Darfur Survival Campaign
Sudan Journal
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Nyala: Training Begins
Day 3: Saturday, July 15
Arriving in Nyala, we see government soldiers and AMIS peacekeepers along the way. We pass the Otesh Internally Displaced Persons camp, women on donkeys, wooden hand-drawn ploughs being pushed through the mostly barren-looking soil, and light patches of green indicating the rainy season here.
We go straight from the airport to the training center, the Farmers Union Hall—a couple of modest buildings in the center of town surrounding a courtyard where our participants will eat and pray during the breaks.
About fifty men and women are sitting in desk chairs, apparently relieved to see us finally arrive. As we go around the room to hear the expectations of our sessions from all participants, we hear that many want to learn how to provide psychological support for victims of sexual violence. The lawyers from El Fasher are seeking help developing strategies to gather evidence and prosecute torture. Also attending are three physicians from Nyala hospital and several women social workers from Amel Center. There are also Darfurian women working with Medecins du Monde and Medecins sans Frontieres in Nyala. There is a local police officer in full uniform, who says he wants to learn more about torture because it is never discussed in police training.
During the break I speak with two women who work on psychological trauma in El Fasher hospital and one female law student from El Fasher. They see many patients suffering from depression, PTSD. They are treating many rape victims, including young girls. They are looking for more treatment strategies.
Also during the break, Nasridden, a young male physician, asks me if I think there are cultural aspects of rape. I deliberate and explain that rape is common in every country, every culture, and throughout history. However, I suggest that rape in conflict, including in Darfur, is part of a strategy of war. Three more docs join the conversation, and we discuss the cultural issues that pertain in Sudan—that rape is never a crime in marriage. Girls can get married off at a very young age, and statutory rape does not really exist. Adultery is prosecuted as a crime and many women who report rape are instead accused of adultery and even charged with the "crime." This is what he means by cultural.
Why do men rape on this massive scale, as a strategy of war, Nasridden asks? I suggest that, very likely, rape on this scale cannot occur unless people are able to separate themselves from the victim's humanity. Discrimination enables mass rape. There is also license to rape by those driving the conflict, even a strategy of using rape to instill terror and flight.
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