“Rape capital of the world” DR Congo bans film on Congolese surgeon Denis Mukwege who saves rape victims
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Tags: africa, Congolese surgeon Denis Mukwege, Democratic Republic of Congo, Denis Mukwege, human rights, Media, Rape
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The Democratic Republic of Congo has banned a film about Congolese surgeon Denis Mukwege, who has treated thousands of women raped during conflict, the government said.
Belgian film-maker Thierry Michel’s movie, “The Man Who Mends Women,” follows Mukwege’s efforts to repair the physical and psychological injuries of the victims of sexual violence by armed forces and militia groups in eastern DRC.
“I have decided not to approve this film,” Lambert Mende, the DRC’s media minister, told the AFP news agency in Kinshasa, confirming a claim by Michel.
“There is a clear intent to harm and sully the image of our army and no country in the world could tolerate it. That is why we have banned the showing of the film here.”
In May 2014, Mukwege, 59, was awarded the Sakharov prize, considered one of Europe’s most prestigious human rights prizes, for helping thousands of gang rape victims. It is reported that since 1999, Mukwege has saved the lives of more than 40,000 women, many of whom suffered brutal sexual assault, including gang rape by soldiers and militias.
Michel said he had previously been told by Congolese authorities that the film would be approved.
He said it was “unfathomable” that Kinshasa had banned it despite the fact that it had been widely shown around the world for six months.
The film follows the activity of gynaecologist Mukwege in the Panzi Hospital he founded in 1999. He has run the facility in the South Kivu city of Bukavu while operating on several rape victims each day.
Sexual violence is endemic to conflict zones, but the DRC has been described as one of the worst places on Earth for women.
A United Nations representative for Sexual Violence in Conflict has dubbed the DRC the “rape capital of the world”. In 2011, a report claimed that around 48 women were raped every hour in the country.
Militia often use rape to terrorise the local population, though members of the army are also known to have undertaken regular waves of mass sexual assault.
In November 2012, Congolese soldiers went on a 10-day rampage in the town of Minova in south Kivu. It is estimated that around 1,000 women, children and men were raped during those 10 days.
Denis Mukwege is a truly noble man; I remember he received an honor from the University of Michigan when I was there (the Wallenberg Medal, named after the UM-educated architect who saved Jews from the Holocaust). Sad to see this happen to him.
For anyone interested in learning more about the Congo, I can’t recommend enough the travelogue Blood River, by Tim Butcher. Basically it was a journalist who decided a decade ago to travel across the Congo tracing Stanley’s route- and amazingly manages to do it, even though everyone says he is going to die (and he has more than a few close scrapes).
Reading it was incredible because I know zombie movies and post-apocalypse stories are all the rage, but it really truly felt like a story like that in the Congo is happening today. There’s no other description for it- he would describe finding various ruins from the Belgian rail system, strangers literally asking him to adopt their children to get them out, people who wait for weeks in hopes of finding a barge that can take them to the next stream, and countless vigilante militias. There are also stories where he’s on a motorbike with a guide and kids in a village marvel because they’ve never seen something propelled by gasoline before, and their grandfather brags about being vindicated because he told them about such things but the kids didn’t believe it was real. Where else on Earth would such a thing happen?
The Congo is a crazy, mad place.
Can’t sully something that is already filthy
See? This is why I never liked the usual subjective “I support your free speech as long as you don’t harm/hurt” argument. Because, if you want to shut down reports of something bad some people did, you only have to play the “they harm these people’s images!” card, and if you want to shut down a bad review of your product, you just play the “These bad reviews are hurting my business!” card, and don’t even get me started on the “your speech hurts my feelings!” card.
I got a chance to see Mukwege speak last year then I talked with him a little bit afterwards. He is truly an amazing man who has done so much for the women of the DRC without maligning the country as a whole, while still trying to fix the issue. Mukwege is the wrong person to be going after.
Yep, it’s colonialism that ruined Africa all right.
Congo is not a real country. Its should be broke in to ethnic lines.
