Congolese gynecologist Denis Mukwege describes the failure of the United Nations in the recently reported case of mass rapes in the country as "not at all new."

“I have never ceased to treat the same number of raped women. It is as if it's a problem that has been forgotten. One that has been shelved. Fortunately, somebody has spoken. It has reactualised the problem, but it has always been there."

Thousands of women have been operated on in his hospital in Bukavu, a town in Eastern DRCongo. Dr. Mukwege who was awarded this year the honorary medal of the Dutch Refugee Foundation for his work, specialises in the treatment of raped women. For him it is obvious that the UN have not put an end to the violence in the country, since 1999.

Militias
A senior UN official acknowledged on Tuesday that the peacekeepers have failed in their mission. An estimated 200,000 women were raped in the DRC. Rwandan militias makes life miserable for the civilian population, especially in the eastern region of Kivu.

“MONUC* has lost one battle,” says Mukwege. "This is the result of a wrong strategy vis-à-vis the Hutu rebels - in the DRC since 1994. These rapists are desperate people scattered in the forest without any status. They are not Congolese and they are not accepted in their countries of origin. They are hunted like little mice. It is like throwing people condemned to death into society. They will do anything. It amazes me how the world can remain silent."
 
"We must publish the names of the genocidaires in Rwanda, the organisers, the rapists. Let these lists be posted everywhere, with photographs, so that these people are found and get punished for what they did in Rwanda and DRC." says Mukwege

"We have lost one battle, but not the war," he carries on. “It is important that this problem is given attention. We have to give MONUC a chance to come up with a good strategy that will solve the problem properly. I think that if MONUC withdraws itself, it will be a disaster. "

Depressed
Meanwhile, in the hospital in Bukavu, the medical team is starting to get depressed. Especially when the victims who have received treatment in the past come back after having been raped again.

“When you have lived with a patient for three months before treatment, there is joy to heal. But then they come back because they have been raped again. Of course these women are depressed, and so is the treating team. These women form part and parcel of our lives.”

*MONUC has become since 1 July 2010 MONUSCO, Mission of the United Nations Stabilization in the Democratic Republic of the Congo, Ed.