UN troops failed the victims of mass rapes in eastern Democratic Republic of Congo where more than 500 sex assaults have now been reported in the past month, a top UN peacekeeping official said Tuesday.

Atul Khare, under secretary general for peacekeeping operations, warned of a growing "culture of sexual violence" in the stricken region where rival groups are fighting for control of gold and mineral wealth.

Security Council members expressed new outrage over the mass rapes of at least 242 women and children in 13 villages, and criticized the failure of the UN peacekeeping mission, MONUSCO, to prevent the attacks.

Khare meanwhile outlined about 260 more rape attacks in other parts of Nord and Sud Kivu provinces throughout August, some on children as young as seven.

The UN official said the DR Congo government is primarily responsible for security, but added: "Clearly we have also failed. Our actions were not adequate, resulting in the unacceptable brutalization of the villages of the area. We must do better."

Margaret Wallstrom, the UN special representative on the prevention of sexual violence in conflict, read out one woman's account of the attacks on Luvingi, the worst hit village where 103 women and children were raped.

Armed men went from house to house breaking down the doors after surrounding the village, Wallstrom said.

"She described how armed men inserted their hands into women's genitals searching for gold. Many women were gang raped by up to five or six men at a time."

Wallstrom said that DR Congo is "being held hostage to perception that it is now the 'rape capital' of the world." More than 15,000 rapes were reported each year in 2008 and 2009, according to Khare.

Wallstrom has already said that the heads of armed groups in the African nation could face war crimes charges over the rapes. The US envoy to the United Nations, Susan Rice said the United States could seek action against some militia leaders at the UN sanctions committee.

Khare said that between July 30 and August 2, 242 women and children were raped in the first attacks.
He blamed the Mai-Mai Cheka group and the Democratic Forces for the Liberation of Rwanda (FDLR) and said leaders from the two groups, named as Colonel Mayele and Colonel Serafim, told inhabitants of Luvingi that they wanted to protect the village.

A MONUSCO daily report on July 30 mentioned one rape, but only on August 5 did first reports that 15 women had sought treatment reach the UN force. The toll gradually rose, but the Security Council was only informed of the gravity of the attacks some three weeks later.

"There were flaws and failures in the UN response," said Rice, the US ambassador.

Khare said accounts of scores more rapes had surfaced in recent weeks -- at least 40 in the Nord Kivu village of Mubi, 13 rapes in the market at Pinga and 74 cases of sexual violence in the Sud Kivu village of Miki, and 130 in 10 villages in the Shabunda region.

Khare said the international community had to control trafficking in natural resources "which is clearly driving the violence in the region."

He promised more patrols and random checks as part of a more "aggressive posture" against the marauding militia, and called for sanctions against the militia leaders.

The DR Congo's UN ambassador, Ileka Atoka, told the Security Council that sanctions would not "ease the horror that the Congolese people have already been living for more than a decade, a horror which has become part of our daily life."
 

(Source: AFP)