Dave Opiyo
12 February 2008
Goz Beida — She could not fight back tears as she narrated her ordeal. She was arrested, whipped and raped continuously by the Janjaweed, a dreaded militia group in Southern Sudan responsible for thousands of deaths in Darfur.
And things would have even been worse for 30-year-old Mariam Musa. Were it not for her wits, she'd probably be dead now.
She was not alone. Several other women in her village and others in Darfur faced the same predicament. Others were not lucky enough to survive and tell the whole world her story - but she did.
Mrs Musa had gone to fetch firewood in a nearby forest, not so far from their Urum village, in Darfur. The day was full of promises. She was on that day optimistic of preparing the best dish for her family.
Her favourite tune
And she hummed her favourite tune as she went deep into the forest collecting the best firewood.
"What a lovely day," she told herself.
Little did she know what awaited her back at home. Her village was on fire and several people including some of her own family members had been killed.
They had been attacked by the Janjaweed militia, who had apparently been detailed to wipe them out of the area. Also destroyed were their food and water supplies. And with them, they took several prisoners most of whom were women, who would act as their beast of burden.
Mrs Musa knew very little of this. As she walked majestically towards her village, she could see plumes of smoke billowing from her village's direction and wondered what had gone wrong.
And she went nearer, her body suddenly became weak and it dawned on her that they had been attacked. She got scared and wondered whether her family members had been spared.
Suddenly, someone grabbed her from behind and wrestled her to the ground. And before knowing what had hit her, several lashes landed on her back as she cried for mercy. Her hands were tied and she was led to a place she was not familiar with.
She had apparently now become a prisoner of the dreaded militia. Mrs Musa was made to work for eight days. She was raped repeatedly by several of the militia until she could not take it anymore. This prompted her to stage a daring escape.
For the next six days, she walked towards the Chadian border where she hoped she would get salvation. Fortunately for her, she made it.
She is now a refugee at the Djabal camp in Goz Beida district in Eastern Chad.
"I was so petrified. I didn't know what to do. My conscience told me to run away but I pictured myself being shot dead by the mean-looking men," she says.
"But at the same time I could not take their harsh treatment anymore and decided to rubbish their threats to kill me if attempted an escape. I did not care about what would happen to me. All I wanted was freedom. So I escaped."
Mrs Musa's predicament is just one but one of the many incidents affecting women as the violence in Darfur continues to escalate. Scores of people have been killed, several others injured by the dreaded Janjaweed militia.
Women, most of who have been affected by this crisis, are now demanding action by world leaders to end the violence.
In fact, during the recently concluded 10th African Union Summit in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia, 60 women from Darfur expressed their concern and highlighted various issues regarding their living conditions in the face of the conflict in their country.
The women said the conflict in Darfur had worsened the implementation of women's rights mentioning several constraints facing them.
They include traditional customs and the continuing conflict between written laws and customary/religious laws, continue to challenge the implementation of women's rights as indicated by the United Nations Development Fund For Women.
And with the support of other African women and international experts, the women from Darfur drafted a plan of action for peace to decision makers in Sudan among them the African Union, the UN Committee on the Status of Women, the UN Human Rights Council and the UN Security Council.
This common plan will be a useful instrument to deliver a unified message from African women on issues of peace and security, leadership capacities and for more effective participation in conflict resolution, peace building and decision making at the national, regional and international levels. The women indicated that of all the conflicts in the world, none seemed had as much devastating effects on women as the one in Darfur.
According to several reports, tens of thousands of women in Darfur have been displaced and separated from their children, husbands and families.
Since the beginning of the conflict in Darfur, several women have been systematically raped and killed while other reports continue to surface on how some of them have been raped when they leave refugee camps to either fetch water or firewood.
If a woman survives the rape ordeal, and returns home, she faces intense discrimination and further violence.
Their husbands commonly divorce the rape victims since rape and adultery are not differentiated under Sudanese law.
"Many of my colleagues have been divorced by their husbands who do not want to hear any explanation. To them, it is shameful for your wife to have been raped. It's against our culture," says Mrs Musa.
Adds Mrs Musa: "The turmoil in the country and the lack of a judiciary system has created a climate of impunity in which the perpetrators of these acts go unpunished."
"But despite all this, only a handful of males who really understand our predicament offered us their support.
"They at times counselled us and gave us hope during these trying times. That's exactly what we need."
The meeting in Addis encouraged woman to share their experiences in order for the whole world to know what is really happening.
Mrs Julie Grier, of the Hebrew Immigrant Aid Association (Hias) has also been assisting the rape victims get over the trauma.
Through group counselling sessions, Mrs Grier stresses on the importance of always being remaining positive, as it is through this that they would live their normal lives once again.
"We normally encourage them to share their experiences amongst each other," she says.
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