When wars end they do not just end full stop, the death and destruction do not suddenly turn to peace and prosperity over night. Peace talks and cease fires alone do not end wars, people end wars and when all of the people cannot find them selves distanced from the war, then the war rages on. That is just the case in Sierra Leone, where Sex crimes continue in peacetime, some eight years later leaving social workers to fear that the situation is worse then during the conflict years.
"Some of the perpetrators were children during the war and were exposed to rape and sexual violence then and just carried on doing it". “The highest numbers of cases come from areas where large numbers of ex-combatants are gathered.”
The extent of the use of rape as a weapon of war in Sierra Leone was so extreme that the rebel forces systematically rounded up girls and women, then took them to rebel command centers, where they were then individually and gang-rape. Those girls, especially the younger ones, who where deemed virgins, were especially targeted more than there older counterparts. Many of the younger girls also faced abductions by the rebels and where then repeatedly assaulted and raped. The countless victims of sexual assault and rape as a weapon of war in Sierra Leone will never be know, however the effects of the extreme levels of sexual assault and rape during the decade long civil war that saw civilians as the main target.
"We saw rape and sexual violence used as a tool during the war, and now it is morphing into this culture's society as something that is understood and even accepted," said Glasgow, head of the IRC.
Children are all to often being revictimized by their families after they have been raped, they are shunned, beaten, verbally abused, and many times even worse. A harsh fact Hannah Kargbo, a rape counselor, at the Rainbo Centre, a rape and gender-based violence counseling and health clinic in the capital Freetown, knows all too well.
“Parents tend to blame the children, saying they should not have let it happen to them. They don't take into account the age difference , how is a four year-old child supposed to fight off a 40 year-old man?”…”The beatings are serious. They scald the children, shave their heads, and insert chili peppers into the vaginas. They beat them first to get an explanation of what happened, and then again as a punishment. ” (IRIN)
At Kargbo's clinic over half of all of those treated for sexual abuse are between the ages of infancy and 15 years old, who are often raped by someone they know.
The situation in Sierra Leone shows the large gaps in both rehabilitation and reintegration programs, as well as to providing both community support, but also education on gender based violence. Additionally the increasing cases of rape in post conflict show that there is a significant need for in-depth and qualitative studies on the scope and depth of the long-term effects of rape as a weapon of war not only on its victims, but also on the perpetrators themselves. It is clear that this data would prove substantial in the prevention of its use, as well as understanding the long-term effects on society.
The beginning of the end of the use of rape as a weapon of war is to combat gender inequalities and stereotypes in cultures while in peace time, as a method to prevent and curb the use of rape as a weapon of war. Removing the stigma of rape is the first and foremost crucial step to see that the ripple effects do not continue to haunt our global society in future generations and centuries.
Please see my other post such as Ending Sexual Violence, a Global Priority and War's Sexual Violence Towards Girls
For more information please see:
Physicians for Human Rights (PHR) study, War-Related Sexual Violence in Sierra Leone
Human Rights Watch (HRW) report, Getting Away with Murder, Mutilation, and Rape
