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What motivated you to go to the Congo? You mentioned you and another reporter took leave from work to do this project.
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Journalist Jonathan Pearlman and I had been following the conflict in North and South Kivu DRC for some time and wanted to cover the ongoing story. In many reports on this conflict a small paragraph or even in some cases one or two lines touched on the sexual violence in this region that had reached epidemic proportions.
We wanted to investigate why this was happening and what was being done for the women and girls affected, to know how they survived and coped with what had happened to them and also their hopes for the future. We also wanted to talk to those men or boys who were part of armed groups (government soldiers and militias) responsible for committing these crimes, in what circumstances they were raping, were they forced to rape, et cetera, and what, if any, remorse they showed.
We were invited by the UN High Commissioner for Refugees and Medecins Sans Frontieres to visit their projects to see not only the living conditions in the IDP camps but the work being carried out in treating and counseling the victims of sexual violence. We took leave from the SMH to do this story, mainly so we could dedicate the time we believed the story needed.
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How did you find Augustin? Was he willing to talk from the beginning?
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We came across Augustin and also another man Remy (not in the feature multimedia but in the written copy for SMH) through a local pastor who knew of them as a part of a group of reformed rapists and militia who go about to villages trying to bring awareness to men that committing rape is wrong.
Augustin was a former child soldier with a Mai Mai militia who committed over 80 rapes in a six-month period. Remy was a leader in a Mai Mai militia who over several years raped approximately 40 women and girls including his now wife and a two year-old. Augustine and Remy from the beginning were more than willing to talk about their experiences, especially after we explained at length that we were Australian media and not police or UN or NGO authorities.
Augustin who now is a Christian stated that he wished he could ask the women and girls he raped for forgiveness but since he couldn’t, he is dedicated to telling his story to help stop other men from committing these crimes. Before commencing the interviews we outlined the story we were doing and [explained] that our identifying them might bring some repercussions. They both agreed to be interviewed and photographed.
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Can you tell me a little about the structure of the story for the feature video?
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Kimberley Porteous produced the piece but consulted with both Jonathan and I regarding how it would be shaped. We wanted Augustin’s story to be interwoven with that of the women's accounts of what had happened to them. However we did not want him to be the sole focus of the piece, but to add insight into why armed men in this conflict were using sexual violence as a weapon of war.
I photographed portraits of several women who were victims of rape using the same setting and then shot the video so that the stills would merge into the women talking, so [viewers] could not only see them but hear their voices, hopefully adding impact to the piece.
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At what point did you know what that structure would be?
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Like any news or investigative assignment you don’t really know what you'll get till you’re on the ground. We had been researching for approximately eight months and lined up several interviews with victims/survivors of sex violence through NGOs, and hoped that we would find men who had committed these crimes who would be willing to talk to us on the record. The story or structure evolved during the interview process. It shaped itself almost.
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Can you talk a little about the different elements in the project? There's a lot going on.
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This conflict has raged for approximately 15 years, leaving a cortege of dead, injured, and displaced in its wake. To compliment the main feature we wanted to incorporate the effect that this conflict has had on the Congolese people through two short soundslide [presentations] focusing on the daily life in camps for IDPs (internally displaced persons) and the work that international non-governmental organizations are doing. For the second, we focused on Medecins Sans Frontieres-France. Also included were the transcripts of some of the women's testimonies, the copy Jonathan Pearlman wrote for The Sydney Morning Herald and a map.
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What story were you hoping to tell? |
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We wanted to investigate why rape was at epidemic proportions and was being used as a weapon of war. Ultimately we wanted to tell the women's stories, to show that they were more than victims, that they are survivors and have dreams and hopes as we all do. Regarding Augustin's story it was important to tell, giving a rare insight into the circumstances and mindset of those armed men who rape.
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Is there anything else you'd like to say about "Sexual Warfare in the Democratic Republic of the Congo"?
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This has been one of the most rewarding assignments I have covered. We invested a lot time and energy into this project hoping that it would bring awareness to the plight of the Congolese, especially the women who bravely talked to us about their lives and daily struggles. We were given amazing access from UNHCR, Medecins Sans Frontieres, Women for Women International and Heal Africa. |