Archive for the ‘Sex Abuse’ Category

by Melinda Tankard Reist, Contributing Writer for AnaiRhoads.org

Two recent and deeply disturbing ABC Four Corners documentaries have me thinking about how much women suffer. About how common, even normalised, their suffering is, and how little is done to address it.

Late last month, Four Corners broadcast the documentary ‘Heart of Darkness’ about the systematic rape of women in the Democratic Republic of Congo. Their rape is commonly accompanied by genital mutilation. So many women – and even little girls – require surgery to repair what was done to them. And even then, many are raped again. Justice stands at a distance: most of the violated women can never access it.

Heart of Darkness is described on the ABC’s website :

The Democractic Republic of Congo is the most dangerous place in the world to be a woman. It’s a place where rape has become a weapon of war. Now a BBC film crew follows Judith Wanga as she meets the survivors of the conflict. She talks to women, children, and child soldiers who’ve been forced to kill so that they themselves will not be killed. To her horror, she discovers that the violence is fuelled, in part, by the need to mine the minerals that go into the manufacture of mobile phones and laptops.

Twenty-three-year-old Judith Wanga grew up in London and is proud to be British. But Judith was born thousands of miles away in the Democratic Republic of Congo. Twenty years ago, with the country in turmoil and fearing for their daughter’s safety, her parents sent her to live with relatives in Britain.

Now Judith is going back to Congo for the first time. She wants to understand the childhood she missed and find the missing piece in the jigsaw puzzle of her life.

Judith quickly discovers two things: despite the fact the civil war in Congo has officially ended, in the east of the country a bitter conflict between Congolese troops and rebels continues. She also discovers that women across Congo have a very different status to women in Western countries.

After the reunion with her parents, Judith visits eastern Congo, an area that has been devastated by conflict. There she learns that rape is an epidemic. Judith meets a radio journalist who conducts a one person campaign to expose the extent of the violence directed at women. She hears the stories of those who have been attacked and meets the children who are born as a result of the rapes.

As well as meeting the victims of this conflict, Judith also talks to some of the perpetrators. She meets a young woman who was forced to join the military to survive. The woman reveals how she was forced to kill and how she fled the armed forces only to find herself without money to support her child. Now she supports herself by working as a prostitute.

Amidst all the horror, Judith also glimpses a few signs of hope. She visits a centre that has been built to provide a sanctuary for women who have been assaulted, called ‘City of Joy’. In another part of Congo she meets the young men and women who carry out dramatic performances exposing the brutality they have seen and experienced.

On discovering the harsh realities of her homeland, Judith begins to understand why her parents sent her away as a child. Her experience also makes her determined to return home to Britain and encourage awareness of the plight of her country, and the women forced to endure unimaginable suffering.

You can see Heart of Darkness here:

If you survive that experience, and to get a bigger picture of the fate of women in this part of the world, have a look at ‘South Africa’s Lost Innocence’. It is a vision from hell. The ABC describes it as:

The story of three young girls living in modern day South Africa. Each of them has been raped, each lives in fear. Meanwhile, the authorities do little to protect them or punish their attackers.

South Africa has the highest incidence of rape in the world, and almost half the victims are children. On average, a child is raped every three minutes and yet there is apparently no concerted effort to stop this epidemic.

True Vision Productions takes us to the city of Port Elizabeth in South Africa to document how this war against women and children is being fought, talking with the victims as they try to go about their daily lives and revealing how little is being done to help them.

Reducing rape to a bureaucratic acronym

My friend and publisher, Susan Hawthorne of Spinifex Press, recorded her feelings while watching Heart of Darkness, on the Spinifex blog.  She urges us not to reduce the term ‘Rape’ to a more mild bureaucratic term.

A Civil War against Women

Watching the ABC’s Four Corners programme, Heart of Darkness last night I was struck by the fact that this massive level of rape going on in the Democratic Republic of Congo is really a civil war against women. The DRC has been continuously exploited as a nation for its mineral wealth by Western countries and the minerals that make our mobile phones vibrate are just the latest theft of wealth (background reading on the Congo).

The DRC is not alone in its high levels of rape against women. In Nigeria women fear to use the communal toilets because they fear sexual assault. And what about our own countries where despite laws on the books against rape, it is a crime that occurs daily?

The UN is ineffective. They have reduced the word rape to a bureaucratic acronym that makes you feel nothing: GBSV. I’ve had many a friend scratch their head wondering what this might be short for. Amnesty has put out many press releases about violence against women all around the world. Still nothing happens.

In the meantime, pornography is sold on street corners and in milk bars and petrol stations. Girls and women are increasingly sexualised. So-called progressive males keep up their call for an end to censorship so they can get their rocks off. They call for legalisation of prostitution so women can be legally sold a hundred years after the end of slavery.

