Sawt Falasteen - Syria sex abuse survivors need aid, says Nobel winner Mukwege

Since the dramatic fall of president Bashar al-Assad last month, the rebels who toppled the longtime strongman have liberated thousands of prisoners held in Assad's jails.

Congolese gynaecologist Mukwege, who has spent his life dealing with sexual violence committed during wartime, described the shocking abuses committed there in an interview with AFP this week.

"Husbands who were in exile or at the front were sent images of their wives being raped (in jail)," the 69-year-old said.

Beyond Syria, the 2018 Nobel Peace Prize winner warned that "the use of rape as a weapon of war has been increasing in all conflicts" for a decade.

"It is an unacceptable weapon ... that transforms women's bodies into a battlefield."

Mukwege was speaking on the sidelines of an event marking the fifth anniversary of the Global Survivors Fund (GSF), an NGO he co-founded with Nadia Murad, a Yazidi victim of sexual violence with whom he shared the 2018 Peace Prize.

The organisation aims to enhance access to reparations for survivors of conflict-related sexual violence around the globe.

- 'Scale up' -

For several years the GSF has been focused on the reported widespread use of sexual violence and sexualised torture in detention facilities in Syria.

In 2020, it helped launch a project to provide so-called interim reparative measures to survivors.

Then, lacking access to Syria, it could only offer support to victims who managed to flee the country.

But after Assad's sudden ouster last month, the GSF now hopes it will be possible to expand that work within the country itself.

GSF chief Esther Dingemans said the organisation wished its partners could "actually start this work now in Syria and then try to scale that up to a government level".

It is vital, she told AFP, "to start talking about reparation, to listen to survivors".

Among the organisations GSF works with is the Association of Detainees and the Missing in Saydnaya Prison (ADMSP).

That prison, north of the Syrian capital Damascus, has become a symbol of the inhumane abuses of the Assad family's decades of dictatorship.

In the upheaval that followed Assad's fall, Saydnaya was emptied out along with other places of detention.

"Almost every person that had spent a significant amount of time in these detention centres has experienced sexual violence," Dingemans said.

While the exact number of victims of rape and other sexual violence within Syria's prisons is yet to be determined, she said it was clear "the numbers will be incredibly high".

- 'Act of destruction' -

Mukwege called sexual abuse in prison "deliberate action with a clear goal: to destroy the person, but also their community, to destroy the social fabric."

"This is not about non-consensual sexual acts... It is simply an act of destruction."

This is something he has seen far beyond Syria.

In his native Democratic Republic of Congo, which has been riven by violence for years, Mukwege has treated tens of thousands of women raped or mutilated by rampaging militias.

He pointed to UN figures showing that around 123,000 women were the victims of rape in DRC in 2023 alone -- "one woman every four minutes", he said.

Places ranging from Ukraine to Sudan to the Middle East have also seen the widespread use of violence as a weapon of war, Mukwege said.

"This weapon is widely used and has nothing to do with customs or continents," he added. "The use of rape is basically global."

Dingemans stressed the importance of providing victims with reparations, which can include things like financial compensation, support starting a business, or recognition and public apologies.

But she said the task was daunting.

"Almost in all conflicts, sexual violence is systematically used, so the demand is enormous."

Mukwege lamented "the lack of political will to effectively fight against rape as a weapon of war".

"Justice is an exception and impunity the rule."

But he said his Nobel and the tireless advocacy work done by the GSF and others had at least helped raise awareness about the problem.

"At least we can't say that we don't know" it is happening.

V.Said--SF-PST