PORT MORESBY (PNG Post-Courier/Pacific Media Watch): Bougainville women are the silent and forgotten victims in the post conflict environment, says a report by human rights defenders in Buka.
Marilyn Havini has recently returned from a civil rights conference in Geneva, Switzerland, where she highlighted these problems to the world.
Her report highlighted the problems facing Bougainville women.
“Rape has been used as a weapon of war, and we desperately need to identify the many victims who suffer without counseling, medical assistance, justice mechanisms and reparations to assist these women and young girls,” she said in the report.
“Investigative and prosecution capacity is lacking in our justice systems. Police are not specifically trained to handle violence against women and the institutional capacity is lacking.
“Many widows and abandoned mothers are now single parents struggling to raise and educate children born of rape or orphaned from war or born during crisis periods when no services left a ‘lost generation’.
“Conflict disrupted families; their homes and villages were destroyed and plundered. Widespread suffering in overcrowded conditions lacking proper shelter affects breakdown of family life,” she said.
Pacific Media Watch
