Some 200 women gang-raped near Congo UN base

[oberliner]

Source: MSNBC

JOHANNESBURG — An aid worker says rebels in eastern Congo gang-raped nearly 200 women over four days within miles of a U.N. peacekeepers' base.

Will F. Cragin of the International Medical Corps says aid workers knew rebels had occupied Luvungi town the day after the attack began on July 30.

More than three weeks later the U.N. mission says it still is investigating.

Cragin told The Associated Press Monday by telephone that his organization was only able to go into the town that is 10 miles (16 kilometers) from a U.N. military camp after rebels withdrew voluntarily on Aug. 4.

Read more: http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/38814397/ns/world_news-africa/

[Lightning Count]

1. This is unacceptable and disgusting. nt

[bherrera]

2. What can you do to not accept it?

There is no realistic means to make the Congolese people behave in a law abiding manner. The UN forces are useless, they should be withdrawn, and used in a country where they can benefit the population, or sent home. Congo is not a real country, it was formed by colonial empires and lacks the coherent nature of a real nation. Therefore the best solution is to allow them to kill each other and separate into nations which reflect their national identities. I believe Congo and most of Africa is now in the process of nation building, a process wrecked by colonialism, which left these artificial nations made up of nationalities which don't speak the same language, are enemies to each other, and can not find reconciliation at the point of an imperialist's gun. As time passes, they will achieve the divisions of land which lead to true nations, they will wage some wars, and eventually learn, like we Europeans did, to stop fighting to much.

[oberliner]

7. Here is something that can be done

With Your Help Today Women for Women International Can Continue Its Success in the DR Congo

We are making enormous strides in DR Congo, but our work is far from done. The women are filled with hope that you will help them continue to rebuild their lives. You're not only changing the course of one woman's life – you're support and generosity improves entire villages and communities!

In the last two years, we have expanded our program to reach remote villages and have now served over 24,000 women and 131,581 family and community members since our start.

http://www.womenforwomen.org/global-initiatives-helping-women/help-women-congo.php

[Lightning Count]

8. The UN forces must be made effective or replaced with a force that is effective.

The solution is not to just allow gang rape of hundreds of women in hope of some sort of equalization.

[bherrera]

11. Wrong, I'm sorry

The UN forces can not be made effective. Your proposed solution is a typical solution proposed by "big white brother" with a very imperialist mind set. In other words, your proposal is to impose a peace on people by brute force. I assume you do realize that "effective" in this case means using hundreds of thousands of heavily armed soldiers, willing to use deadly force, bombing from the air, and other lethal means to "pacify the population".

I believe you would benefit if you read a book called "Forever Peace", where these "pacification forces" were opposed by a group of people designated the "M'gumi". In the end, those like you, who would use violence to impose your rule and beliefs, are defeated. A very interesting book.

I don't like to shift debates, but do you also support the horrors inflicted on the population of the Balkans by US president, Mr Clinton? What do you think about the way he bombed the Serbs and Kosovars in 1999? Did you support it?

[Lightning Count]

12. Hate to pull a Godwin, but like when the Germans were exterminating the Jews?

If only big Christian brother hadn't stepped in, then maybe things would have equalized and we would not have had the problems with anti-semitism today?

I'm glad the lives of these women mean so little to you that you would just stay out of it.

[Threedifferentones]

15. Nazis were Christian, "anti-semitism" has moved once again to desperate and poor places.

I want to say many things to pick apart your little post, and put it into context.

The Nazis were Christian too. The people most in favor of massacring Jews today tend to be Semitic themselves. Hatred of Israel has intensified lately in the Middle East because Arabs were kicked off their land by Christians in favor of several million Jews. Those same Christian nations carved up the ME after WW1, and used their oil and other resources as their own for decades. And that does not even touch the cold war.

History never boils down to good vs evil. Leaders everywhere are selfish. In retrospect, yes, it was for once beneficial that the USA go to war, seeing as how Hitler and co turned out to be genuinely insane, and not just greedy like most leaders.

