wfn.org | WCC NEWS: DR Congo: Violence against women

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World Council of Churches - News Release

Contact: +41 22 791 6153 +41 79 507 6363 media@wcc-coe.org

>For immediate release - 17/07/2009 09:31:17

KOBIA URGES CHURCHES TO ACKNOWLEDGE EXISTENCE OF VIOLENCE
AGAINST WOMEN IN CONGO

Free high-resolution photos available, see below

In a speech in Kinshasa on 13 July, Rev. Dr Samuel Kobia, the
general secretary of the World Council of Churches (WCC),
challenged churches to end their denial of violence against
women. "The churches still seem to relegate violence to the
private sphere, and still understand violence as only physical,"
he said.

"The first and most obvious [effort] is to acknowledge that the
violence actually exists," said Kobia at the opening of the All
Africa Conference of Churches (AACC) women’s workshop on
Transformation Leadership for Peace, Healing and Reconciliation
in Kinshasa, Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC). 

"This means taking it out of the private arena and placing it
squarely at the altars of our churches, in the seats of our
parliament and in the halls of our academies," said Kobia.

Churches in the DRC report that as rebel groups continue their
activities in the country, women and girls continue to suffer
sexual violence by armed men. Some have been brutally gang-raped,
often in front of their families and communities. In numerous
cases, men have also been forced at gunpoint to rape their own
their relatives.

"Those women are traumatized. We keep asking ourselves: what can
we do to stop the violence," said Dr Christine Amisi, the
coordinator of the HIV and AIDS programme of Panzi Hospital in
Bukavu, South Kivu. The hospital specializes in handling cases of
sexual violence. In 2008, for example, it has been handling 3500
case of sexual of violence each year.

"But those who have power seem to have a deaf ear," Amisi
added.

Kobia's speech coincided with an ecumenical delegation visit
sponsored by the WCC. The visit is part of the Living Letters
series of visits where delegations visit churches in countries in
conflict to listen, learn and show solidarity.

>From 8-11 July, Kobia and the Living Letters delegation formed
five groups which traveled to different parts of the DRC, before
coming together in the city on 12 July. They visited communities
and projects in Goma and Bukavu in the east, Bas-Congo in the
west and the central Kasai province, as well as the area around
Kinshasa. 

"We have seen and heard stories of women and children who not
only disproportionately bear the hardships and burden of poverty
but sometimes with their bodies and life pay for the egos of
violent men," said Kobia.

"While these stories ring loud and clear in our ears and their
pain bleeds in our heart, we still find the myopia or perhaps
complete blindness of the churches and communities to recognize
and acknowledge this violence," he said. 

Kobia said women were asking how many stories of pain they
needed to tell before the church began to listen.

At the workshop leaders of the Church of Christ in Congo (ECC),
said the Living Letters visit was crucial to them, since they
knew the WCC had helped other countries, so it could help the
DRC.

"We would like your assistance so that you can know on the right
door," Bishop Jean-Luc Kuye Ndondo, South Kivu’s ECC president.

The ECC wants the WCC to help lobby the international community
to put pressure on the leaders of the armed groups, who they say
are based in western countries, to end the fighting. They are
also asking those countries which purchase the minerals mined and
sold by the rebels to stop.

More information on the Living Letters visit to the DRC:
http://www.overcomingviolence.org/en/iepc/living-letters-visits/democratic-republic-of-congo.html

>Photo gallery:
>http://www.overcomingviolence.org/?id=6964
>High resolution versions of these pictures are available upon
>request.

WCC member churches in the DRC:

http://www.oikoumene.org/en/member-churches/regions/africa/democratic-republic-of-congo.html

Additional information:Juan Michel,+41 22 791 6153 +41 79 507
6363media@wcc-coe.org

The World Council of Churches promotes Christian unity in faith,
witness and service for a just and peaceful world. An ecumenical
fellowship of churches founded in 1948, today the WCC brings
together 349 Protestant, Orthodox, Anglican and other churches
representing more than 560 million Christians in over 110
countries, and works cooperatively with the Roman Catholic
Church. The WCC general secretary is Rev. Dr Samuel Kobia, from
the Methodist Church in Kenya. Headquarters: Geneva, Switzerland.