VOA标准英语2010年-AIDS Advocacy Group says UN Has Failed

An international HIV/AIDS advocacy group says the United Nations has failed the women of the Democratic Republic of Congo. AIDS-Free World says it's time for the U.N. to stop passing resolutions on the Congo and take action.

The estimated number of rapes² in the DRC since 1996 range anywhere from 200,000 to about 600,000. Recently, during a five-day period in July and August, at least 500 women, children and men were raped³ and ganged raped by rebels in the eastern part of the country. It happened even though U.N. peacekeeping troops were camped just a few miles away.

AIDS-Free World Co-Director Paula Donovan says despite troops, resources and good intentions, the United Nations offers little or no protection to women.

 

AIDS-Free World
Paula Donovan, co-director, AIDS-Free World
"In every single aspect of its work," she says, "the United Nations has failed the women of the Congo. It seems never to reach a top priority and sustain its place at the top of the U.N.'s concerns for any period of time. Something like the recent spate⁴ of rapes occurs. It's in the headlights for a couple of days and then it just disappears."

Donovan says plans to deal with the problem are just "sitting on shelves."

"If the U.N. just went back to those shelves and pulled out and dusted off every resolution that it has agreed upon since 1996 – including, importantly, one that was agreed five years ago this week – the responsibility to protect – and act on them, then we could have some hope that the women of the Congo would actually be protected by more than just goodwill⁵ and words," she says.

She says despite the deaths of millions of people and the rapes of hundreds of thousands since 1996, the DRC seems easy to forget.

"It's not a strategic country for most of the Western world as far as trade and so forth⁶ are concerned. Although the mining operations that are at the core of the problems in the DRC yield all sorts of minerals and other things that the Western world relies upon and wants. It's just very easy to ignore the DRC because war in the DRC poses no immediate⁷ threat to the Western world, which holds the power and basically decides where we'll intervene and where we'll turn a blind eye," she says.

She says one way to help drive out and track rebels and militias⁸ in the Eastern DRC is to use helicopters.

"Deploy⁹ the appropriate number of helicopters. Deploy the numbers that you would send to an earthquake or to a conflict in a wealthier country. Just 14, 15, couple dozen helicopters, would frighten these militias," she says, adding, "They're not organized. They can't really even be called armies, they're so ragtag. And this would be something that I would think almost immediately demonstrate to the militias that now the opposing forces are in charge.

The AIDS-Free World co-director says the sexual violence in the DRC is based on a "foundation of extraordinary discrimination against women."

In recent testimony¹⁰, the U.N. assistant secretary-general for peacekeeping, Atul Khare, said, "While the primary responsibility for protection of civilians¹¹ lies with the state, its national army and police force, clearly, we have also failed."

He added, "Our actions were not adequate, resulting in unacceptable brutalization of the population of the villages in the area. We must do better."

The United Nations is instituting more night patrols and random¹² checks on villages. It will also improve communication in areas where there is no mobile phone coverage¹³ by installing high frequency radio transmitters.

Rape¹ is frequently used as a weapon of war in the Eastern DRC to terrorize and demoralize populations.
 

1 rape   

n.抢夺，掠夺，强奸；vt.掠夺，抢夺，强奸

参考例句：

• The rape of the countryside had a profound ravage on them.对乡村的掠夺给他们造成严重创伤。
• He was brought to court and charged with rape.他被带到法庭并被指控犯有强奸罪。

2 rapes   

n.芸苔( rape的名词复数 )；强奸罪；强奸案；肆意损坏v.以暴力夺取，强夺( rape的第三人称单数 )；强奸

参考例句：

• The man who had committed several rapes was arrested. 那个犯了多起强奸案的男人被抓起来了。 来自辞典例句
• The incidence of reported rapes rose 0.8 percent. 美国联邦调查局还发布了两份特别报告。 来自互联网

3 raped   

v.以暴力夺取，强夺( rape的过去式和过去分词 )；强奸

参考例句：

• A young woman was brutally raped in her own home. 一名年轻女子在自己家中惨遭强暴。 来自辞典例句
• We got stick together, or we will be having our women raped. 我们得团结一致，不然我们的妻女就会遭到蹂躏。 来自辞典例句

4 spate   

n.泛滥，洪水，突然的一阵

参考例句：

• Police are investigating a spate of burglaries in the area.警察正在调查这一地区发生的大量盗窃案。
• Refugees crossed the border in full spate.难民大量地越过了边境。

5 goodwill   

n.善意，亲善，信誉，声誉

参考例句：

• His heart is full of goodwill to all men.他心里对所有人都充满着爱心。
• We paid ￡10,000 for the shop,and ￡2000 for its goodwill.我们用一万英镑买下了这家商店，两千英镑买下了它的信誉。

6 forth   

adv.向前；向外，往外

参考例句：

• The wind moved the trees gently back and forth.风吹得树轻轻地来回摇晃。
• He gave forth a series of works in rapid succession.他很快连续发表了一系列的作品。

7 immediate   

adj.立即的；直接的，最接近的；紧靠的

参考例句：

• His immediate neighbours felt it their duty to call.他的近邻认为他们有责任去拜访。
• We declared ourselves for the immediate convocation of the meeting.我们主张立即召开这个会议。

8 militias   

n.民兵组织，民兵( militia的名词复数 )

参考例句：

• The troops will not attempt to disarm the warring militias. 部队并不打算解除战斗中的民兵武装。 来自辞典例句
• The neighborhood was a battleground for Shiite and Sunni militias. 那里曾是什叶派和逊尼派武装分子的战场。 来自互联网

9 deploy   

v.（军）散开成战斗队形，布置，展开

参考例句：

• The infantry began to deploy at dawn.步兵黎明时开始进入战斗位置。
• The president said he had no intention of deploying ground troops.总统称并不打算部署地面部队。

10 testimony   

n.证词；见证，证明

参考例句：

• The testimony given by him is dubious.他所作的证据是可疑的。
• He was called in to bear testimony to what the police officer said.他被传入为警官所说的话作证。

11 civilians   

平民，百姓( civilian的名词复数 )； 老百姓

参考例句：

• the bloody massacre of innocent civilians 对无辜平民的血腥屠杀
• At least 300 civilians are unaccounted for after the bombing raids. 遭轰炸袭击之后，至少有300名平民下落不明。

12 random   

adj.随机的；任意的；n.偶然的(或随便的)行动

参考例句：

• The list is arranged in a random order.名单排列不分先后。
• On random inspection the meat was found to be bad.经抽查，发现肉变质了。

13 coverage   

n.报导，保险范围，保险额，范围，覆盖

参考例句：

• There's little coverage of foreign news in the newspaper.报纸上几乎没有国外新闻报道。
• This is an insurance policy with extensive coverage.这是一项承保范围广泛的保险。