The Economist (June, 2005)

[dcseain]

From dc_gay_man, verbatim. His original post is here.

Even with a vagina with magical properties, you can not escape the atrocities of war. I think this is the most shocking paragraph I have ever read:

Even by the standards of war, some of the atrocities in eastern Congo are shocking. Zainabo Alfani, for example, was stopped by men in uniform on a road in Ituri last year. She and 13 other women were ordered to strip, to see if they had long vaginal lips, which the gunmen believed would have magical properties. The 13 others did not, and were killed on the spot. Zainabo did. The gunmen cut them off and then gang-raped her. Then they cooked and ate her two daughters in front of her. They also ate chunks of Zainabo's flesh. She escaped, but had contracted HIV. She told her story to the UN in February, and died in March."

Comments

[aliza250.livejournal.com]

*crosses legs tightly together*

I was hoping this was an exaggerated story, but found even more gruesome confirmation:

http://www.monuc.org/Story.aspx?storyID=432
also quoted on
http://www.reliefweb.int/rw/rwb.nsf/0/9d67ab5121b8582c49256fcc002563af?OpenDocument

[vvalkyri.livejournal.com]

I feel sick and I feel numb. I've stopped crying, at least. Some of it's the cat, I know, but perhaps I should know better than to click these things.

Paradoxically I feel like I should post these links but I don't know how to write about them such that more sensitive friends can get through their day without screaming.

Of course, as Seain says, it's important that these things are known...

[dcseain.livejournal.com]

That was stomach-turning, but thank you for sharing. *shudders*