Why DR Congo? Towards the closing of the 3rd International Action!

 We are hoping that 1,000 women – especially from the African Great Lakes region – will participate in the week of activities, and that around 1,500 people will take part in the Big March for Peace on the 17th October.
The idea of bringing our action to a close in a country in conflict remained at the centre of debates during the International Meeting in Vigo, Galicia, in October 2008, where 148 delegates representing 48 countries took part. During the Closing Action, our aim is to draw special attention to the links between violence against women, conflict and militarisation. Diverse reasons were given for the choice of Bukavu, among them:

• The systematic use of rape of women and girls (considered spoils of war) to humiliate, dishonour and demoralise;

• The existence of women’s groups organised locally / nationally that allow us the possibility of demonstrating our international solidarity through the strengthening of these groups;

•  The manipulation of ethnic tensions to justify armed conflicts and, in this way, hide the underlying economic causes of these conflicts, such as the control of mineral resources and the region’s biodiversity, as well as the profit made by the arms industry and private security companies;

• The presence of the United Nations Organisation Stabilisation Mission in the DRC (MONUSCO) – previously, the UN Mission in the DRC (MONUC) – that, in 2010, is in its 10th year in the region with impacts barely perceptible to local populations. In addition, MONUSCO budget represents a GNP (Gross National Product) per person 400 higher than the DRC GNP.

In this scenario, the Closing Action seeks to strengthen the socio-economic and political autonomy of Congolese women and to seek accountability for perpetrators of sexual violence and the use of women’s bodies as weapons of war. It aims also to denounce the economic interests that prolong the conflict in the DRC, in particular the role of local militia and armed groups; to struggle so that the DRC’s national resources are used, first and foremost, for the benefit of the Congolese people and to create conditions necessary for the Democratic Republic of Congo to experience a lasting peace that starts with the demilitarisation of Eastern DRC and the progressive and negotiated withdrawal of MONUSCO.