And that acronym: gender based sexual violence. Let’s call it for what it is. A perfectly good and understandable four-letter word: RAPE. It is violence against women. It is a war against women. On every level of civil society: between nations, within nations, within communities and families – it is a civil war against women.

Heal Africa

If you want to make a difference in the lives of some of Congo’s physically and mentally traumatised women, here’s a group that could use your donations. I know some of the women involved. They are heroes.

by Melinda Tankard Reist, Contributing Writer for AnaiRhoads.org

Crime Commission report reveals failure to act

Three alarming reports in News Ltd papers about child on child sexual abuse. More children are exhibiting problem sexual behaviour including assault of other children.

Story 1: Children sexually abusing children ‘ignored and denied’

Teachers and childcare workers have raised the alarm over an increase in children coercing other children into sexual acts.

The widespread increase, with some children involved as young as three, is creating a “hidden population” of abuse victims.

A report by the Australian Crime Commission’s National Indigenous Intelligence Task Force has lifted the lid on a culture of “confusion, denial and non-disclosure” among child protection authorities, which it says have failed to keep pace with increasingly sexualised and sexually abusive behaviour in children.

The report, released this month, estimates that between 40 per cent and 90 per cent of sexual offending against children was committed by other children, “a fact that continues to go largely unknown”…

The report reinforces escalating concern among child protection advocates over an increase in sexually aggressive behaviour in children, as young people become exposed to sexual and pornographic images.

Bernadette McMenamin, the founder of the child protection charity Child Wise, said: “Everyone who works with children will testify that sexualised behaviours in children have definitely increased.

“There are disinhibitors around. We are a much more open society than we were before.”

The report, undertaken by ACC research fellow Wendy O’Brien in the past 18 months and the second in a two-part series, examined the responses of authorities in the health, child protection, education and juvenile justice sectors to sexualised and sexually offending behaviour in children.

It revealed a critical shortage of therapy available for children who exhibit sexually abusive behaviour. Only young people who entered the juvenile justice system were readily able to access social support. Outside the criminal justice system, there was only one therapeutic residential unit in the country – catering for six adolescents.

The report says childcare workers are increasingly concerned about how to respond to sexualised behaviour in very young children, and that there has been a “substantial increase in children coercing other children into sexual acts”…Read story here

Story 2: Rise in calls to experts about child-on-child sex abuse

CHILD protection advocates are being inundated with requests for advice on how to handle sexually abusive behaviour in children.

Responding to an Australian Crime Commission report that lifted the lid on a culture of “confusion, denial and non-disclosure” of sexualised and sexually abusive behaviour in children, the Australian Childhood Foundation said there had been a tenfold increase in demand for its therapeutic services.

The foundation runs a program in Victoria for children aged between seven and 12 years that exhibit problem sexual behaviour, in which social workers and psychologists work with the families and carers of the children.

Ten years ago, when the program started, it was attracting about 10 referrals a year. Now it attracts more than 150.

The ACC report estimated that between 40 per cent and 90 per cent of sexual offending against children was committed by other children, and called for a drastic increase in therapeutic services for young people displaying sexually aggressive behaviour…Read more.

Story 3: Issue of schoolchildren sexually assaulting each other in Queensland is being ‘ignored’

A DISTURBING trend of Queensland schoolchildren sexually assaulting each other is being swept under the carpet by authorities, a child development expert claims.

Professor Freda Briggs, an adviser to the Federal Government’s Safe School Framework, said she knew of at least 10 cases of sex assaults by children against other children in Queensland schools in 2008-09 and claimed many of the cases were not taken seriously by authorities.

“Five-year-olds just starting school are at risk of violent abuse by older children in school toilets,” she said.

“The cases I am aware of have been swept under the carpet and victims have to leave the schools while the perpetrators remain.” Read more

These latest reports further demonstrate why we must urgently address sexualised imagery and the widespread pornification of culture. If not, the problem will get worse, with shocking long term negative physical and mental health outcomes for children. One positive step you can take today is to sign up to Collective Shout: for a world free of sexploitation. Also support Kids Free 2 B Kids, Beth Mitchell’s Stop adult magazines being sold at convenience stores and Say No for Kids. Ask your candidate what they are doing to address this – and tell them you won’t support them unless they promise to act.

by Stephen Lendman

On June 28, 2009, while he slept, dozens of Honduran soldiers stormed President Manuel Zelaya’s residence, arrested him at gunpoint, and exiled him to Costa Rica, in violation of the 1982 Constitution, stating:

“No Honduran may be expatriated nor delivered by the authorities to a foreign state,” nor may a democratically elected leader be deposed, evidence showing Washington’s involvement and support, coordination handled by US Ambassador Hugo Llorens and Thomas Shannon, Jr., current US Ambassador to Brazil, then Assistant Secretary of State for Western Hemisphere Affairs.

