4-Day Frenzy of Rape in Congo Reveals U.N. Troops' Weakness
By, Jeffrey Gettleman
In Luvungi, Democratic Republic of Congo a mass raping frenzy went on for 4 days in July. Anna Mburano, 81, says that four armed men burst into her hut hut, beat her grandchildren and raped her repeatedly. Meanwhile, mass chaos was erupting in her village everywhere as men and children were beaten and women were brutally raped. A U.N. base was not far away but had no clue what was going on until after the incident. Many of the women felt very ashamed and did not come forward until much after the incidents. This tragedy has critics comparing the weakness of the U.N. troops to the massacre in Kiwanja in 2008. Rebels succeeded in killing 150 people within earshot of a U.N. base. Critics are calling out the U.N. for their weakness saying that, "nowhere else in the world has the United Nations invested so much and accomplished so little."The U.N. has an around 18,000 peacekeepers in the Congo, but because of lack of cell reception and electricity, it is difficult to know when people are in need or under attack. Author of the "Vagina Monologues, Eve Ensler called the Congo, "The U.N.'s crowning failure." she said that if the women that were being raped were the daughters, wives, or mothers of the power elite, "this war would have ended 12 years ago."
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