INVESTIGATION OF SEXUAL VIOLENCE IN EASTERN DRC “I was already in bed when they came to pillage. After looting, they tied me up and took me to the forest with them. My young child was with me. I was raped by anyone who was able to rape and afterwards, I was undressed and tied to a tree and. When I started to cry, my child was killed on the spot. This is why I am so traumatized.” “It was around 9 o’clock at night and we were sleeping when we heard a knock on the door. They entered our home and demanded that we give them money. We did have $20 from selling charcoal. They looted our belongings and told us that they are going to kill us. They killed my husband in front of me, with a knife…cutting his bowels and his lungs. Then they burned the house with my husband's corpse and my living child. They were both burned”. “I was in my house when the soldiers arrived. They wanted me to have sex with them in front of my son who was 18 years old. I refused. They took my son and tied him up since he was trying to defend me. Two military men took him outside and killed him. I cried when I realized what had happened. After they killed my son, all four of them took turns raping me. It was two days before we could bury my son who died trying to protect his mother.” Woman visiting Panzi Hospital (John Paul Doguin, ©2007) THEME: LOSS OF PERSONAL BELONGINGS Many women described looting of the family’s valuables, including cash, livestock, food and clothing. Occasionally, the family home was destroyed in the attack. While loss of property and valuables would be devastating to any family, these losses were particularly severe blows in Eastern DRC, where poverty is both extreme and widespread. 29