Using Rape as a Weapon of War

Government-sanctioned rape is happening in South Sudan.

Hear how rape is being used as a weapon in the civil war in South Sudan and how the UN is not stopping it from happening in their camps.

Time magazine's latest issue, released Monday, reports the stories of two women who are the victims of this atrocity.

The anti-trafficking network, Make Way Partners, rescued the women. However, the president and founder of that organization Kimberly L. Smith said government-sanctioned rape is a problem of epidemic proportions.

"We have rescued thousands of women and children," Smith told CBN News. "Currently, we have more than 1,500 unadoptable orphans in three different orphanages throughout Sudan and South Sudan. So I want to say that it's not only the two stories that are highlighted in the Time magazine that are important, but there are more than 2 million orphans in this country of South Sudan alone."

"So let us not forget that it's not only two stories that make magazines that matter, these are thousands and thousands of children that are suffering through this rape and genocide," Smith continued.

Smith said the government of South Sudan is using rape as a weapon in a time of civil war.

"It's a war tactic, sadly, that's been used for centuries, maybe since the beginning of war," she explained. "But I don't think we've ever seen it in such a hideous epidemic and used upon their own people for their own political gain. I don't think we've ever seen anything quite like what we're seeing in South Sudan today."

"And it is truly to incite a genocide from one tribe," she continued. "The president of South Sudan is Salva Kiir, and he's a Dinka. The... vice president is Riek Machar, and he is a Nuer. And these two men will literally, they have proven, that they will stoop at nothing to outdo each other, and they are literally inciting genocide, using rape, using terror, trying to disintegrate the families within, which they're doing quite successfully, within each tribe in order to gain their own power."

"I think evil is cunning and baffling and knows that if you can rob the very essence, the very glory that women and children... each individual is made in the glory of God, and as the female body represents the feminine aspects of God that when you can rape and maim that very feminine beauty, shame it, hide it, I think the return on investment for that with evil you see it just abundant(ly) -- it tears down the family system; men and women don't talk; the community fiber begins to break apart," Smith said.

"And I think this is the why we see rape used so often in war, and especially in such a volatile climate where no one is looking," she added.

When South Sudan became independent from Sudan, it became a safe haven for Christian and black Africans who had been persecuted by the Islamic regime in Khartoum.

However, Smith discredited the idea that South Sudan is a Christian country.

"Honestly after 13 years of working in South Sudan, spending many, many, many of those months on the ground, my experience has not been that the government of South Sudan is a Christian government or a Christian nation," Smith said. "My experience is that that's something that's been reported largely to Americans for U.S. funding."

Her ministry, Make Way Partners, is helping protect and heal the victims of war. While rape has long been a tactic of oppressive regimes, she says what makes these cases far worse is where they are taking place.

"The most recent rapes that we've been tracking and the ones from which we rescued these two women who we brought out of the country for medical treatment and that Time has featured this week, these rapes actually took place in a U.N. camp in Bentiu in the northern part of South Sudan," she continued.

"It's interesting that the day after that Time magazine article was released on the cover internationally, the U.N. came out with a report admitting that these rapes had been taking place -- at least that they were investigating that they had been taking place inside South Sudan," Smith told CBN News.

"So, worst case scenario, as has been in many situations, the U.N. is complicit in the problem. Best case scenario, they are maintaining that they are peace-keepers, not peace-makers, and they cannot get involved unless they are directly fired upon. So if women and children are raped, burned... or hanging from trees, all of which has been taking place, the U.N. is not intervening," she said.

The two women, whose stories of survival that Time magazine featured, are named Ayak and Mary. Smith said when she met Ayak, she was about six months pregnant.

"She was rubbing her tummy and just crying, saying that this is her first baby, and this is her last baby because now no man will ever want her from South Sudan, and because they gave her AIDS in the rape camp, she expected her life to be very small, very dismal and very short," Smith said. "She was a young virgin at the time that the men took her, and she just saw this as the complete end of her world."

"By the grace of God and through the many partners and supporters, donors that we have, that's not the end of Ayak's story. We have her in Uganda, where now her baby is born," Smith continued. "We were able to arrange for a Cesarean section for her to be done, and her baby did not contract AIDS."

"She is on medication and is very strong, very healthy at this point in time, thanks to good medical care and daily love, constant care, day in and day out," Smith said. "And she will actually in the next few months be enrolling in college. She wants to become a social worker, so it's not the end of Ayak's story. Evil does not triumph in her story."

Smith said Mary, a young mother of five children, was first attacked on the way to a U.N. camp.

"They killed her husband immediately; they killed her two boys," Smith said. "They told her the reason they were killing her little boys, who were about 9 and 11 years old, they said they were killing them because the boys would grow up to fight them -- the soldiers killed them, her own South Sudanese soldiers."

"They told Mary, 'Don't worry, we're only going to rape you and your little girl.' And they did rape her and her little girl. She's not sure how many men, but there were many of them," Smith continued.

"Mary survived, but the next day, the rapes were just too traumatic, too long, too many, and her 10-year-old daughter died. She did not survive. Her two younger daughters escaped, took off running with her mother. Mary does not know where those little girls are right now, and I think that's the hardest thing for Mary," Smith said.

"She gave birth after being in the U.N. camp where she was taken many times by these soldiers," Smith told CBN News. "Mary gave birth and has a little baby also. She is disease-free, but her heart is broken."

"Currently, we're helping her to try to locate her two younger daughters. They're about four and six-years-old. Her worst fear is that they are in the rape camps, but we are actively engaged in helping her track them down now," Smith continued.

Smith said prayer and spiritual support is crucial when treating survivors of rape.

"Without that we wouldn't be able to do what we do," she explained. "In this year, we're so serious about that. We are building a hospital in South Sudan, and we call it the Faith, Hope and Love Wholistic Care Hospital."

"And the thing that's important about wholistic care is not only will it provide care for their physical trauma, but emotional and spiritual work is going to be foundational so that we're not just stitching up their bodies and sending them back out, but there will be chaplaincy, emotional, psychological support for them as well," she continued.

So what's the solution to stopping government-sanctioned rape?

"I think the first step is dare to educate ourselves; know what is happening; know not only the evil that this South Sudanese government is inflicting upon their own people, but the fact that the United States government continues to fund the South Sudanese government, and yet we do not hold them accountable and are not enforcing sanctions on them for what they are doing," Smith said. "We have yet to make a stance against these men who are perpetrating this evil."

Secondly, Smith told CBN News that people need to get involved by writing their congressmen and speaking out about what they want the U.S. government to do. And that's not all.

"You can sponsor a child through our website, makewaypartners.org, you can correspond with that child, letting them know that while they have survived hideous things -- many of them are products of rape and have been raped themselves or slaves themselves -- you can write that child -- let them know that they are a child of God and be an active part of their healing process. You can help us through volunteer missions at our new hospital or one of the orphanages," she said.