Excerpt from AP video of Secretary Clinton remarks after touring Refugee Camp.
I
have just come from a meeting with two survivors of sexual attacks. The
atrocities that these women have suffered, which stand for the
atrocities that so many have suffered. The United States condemns these
attacks and all those who commit them and abet them. And we state to the
world that those who attack civilian populations using systematic rape
are guilty of crimes against humanity."
And today I am announcing that we will provide more than 17 million
dollars in new funding to prevent and respond to gender and sexual
violence in the DRC.
"I made the point
that these crimes, no matter who commits them, must be prosecuted and
punished. That is particularly important when those who commit such acts
are in positions of authority, including members of the Congolese
military.
Excerpt from AP video of Secretary Clinton’s meeting with Democratic Republic of Congo President Joseph Kabila.
SECRETARY CLINTON:
I offered, and the president accepted my sending a team of legal and
financial and other technical experts to the DRC to provide specific
suggestions about how to overcome these very serious obstacles to the
potential of this country.
Roundtable With NGOs and Activists on Sexual and Gender-Based Violence Issues
Remarks
Hillary Rodham Clinton
Secretary of State
HEAL Africa
Goma, Democratic Republic of the Congo
August 11, 2009
DR. LUSI:
Secretary Clinton, we are honored to have you among us. We know that
you have a very tight schedule, and you have given us this time. And we
are honored to receive you. We are eager to hear what you have to say to
us.
SECRETARY CLINTON: Well, thank you, Dr. Lusi, and
thanks to everyone here associated with HEAL Africa and all of the other
groups that are working so hard. I appreciate your welcoming us here
today, and I am deeply moved and admiring of the heroic work that you
and your colleagues are doing.
Yesterday, I spoke with a group of
young people in Kinshasa, and I said that here in Africa we can find
humanity at its worst and humanity at its best. And we have seen both
here, in Goma. My delegation and I have been working hard, even before
we came, to see what we could do to try to assist in the ongoing efforts
to end the conflict and the violence that still stalks this land, and
to help the Congolese people, who have suffered enough.
I have
just come from a meeting with two survivors of sexual attacks. The
atrocities that these women have suffered, which stands for the
atrocities that so many have suffered, distills evil into its basest
form. The United States condemns these attacks and all those who commit
them and abet them. And we say to the world that those who attack
civilian populations using systematic rape are guilty of crimes against
humanity. These acts don't just harm a single individual, or a single
family, or a single village, or a single group. They shred the fabric
that weaves us together as human beings. Such atrocities have no place
in any society.
Amid such abject inhumanity, we have also seen the
hope and the help that you represent. We have seen survivors of these
attacks summon the courage to rebuild their lives and their communities.
We have seen health care workers sacrifice comfortable careers so they
can treat the wounded. We have seen civil society leaders come together
to combat this appalling epidemic.
In the face of such evil,
people of good will everywhere must respond. The United States is
already a leading donor to efforts aimed at addressing these problems.
And today I am announcing that we will provide more than $17 million in
new funding to prevent and respond to gender and sexual violence in the
DRC.
This assistance will be distributed to organizations across
the Eastern Congo, and is being targeted to respond to the specific
needs that you have identified, such as training for health care workers
in complex fistula repair. Working through USAID, we will provide
medical care, counseling, economic assistance, and legal support to
10,000 women living in North and South Kivu, and other areas.
We
are dedicating almost $3 million to recruiting and training police
officers, particularly women, so that they understand their duty to
protect women and girls, and to investigate sexual violence. We will be
sending a group of technology experts to the eastern DRC next month, as
part of an effort to equip women and front-line workers with mobile
devices to report abuse, using photographs and video, and to share
information on treatment and legal options.
And we will be
deploying a team comprised of civilian experts, medical personnel, and
military engineers from the United States Africa Command to assess how
we can further assist survivors of sexual violence.
We are raising
this issue at the highest levels of your government. I had very frank
discussions about sexual violence yesterday with your prime minister and
other ministers, and today, in my meeting with President Kabila. I made
the point that these crimes, no matter who commits them, must be
prosecuted and punished. That is particularly important when those who
commit such acts are in position of authority, including members of the
Congolese military.
