Important note: Information in this article was accurate in 2004. The state of the art may have changed since the publication date. 
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Voice of America - April 14, 2004
Joe De Capua
A new report says not enough has been done over the past ten years to help heal the wounds of the survivors of the Rwandan genocide. The report – from the group Africa Rights – is based on the testimonies of more than 200 rape victims.
The report is entitled “Broken Bodies, Torn Spirits: Living with Genocide, Rape and HIV/AIDS.” Rakiya Omar, head of Africa Rights, says women “articulate the trauma and pain that, in Africa, most rape victims bear in silence.” She says although it was agonizing for the women to describe what happened to them, their “testimonies are important.”
She says, "Well, I think first of all it’s important for them to leave a record of the unbearable atrocities that they endured during the genocide. These women will die, they know they will die, but they want to name to the extent that they can the people behind the rape. Some of them have been arrested; many of them are still at large. So, I think that from the point of view of justice and a historical perspective their testimonies are important."
Ms. Omar says, “The reason why a significant percentage of the survivors are female is because they were spared in order to be kept as sexual slaves.” She says the rape victims are telling their stories “out of desperation,” due to poverty and illness, including HIV/AIDS.
"The survivors of the genocide are in a unique position in that they have no families left. They have no one to leave their children to. So, if they can stay alive a few more years that will allow them to plan for the future of their children," she says.
The report says the youngest rape victim interviewed was six years old in 1994. The oldest was 71. Some women were pregnant when they were attacked, while others became pregnant as a result. One testified the rapes happened so often they became a “habit, like drinking water.”
The Africa Rights director says with many rape victims infected with HIV, the AIDS virus, treatment is needed now - treatment in the form of anti-retroviral drugs.
Ms. Omar says, "The provision of the anti-retrovirals, which will, if nothing else, allow women to recognize that this illness can be managed. At the moment, there is a lot of supernatural beliefs and a sense of helplessness about the disease – a belief that everything is in the hands of God and there’s nothing you can do to protect yourself. So I think making anti-retrovirals easily accessible and cheap will allow women to see that this is a medical problem and not a supernatural punishment."
But besides anti-retroviral drugs, Ms. Omar says the women also need food and shelter. Many have lost their homes and are malnourished. The report recommends a communal setting whereby the women – whether or not they are HIV positive - could live together and offer each other support.
She says, "It enables them to have a sense of mutual solidarity, to care for each other, to be aware of what is happening to the others. To replace the family that they have lost, I think that’s very important."
She says some of those accused or convicted of carrying out the genocide have received much better medical care than the rape victims.
The Africa Rights report says, “Genocide rape victims include both Tutsi and many Hutu widows, persecuted along with their Tutsi husbands.” It says, “Providing effective and appropriate support systems for these survivors is an essential gesture of respect to people stripped of all else.”
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