But I think that it is just important to remember that WW2 did not need to happen. Hitler did not just come to power because he was an evil genius destined to kill Jews. He was arrested in 1923 for attempting to turn a drunken mob into a genuine coup. The government let him go after a limited sentence because they could tell he was a loon. A few years later his hateful rants had captured minds and won him a legitimate election. What happened? The German people went nuts. Coincidentally, they had also entered into an economic depression that made ours look peachy, since France and Britain had, against the advice of Americans, saddled Germany with massive debts after WW1. You will find that a lot in history, that when populations get desperate and angry their politics turn radical and warlike.

For instance, the parts of the Middle East that were broken up and colonized after the fall of the now forgotten Ottoman Empire have been volatile ever since, to say the least. Meanwhile, Turkey has adjusted fine to modern life.

There is no magic way to stop the cycles of violence that now grip these "third world" places. They have been fought over and enslaved too much in the past century to suddenly become a happy family now. Their borders were drawn with resources in mind, not cultures or histories. No army will stop these rapes, and no one with any knowledge of history can deny that Christian big brother made the Congo this way. If you don't believe me, just read Heart of Darkness.

[Green_Lantern]

14. I disagree with your premise that the only choices are

Bombing the crap out of a country or letting rebels and militias run rampant raping and killing.

For one the UN peacekeeping forces should be increased in order to go into villages and push rebels out.

Secondly they can help the Congolese govt. take control of the mines and remove the incentive and funding for rebels.

This has worked for blood diamonds throughout Africa.

[JustAnotherGen]

16. Well -

But President Clinton ignored Rwanda completely. Mindset that it was tribal nonsense.

[Soylent Brice]

3. utterly horrible.

i'm speechless.

[bherrera]

4. They do not want to end it

I have traveled in that region, and it is clear they do not want to end it. I am also opposed to imperialism as applied today, where UN blue helmets go to keep a peace which does not exist. This is not a solution.

But I do notice, particularly in the USA population, a strong imperialistic streak, which means they are very willing to use violence and soldiers to impose a peace.

And this never works, or the solution is worse than the problem. Consider the mess the Americans have made in Somalia since they tried to impose a government on the Somali people in 1992-93. All they achieved was their own defeat, and furthered the ongoing decay and dismemberment of the Somali nation.

The problem was compounded by the Bush regime, which encouraged an invasion by the Ethiopians. And what do we see today? Somalia is the home port for pirates, the country is in anarchy, and fighting rages on as people starve. More of the same, made worse by American meddling. What Americans need to do is learn to stop being violent, and to stop trying to impose their beliefs and will on others.

A nation which has such disgusting intolerance, which one sees in the news with all this argument about the muslim center in NY, is not fit to say anything about others. The world grows tired of this behavior.

[bemildred]

9. "Means determine ends; and must be like the ends proposed."

"Means intrinsically different from the ends proposed achieve ends like themselves, not like those they were meant to achieve. Violence and war will produce a peace and an social organization having the potentialities for more violence and war." - Aldous Huxley "Eyeless in Gaza"

:thumbsup:

[Desertrose]

13. Some of us here grow very tired of it as well.....

"A nation which has such disgusting intolerance, which one sees in the news with all this argument about the muslim center in NY, is not fit to say anything about others. The world grows tired of this behavior. "



Thank you for your post and point of view.

[Green_Lantern]

17. this isn't just the US condemning this it is the UN and frankly

International law and basic human rights.

The US didn't try to impose a govt. on the Somalis, the US was part of a UN mission to bolster a peace settlement in the Somali civil war.

So your argument is basically relativist. Regardless of what xenophobes here say or do as a nation of the world we have a duty to push for the protection of human rights.

[clyrc]

5. I never know what to say aobut things like this

That I find it horrifying goes without saying.

[lobodons]

6. Who cares?

They're black and have no oil.

[txlibdem]

10. Somalia, Darfur, Libya

It seems like you're right. I hate thinking that is true.