In advance and thereafter, Washington choreographed the entire process, blamed Zelaya for his illegal removal, opposed his return, backed the coup d’etat regime and sham November 2009 election under martial law, elevating fascist Porfirio (Pepe) Lobo Sosa to the presidency on January 27, 2010, now the Obama administration’s man in Honduras, succeeding interim leader, Roberto Micheletti. 

Under him and Sosa, Hondurans have endured death squad terror at the hands of the military whose officers from captain on up have been trained for decades at the infamous School of the Americas (SOA), renamed the Western Hemisphere Institute for Security Cooperation (WHISEC), where they’re taught the latest ways to kill, main, torture, oppress, exterminate poor and indigenous people, overthrow democratically elected governments, assassinate targeted leaders, suppress popular resistance, and work cooperatively with Washington to solidify fascist rule, intolerant of democratic freedoms or leaders not backing ruling class interests, using deep repression to enforce them.

Amnesty International (AI) Report on Honduras

Little has changed since AI published its August 2009 report titled, “Honduras: Human Rights Crisis Threatens as Repression Increases,” explaining a systematic reign of terror post-coup against street protestors, human rights activists, journalists, unionists, campesinos, teachers, and anyone potentially threatening state authority.

Brutally repressive tactics have been used, including arbitrary arrests, kidnappings, suspension of civil liberties, martial law, indefinite detentions, beatings, torture, sodomizing men, gang-raping women, suppression of dissent, and death squad murders, at least 14 documented since Lobo took office, including nine journalists, placing all independent reporters at risk, international human rights groups calling Honduras the most dangerous country in the world for them, authorities prosecuting no one for the crimes.

According to Rights Action co-director Grahame Russell:

“….the Honduran regime speaks so derisively and cynically about grave human rights violations – including assassinations, illegal detentions, torture….(It) demonstrates the degree of impunity with which this regime operates.”

The rule of law doesn’t exist, Washington a party to the worst human rights abuses and injustice, including repression, detentions, torture, land theft, and killings to keep ruling oligarchs in power, and popular resistance suppressed, but it persists.

Established after the coup, the National Front of Popular Resistance (FNRP) is a broad grassroots coalition of campesinos, human rights supporters, unionists, women, students, teachers, and others supporting democratic freedoms in Honduras, saying on its web site:

“One who remains silent in the face of injustice becomes its accomplice….A year old now, the Resistance has grown into a widespread political body (transitioning from short-term action to a) strategy to take power and change the country.”

Last summer at “Station number 4,” dozens of Hondurans were detained, including 10 or more students, one of them telling AI:

About 200 of them were marching peacefully. “The police were throwing stones, they rounded us up, they threw us face down on the ground and they beat us – there are people with fractures, with head wounds, they beat us on the buttocks. They stole our cameras, they beat us if we raised our heads, they beat us when they were getting us into police cars.”

Others reported similar stories, evidence showing they were badly bruised, swollen, and cut. Two days after an El Duranzno demonstration, Roger Abraham Vallejo, a 38-year old teacher, died from a bullet wound to his head. A witness told AI:

“A patrol car was advancing toward the crowd, and as it turned round at speed….police….started to shoot….” Women were treated harshly like men, some sexually abused, police systematically using disproportionate force, in violation of international law standards to which Honduras is party, including the UN International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights (ICCPR), affirming the “right to peaceful assembly,” and prohibiting torture and cruel, inhuman or degrading treatment or punishment.

In addition, Article 2 of the UN Code of Conduct for Law Enforcement Officials states:

“In the performance of their duty, law enforcement officials shall respect and protect human dignity and maintain and uphold the human rights of all persons.”

Article 3 says “Law enforcement officials may use force only when strictly necessary and to the extent required for the performance of their duty,” meaning only under extreme circumstances, never against peaceful protestors or persons posing no threat. Arbitrary arrests, detentions, beatings, torture, and other abuses are strictly prohibited.

Free expression, assembly and association are enshrined in human rights law. Yet Robert Barra, a Chilean independent photo-journalist told AI that police beat him and confiscated his camera while he was covering a peaceful protest. He was severely bruised and cut. Others were treated the same way, and media outlets like Radio Globo, Canal 36, Maya TV and Radio Progreso were taken off the air and shut down. Anyone suspected of threatening state authority faces recriminations, even death.

