Rape as a Weapon of Repression

I went to the MIHRM Toastmasters meeting to answer a call by Francis Chiong to be the General Evaluator for today’s meeting. It was a good meeting because I listened to good speeches and good evaluations. I was impressed when Geoff Andrew, Francis Chiong, Lee Meng Tze, Dr. William Lau and Vincent Soon gave speeches and/or evaluations. My only grouse was the time-keeping. Also the fact that of the seventeen participants, only five were members of the said Toastmasters club. Members should be more supportive. I would give this meeting a 7 out of 10.

And now there’s the story about Libyan soldiers being fed Viagra-type drugs and then ordered to rape hundreds of women as a disturbing and depraved weapon of repression in the current and ongoing civil war. The UN said it was now 'more convinced' that Colonel Muammar Gaddafi ordered the mass rape of civilians as a way of instilling fear into the rebellious population.

Luis Moreno-Ocampo, the International Criminal Court's chief prosecutor, said witnesses confirmed that the Libyan government was buying containers of the drug to carry out the policy, which UK’s MailOnline highlighted more than six weeks ago.

Photo credit: http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2001283/Gaddafi-soldiers-WERE-given-Viagra-rape-innocent-women-civilians-says-UN.html

The UN announcement comes after the case of Iman al-Obeidi, a Libyan woman who claimed she was gang-raped by Gaddafi soldiers because she came from the rebel stronghold Benghazi. She had rushed into a Tripoli hotel in March and shouted out to foreign correspondents staying there that she had been stopped at a checkpoint, dragged away and gang-raped over two days. As she spoke, government minders with the Press dragged her away. She disappeared for several days, then turned up in Tunisia and later Qatar and she is now in the US.

Moreno-Ocampo said his office is collecting evidence on the rapes. He told a news conference that he was “trying to see who was involved” but it was difficult to find out how widespread the atrocity was. “The issue for us was, can we attribute these rapes to Gaddafi himself, or is it something that happened in the barracks?” he asked.

If this is true, this is a heinous crime against women. Women seem to receive the brunt of all that are nauseating and offensive. When will women be free of grievous oppression?