#thechessgame

     The victims of these abuses have told extremely gruesome stories. Some women, attempting to escape the M23 advance in Goma, reached government checkpoints where they were forced to lie down and accept being raped by multiple security officials. Women have been raped in front of their husbands and children, told that they would be killed if they screamed or protested.

     Children have been murdered by army personnel, and while groups like HRW don't directly blame the army for using child soldiers, the DRC allegedly supports groups that do. For example, the Hutu-aligned FDLR forces, perhaps supported by the DRC's government as a proxy against Rwanda, have used child soldiers.

     Perhaps even more dangerously, a new generation is being brought up to hate other ethnic groups. FDLR, the largest militia still in the DRC, claims that they work in Jesus's name to eradicate the Tutsi cockroaches and take back Rwanda for the Hutus. This then is used as propaganda to brainwash children. Many kids have never even seen a Tutsi in their lives but are taught to fear and revile them as the enemies. The army is tacitly supporting all of this with their ignoring this group's warring currently.

     Will the next generation continue the fighting?

By Bharath Srivatsan, BNett News

(Sources: Human Rights Watch, The Guardian)

"DR Congo: War Crimes by M23, Congolese Army | Human Rights Watch." DR Congo: War Crimes by M23, Congolese Army | Human Rights Watch. Human Rights Watch, 5 Feb. 2013. Web. 12 Dec. 2013.

A M23 rebel trainer running past recruits crawling on the ground during a training session, May 16th, 2013 (Reuters)

     Over 24 cases of summary executions were observed by the HRW, in which civilians were murdered to instill fear into the general populace. While the M23 claimed their forces had liberated Goma and that they would be disciplined, rebel fighters looted and raped all over the city and province. In one incident, a four year old girl asking rebels where they were taking her father was shot and killed.

     A lot of these rape cases could be attributed to a psychological theory called eros thanatos, the idea that love and death are conflagrated during times of war. Essentially, in the mythical reality that war creates, rape culture is permitted because of the similarities rape has to killing in itself. To tackle this, the government of the DRC should be really strict on past rapists, bringing the army as a whole back to a more grounded sense of reality.

M23 Rebel recruits receive a training session Rumangabo military camp, May 16, 2013 (Reuters)

     Army soldiers, medical officials, and others were forced to join the ranks of the M23, and were taken to camps to be 'retrained'; a possible euphemism for brainwashing or worse.

By Bharath Srivatsan, BNett News

(Source: The Human Rights Watch, Daily Mail)

"DR Congo: War Crimes by M23, Congolese Army | Human Rights Watch." DR Congo: War Crimes by M23, Congolese Army | Human Rights Watch. Human Rights Watch, 5 Feb. 2013. Web. 12 Dec. 2013.