Probably because their army is a bunch of raping, murdering, thieving barbarians. This country just goes to prove that people running insane and brutal dictatorships like to put more “freedomy” words at the beginning of their country’s name…
Democratic Republic of Congo
Democratic People’s Republic of Korea
People’s Republic of China
The Congo is probably a bad example to use for this argument. It was renamed “Zaire” for decades under a brutal dictator, Mobutu.
To be completely honest, I can’t keep up with the country name changes on that side of the world. I’m still not sure if it’s Burma or Myanmar, for example. The amount of misery in the world is too much for me to process, so I have to kind of keep my focus local.
I know you’re admitting that you don’t know a lot about Congo, but the distance from the Congo to Myanmar is about the same as the distance from California to Japan. They aren’t anywhere near each other.
Europe is actually closer to Myanmar than the Congo is.
He’s talking in a general sense about smaller nations that have had extremely oppressive and violent regimes and have since changed names. ie. Burma/Myanmar, Zaire/Congo.
As far as other side of the world goes, there is only 2000 miles difference when travelling from NY. NY to Myanmar. NY to Congo And just over 1000 if you he was from Las Vegas: Myanmar – 7,934 mi; Congo – 8,908 mi.
After further research, from the town of Hays, KS there is less than 100 miles of variance between them. I’m sure there are many locations in the US which is an equal distance from both countries.
In conclusion, I believe that OP’s “the other side of the world” is justified.
I mostly miss the food and the weather 🙂 And my family of course.
Life there is very different but not necessarily in a bad way. But the bad sides are pretty bad. I have to add though that I spent most of my time there in the capital, Kinshasa (which is far away from the war zone). In Kin you don’t really feel the war, it’s very weird to be in the capital and hear about all the horrific things happening at the other end of the country. But you meet people, a lot of people that tell you their story.
A family friend had to flee his home town near Goma (which is near/ part of the war zone). He was at work when his town got pillaged by soldiers. He left the town knowing his pregnant wife was at home – but he had no other choice. They had made a deal. If something happens, they flee. Together or… Alone. He decided to go to Kinshasa but he had to go by foot (the distance is about 2686 km/1669 miles) with no food and no place to stay. He told us he survived only thanks to wild bananas (which by the way look nothing like bananas we can buy at the supermarket 🙂 ). He made it to Kinshasa (I forgot how long it took him, but I remember it being a long time) and found his sister by pure chance. He didn’t know where she lived and spent most days wandering through Kin. When they found each other… I can’t describe the joy in their eyes when they tell this story. And to add to this happy ending, as unbelievable as it seems, his wife found the peace corps near Goma and was brought to the capital. She too found both of them by chance. They were reunited after months of being separated, with no knowledge of the survival of the other. Sadly, most families aren’t as lucky.
Life in the capital is certainly less dangerous. But you still see crushing poverty. And sometimes things go wrong. Sometimes some rebels (or some politicians) try to take the power away from the current “president”. Shots are being fired and you get pulled out of school, you spend days hidden and not going out. If you happen to be out during such times, you see some dead people on the streets… Civilians, hit by stray bullets, mostly. You see your mom telling you to lay down while she is putting your mattress against the windows. Electricity comes and goes.
But in spite of this all, Congolese people smile and laugh. They are the best singers and dancers and even in time like these, you hear beautiful music coming from the heart. Great artists and strong hearts. I miss my country, but I fear the situation there will never get better. I think very often about all the Congolese people that cannot leave and that are not as lucky as I am.
Sorry for the rant. I never get to really talk about that. Hope this isn’t weird!
What I find interesting about this is that there is a whole different type of barrier / banning of a film that could just as well expose the massive sexual violence and depravity within the US military … and it would equally be decried as intended to “harm and sully the image of our army”. The ironic thing though is that America would simply more or less ignore it.
Who cares what the DRC has to say. I lived there when it was called Zaire. People love to dump on Mobutu but under his rule the country was a paradise compared to what it is now. So sad. Zaire is blessed with natural resources. They have oil, copper, gold, uranium, tantalum, hydroelectric power, arable land, etc. Too bad the people there are such utter incompetents. What a waste.
The next time I warm up to the thought that the US is a hopelessly screwed up, totalitarian regime I will try to remember this story. I might not be able to, but I’ll try.