Rights Action Honduras Update

Published June 22, Grahame Russell calls Honduran repression “very bad,” explaining that:

“The (Lobo) regime (has) implemented a policy of state repression (terror) – including the activation of paramilitary death squad groups, to threaten, intimidate, terrorize and kill members of the pro-democracy, anti-coup movement,” and potentially anyone challenging state authority, Oscar Geovanny Ramirez, a 16-year old campesino, one of many.

During a violent June 20 joint police/military operation against the Aurora Cooperative of the Movimiento Unificado Campesino del Agua (MUCA), he was murdered. Five others were arrested.

Witnesses said police and the military arrived in two patrol cars, (one identified as the National Preventive Police), and opened fire at close range. Those arrested were charged with illegal weapons possession and conspiracy.

In December 2009, MUCA signed an agreement with Lobo to recover 11 thousand hectares of land. Objecting, powerful landowners used state security forces to intimidate, threaten, and persecute campesinos, killing eight.

The human rights organization advocating for the right to food, FIAN International, condemned the violence saying:

“We face the never ending story. The murders, persecution and various physical and psychological aggressions continue. When (MUCA) signed (its) agreement with (Lobo), understood was that the aggression by the police and armed individuals would end, but the actual facts disprove the belief.”

Human rights expert, Dr. Juan Almendares, said:

“We are living in a state of terror. There is no security in the country….We are in a terrible economic, moral and political crisis….We don’t have a democratic process. We have a military process….We have a very powerful oligarchy that is ruling the country with the army” and police – the poor, disadvantaged, and anyone challenging them subject to arbitrary arrest, detention or death.

It’s reminiscent of Battalion 316, the CIA-created death squads that disappeared, tortured, and exterminated regime opponents in the 1980s. Reportedly, Billy Joya, a retired police captain, founder of Cobra (an elite Preventive Police hit squad), and one of 316’s notorious members under the pseudonym “Mrs. Arrazola,” returned from Spain to train soldiers how to terrorize and kill civilian freedom fighters – anyone for social justice and democracy, notions Honduras and Washington won’t tolerate.

Since the June 2009 coup, the Committee for the Families of the Detained and Disappeared of Honduras (COFADEH) documented 47 assassinations, 14 since Lobo’s January 28 inauguration. The Inter-American Commission on Human Rights and Center for Justice and International Law voiced great alarm about ongoing state terror and lawlessness, authorities, of course, doing nothing to address or even recognize a problem.

On May 4, Lobo announced a “Truth Commission,” what Rights Action called a “mockery of human rights & rule of law,” COFADEH Director Berth Oliva wanting an independent one in her same day article titled, “A Real Truth Commission for Honduras,” saying her “beloved and troubled country….desperately needs” it.

Lobo’s Commission is a sham, human rights groups like Rights Action and COFADEH calling it a scheme to suppress truths and whitewash murder, mass detentions, torture, and other abuses. Under Lobo’s repressive regime, it has no legitimacy, authorities not even acknowledging post-coup terror, ongoing and unabated.

In addition, the Commission was secretly formed with no public input, its members hand-picked to absolve state crimes so security forces can freely terrorize popular resistance with impunity.

The Platform of Human Rights Organizations of Honduras has an alternative proposal – an independent commission addressing ongoing human rights violations, using testimonies of victims – a Honduran Goldstone Commission, fully empowered to report the truth and recommend those responsible be held accountable for their crimes. However, given a repressive Washington/Honduran cabal against truth, human rights, and judicial fairness, sustained activism, and struggle is essential to achieve it.

A Final Comment

Hondurans have endured decades of repression, injustice, and poverty, the latter affecting almost 60% of the population. For over 36%, it’s extreme. In addition, the Honduran Institute of Statistics reports unemployment in Honduras at 51%, mainly affecting young workers.

Yet last February, Lobo imposed regressive tax hikes, and 20% across-the-board spending cuts, what IMF and World Bank loans require, both agencies last March formally recognizing his government and unfreezing $194 million in funding, nearly 85% from the IMF.

Washington also restored over $30 million in aid, and at Secretary of State Clinton’s urging, the Organization of American States may readmit Honduras, no matter its illegitimate government and draconian austerity against its poor and disadvantaged, measures the IMF and World Bank demand, ones European officials announced at the June G20 session, what economist Michael Hudson calls the “road to financial serfdom,” the same one Obama’s chosen to transform America into Honduras, complete with police state harshness.

Stephen Lendman lives in Chicago and can be reached at lendmanstephen@sbcglobal.net. Also visit his blog site at sjlendman.blogspot.com and listen to cutting-edge discussions with distinguished guests on the Progressive Radio News Hour on the Progressive Radio Network Thursdays at 10AM US Central time and Saturdays and Sundays at noon. All programs are archived for easy listening.