INVESTIGATION OF SEXUAL VIOLENCE IN EASTERN DRC told my husband to be silent or they would kill him. Then they took their own clothes off and starting raping me. Some of the other soldiers were looting. When they finally left, I freed my husband and we looked for our children. Unfortunately, we only found two of them. I have come here for a consultation.” THEME: SEXUAL SLAVERY Twelve percent of women reported that they were captured by the assailants and sexually assaulted over a period of at least 24 hours. In some instances, the women were taken as “wives” by a particular soldier, often a chief or commander. In other instances, the women were raped by many men over a period of time. Many women were eventually able to escape. Occasionally, family members paid money to the captors in exchange for the women’s release. “My husband, children and I were in the house when the soldiers arrived. They killed my husband because he was Tutsi. Then they took me to the forest where I became their ‘femme’ (wife) for four years. During this time, they raped me as routinely as one changes one’s clothes.” “It was a night in 2007 and my family and I were sleeping in our home. There was a knock from outside; assailants ordered my husband to open the door. A group of six men in military uniform, four armed with guns and two unarmed, came into the house. They started to loot all our valuables. They took us outside and forced us to follow them to the forest. Once we arrived in the forest, they freed my husband but forced me to continue going deeper into the bush with them. A commander had chosen me to be his wife and he kept me in the forest for seven months, raping me anytime he wanted. Because he did not think I was capable of escaping, he allowed me to wander alone and this is when I escaped.” “I was staying at my older sister's house and we were already asleep. The soldiers came, tied us together and then took us to the forest. They demanded money - $150 for a man and $100 for a woman. The first time, ten of us were freed and then three days later when we were able to pay, we were freed as well. While in the forest, they used to rape us whenever we went to the river to get water. By the time it was over, four of them had raped me and I have not had my period since. We spent a week in the forest.” “We were at home with my parents when the soldiers arrived. They forced us to go to the forest where we spent five days. I was raped by four of them. We were freed when my parents paid the money – one thousand dollars for eleven people.” 21