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

Trial Proceedings
Witness 29 told the Court that while the
first man was raping her, the others were
watching. 1519 When ask by the Prosecution
whether all three men did the same thing to her,
Witness 29 confirmed that they did.
A
Q
I told you that all three of them did the
same thing. The first man slept with
me, he stood up and then the second
one came and slept with me, he stood
up also and then the third one came
and slept with me before fleeing after
the gunshot.
I have one last question in relation to
the incident in your house. In relation
to the first man that was sleeping with
you, who -- you said that he ejaculated
in you. Did all three men do this,
madam
A All of them ejaculated in me. 1520
The Prosecution then proceeded to ask the
witness specifically about the consequences
of the rape. Witness 29 explained that
approximately seven or eight months after the
violent attack, she began to get sick and have
fevers all the time. 1521 She decided to see a doctor
and to ask for an HIV test. She told the Court
that she did not inform the doctor that she had
been raped. Witness 29 said that she was not
surprised when she received the results, which
showed that she was indeed HIV-positive. She
stated: ‘When you’re raped by three men that
you have never met before, men that aren’t even
worthwhile men, who used no protection, no
condom, how could I identify the person who
infected me Might it have been the first one,
the second one or the third’ 1522
1519 ICC-01/05-01/08-T-80-Red-ENG, p 32 lines 9-25; p 33
lines 1-12.
1520 ICC-01/05-01/08-T-80-Red-ENG, p 39 lines 7-15.
1521 ICC-01/05-01/08-T-80-Red-ENG, p 48 lines 4-18.
1522 ICC-01/05-01/08-T-80-Red-ENG, p 48 lines 4-18.
Witness 29 explained that she did not tell the
doctor she was raped because she was ashamed.
She also did not tell anyone in her community
about what had happened to her, except for her
eldest son and his wife. She said: ‘After what I
had suffered, I did not have the courage to tell
the Mongoumba doctors about it because it was
shameful and humiliating to tell anyone what
had happened to me. So, frankly, I did not have
that courage.’ 1523
Expert witnesses
Dr Adeyinka Akinsulure-Smith, a counselling
psychologist from the US who conducted clinical
and psychological assessments of victims of
sexual violence in the CAR, testified on 29 and
30 November 2010 as an expert witness for
the Prosecution on trauma patterns among
victims of sexual violence. 1524 Her expert report
submitted to the Chamber was based on her
experience at the Bellevue NYU programme for
survivors of torture, with whom she has worked
as a supervising psychologist since 1999, on
materials sent to her by the Court, psychological
literature and, lastly, interviews conducted with
survivors of sexual violence in Bangui. 1525 She
1523 ICC-01/05-01/08-T-81-Red-ENG, p 6 lines 13-15.
1524 Dr Akinsulure-Smith had been requested by the
Prosecution and the Legal Representatives of Victims
to submit an expert report on ‘the impact of sexual
violence on people during armed conflict’ (ICC-01/05-
01/08-T-38-ENG, p 22 line 23). Over the course of her
testimony an issue arose concerning the admissibility of
parts of her conclusions. Although all expert documents
were submitted to the Chamber confidentially, from the
public record of the case it appears that, in addition to
her expert report, Dr Akinsulure-Smith also submitted
supplemental documents to the Chamber, including
her assessment of the three victims. However, this
second report had been deemed inadmissible by
Trial Chamber III and as such will not be used by the
Chamber as evidence. Although it appears that the
inadmissible document concerns, amongst other things,
the psychological assessment she carried out of the
three victims, it is not possible to determine from the
public record of the case what the exact content of the
admissible report is. See ICC-01/05-01/08-T-ENG, p 29-
31.
1525 ICC-01/05-01/08-T-38-ENG, p 23 lines 1-5.
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