Fulgence Zamblé

ABIDJAN, Oct 8 2006 (IPS) – Increasing sexual violence in Côte d Ivoire has prompted rights organisations to call for an end to a culture of impunity which they claim has encouraged this trend particularly as concerns the military.
Since September 2002, Côte d Ivoire has been divided into a rebel-controlled north and government-dominated south. Many rights violations, especially against women, have been reported by non-governmental organisations (NGOs) and victims themselves in the past four years with soldiers amongst those most frequently accused of rape.

While Ivorian legislation provides for jail terms of up to 20 years for rape, the political crisis in this West African country has undermined its judicial system, creating the climate of impunity which some believe is enabling abuse.

Ethel Higonnet, an advocate and activist from the New York-based Human Rights Watch who has been researching sexual violence in Côte d Ivoire from 2002, says she has come across widespread sexual slavery, incest and rape with about 70 percent of women being regular victims of sexual violence across the country.

In the west, the situation is chaotic. There is not a village where women are not victims of sexual slavery. There is a rape each week in every sub-prefecture, Higonnet observed, during a recent press conference in the financial capital of Abidjan where she presented her initial findings. She also noted that the ages of victims ranged from three to 75 years.

Yet, We have seen only three cases of punishment for sexual violence in the west in four years. It s terrifying, she said. In the south of the country, military checkpoints had become epicentres of sexual violence, as armed forces sexually abuse young girls there.
Ténin Touré-Diabaté, a professor of sociology at the University of Cocody in Abidjan, believes it is essential for military commanders to institute disciplinary measures to stop their troops abusing women.

Without this, all proposals and other sensitisation initiatives will be destined to failure, she told IPS.

Similar sentiments are voiced by Higonnet: We hope that all the perpetrators of sexual violence towards women will be subjected to the severity of law as quickly as possible so as discourage other persons (from this abuse).

For his part, Ange Kessi Kouamé, the military prosecutor of Côte d Ivoire, has said that a trial of accused rapists will soon begin.

We are aware of the phenomenon (although) we were surprised to receive only four complaints of rape in all these years. But I assure people that those who are guilty will be severely punished.

Drissa Bamba, coordinator at the Ivorian Movement of Human Rights (Mouvement ivoirien des droits humains), an NGO based in Abidjan, believes changes in training and recruitment are key in transforming attitudes towards sexual violence amongst soldiers.

He suggests that military programmes should include not only teaching about Ivorian legislation on human rights, but also a course on rights in general, and those of women in particular.

Higonnet is also critical of the Ivorian medical services, claiming that these fail to provide support for victims. This is despite the fact that women face the prospect of a range of medical problems, including infection by sexually-transmitted diseases such as AIDS, as a result of being abused.

Women are often victims of a lack of medical care, of confidentiality in health centres, she said, indicating that the expense of consultations was at issue.

Notes Marie-Thérèse Trazongodo, a psychologist in Abidjan, Because of lack of assistance, there are few women who make complaints (of abuse).

In a move that may infuriate a good many women s rights activists, however, Touré-Diabaté also lays the blame for high rates of abuse at the door of girls and women themselves.

The (political) crisis has certainly favoured cases of sexual violence. But it s a phenomenon that existed already, and which is now growing simply because women are those principally responsible, she noted.

Today, the dress of young girls cannot but excite boys. They wear skirts that barely reach to mid-thigh, or shirts which expose their navels, Touré-Diabaté observed, also complaining of how women wear skin-tight dresses or clothes that accentuate their curves What can happen when one is in the road (with such an outfit)?