A SURGEON who works with rape victims was operating on an eight-year-old who had been violently assaulted when he realised he knew her.

He had delivered the girl, and she was the result of a rape on her mother.

Denis Mukwege has been helping women who are the spoils of Congo’s vicious, long-running war for more than two decades.

“I don’t want to find myself treating their grandchildren,” he says in a new documentary so graphic it had audiences this week covering their eyes.

“I was operating on some women for the second or third time. We see things that even surgeons cannot get used to seeing.

“I identify every woman raped with my wife. I identify every mother raped with my own mother, and every child raped with my own children. How can we remain silent?”

The Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) last month banned the film The Man Who Mends Women, a shocking exploration of the brutality inflicted by the nation’s military and rebel militias alike, directed by Belgian Thierry Michel.

The government said it showed “a clear intent to harm and sully the image” of the army, but last week, after more than a month of pressure from the United Nations and human rights groups, it backed down and the two-hour film was aired on national TV.

WHAT HAPPENS IN CONGO

Since the mid-nineties, Congo has had the unhappy title of “rape capital of the world”, after Hutu militiamen who committed genocide against 800,000 Rwandans fled into the country’s east and began teaching young men to use rape as a weapon, against the young, old and disabled.

“Before this conflict, there wasn’t even a word for rape because the concept was so foreign to Congolese people, that it would happen, that rape would be used as a weapon,” Elizabeth Blackney, communications director from the Panzi Hospital and Foundations told news.com.au “We say now that women’s bodies have become the battlefield on which the war is fought.”

Women in the DRC were at the centre of the household, but now many have been abandoned by their families and communities because of shame associated with their attacks.

“It’s devastating for these women and young girls,” said Ms Blackney. “It’s a terrible piece of Dr Mukwege’s legacy that we’ve become experts in treating these kinds of injuries.”

The documentary shows the graphic post-rape surgery on children as young as six, many of whom are left incontinent by their assaults. The youngest rape victim Dr Mukwege has treated was just two months old. Girls in the film wept as they described their ordeals.

While the foundation wants to see rapists brought to justice, Ms Blackney added: “One of the things it’s important to note is that the line between perpetrators and victims can be very thin. You have a country that’s experienced conflict, extreme poverty, control over artisanal mining areas by armed militia so no one can make money. The perpetrators are born into crisis, they’re taken from their families often against their will and desensitised, forced by their commanders to [rape].”

Domestic violence in the home is also now a routine part of life for many couples in Congo. The resilience and strength of the women who recover at the centre is as close to a miracle as you can get, said Ms Blackney.

HOW WOMEN ARE HEALING

Dr Mukwege studied paediatric medicine in Paris before realising that wasn’t what was needed in his country, retraining in obstetrics and gynaecology. He is now one of the country’s leading practitioners and works at the Panzi Foundations, which take a holistic approach to treatment, combining medicine, psychosocial therapy and spiritual healing.

In 2012, Dr Mukwege had to cancel a speech at the UN general assembly after a death threat, which was followed by an assassination attempt in his home country.

Dr Mukwege fled to Europe until the women he had treated, who call him “Papa,” helped raise the money for him to fly back, parading in the streets upon his return.

The doctor has treated an estimated 40,000 rape victims and been nominated for the Nobel Peace Prize. But he still faces serious challenges in changing the DRC’s reputation.

Congolese soldiers went on a rampage in the town of Minova in 2012, raping more than 1000 women and children in 10 days. Just 39 soldiers were ever brought to trial, and only two were found guilty when the trials ended. A 2011 UN report estimated 48 women in the country were raped every hour.

Girls’ bodies are often washed of DNA evidence before they arrive at hospital, complicating any investigation. If a case does reach court, the accused can usually bribe their way out of trouble.

Locals have organised community hearings, confronted a prosecutor nicknamed “Mr $100” and successfully prosecuted some soldiers, with one woman announcing that if the law wouldn’t bring the rapists to justice, “we will mutilate them ourselves”.

Ms Blackney hopes the documentary will increase international interest in the root causes of — and solutions to — the DRC’s horrific problem. She also hopes the healing methods used by the foundation can be replicated in other conflict zones and in cases of domestic violence — in Syria, Afghanistan, Myanmar and around the world.

“We hope people will see there’s more to surviving than being alive.”