U.N. to address rape as a tool of war

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By Betsy Pisik

UNITED NATIONS | Beyond climate change, nuclear proliferation and other hot topics of this month's annual U.N. gathering of world leaders, the international body will address another threat to humanity: the epidemic of rape in conflict-afflicted areas, especially the Democratic Republic of the Congo.

Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton, who appeared genuinely moved after her August visit to rape victims in eastern Congo, is expected to chair a special U.N. Security Council session at the end of the month to review U.N. efforts to curb the epidemic.

"Meeting with survivors of rape, which is now used increasingly as a tool of war, was shattering," Mrs. Clinton told a New York audience Friday. "The atrocities described to me distill evil to its basest form. These are crimes against humanity. They don't just harm a single individual, or a single family, or village or group. They shred the fabric that weaves us together as human beings. This criminal outrage against women must be stopped."

The U.S. ambassador to the United Nations, Susan E. Rice, who also visited Congo in May along with the other members of the U.N. Security Council, told reporters in Washington on Friday:

"The issue of sexual violence in conflict is a hugely important one and one that the United States takes extremely seriously and one that the U.N. Security Council takes extremely seriously."

The Washington Times last week published a three-day series about rape in Congo, examining the spread of sexual violence from military to civilian communities and the culture of impunity that has made gang rape so commonplace in that country.

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The United Nations has sought to deal with the issue in part by stationing its largest peacekeeping force - more than 16,000 troops - in the eastern region of Congo that borders Rwanda, Uganda, Burundi and Tanzania across the majestic Great Lakes.

In a new approach, two U.N. reports issued last week could lay a basis for war crimes prosecutions against individual soldiers.