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

Trial Proceedings
Testimony about rape of children
A great number of Prosecution witnesses, at
least eight, testified about the rape of children,
sometimes as young as eight years old. Of these,
at least five witnesses testified that their young
daughters were raped and deflowered by the
Banyamulengue. 1470 Two witnesses testified about
having been witness to the rape of young girls.
The first witness to testify, Witness 38, a context
witness, testified to the Court that the parents
of an eight-year-old girl came to him with their
daughter who had been raped. 1471 He told the
Court that he knew of more young girls who
were raped. 1472 Witness 119 also testified that she
witnessed two girls being gang-raped by the MLC.
She told the Court that when she sat down beside
a canal, she heard some girls calling out in the
canal. 1473 She described that she saw a group of
Banyamulengue standing around the girls: ‘What
I saw was that they took two of the girls and they
put the head of one against the other, and then
after that I saw a column of Banyamulengue, who
were standing one behind another, and two were
on the girls sleeping with them, and the girls
screamed out which alerted me and so I went to
see all of that.’ 1474
She latter added that the Banyamulengue had
pulled the girls’ dresses over their faces to hide
their face while they were sleeping with them.
She saw the girls were bleeding from their
vaginas and that there was blood all over their
clothes. 1475 Witness 119 explained that she later
spoke to the girls who told her they had fled
their respective neighbourhoods, and that it was
during their flight that they had been captured
by the Banyamulengue. One of the girls told the
witness that her sisters and mother had also
been raped. 1476 When asked by the Prosecution
whether these girls told her anything about
whether they actually consented to having
sexual relations with the Banyamulengue,
Witness 119 responded: ‘These girls were 12/13
years old. They were virgins. The Banyamulengue
took them by force. The girls did not consent.’ 1477
Witness 82 was herself still a child when she
was gang-raped by two MLC soldiers; she was 12
years old at the time of the attack. She testified
that also her sisters and her grandmother were
also gang-raped. She stated: ‘They raped me
after having made me assume a curved position.
Later, I had many difficulties’. 1478 When asked by
the Prosecution what she means when she says
she was ‘raped’, Witness 82 responded:
A
Q
A
Q
A
Q
A
[…]
Q
I was still a virgin and they deprived
me of my virginity.
Thank you, Madam Witness. Which
parts of their body did they use to
deprive you of your virginity
They used the male part of their body.
Thank you, Madam Witness. And does
it have a name
Yes, I can give you the name. They used
their penises to sleep with me.
Thank you, Madam Witness. And which
part of your body did they sleep with
With the female part of my body.
What was the name of your
female part of your body that the
Banyamulengue slept with
A It was my vagina. 1479
1470 Witness 23, Witness 80, Witness 42, Witness 73 and
Witness 79.
1471 ICC-01/05-01/08-T-33-Red-ENG, p 53 lines 1-8.
1472 ICC-01/05-01/08-T-34-Red-ENG, p 40 lines 1-22.
1473 ICC-01/05-01/08-T-82-Red-ENG, p 39 lines 14-17.
1474 ICC-01/05-01/08-T-82-Red-ENG, p 39 lines 18-23.
1475 ICC-01/05-01/08-T-82-Red-ENG, p 42 lines 5-13.
1476 ICC-01/05-01/08-T-82-Red-ENG, p 44 lines 1-2.
1477 ICC-01/05-01/08-T-82-Red-ENG, p 44 lines 18-19.
1478 ICC-01/05-01/08-T-58-Red-ENG, p 14 lines 23-24.
1479 ICC-01/05-01/08-T-58-Red-ENG, p 15 lines 7-19; p 16
lines 3-5.
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