June 29, 2007
First story in Sudan
Here's a nice controversy-free story to start with.
Sudan must rewrite rape laws to protect victimsKHARTOUM, June 28 (Reuters) - An international aid group called on Sudan on Thursday to rewrite its laws to protect women from "mass rape" in the war-torn Darfur region. A report from U.S.-based Refugees International accused government-backed armed groups of systematic sex attacks on women and girls in the country's remote west. Legally, it is "all but impossible" to prosecute rapists, the report found. Women who admit to being raped risk prosecution for having sex outside marriage -- an offence punishable by 100 lashes or death by stoning, it added. Sudan's Foreign Ministry declined immediate comment on the report. But Khartoum has often denied that mass rape occurs in Darfur, accusing Western media of sensationalism.
Posted by aheavens at June 29, 2007 12:18 PM
Comments
My, my, my....
Andrew, how come you never wrote about rape in Ethiopia all this time...hmmmm? All of the sudden, in Sudan, you are brave and controversial.
Story is well....b.s. No one is going to take the soldiers or militia to court for rape, and some women who come forward are not going to be lashed or stoned. How can they be when they are in a region where the government has little jurisdiction, and also where the judges themselves are from Darfur?
Posted by: safiya at June 30, 2007 1:13 AM
Andrew, you're a great human being for giving a voice to the voiceless. I know stuff like that isn't supposed to be said. It's too flat-footed or something. I don't care. It needs to be said.
Never stop.
Posted by: quixote at June 30, 2007 5:43 AM