CPTnet
22 November 2005

DEMOCRATIC REPUBLIC OF CONGO: The woman on the boat

by Eric Schiller

We were traveling from Bukavu to Goma by boat. I squeezed into the last
remaining place in the cabin beside a stylish young Congolese woman named
Annie. When I began explaining our Christian Peacemaker Team (CPT)
delegation's mission in Congo to another woman, she turned to me and started
to talk.

She began by saying that all the horror stories that we had been hearing of
sexual violence in the country were true. "I have my own story to tell,"
she said. "Five years ago I was happily married and I was eight months
pregnant with my second child. One night eight soldiers from Rwanda burst
into our home. It was dark and we were all so frightened. They told my
husband that they wanted all his money. He went and got all the money had
and gave it to them.

"'That is not enough," they said. "Go get some more.'

"My husband pleaded, 'That's all I have; there is no more.'

"The soldiers then began to rampage through the house, looking for more
money. Then they said again to my husband, 'You must have more money, where
is it?'

"When my husband told them again, 'That's all I have; there is no more
money,' It was then they shot my husband dead, right in front of me. Then
after rampaging through the house again, the soldiers left. Miraculously
they did not harm me in all of this."

"How can you explain that you were unharmed, when so many other women your
situation have been violated and raped?" I asked. We have learned that
rape is the inevitable end of stories that begin this way in Congo.

"I don't know," she said, "All I know is that throughout it all, I was
praying to God to get me through this. I can only say that by the grace of
God, I am here today."

Annie is now an independent businesswoman. She regularly travels on Lake
Kivu to buy women's clothes in Goma to sell them in Bukavu. Whenever she
sees soldiers that remind her of that night, she has episodes in which the
ability to speak leaves her. She has to withdraw to a convenient corner by
herself, until the ability to speak returns.