Editor, Refer to Dr. Cory Couillard’s article, “Sexual violence the ‘silent-violent epidemic’” (The New Times, January 31). “Sexual violence is often associated with a host of sexual and reproductive health problems, such as sexually transmitted infections (STIs) including HIV and AIDS, miscarriages, sexual dysfunction and gynecological disorders.” That’s right, and it gets worse when women are brutally abused during wars. I have come to be friends with one woman who was repeatedly raped during the 1994 Genocide against the Tutsi. She confided in me, and possibly some close friends, but she can never reveal the secret to her husband. She didn’t contract all those afore-mentioned diseases, but she lives in a deafening, traumatic silence. She told me that she sometimes spends the whole night awake, most of the time avoiding sleep so that she doesn’t dream about it. She also told me that she recently learnt that one of the militias who raped her has become a successful businessman here in Kigali, but she can’t even dream of reporting him to the courts of law because, once done, she will have to testify in court and then the husband will know her guarded secret, which she doesn’t want to happen. I think that the Ministry of Health should make everything possible to bring up psychiatric centres across the country – sooner than later. You see beautiful women walking but we don’t know what’s in the bottom of their hearts, and they don’t even have someone to talk to. If this isn’t done, I’m afraid to say that we won’t be able to control the suicide cases once the burden becomes unbearable. The Government should make sure survivors of the Genocide are taken care of both economically and emotionally. Mutara Intore, Rwanda
