rwandan rebels who have been terrorising eastern Congo for years and fighters from a new Congolese rebel group, Mai Mai Cheka.

The Indian peacekeepers at the base nearest Luvungi, in Kibua, about 11 miles away, said they began hearing reports of an attack the following Sunday, but that they had been tricked many times before.Often, truck drivers claim a certain area is under attack when, in fact, they simply want an escort to the next town.

Because there is no mobile phone service in the area or electricity, it is not always simple to know when there is an attack.

On 2 August, peacekeepers agreed to escort truck drivers through Luvungi. Indian officers said they saw evidence of looting - but that the villagers did not say anything about mass rapes.

"Sometimes," Col Sharma said, "the women are ashamed to tell a soldier, especially a male soldier, they've been raped. And we don't have any female soldiers."

"I know, I still look sick," Mrs Mburano said, though her cloudy eyes tried to smile as she spoke. "Just a few vegetables, that's all I've eaten since I was demolished."