Victims as pariahs  Rape attacks in the Congo Since 1996, nearly
4 million people have died in the Congo as a result of an
international war—more than in any other country since World War
II. Various militias, and armies from Uganda, Burundi and
Rwanda, have perpetrated gruesome atrocities on Congolese people
and villages in an effort to claim the Congo’s land and mineral
resources.  One of their weapons is systematic rape. Militia
members rape women in front of their husbands and children.
Afterward, the husbands or the husbands’ families drive the
“contaminated” women and their children from the village. Even
when the women are not forced to leave, the husbands may demand
that children born from the rapes be killed; caring for these
children is considered acquiescing to the assault. The children
of rape who survive become pariahs. Many end up as street
children in the cities—a phenomenon unknown before 1996,
according to several Congolese who spoke to our delegation from
Christian Peacemaker Teams.    This