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

Trial Proceedings
Witness 80 testified that she, her husband and
her four children were raped by MLC soldiers. She
told the Court that she was raped by three soldiers.
They forced her on the ground, and while the
first soldier raped her, the two others threatened
her by pointing their weapons at her. 1488 She
confirmed that once the first soldier had finished
raping her, the other two did the same thing. She
added that the third soldier had to stop raping
her because she had started to bleed. 1489 Witness
80 confirmed that after the baby she had been
holding in her hands was thrown on the ground
by the Banyamulengue, her baby started to have
convulsions and diarrhoea. She stated that they
took him to the hospital, but that he died there. 1490
The Prosecution then asked the witness whether
the Banyamulengue spoke to her while they were
raping her. Witness 80 replied: ‘When I wanted to
speak, one spoke to me and one of them told me
that if I tried to resist he was going to sleep with
me 50 times without stopping.’ 1491 Witness 80 also
told the Court that when her husband tried to
intervene, the Banyamulengue raped him too. 1492
When asked to explain what happened to her
family, she stated that also her four children were
raped:
I wanted to speak about my first
daughter whose name I wanted to give.
She was raped and now she has problems
to conceive. Another as well was 11 at the
time that she was deflowered. Another
was 14 at the time that she was raped,
and all four of them, they almost had the
same age when they were raped. Another
was pregnant when she was raped, and
she spoke to me about that. 1493
Witness 42 testified that his daughter and
his neighbour’s daughter were raped by
Banyamulengue. His daughter was ten years old
at the time of the attack. He stated that when the
soldiers entered his house, one of them threw him
on the ground and put his feet on his neck. 1495
While the witness was facing down, he heard his
daughter cry out: ‘Papa, they are undressing me.
They are undressing me.’ 1496 The witness stated
that after the rape, he did not have the courage
to go to his daughter and asked his wife to go. 1497
His wife realised their daughter had been raped
because ‘there were obvious traces of blood’. 1498
Witness 42 explained that as a result of the rape,
and the subsequent stigmatisation, his daughter
dropped out of school:
As you know, my daughter was ten years
old. She could no longer go to school,
because she was stigmatised at the
school. The other pupils were making
fun of her – that is, the Banyamulengue’s
wife, and so on and so forth – so she
dropped out of school because of that.
I could not do anything. I allowed
her to continue like that. So I am very
disappointed. I’m very upset. If she had
continued with her studies, maybe
she could have become an authority.
Maybe she could have become someone
important today. So she cannot do
anything because she had dropped out of
school. 1499
She told the Court that she knew of other women
and girls in her community who had been raped
and suffered similar problems. 1494
1488 ICC-01/05-01/08-T-61-Red-ENG, p 6 lines 12-22.
1489 ICC-01/05-01/08-T-61-Red-ENG, p 8 lines 7-16.
1490 ICC-01/05-01/08-T-61-Red-ENG, p 8 lines 22-24.
1491 ICC-01/05-01/08-T-61-Red-ENG, p 9 lines 2-3.
1492 ICC-01/05-01/08-T-61-Red-ENG, p 9 lines 10-13.
1493 ICC-01/05-01/08-T-61-Red-ENG, p 11 lines 19-24.
1494 ICC-01/05-01/08-T-61-Red-ENG, p 17 lines 22-25.
1495 ICC-01/05-01/08-T-64-Red-ENG, p 17 lines 22-25.
1496 ICC-01/05-01/08-T-64-Red-ENG, p 18 lines 7-8.
1497 ICC-01/05-01/08-T-64-Red-ENG, p 21 lines 1-2.
1498 ICC-01/05-01/08-T-64-Red-ENG, p 48 lines 16-25; p 49 lines
1-8.
1499 ICC-01/05-01/08-T-64-Red-ENG, p 21 lines 7-14.
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