The Brutal Truth

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"This type of sexual terrorism is done in a methodical manner by armed groups."

That is Denis Mukwege, director of the Panzi General Referral Hospital in the Congolese town of Bukavu, testifying last week before the Senate subcommittee on human rights and the law. "The rapists are not seeking to satisfy some kind of sexual desire but to destroy the woman, destroy her family and destroy her community."

Jackson, who appeared with him as well as several other human rights activists, asked the senators: "Why is it that rape in conflict is so infrequently prosecuted in the world's courts? Where is the outrage?"

Rape has been used systemically in several war-torn countries to humiliate, demoralize and destroy, Physicians for Human Rights said in a report it released at the hearing.

Millions of women and girls have been tortured, mutilated, impregnated as a form of ethnic cleansing. It happened during the Rwandan genocide, the civil wars in Sierra Leone, the Central African Republic, Chad, the former Yugoslavia and Liberia, as well as during the ongoing conflict in Darfur.

"Mass rape in war is frequently not the random act of individual soldiers but a determined strategy to destroy populations," said Sen. Dick Durbin (D-Ill.). "The perpetrators are not held accountable and turn to mass rape because it is cheaper than using bullets."

Jackson explained that armies and factions in Congo were killing civilians in order to loot the country of its riches: most recently, tin, cobalt and coltan, used in electronics.

"Perhaps another hearing might more thoroughly explore the causes and ruinous consequences of this illegal plundering," she said. But everyone in this room should consider the fact that there is the blood of Congolese women on their laptop computers and on their cellphones."

After 90 minutes, the gavel sounded. The hearing adjourned. Senators filed out. Reporters tapped out stories. People pulled out cellphones. The paneled room emptied into the marbled halls of power.

But the question remained: What would be done to help the women?

In the film, a 70-year-old rape survivor says: "Women are suffering. We have forgotten what happiness is."

The Greatest Silence: Rape in the Congo airs at 10 tonight on HBO.