Clinton: Sexual violence should be ‘mark of shame anywhere’

Referring to the use of rape as a weapon of war in eastern Congo, Secretary Clinton told the students at yesterday’s town hall in Kinshasa:

The entire society needs to be speaking out against this. … It should be a mark of shame anywhere, in any country. I hope that that will become a real cause here in Kinshasa that will sweep across the country.”

Today Clinton is visiting the eastern Congolese city of Goma, which has been the epicenter of sexual violence as the Army and rebel groups have duked it out over the years. At a news conference she reiterated a point she made in a meeting with President Joseph Kabila earlier in the day:

We believe there should be no impunity for the sexual and gender-based violence committed by so many … that there must be arrests and prosecutions and punishment.”

In the photo above:

A young Congolese woman waits on an operating table on Aug. 11, moments before undergoing surgery to repair serious physical damage suffered after being raped. Doctors at the Heal Africa Clinic in Goma treat women who have been sexually abused and who in the majority of cases develop serious physical problems due to the vicious nature of the attacks. The United Nations says nearly 3,500 women have been raped in Goma since the beginning of the year.

Photo: ROBERTO SCHMIDT/AFP/Getty Images