NEW YORK -- Although rape as a weapon of war has existed for as long as war itself, it is taking a particularly heavy toll on women's lives in today's conflicts around the world. A high proportion of the women who are victims of rape end up infected with sexually transmitted diseases and infections, including HIV.
As most of the countries experiencing an almost perpetual state of internal strife lack medicines and basic health-care services, becoming HIV-infected is virtually a death sentence. Given the wide use of rape as a weapon of war in some countries, especially those experiencing ethnic or tribal conflicts, and the high rates of HIV infection among warring factions, rape is rapidly becoming genocidal.
Rape happens on a wide scale in the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC), Uganda and Sudan. In the DRC, where more than 3 million people have been displaced by war, rape victims are counted in the thousands. According to some estimates, up to 60 percent of combatants in the DRC are HIV-infected. In Uganda, soldiers from the Lord's Resistance Army have stepped up rape and mutilation of women in their struggle to replace a secular government in the country.