Why Men Rape

HBO is airing this week a new documentary entitled The Greatest Silence, which is a documentary of the gang rapists in the Congo. The filmmaker is Lisa Jackson who was herself the victim of a gang rape in Washington, DC and she decided to go into the Congo and interview men who identified themselves as gang rapists. Once she spread the word she was looking for these men, she had no trouble finding them - they wanted to tell her their side of the story. Here are some quotes :

"We were just abiding by the conditions of our magic potion. We had to rape women to make it work, and to beat the enemy."

"If she says no, I must take her by force. If she is strong, I'll call some of my friends to help me. All this is happening because of the war. We would live a normal life and treat women naturally if there was no war."

"It's hard to keep record of the number of women that I've raped. The thing to keep in mind is the fact that we have stayed too long in the bush, and that induced us to rape. You know how things are in combat zones. We rape as we advance from village to village."