National coordinator of the National Movement of Survivors of Sexual Violence in the Democratic Republic of Congo, Tatiana Mukanire Bandalire delivers, in “Beyond our tears”, prefaced by Doctor Denis Mukwege, Nobel Peace Prize winner, a story of testimony and fight in which shines an impressive determination and courage. (Replay)
1996, in an electric and complex geopolitical context where precious minerals attract covetousness from all sides, chaos sets in further in Zaire at the time. Financed in the West, foreign rebel militias are forming almost everywhere in the region at the same time as armies from neighboring countries, remotely controlled, enter the country, determined to control the area and organize the trafficking of precious minerals, generating gigantic profits.
A first war broke out in the highlands in the east of the country, neighboring Rwanda. The population suddenly falls into horror, an incessant nightmare, made up of successive armed conflicts which will never end again, and whose objective seems to be the eradication of the population. The inhabitants, in their villages and on the roads, are directly affected by the shock of violence of all kinds perpetrated by rebels, army insurgents, soldiers, police officers, thieves…, men drunk with the power and power given to them by the weapons, and especially this formidable and transgenerational weapon that we did not know in the region, rape used as a weapon of war with the power of devastating destruction, aggravated for many victims by an obligation to silence.
But Tatiana Mukanire decided to speak out, on her own behalf and on behalf of other female victims. (Presentation of Women’s editions)
“We have in us this desire to live. We have proven it by fighting for our survival, by clinging to life. We were sex slaves, we were buried alive when we could no longer satisfy the needs of our captors. We were tied to a tree deep in the forest. We were raped almost every hour. We lost consciousness. Several times, we thought we were dead, but deep down there was the hope of breathing again and living again. » TMB