NewLife

PRICE FOUNDATION Chirac: The doctor Mukwege distinguished for his help women raped in Congo

 

Time approached for the Nobel Peace Prize, Dr. Denis Mukwege distinguished, Thursday, Nov. 21, by the Chirac Foundation for Conflict Prevention. He is rewarded for his efforts on behalf of women victims of sexual assault in the Democratic Republic of Congo, where rape is a weapon of war.

In a dozen years, the Congolese gynecologist made tens of thousands of women raped and sometimes mutilated. Threatened the doctor, considered an iconic figure led against sexual violence in DRC fighting continues his fight. On the occasion of the award ceremony, FRANCE 24 republishing below the story of Johan Bodin and Marc Perelman, who had met in February 2013.

Tirelessly, Denis Mukwege, a Congolese gynecologist, treats, operates, repairs. Women raped and often mutilated. With teams in his hospital in Bukavu, South Kivu, he has treated 40,000 women. Work to the extent of the horror that it faces every day. Over the past fifteen years, it is estimated that half a million women were raped in the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC).

Denis Mukwege also know, despite himself, clinically identify the perpetrators. Armed gangs, militias or regular soldiers, which ravage the region of eastern Congo and compete cruelty. Executioners who leave, in the flesh and female belly suppliciées, signing their torture. At machetes, piles, or firearms, rape is a weapon of war.

The doctor carries with it a terrible memory. In October 1996, he was chief physician at the hospital Lemera, in South Kivu. Some came from neighboring Rwanda armed gangs terrorizing the region. The gynecologist hand accompany a Western expatriate who must be removed for health reasons. Their convoy narrowly escapes an attack. The next day, the hospital is attacked, patients and staff killed. These victims still haunt Mukwege.

Barbary

And over the years, the surgeon also saw its return to Children's Hospital of rape. Here, horror is repeated from generation to generation. These girls had been born that have in turn been raped at the age of 3 or 5 years. Barbarity. Denis Mukwege grabbed his dark anger surgeon to carry beyond the borders of his country. Bring the great indignation of the world: UN, European Parliament, France. The doctor took all the forums that have been offered to him.

The doctor refuses trivialization, despite the lack of resources of a Congolese state often conspicuously absent. For despite campaigns to fight against sexual violence, the perpetrators of these crimes can always count on widespread impunity. Today it is not only the men in uniform who commit rape. The spirit of war also infected civilians. The few lawyers who defend the handful of victims who dare complain are paid by foreign NGOs. Military judges of Bukavu, in their building, the roof collapses, must rely on the vehicles of the UN or international support for their investigations.

October 25, Mukwege escaped an assassination attempt at his home. Was it to make it stop? After three months of exile in Belgium, he decided to return to Bukavu, in the hospital, with those women who were assessed for paying her return ticket. We followed.

Since its operation to the nursery children through the dungeons of the police and shelters table, we were faced with some tough stories to bear. But needed to hear.