UN urges reparations fund for Congo rape victims

GENEVA (AP) - A U.N. panel says there are hundreds of thousands of victims of rape and other sexual violence in Congo and an international fund is needed to compensate them...

TheGrio Staff

Mar 3, 2011

GENEVA (AP) — A U.N. panel says there are hundreds of thousands of victims of rape and other sexual violence in Congo and an international fund is needed to compensate the many women, men and children who won’t find justice any other way.

U.N. human rights deputy chief Kyung-wha Kang said Thursday a U.N.-backed reparations fund won’t erase the harm that destroys entire families but could meet basic needs like health care, housing and education.

The U.N. says one-third of Congo’s rapes involve children, and 13 percent are against children under the age of 10.

Congo’s Justice Minister Bambi Lessa Luzolo said victims need “a sense of justice” and the nation needs outside help to fight rapes used as “a weapon of war, a weapon of mass destruction.”