Rwandan genocide survivors denied AIDS treatment
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《英国医生杂志》
Kigali
On 20 April the London based Survivors' Fund (SURF) is to launch a campaign for free antiretroviral treatment for survivors of the Rwandan genocide.
Ten years after the genocide, in which 800 000 people were murdered, thousands of survivors are dying of AIDS. The Rwandan Widows' Association says that an estimated 70% of its 25 000 members are HIV positive, mainly because they were gang-raped during the massacres.
"We have women who were raped the whole three months of the genocide," said Esther Mujawayo, a survivor and founder member of the Widows' Association.
In April 1994, extremists from Rwanda's Hutu majority tried to wipe out the minority Tutsis, using machetes, nail studded clubs, and grenades. Many Tutsi women were kept as sex slaves while their families were killed. After the massacres started, the bulk of a United Nations peacekeeping force was withdrawn—a decision which the United Nations' secretary general, Kofi Annan, said last month "must leave us always with a sense of bitter regret."
Prime Minister Tony Blair has pledged that if the genocide in Rwanda were to be repeated, Western nations would have an obligation to intervene, but survivors' representatives say little is being done to save those still dying as a result of the genocide.
Consolata, a genocide survivor, was raped several times in 1994. She found out two years later she had been infected with HIV
Credit: GIANLUIGI GUERCIA/AFP/GETTY IMAGES
"If you have not protected somebody in 1994, at least stop her dying now, 10 years later," said Ms Mujawayo. "Or what are we saying? Women are still dying and again the world is watching."
Among those who cannot afford the estimated ￡75 ($138; 114) a month for treatment is Hadija Murakatete, whose husband was murdered and who cannot remember how many times she was raped or by how many men.
"They took me and did what they liked—soldiers, militia, all of them," she said, in the small, mud walled house where she lives in the Rwandan capital, Kigali. "Since I realised I had the disease, I'm becoming sick; I'm not strong. The main problem is surviving. I keep thinking, when I'm dead what will happen to my children?"
Some widows are caring for their own children, while others look after genocide orphans who will be motherless for a second time when the women die of AIDS related diseases.
This year, donors are to start major programmes providing antiretroviral treatment to some of the estimated 500 000 Rwandans living with HIV and AIDS. Yet none of the programmes prioritise rape survivors. By contrast, the official channel for American aid, USAID, mentions prisoners convicted or suspected of participating in the genocide as a target group for AIDS counselling and testing.
The leaders of the genocide, facing justice at the International Criminal Tribunal for Rwanda in Tanzania, routinely receive antiretroviral treatment. The British government has pledged ￡200 000 over two years to treat genocide witnesses with AIDS but has not offered treatment to the wider population of rape victims.(Lindsey Hilsum, internati)
On 20 April the London based Survivors' Fund (SURF) is to launch a campaign for free antiretroviral treatment for survivors of the Rwandan genocide.
Ten years after the genocide, in which 800 000 people were murdered, thousands of survivors are dying of AIDS. The Rwandan Widows' Association says that an estimated 70% of its 25 000 members are HIV positive, mainly because they were gang-raped during the massacres.
"We have women who were raped the whole three months of the genocide," said Esther Mujawayo, a survivor and founder member of the Widows' Association.
In April 1994, extremists from Rwanda's Hutu majority tried to wipe out the minority Tutsis, using machetes, nail studded clubs, and grenades. Many Tutsi women were kept as sex slaves while their families were killed. After the massacres started, the bulk of a United Nations peacekeeping force was withdrawn—a decision which the United Nations' secretary general, Kofi Annan, said last month "must leave us always with a sense of bitter regret."
Prime Minister Tony Blair has pledged that if the genocide in Rwanda were to be repeated, Western nations would have an obligation to intervene, but survivors' representatives say little is being done to save those still dying as a result of the genocide.
Consolata, a genocide survivor, was raped several times in 1994. She found out two years later she had been infected with HIV
Credit: GIANLUIGI GUERCIA/AFP/GETTY IMAGES
"If you have not protected somebody in 1994, at least stop her dying now, 10 years later," said Ms Mujawayo. "Or what are we saying? Women are still dying and again the world is watching."
Among those who cannot afford the estimated ￡75 ($138; 114) a month for treatment is Hadija Murakatete, whose husband was murdered and who cannot remember how many times she was raped or by how many men.
"They took me and did what they liked—soldiers, militia, all of them," she said, in the small, mud walled house where she lives in the Rwandan capital, Kigali. "Since I realised I had the disease, I'm becoming sick; I'm not strong. The main problem is surviving. I keep thinking, when I'm dead what will happen to my children?"
Some widows are caring for their own children, while others look after genocide orphans who will be motherless for a second time when the women die of AIDS related diseases.
This year, donors are to start major programmes providing antiretroviral treatment to some of the estimated 500 000 Rwandans living with HIV and AIDS. Yet none of the programmes prioritise rape survivors. By contrast, the official channel for American aid, USAID, mentions prisoners convicted or suspected of participating in the genocide as a target group for AIDS counselling and testing.
The leaders of the genocide, facing justice at the International Criminal Tribunal for Rwanda in Tanzania, routinely receive antiretroviral treatment. The British government has pledged ￡200 000 over two years to treat genocide witnesses with AIDS but has not offered treatment to the wider population of rape victims.(Lindsey Hilsum, internati)