This problem is too big for one country to
solve alone. And I am pleased also to announce a new partnership with
the Norwegian government to upgrade a medical facility in North Kivu, so
that health workers there will be able to provide better treatment to
survivors of sexual violence and serious maternal injuries.
Our commitment to survivors of sexual and gender-based violence did not begin today, and it will not end today.
I
have come here with my long-time friend and colleague, Melanne Verveer,
who many of you already know. Melanne, for many years, was the chair of
Vital Voices. And some of you, I know, were with us in Washington, when
we made awards to heroes on behalf of women. She now serves as the
United States Ambassador-at-Large for International Women's Issues. She
will continue to be a voice for you inside our government, as we work
together to combat this scourge.
As we provide this assistance, we
are redoubling our efforts to end the fundamental cause of this
violence: the fighting that goes on and on here, in the eastern DRC. We
will be taking additional steps inside our own government, at the United
Nations, and in concert with other nations, to bring an end to this
conflict.
I am looking forward to hearing from you. But before I
turn it over to each of you, I want to thank every one of you. I want to
thank you on behalf of women and men everywhere, who know what you are
doing, who care about your patients, who ache for the survivors. I know
the hours are long, and the work is very hard. The conditions are harsh,
and I am sure that, at times, the task you face can seem overwhelming.
I
was told yesterday that there is an old Congolese proverb that says,
"No matter how long the night, the day is sure to come." You are all
helping to hasten the days coming, when thousands of Congolese women
will be able to walk freely again, to go their fields, to play with
their children, to walk with their husbands, to do the work of
collecting firewood and water without fear.
We want to banish the
problem of sexual violence into the dark past, where it belongs. I thank
you very much, and I look forward to now hearing from you all. Thank
you.
(Applause.)
DR. LUSI: Thank you very much,
Madame Secretary. We are encouraged and heartened to know that Congo has
found a friend, a friend of women. And now I would like to turn it over
to the people around the table, who represent so many of the
organizations who have worked hard, and long, and continually, and with
great commitment. And they will add some ideas, as well, of what our
friend can do to help us.
So, let me start with Justine.
SPEAKER:
(Via translator.) Thank you, Madame Secretary, dear guests. Women in
North Kivu would like to welcome you all, and allow us to say something
about impunity, as impunity is one of the problems that we -- that the
populations who are a victim of violence, sexual violence and other
crimes -- is a problem that we fight, impunity.
Impunity in the
DRC exists because the -- our leaders don't have much of a willingness
to prosecute the authors. For instance, Aganda, and other authors of
these crimes. And the weakness to implement laws, especially laws that
deal with sexual violence, in particular part of the problem, and the
fact that we cannot have access to criminals that belong to LRA and
FLDR. Children are killed, women are raped, and the world closes their
eyes.
The international justice is not (inaudible) to this -- can
be (inaudible). Justice exists, can act, it's credible, but it's slow,
and that's a limitation. And because it is slow, evidence disappears,
and there is a limited number of trials. And there is the distance that
separates, you know, the place where the crimes were committed, and the
place where trials are held.
So, in view of this, we would like to
propose the creation of mixed courthouses that -- be created with
international courts. So these mixed chambers, or joint chambers, would
be credible, because the personnel would be made of foreigners and
Congolese. They are independent, and they do not suffer from
interference and corruption. And they bring those who should be judged
closer to justice.
Time is short. It is easy to carry out
investigations that goes a little faster than when international justice
alone does it. But that's better than national, domestic justice.
There
is -- it doesn't -- these mixed courts do not replace entirely national
justice. But I think it is a way for -- thank you very much.
(Applause.)
SPEAKER:
(Via translator.) Madame Secretary of State, His Excellency the
Ambassador, CARE International wants to thank -- all the intervention
that were designed to fight impunity must go along with helping the
victims of sexual violence.
Now, CARE International and other
humanitarian agents are asking for access to health care, and also
confidentiality, in the context of a strategy that is led by local
authorities that could help the local people, and especially pregnant
women and those who have a need for health, reproductive health.
