Gender Report Card on the International Criminal ... - YWCA Canada

Trial Proceedings
Q
A
How did it happen that you were on
the ground
He dragged me behind the house
deliberately and threw me to the
ground to sleep with me. 1455
The Prosecution proceeded to ask similar
questions about the second and third man that
raped her. 1456 The witness confirmed that they
did the same as the first man. During Defence
questioning, Witness 87 confirmed that her
uncle, a policeman, had filed a complaint about
the attack on her and her brother, but that this
complaint did not refer to her rape. Witness 87
stated it did not mention her rape because ‘it
was rather shameful to talk about this’. 1457
Witness 68 testified that she was gang-raped
by two men in October 2002. She also testified
that she is HIV-positive, but could not say with
certainty whether this was as a consequence of
the rapes. She testified that her sister-in-law was
also raped.
It was along the way. That is when we
came across them. There was a group
of them. They stopped us. They spoke
to one another. One of them grabbed
me by the hand, the other one grabbed
my sister-in-law by the hand and they
grabbed us. Two followed. Another one
grabbed the possessions that I had in
a bag. He grabbed those possessions.
There was a compound along the way
as we were going towards the Miskine
lycée. There were some houses there
with fences and they brought a vehicle
out from one of these compounds.
They brought me into the compound.
They sexually assaulted me. They
forced me to take my clothes off. They
brandished a weapon. They threw me
to the ground, they took my clothes off
and they slept with me. 1458
She later clarified that two Banyamulengue
raped her and that the third stood on her arms
to prevent her from resisting. He also threatened
her with his weapon.
Q
A
Q
A
Q
A
Did you lose your consciousness
I could no longer have any awareness
of my body. They pointed at me with
a weapon and I had already lost
consciousness. It was as if I was facing
something absolutely awful that could
cause people -- cause someone to faint.
That’s what happened to me.
Were you able to recognise what was
happening to you
Understand what
Was it possible for you to recognise
that you were raped twice
Yes, I realised that these were human
beings that were assaulting me. That
was at the beginning, when I lost
consciousness, and then I could feel the
pain of what they were doing to me. 1459
The Prosecution proceeded to ask the witness
how she felt about the rapes. Witness 87
answered ‘When I think about that, it hurts me
a lot and it makes me cry’. 1460 She added that
she still suffers from the rapes, both physically
and mentally. She had to go to hospital because
she was in incredible pain. The ultrasound
examinations showed that her spleen had
swelled up as a consequence of the violent
act. 1461 Witness 87 added that her spirits and
mental state are very poor. She stated: ‘I have
1455 ICC-01/05-01/08-T-44-Red-ENG, p 39 lines 5-25; p 40
lines 1-3.
1456 ICC-01/05-01/08-T-44-Red-ENG, p 40-42.
1457 ICC-01/05-01/08-T-45-Red-ENG, p 18 line 18.
1458 ICC-01/05-01/08-T-48-Red-ENG, p 18 lines 10-19.
1459 ICC-01/05-01/08-T-49-Red-ENG, p 14 lines 6-22; p 15
lines 1-8.
1460 ICC-01/05-01/08-T-48-Red-ENG, p 27 lines 17-25.
1461 ICC-01/05-01/08-T-48-Red-ENG, p 38 lines 3-7.
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