From [the deceitful heart] naturally arises a plentiful harvest of all evil words and works; and to complete the whole, that complex of all evils,

-- That foul monster, War, that we meet,
Lays deep the noblest work of the creation;
Which wears in vain its Maker's glorious image,
Unprivileged from thee!

--John Wesley (1703-1791), founder of Methodism,
Sermon 123, THE DECEITFULNESS OF THE HUMAN HEART

In 1996, the General Conference of The United Methodist Church (UMC) adopted the resolution "Rape in Times of Conflict and War." The resolution presents background on this form of violence against women and asks the UMC to condemn all forms of rape as incompatible with the Church's understanding of the sacredness of life; and to affirm the right of all persons to safety, nurture, and care. It also directs the General Board of Global Ministries, United Methodist Committee on Relief, and General Board of Church and Society to take several actions. This web page provides material through which readers can learn more about this issue and what the church and others are doing to address rape used as a weapon of war.

Warning: Some of the links to information on this page will contain frank language and graphic descriptions of violence.

From United Methodist Sources

New Regional Missionaries Work with Women, Children and Youth at Grass-roots Level, UMNS, October 17, 2000
Catherine Akale, assigned to work in Cameroon, says "Most African cultures have conditioned women to be secretive about intra-family violence. The cultural aspect of violence is another issue. Because many women are economically dependent on men, if there is a violation of their rights, there is a fear of losing security and contact with one's own family."

Rape in Times of Conflict and War, A Resolution of 1996 General Conference of The United Methodist Church
Excerpt: "For centuries, women have been raped as an act of violence and a demonstration of power—most especially in times of conflict and wars. Rape has been and is sanctioned by military organizations for the gratification of soldiers as was seen in several Asian countries during World War II. The Comfort Women of Korea are a most blatant example of this practice. Rape during wartime constitutes many individual and group acts of violence perpetrated by soldiers against girls and women of enemy countries or opposing sides, often under orders. "

Rape: A Weapon of War, An Opinion Article by Mulegwa Zihindula, GBGM
Excerpt: "Since early August of this year, after Rwanda and Uganda invaded the Democratic Republic of Congo, Congolese and allied forces from Angola, Namibia, and Zimbabwe have been battling Rwandan and Ugandan soldiers. Recently, a Ugandan reporter visiting the front lines in the Democratic Republic of Congo gave an account of rapes committed by Rwandan soldiers in the city of Kisangani."

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From the United Nations

Universal Declaration of Human Rights: Adopted and proclaimed by General Assembly resolution 217 A (III) of 10 December 1948

Declaración Universal de Derechos Humanos Adoptada y proclamada por la Asamblea General en su resolución 217 A (III), de 10 de diciembre de 1948

Global Campaign to End Violence Against Women
Excerpt: "Violence against women is an obstacle to the achievement of the objectives of equality, development and peace. Violence against women both violates and impairs or nullifies the enjoyment by women of their human rights and fundamental freedoms."

Graça Machel's Urgent Call
Excerpt: "Two million children have been killed in armed conflicts in the past ten years, according to the 95-page report that Machel presented to the United Nations General Assembly last November. Three times as many -- 6 million children -- have been seriously injured or permanently disabled. Countless others have been raped or forced to witness horrifying acts of violence."

Impact of Armed Conflict on Children: Report of Graça Machel, Expert of the Secretary-General of the United Nations
"This is an extensive report, many pages long. Excerpt: Armed conflict, more than any other force, has transformed the lives of millions of children and women. Children and their families are not just getting caught in the crossfire. Many are being targeted. Nothing is spared, held sacred or protected. It is the singular characteristic of armed conflict in our time that children suffer most."

Kidnapping the Kids: Universal Declaration of Human Rights 50th Anniversary, (Refugees Magazine, Issue 111) Spring 1998
Excerpt: "The so-called Lord’s Resistance Army (LRA) has terrorized north and central Uganda for a decade, attacking and pillaging schools, villages and refugee camps. They have seized as many as 10,000 young people, marching them into southern Sudan, where they become sex slaves, beasts of burden carrying weapons, heavy shells and food, and eventually child soldiers."