Except
and besides medical assistance, and besides help to the victims, there
needs to be a psycho-social assistance that could help and assist also
financially and economically, to help survivors to be helped to
reintegrate into society.
CARE also commits to help in
multi-sectoral areas, to help in the community, and help the women's
role in society. All these interventions have the goal to prevent
violence through behavioral change. And I thank you.
(Applause.)
SPEAKER:
Security will come. Peace will come. But we have other challenges. The
education is the main one. Somewhere, where Children's Voice are doing
activities for helping children, only five percent of children have been
to school. Somewhere in other activities, 95 percent of the population
do not know to write or to read. Most of kids or young persons recruited
in army -- I mean in armed groups -- have not been at school. And those
people will be in the army and police.
Of course, the country
needs to develop many things. The villages will be again full. I mean
the (inaudible) will be back. But what will happen if you need -- I
mean, when you want to help a country? Please think about children and
young people.
Of course, we have many challenges in this country.
We are very happy that you are here. The international community has
already done their best, really. But very nice that you are here. And we
hope that you will help the country, you will help the government of
DRC, to do what is very important for people. We need to educate pupils,
young men, young women, and then the development will follow.
Of
course, we have many children in the street. That is because most of
parents don't know what to do, how to help them, because scholarship is
not there. Scholar fees are paid by the parents. Parents are not paid
any more. We hope that you will be our ambassador to your country, to
your government, and you will be back to help this country. Thank you.
(Applause.)
SPEAKER:
(Via translator.) Madame Secretary of State, Madame Ambassador, we
waited a long time for this particular moment here, and we -- for
engagement against the sexual violence struggle. We need peace, we need
security, and I think this is the priority of all priorities, to stop,
to put an end to the cycle of violence.
The military operations
are -- continue to be carried out. But these military operations are not
a solution to the problem. That's why, when it comes to security, we
would like that you -- the leaders of the countries of the Great Lakes
-- Rwanda, Congo, and Uganda -- so that -- will take on their
responsibility to protect their citizens.
We all know that it's
not just a Congolese problem. So that's why we think that, for peace and
security to come back, we have to pressure the neighboring countries so
that they accept (inaudible), so that the (inaudible) will peacefully
go back to their country --
(Applause.)
SPEAKER: -- because we now know the worst -- with villages, they are burned down, numerous cases of sexual violence, and other problems.
Still
talking about security, we know that the DRC does not have a Republican
Army. And therefore, it is considered like the soft belly of this
region. And, therefore, it's a real base for terrorists, and this
continues to be the case for as long as security measures are not taken
here.
So, the situation here is a mixture of civilian and
militaries of all types and categories. The people would not have the
same laws.
(Applause.)
SPEAKER: The reason we ask the
United States to help the DRC to form a Republican Army, united, with
no roots, who could take the place of the United Nations, when it
leaves. And this army should be complemented by police, a police with
women
(Applause.)
SPEAKER: And thank you very much
for what you said during your presentation, Madame Secretary. You said
that there will be police with women here to protect civilians, and
particularly women and children.
And, finally, I will also plead
for the freedom of the press. Many media outlets have been banned here,
in the DNC. And even a radio station, Radio Mudanga, was banned.
Therefore, we ask you to please plead in favor of freedom of expression.
Thank you.
(Applause.)
SPEAKER: Madame Secretary,
first of all, I want to thank you for considering to come in Congo, and
specifically in Goma, because it shows us that this administration
considers Congo as -- and the people of Congo -- a vital component of
U.S. foreign relations.
Resolution 1820 was supposed to make the
United Nations more sensitive to the issue of sexual violence. But yet
we still see too many women and too many children have been raped,
violated, not far from those camps of UN sometimes. And we have seen
cases of UN soldiers and UN staff, not only UN but even other
international organizations, committing those rapes. We want to know
what is happening with them. If they have been judged in the country, I
think the population of Congo needs to know what the judgment has been.
(Applause.)
SPEAKER:
Another problem we are having that we need to address today is the
presence of this many UN staff and international NGOs. Their presence
has caused the cost of life to go very high all over the country, and
specifically here, in Eastern Congo. We are having problem -- local
people having problem -- to even find comfortable housing, affordable
housing, because ex-pat have the cash and locals don't have the cash.
