United Nations Radio

Sexual violence against women remains a serious concern in the Democratic Republic of the Congo. As part of the events around Women's Day, observed annually on March 8th, a photo exhibition on this issue is being held at the UN offices in Geneva. UN Radio's Patrick Maigua caught up with the man behind the images, photojournalist Marcus Bleasdale, who has been covering the conflict in the DRC for the past 12 years:

Marcus Bleasdale

BLEASDALE: I spent a long time doing this, documenting the reasons why the conflict is happening and the natural resource exploitation and the effects of the natural resource exploitation on the population of the DRC and how the conflict is being fought over the access to those natural resources and the effects that then that has on the population in DRC. Sexual violence is obviously one of those effects.

MAIGUA: And what do you think an exhibition like this will do? Do you think it will touch people's hearts and get concerned about what's going on in the DRC?

BLEASDALE: It's always a question how effective can work be, and I think its effectiveness is not necessarily the images themselves but the people that you show them to. And actually late last year these images were shown at the U.S. Senate in Washington and the exhibition was then followed by a special committee. The discussion that surrounded this exhibition and the subsequent committee meetings formulated U.S. policy and changed the way that funding was directed towards the DRC. So it does have an effect. Yes.

MAIGUA: As you were working, is there any particular photograph or person that you came across that really touched your heart and do you know whether the person ever got the support they needed?

BLEASDALE: One story is Catherine who was a young fourteen year old girl who lost both of her parents in an attack Kiwanja and she was raped when she returned to her village to collect vegetables. She was raped five times by the CNDP forces in the morning. When she returned home to Goma where she found shelter in a local school, in the evening she was raped three times by the government forces. She didn't receive any help. She was too busy looking for food to eat and begging for food on the streets that she didn't go to the hospital and didn't get checked out for HIV and didn't get checked out for sexual diseases. So this is a case that fell through the net. Catherine wasn't helped. She is still living in a school. She never went to the hospital and she is still looking for food.

MAIGUA: Maybe you can take us through some of the photographs and explain to us.

BLEASDALE: Here you have an image of a lady. It was taken in Ituri in 2003 actually. And she has had her right arm chopped off by a machete during an attack on her village and her son has been attacked by machete as well. Her arm actually was chopped off and actually eaten by the people that chopped it off in front of her.

MAIGUA: Someone would say some of these pictures depict a lot of violence. Somebody may say you need to sympathize with the victim instead of taking the photographs.

BLEASDALE: I think my job is to show the world what has happened and with over five and a half million people that have been killed in ten years in DRC, it's my job to pass that statistic to the general public. There are a lot of organizations here spending time helping the people on the ground. I am not a doctor. I can't give medical assistance. But what I can do is to give the people that has happened to a voice. And I feel that's my job. This image here is of a sign just outside a military camp outside Bunia. It's in an area of high prevalence of sexual violence. In fact the displaced camp which is right next to the military camp here so formed because they thought that they were going to get protection from the military. A study has been done there and over 60 per cent of the women that are in the camp have been raped mostly by the military who are next door. And the sign actually reads that 'Discipline est la mere des armes', 'Discipline is the mother of armies' which is quite the opposite case in this particular instance.

MAIGUA: There is a lot of impunity in the DRC, especially the army. What do you think can be done?

BLEASDALE: I think that the international community has to make the funding that it gives DRC contingent on military behaviour and soldiers behaviour. The international community is paying the salaries of these soldiers, certainly, the government soldiers, the Congolese soldiers. They should, through a process of checks and balance that need to be put in place, be held accountable for their actions. And if the government cannot control its military, then the funding stops.

That was Marcus Bleasdale, a photojournalist, speaking with UN Radio's Patrick Maigua in Geneva.

Duration: 3'47"