Patrick Cammaert, a former commander of the UN mission in Democratic Republic of Congo, says the UN failed to act upon reports of rape in the area. In cases that were reported, the victims range from babies to elderly women and many were brutally gang-raped. Some rapists were reported to be checking women's genitals looking for hidden gold.

By Michel Walraven

Atul Khare, the UN Assistant Secretary General for Peacekeeping Operations, admitted on Thursday that more than 500 sexual assault cases were reported in the months of July and August alone - more than double the previously reported figure. Cammaert says the UN knew about the rapes, but failed to act.

"There was information available in the mission that something was going on in one of the villages, that one woman was raped and then a few days later there were more. And for one reason or the other that information was not properly processed and transformed into action by the military component of the mission.", he says.

The UN blames several armed groups - such as the Mai Mai Cheka and the Democratic Forces for the Liberation of Rwanda - that keep the region unstable for economic reasons.

Rape squads
The vast area and dense vegetation of eastern DRC make it difficult for UN troops to keep the area under control. Witnesses say that 'rape squads' hide in the woods and attack the villages when the blue helmets head back to their bases.

One of the recent mass rapes took place over the course of several days in the town of Luvungi within 20 miles of a UN camp at Kibua in North Kivu. At least 242 people were raped. It was two weeks before the UN heard about the attack.

"Twenty miles - in that area, in that kind of environment, and that kind of terrain - is a lot. If you have 20 miles of bush and inhospitable terrain, a lot of things can happen around the corner when you don't notice it. But if there is information available, you should overcome that distance by the use of helicopters etc. And that is something that hasn't been done", Commaert says.

Nightly operations
UN peacekeepers say they need to surprise the insurgents by engaging in nightly operations and in operations further away from their bases than usual. According to Mr. Cammaert, such operations are now happening more often.

But the terrain isn't the only thing working against the UN. They're also fighting for better communication - even when rape happens on a large scale, it's not something the victimised populations want to talk about.
"It is very important to break the silence of this horrendous crime. Women that have been raped have a reluctance to talk to males, and certainly to males in uniform. But over time, the peacekeepers have to build up a certain amount of trust and use female civilain collegues and female soldiers who are trained, to overcome these kind of problems."

Weapon of war
Some perpetrators - in unapologetic You Tube videos - say that rape is just another weapon of war, a way to keep the eastern part of DRC unstable, usually for economic reasons.

This attitude only adds to the difficulties faced by the UN and is the reason the UN is urging the Congolese government to work harder to bring these perpetrators to justice, and add them to the international criminal court's list of wanted people.

According to Mr Cammaert, the government carries a big resposibility as well and too many rapists are walking around free in DRC.