We
are asking that Resolution 1820 be enforced. We are asking, as well,
that the rule of the international community and the UN be redefined,
because if they cannot protect our women and our children, I don't see
why they should stay here.
(Applause.)
SPEAKER:
Madame Secretary of State, Madame Ambassador, as those who preceded me, I
would like to say that we are very honored by your visit here, in the
Eastern Congo.
I would like to talk about the self-congratulations
of certain agencies. And I think that the obligation to protect is the
obligation of international law. So that should be the first role of the
United Nations.
Today -- and I am talking as someone who had come
to her province, to her country after 20 years of war -- we know, we
really know, the stakes. We have received many, many visitors, each more
important than the one before. We have received many, many celebrities,
too. At the end, we have the impression that people only came to
consume human poverty, human misery. And, in the end, all that we got
was a pile of business cards.
(Applause.)
SPEAKER:
And after, to, you know, have good conscience -- and I am talking as a
native of this country -- the only thing they had for their good
conscience said that -- through the radio we heard about the millions of
dollars that "we gave to the Congo," but when you went to the more
distant villages, the beneficiaries didn't even have access to the aid
that was given to the people themselves.
So, coming back to the
responsibility to protect, in 2004, when we -- the (inaudible) was
attacked, we saw the UN take care of the expatriates, rather than the
Congolese, for whom they had come to the Congo for, so we were really
vexed by that.
(Applause.)
SPEAKER: So, you see around
this room -- you see (inaudible). That means, you know, the posters
here. Women are more precious resources, but we look to the Congo for
mineral resources, forgetting that our first more important resource is
the woman. Woman is who gives life, the life that we're destroying here.
(Applause.)
SPEAKER:
Madame Secretary of State, besides your function as Secretary of State,
you are a woman, like us. We know your history, political history, and
you have the chance, the fortune of -- to have at your side Ambassador
Verveer, who is also our ambassador. And she represents hope.
And I
want to come back to the war that we have here, in Eastern Congo. This
is a stake only to really get the resources from DRC. Certain western
countries that I will not mention here, because the reports are
everywhere -- and those are UN reports, really -- those reports mention
certain western companies, and I hope that they will not be forgotten.
And I think that they will be acted upon. And the investigations must
take place, so that responsibilities must be found out and responsible
parties must be punished.
As Ms. Chou Chou said, the problems of
Congo -- international problems, not just Congolese problems -- many
western countries really manipulate certain neighboring countries
because they want to take the resources here. And, Madame Secretary, we
want you to be our spokesperson, our voice, Madame Secretary, so all
this stops.
So, if they want to explore our minerals, but they --
let -- do it legally and adequately, so that the Congolese take a really
-- reap the benefits of this (inaudible) our riches. Thank you very
much.
(Applause.)
DR. LUSI: We are now going to ask Dr. Mukwege to summarize what he has heard.
DR. MUKWEGE:
It's a very difficult task. Madame Secretary of State, this is a very
important day for us. This is not a day to be receiving business cards,
but this is a day to find a solution, and a solution that will be
long-lasting to the problems that have torn this country apart. And we
are honored for your visit here, in the Democratic Republic of Congo.
Those
who spoke before me tried to paint the situation. And what we can
remember here is the two things that have been said most often: rape and
peace. And when we summarize, we see that there is sexual violence
because there is no peace. There would be no solution if we don't
understand why there is no peace.
Now, if you analyze what the
previous speakers have said, there is a problem of a lack of commitment,
political commitment of regional leaders in the Great Lakes region that
do not want to stop the situation that has been going on for the last
15 years. There is also an army in the Democratic Republic of Congo that
is not well trained. And with all these resources, mineral resources,
there is a real problem when the army is not trained and well paid.
What
we have also understood is that all the citizens, based on the
international law, have the right to be protected. And the United
Nations, through MONUC, are here. But the way the United Nations operate
is a serious issue, because the local population are not protected as
they should be.
