Huffington Post

 The epidemic of rape and sexual violence in the Congo takes center stage in an all-new episode of Law and Order: Special Victims Unit, airing on Wednesday night.

Portraying the world's worst violence against women -- taking place half a world away in Central Africa -- in a TV show set in New York City is a challenge. But Law and Order: SVU creator Neal Baer and writer Dawn DeNoon have managed to convey the facts on the ground in Congo through the eyes of a Congolese woman portrayed in the episode.

Eastern Congo is the world's deadliest conflict globally since WWII. Widespread rape is used as a strategy of war and an instrument of communal terror, making this region the world's most dangerous place to be a woman or a girl. Armed groups compete to control lucrative mines and smuggling routes. Rape becomes their principal means of terrorizing local populations into passive compliance, so they can steal the mineral wealth without opposition. These crimes destroy families, decimate communities, and lethally spread HIV/AIDS and other sexually transmitted diseases.

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 In the aftermath of Secretary of State Clinton's trip to Africa, the U.S. has a chance to help bring an end to two of the great unfolding tragedies of the 21st century. Together, Sudan and Congo represent two of Africa's largest countries, two of Africa's richest natural resource bases, two of Africa's longest wars, two of the world's deadliest conflicts in the past half century, two of the continent's most predatory governments, and two of the most dangerous places in the world to be a woman or a girl. That is a legacy that deserves and demands a rethink of the international response, which has allowed these wars to burn for years.
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Despite what some UN diplomats and squeamish academics might be saying, the genocide by attrition continues in Darfur, through the use of rape and denial of humanitarian assistance as weapons of war. There are no gas chambers; there are not even the dramatic village burnings of 2003-5 Darfur. But the conditions designed to bring about the destruction - in whole or in part - of particular groups of people on the basis of their identity continues. 

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