Anglican Communion News Service - Digest News

The extraordinary work of three women in Bukavu, who set up a small counselling and referral centre for thousands of eastern Congo's rape victims after the war, is surfacing in the West.

The women - known for security reasons just as Cecile, Jeanne and Ruth - are seeking justice for some of these women, but being officially discouraged.

"Not one case has been taken up in the local courts. They told me they had been officially discouraged and their mail has been intercepted", said Philip Bingham, CMS (Church Mission Society) Manager for the Great Lakes Region who visited the region last March.

CMS is backing the Church of Congo's call for justice for the tens of thousands of women raped since 1996 during seven years of war in the East, which officially ended in July 2003. 40,000 cases have been recorded in Central Congo alone - and CMS is focussing its Autumn Appeal on the crisis.

More here: http://www.cms-uk.org/_press/2004/10_11_2004.htm