And we believe that, Mrs. Secretary of State, the
solution goes through this solving of fundamental issues. And she said
that. And we suggest that the very first thing to do would be to tell
regional leaders to be conscious and responsible of the populations. And
it is important that we help the Democratic Republic of Congo. Because
as long as there will be weakness and turmoil, soft belly in the
Democratic Republic of Congo, there will always be a problem in this
region.
The mineral resources of the Congo, the exploitation of
those mineral resources, must be under strict rules so that we will not
allow those who rape, so that they will not continue to use the mineral
resources to carry on their evil tasks.
We also want organizations that take care of the socio-economic conditions of the population.
We
also want to stress the fact that we do have a justice system, but
there is also an international justice system through the international
courts. But you understand that the international tribunal cannot take
care of all the issues that are taking place in the Congo. So, my
suggestion is that we will have in place a tribunal that will take care,
or rule, over cases that -- or crimes that have been committed since
1983.
There is also the problem of illiteracy that makes the
population that, even if there is peace in the land, and is not trained
or intellectual, or cannot read or write, literate, there will always be
a problem.
Mrs. Secretary of State, we are very honored, and we
have understood that the first introductory words that you said were
very complete. And, as Christine said, right now we will not just
receive a business card, but there is going to be long-lasting
solutions, because we know that you have compassion for women in the
Congo. And I would like to thank you.
(Applause.)
DR. LUSI: Madame Secretary, we would like to know if you have any questions to ask the panel.
SECRETARY CLINTON:
Well, first, let me tell you how grateful I am for the very specific
suggestions, as well as the analysis concerning the overall situation
that the people of the Congo face.
I think it is important to try
to work with your government to address a lot of these. And I told
President Kabila today that if he were willing, I would send a team of
legal and technical and financial experts to try to provide suggestions
about how to do a number of the things that you are talking about.
For
example, you need new laws and regulation to protect the mineral
resources of your country, for the benefit of the Congolese people. You
need an army that is, as the doctor just said, well paid and well
trained, that will protect the people and not feel as though it has to
feed off of the people, and victimize the people.
There needs to
be a process that President Kabila began with his outreach to President
Kagame, which I know was controversial, but which I thought was an act
of leadership. Because, as several of you have said, unless there is a
regional agreement to try to end the violence and build a better future
for the region, it will be difficult for the DRC to do that alone.
On
each and every one of the points that you made, we will try to help.
But I want to emphasize something I said yesterday, when I spoke with
the young people. Just as President Obama said in his historic speech in
Ghana, the future of Africa is up to the Africans. The future,
ultimately, of the Congolese people is up to the Congolese people. There
have to be changes, politically. There have to be changes in the
impunity. There have to be changes that only the people of this country
can demand, and can help bring about.
We will try to provide the
help that we're both asked for and that we think could be useful. But,
ultimately, that help has to be received, changes have to be
implemented, people have to be committed. And I hope that we're
beginning to see that, here and in the region and internationally.
I
will also raise the issues that have been raised concerning the UN and
the problems that come with the NGO community arriving in a location
such as Goma and displacing people, and raising the cost of living.
Those are very real problems that have quite severe effects on many
people.
So, there is much to be done. I do not want to
overpromise. I am not just here to leave a business card, but I don't
have a magic wand, either. But what I do pledge to you is that we will
work. We will work hard. We will work with your government, we will work
with groups like many of you represent. We will work with individuals,
the private sector, civil society, to try to help resolve the conflict
and provide a better future.
But it is ultimately up to the people
here. And I have seen so many examples of courage. I know the Congolese
people do not lack in courage. And I know they do not lack in hard work
or perseverance or survivorship.
So, I hope that we will see the
changes from within and outside that will lead to the end of these
problems so that our children will not even know what we were talking
about. Thank you.
(Applause.)
DR. LUSI: I would like
to say once again, in the name of everybody around the table and
everybody in this room, how much we are grateful for your visit, and how
we have listened with attention to what you have to say. And we know
that you have listened with attention to what we are saying.
Now,
Secretary Clinton will have to leave, because she has such a tight
schedule. And I ask you to please stay seated in the room, please, while
the delegation leaves. Thank you very much.
