10/31/2012 02:26 GMT
by Jean-Baptiste Baderha
BUKAVU, DR Congo, Oct 31, 2012 (AFP) - Patients and staff at a pioneering rape victims clinic in the eastern Democratic Republic of Congo are urging the authorities to help ensure the return of its award-winning founder, Denis Mukwege, who fled after a murder bid.
Mukwege founded the Panzi hospital and foundation in Bukavu to help the thousands of women who have been raped in the strife-torn east of DR Congo by local and foreign armed groups, as well as by soldiers in the army.
Last Thursday night, several armed men burst into his home and killed a domestic servant before fleeing. The doctor fled the country on Saturday for Burundi. Belgian Foreign Minister Didier Reynders said Sunday that Mukwege might seek to rest in Belgium.
Ephrem Bisimwa, in charge of communications at the hospital on the outskirts of town, said "there are no problems because the administration is good (and) we have many gynaecologists here who will ensure that work goes on."
However, "all the personnel seek the safety of (Mukwege's) family so that he can return to his place of work," he added.
"We are very upset by his sudden departure and we hope that the authorities will get involved to ensure his rapid return by guaranteeing his security, that is our prayer," a hospital executive said.
In the clinic's waiting room, a small straw hut, several women were gathered and talking about the violence due notably to a new rebellion in the constantly troubled North and South Kivu provinces, on the border with Rwanda. Bukavu is the capital of South Kivu.
Njabuka Mathy, a patient, explained: "Mukwege became more than an acquaintance. Thanks to him, several human lives have been saved."
"It's really very regrettable," said another patient, Yvette Nsimire. "Mukwege has just suddenly gone when insecurity has again taken hold in the territories."
Each year, the Panzi hospital's service for victims of sexual violence takes in 3,000 women. Mukwege himself has treated several thousand women since the first DR Congo war in 1998 and he recently spoke out against rape as a weapon of war by the armed gangs operating in the Kivu provinces, as well as the army.
Civil society in South Kivu is planning a so-called "dead city" strike on Wednesday to protest against the attack and insecurity in the town, where at least four people have been murdered in recent days.
In Paris, the French minister for the French-speaking world, Yamina Benguigui, called on Congolese authorities to act and arrest Mukwege's assailants.
"I call on Congolese authorities for an immediate reaction to this heinous assassination attempt, and to ensure that those responsible are actively hunted down and pursued," the minister said in a statement.
No figures are available for the number of rapes committed in the last few months, nor how many women have been hospitalised, but in Goma, the capital of North Kivu province, another gynaecologist estimated that about 5,000 women have been raped since the start of 2012, with the increase in instability in the region.
Mukwege is a founder member of an international campaign to put an end to rapes and sexual violence in conflict situations, which since its launch in May 2012 has brought together hundreds of organisations from around the world.
Supporters of this campaign issued a statement expressing the fear that this "assassination bid may be linked with the activities of Dr Mukwege, who in September supported a plea to the United Nations by the campaign asking it to shed light on the increase of rapes and violence" in the east of DR Congo.
Mukwege's patient Chouchou Namegabe called his departure "a great loss".
"Wherever he is going, he won't work, and it's we here who need him," Namegabe said.
"We ask the government to make him safe and to make his family safe so that he comes home fast, because it is the Congolese community that he should serve. Above all, there are vulnerable people whom he treated for free and who need him."
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