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Information About Selected Geographical Areas

About Rape and War in Bosnia-Herzegovina

All the Way Home - Safe "Minority Returns": As a Just Remedy and for a Secure Future, Amnesty International, February 1998
Excerpt: "More than one million displaced people and refugees remain who originate from areas where their nationality is now different from that which administers the area. Most of them are victims of programs of mass expulsion, sometimes described as "ethnic cleansing", which combined torture including rape, deliberate and arbitrary killings and arbitrary detention as means to remove them from the territories where they lived, either by detention and removal or by forcing them to flee."

Bosnia and Hercegovina A Closed, Dark Place": Past and Present Human Rights Abuses in Foca, Human Rights Watch Report (230,000 bytes)
Excerpt: "The Foca municipality was the site of some of the most brutal crimes committed during the 1992-1995 war in Bosnia and Hercegovina.... Using a thorough propaganda campaign to convince the local Bosnian Serb population that they were under threat of a Muslim fundamentalist coup, the Crisis Committee established a network of detention centers, where non-Serb civilians were detained, tortured, raped, and either expelled, killed, or "disappeared," leaving the town as it is today, almost completely ethnically Serb. Businesses and properties of non-Serbs were expropriated or destroyed."

Investigators compile mass rape allegations USA Today, February 14, 1998
Excerpt: "ZENICA, Bosnia-Herzegovina - The girl shut her eyes but couldn't block out the laughter of the Bosnian Serb soldiers as they held her stick-thin wrists and raped her over and over again."

Rape as a Crime Against Humanity by Alisa Mujagic
The Community of Bosnia Foundation in cooperation with the Collection Committee of Haverford College is proud to present Alisa Mujagic as our guest speaker at the Haverford College. Alisa and her mother are survivors of the Serbian rape camp Trnopolje in the northern Bosnia. (Following by a transcript of the speech)

About Rape and War in Burundi

Human Rights Watch Condemns Targeting Of Civilians In Burundi's Civil War, April 8, 1998
Excerpt: "The opposing sides in the civil war that has raged in Burundi since 1993 have killed, raped, tortured and looted thousands of civilians, according to a report released today by Human Rights Watch. In Proxy Targets: Civilians in the Civil War in Burundi, the organization charges that the largely Tutsi armed forces and various Hutu rebel groups have both attacked civilians as proxy targets in the four-year-old conflict."

About Rape and War in Democratic Republic of Congo

Democratic Republic of Congo War Against Unarmed Civilians November 23, 1998 -- This article is very graphic
Excerpt: "Amnesty International is particularly concerned about recent reports of rape and other acts of sexual violence by combatants. Sexual violence appears to have been used as a weapon of war by the combatants on both sides at times preceding or accompanying the massacre of civilians. It has been used by combatants to spread terror among the populations, and to destabilise community identity."

ZAIRE: Rape, killings and other human rights violations by the security forces, Amnesty International, February 19, 1997 -- This article is very graphic
Excerpt: "FAZ soldiers fleeing from advancing AFDL forces in eastern Zaire rampaged through the town of Bunia, 200 miles north of Goma, in early December 1996. They pillaged the commercial centre of the town, throwing grenades into houses and destroying everything they could not carry away."

About Rape and War in Rwanda

Forgotten Victims of Hate, The Mail and Guardian (Johannesburg), September 17, 1999
This shocking account of the rape of Tusi women and girls during the genocide of 1994 focuses on rape's effects on the victims including AIDS.

Human Rights Watch Applauds Rwanda Rape Verdict Sets International Precedent for Punishing Sexual Violence as a War Crime, September 2, 1998
Excerpt: "History was made today when the U.N. International Criminal Tribunal for Rwanda (ICTR) found former mayor, Jean-Paul Akayesu, guilty of nine counts of genocide, crimes against humanity and war crimes. The verdict is the first handed down by the Rwanda Tribunal; the first conviction for genocide by an international court; the first time an international court has punished sexual violence in a civil war; and the first time that rape was found to be an act of genocide to destroy a group."

About Rape and War in Sierra Leone

Diamonds a Curse for Women in War-torn Sierra Leone, InterPress Third World News Agency (IPS), June 16, 2000