blessed,
i am curious as to ones thoughts on who are 'responsible' for acts such as the ones perpetuated and outlined in the following article.
does the colonialist of the past, the belgians or any other uropean, have any responsibility to the current atrocities in african countries.
my thought is yes, HOWEVER, i hold just as accountable to careless and brutal africans that kill their brothers and rape their women. what is thei responsibility. iani ancestors were brought to the us as 'slaves,' does that enable me to have no responsibilty at all in te manner that i treat iani people in 2004?

++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++

'Thousands raped' in Congo

Associated Press in Nairobi
Friday April 2, 2004
The Guardian

Tribal fighters and former rebels have raped thousands of women in eastern Congo despite a year-old peace deal that was supposed to restore order in the region, an international aid group said yesterday.
The victims include children and elderly women and many of those raped have contracted sexually transmitted diseases from their attackers, Helen Clarkson, an official with Médecins Sans Frontières, told reporters. Men and boys have also reported being raped, she said.

During the Congolese civil war, which broke out in 1998, thousands of women are believed to have been assaulted by rebels, soldiers and tribal fighters seeking to destroy communities that supported their rivals. In the traditional societies of eastern Congo, wives who are raped are almost always rejected by their husbands.

At one MSF health clinic in Baraka, about 1,400km (870 miles) east of Congo's capital, Kinshasa, more than 600 women have reported being raped since February 2000, Ms Clarkson said.

Many of them said they had been assaulted since the peace deal was signed last April and most reported being gang raped, she said.

Ms Clarkson said it was likely that many more rapes went unreported because of the stigma