THE SCHOOLGIRL was walking home when a local businessman, standing outside a hotel he owned, asked her to step into his office. Inside, she says, he raped her.
Now this 17-year-old is doing something very few Congolese women have dared: she's pressing criminal charges.
"I expect justice and want him sent to prison," says the woman, whose name and that of the man she accuses have been withheld for protection. "My hope is that he will not do this to other girls."
More than a decade of civil war and lawlessness in eastern Democratic Republic of Congo have left the region with one of the world's worst records for sexual violence against women.
Rape has become an increasingly common tool of war, used by virtually every rebel militia and even government soldiers to terrorise civilians and punish enemies.
Until a couple of years ago, rape was barely considered a crime in the region's corrupt, male- dominated justice system, where the accused often bribe their way out of trouble for just $10. Most fighters simply walked away from their crimes.
Rape victims faced public shame, divorce and abandonment, while their attackers sometimes returned to rape them again.
Now a small number of legal clinics and aid groups, including one opened this year by the American Bar Association, are striving to end Congo's climate of impunity.
Their work is a drop in the bucket so far, with just a few dozen cases compared with the thousands of rapes over the last 10 years. There are promising early signs of change, though, including a military prosecutor who has doubled the number of rape charges against soldiers in the last three years and the 17- year-old girl who is facing down one of Goma's leading businessmen.
"It's slow, but we are seeing an increase in women coming to us for help," says Mathieu Ndongo-Koni, director of the ABA's gender- based violence clinic in Goma.
Upoki Kandoni (29) sat recently in Goma's central prison, accused of getting drunk after clashes with rebels and raping a woman in a displacement camp on the outskirts of town. He has a wife and child in a village over 300km away. More than anything, he appears bewildered to be in jail.
Rape is common, he says, but punishment is rare. "As far as I know, I'm the first to be accused."
At first he claimed to remember nothing about the attack because he was drunk. Then he insisted that the woman had consented to sex in exchange for $2. Finally, he confessed to the rape.
"I don't know what to say," he says, his voice drifting off into an almost inaudible whisper. "Since that day I have no peace. I know it's bad, but if God can help me get out of this prison, I will never do it again."
Kandoni faces as many as 20 years in jail, said Jean Blaise Bwa- Mulundu, the military prosecutor. This year Bwa-Mulundu has filed 33 rape cases against soldiers, which he hopes will serve as a deterrent.
Ndongo-Koni's legal clinic has filed 35 cases since opening this spring, with an additional 160 complaints pending. Ndongo- Koni, a former UN human rights officer in the Darfur region of Sudan, also tried Rwandan genocide suspects at the international tribunal in Arusha, Tanzania.
Another local charity, Justice Restoration for the Democratic Republic of Congo, is targeting rural areas that have no courthouses. The group this month plans to set up a mobile courtroom in a remote village north of Goma, paying to bring in judges and lawyers for one month to prosecute 14 rape cases against soldiers.
Prosecutions of sexual assault cases have been aided by a 2006 federal law. Among other things, the law doubled the usual maximum sentence to 20 years and provided for life sentences under special circumstances. Rape investigations were given priority, to be completed within three months.
Sex between an adult and a girl or boy younger than 18, even if consensual, now is considered to be rape and subject to the same penalties.
Under the current system, victims must pay for justice: $5 to file a case, $10 for the investigation and $35 for the hearing. If victims win a cash settlement, they are required to first pay the government 15 per cent of the award before the government will enforce collection. Many victims though are too poor to pay up front and they never collect their settlements.
The ABA-funded clinic also has scholarships for 10 young women getting their law degrees in Goma. Wivine Sitala Kingombe (26) graduated two years ago and focuses entirely on sexual violence. Usually she's the only woman in court, but she said she has an advantage.
"Victims trust me more because I'm a woman," she says, "and I feel more engaged and committed to the work."
She expresses optimism that attitudes are slowly changing. She is representing a girl allegedly molested by a 65-year-old soldier.
After reviewing the case, the judges, of their own accord, increased the charge from attempted rape to rape. But the 17-year-old girl is still waiting for her day in court. Because she is under age, the case should be open and shut. She says she found out a couple of months ago that she is pregnant from the attack.
Local police however are reluctant to confront the businessman, who reportedly bought his way out of a similar rape charge, her lawyer says.
She says she is not giving up, even though her family has kicked her out, saying they cannot afford to help raise the baby.
"I was rejected by everybody, but there is strength in justice." - ( Los Angeles Times-Washington Postservice)
UN renews and strengthens mandate
The Security Council on Monday renewed the mandate of hard-pressed UN peacekeepers in the Democratic Republic of the Congo with terms diplomats said would help them fight rebels independently of Congo's army.
The United Nations is trying to address fresh violence in eastern Congo, where the UN force, known as MONUC, has been criticized by some rights groups for failing to protect civilians from the warring parties.
UN officials have countered that the 17,000-strong force is stretched thin in Congo, which is the size of western Europe, and is limited by its mandate. The Security Council last month approved an extra 3,000 peacekeepers.
Monday's resolution extends MONUC's mandate until the end of 2009. Diplomats said the text beefed up last year's resolution by saying the force should work "in close co-operation with" Congo's government, rather than to "support" it. UN officials and rights groups have say some Congolese soldiers have committed atrocities against civilians. - (Reuters)