INVESTIGATION OF SEXUAL VIOLENCE IN EASTERN DRC Patients awaiting medical care at Panzi Hospital (Susan Bartels, HHI) MILITARY MOTIVES With a modern day shift from nation-state conflicts to intrastate civil wars, has come a fundamental change in sexual warfare. In ancient times, rape was offered to soldiers as a reward after victory. In DRC however, as in other contemporary conflicts, sexual violence is employed as a weapon of war because it is inexpensive and readily available, but still extremely effective. In Eastern DRC, militias operate with scant resources, low-tech weaponry and limited access to arms. In this setting, rape is an ideal weapon and one that is difficult to match. Additionally, many armed combatants in Eastern DRC are unpaid and poorly supplied with food and clothing. As a result, they rely on pillaging of local villages to meet these material demands. This requisite pillaging is at least partially responsible for bringing the militias to directly confront civilians. As a manner of ensuring compliance and eliminating resistance, the militias terrorize and shame, using sexual violence as the primary means to this end. This trend of looting and rape was clearly noted in our qualitative analysis with many sexual assault narratives beginning “… they came to pillage...”. Furthermore, there were reports of women being released from sexual slavery only after their families provided the cash ransom that was being demanded by the militias. In Eastern DRC, rape is also used as a weapon of war because commanders and combatants are poorly trained and have little exposure to or knowledge of international humanitarian law. This observation is not to imply that an awareness of the law would guarantee compliance, since the militias in question are notoriously undisciplined and much effort at the level of the command structure would need to be exerted to bring these forces into line with accepted standards of military behavior in war. It is not only militia characteristics that propagate war-related sexual violence in Eastern DRC. Features of the conflict have also contributed to the success of rape as a military strategy. For 37