'You see her, you catch her, you have your way with her. Sometimes you kill her. Then you kill her child.' Chilling interviews with Congolese soldiers reveal horror of rape in war



135 women and children were raped and killed in Minova, Congo, in 2012

Last month, 37 of the 39 arrested soldiers were acquitted of rape

Unprecedented documentary Seeds Of Hope interviews victims and rapists

Premiere to be hosted by Angelina Jolie at global summit in London today

Drunkenly clutching AK47s, 2,000 Congolese soldiers descended on Minova with one objective.

'Go and rape women,' their commanding officer said.

And they did.

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Horrific: A young soldier describes the night in the Congolese village of Minova in November 2012

Chilling: The unprecedented interviews show the challenge faced by the global summit against rape

In one night, a village of a few hundred people lost 79 women and children to the manic brutality of these men.

That figure doubled in the days that followed.



Now, in an unprecedented documentary Seeds Of Hope - to be unveiled tonight by Angelina Jolie and William Hague at this week's global summit against rape - two of the perpetrators from the November 2012 atrocities defend their actions.

'When we rape we feel free,' a young soldier explains.

'It is true we raped here. We found women because they can't escape.

'You see her, you catch her, you take her away, and you have your way with her.

'Sometimes you kill her. When you finish raping, then you kill her child.'

Chillingly, he goes on, undeterred: 'We met other people, and we killed just for the sake of it.

'We raped, we destroyed everything.

'Everything that was in our path.

'I raped because my Commander started to rape first.'

'Pathetic': Film director Fiona Lloyd-Davies said this interviewee, an older soldier, was clutching a Bible and shaking as he described the night in Minova

Explanation? He claims he was acting under orders. In May, just two of the thousands of soldiers were found guilty

Support: Multiple rape survivor Masika was there and supported the women as soldiers swarmed

Brutal: In the Democratic Republic of Congo, 12 per cent of the female population have been raped at least once, according to official figures. These women (pictured in the Seeds Of Hope documentary) are survivors

Holding a Bible, shaking with remorse, an older soldier describes the same scene and claims they were acting under instructions.



'The Commander gave us an order and he was the one who started to do it,' he says.



'There was shooting everywhere.

'He told us to surround him so he wouldn't get shot. Then he started raping.

'He told us to go and rape women.'

The attack was nothing new to the women of the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC).

Every hour, 48 women are raped, according to research from the American Journal of Public Health. That amounts to 1,152 women a day.

Shockingly, 12 per cent of the nation's female population has been raped at least once.



Sexual violence surged during the nation's five-year civil war between 1998 and 2003.

Challenge: Angelina Jolie and William Hague have arrived at London's ExCel centre for the first day in a three-day summit challenging rape in war zones

But despite declaring peace, fighting has continued and brutal sexual assaults are commonplace.

Masika, a multiple rape survivor who has helped more than 6,000 women and children in eastern Congo who have suffered physical and sexual violence, was there that night in Minova.



Candidly, she says: 'There were so many soldiers, with tanks everywhere.

'The women were afraid... they asked me if we were going to die.

'I stayed calm and told the women not to be afraid - "if I have to die, I'll die here with you, I will not run".'

Masika was first raped by a schoolteacher at the age of 15. Militia raped her and her two daughter before killing her husband. She is now a 'rape target' for other attackers.



She introduced the crew to one of the many women to be attacked in Minova - one of the few to survive.

The woman said: 'I didn't see their faces, I don't know them.

'How can you see someone who is hitting you in the eyes?

'How will you know someone who's inserting a gun barrel in your mouth and then another one in between your legs?

'Then he leaves and another one enters.'

The chilling accounts are a snapshot into the enormous challenge Angelina Jolie and William Hague have vowed to tackle with 84 hours of action starting today.

The Global Summit to End Sexual Violence in Conflict (ESVC) in London is the largest meeting ever held on ending sexual violence in conflict.





'I didn't see their faces. How can you see someone who is hitting you in the eyes, inserting a gun barrel in your mouth and another between your legs?' - A victim of the Minova rapes in November 2012



It will bring together government delegations, NGOs, experts and sexual and gender-based violence survivors from over 145 countries.

The event comes just a month after 37 of the soldiers arrested for the Minova rapes were acquitted of rape as a war crime.

Just two of the defendants were found guilty.

BAFTA-winning Fiona Lloyd-Davies, director of the documentary, said: 'What kind of message does that send out to the army? That they can get away with it.

'Speaking to the soldiers was very unnerving. The young one showed no remorse. He was particularly chilling.

'He was boastful, inflating numbers.



'Older, more educated soldiers have been taught that rape is an abuse of human rights, that it is a crime. So the older soldier was more of a pathetic character - in the real sense of the word pathetic.

'He was clutching the Bible and kept saying how bad he felt.

'They had been ordered from on-high to withdraw, that was kind of how they tried to justify it.

Prevalent: Sexual violence became prevalent during the 1998-2003 war - but has continued ever since

Fight for human rights: Masika, who has supported 6,000 rape victims and orphaned babies, was first raped at the age of 15 by a teacher, and later by soldiers who killed her husband and raped her daughters

'They were angry, drunk, very aggressive. They described it as a chain of events.



'This happens. So really, we need solutions for what can be put into action; specific ideas.

'We need teams of experts on the ground.

'It is a huge missed opportunity that Minova was not used as a turning point to really call for changes. We'll see what this summit can bring about.'

The summit, which is being held at ExCeL London, will run until Thursday and includes dozens of free events which will be open to the public.