“I have never seen such violence in my life. I swear that this is the first time in Guinea that we have witnessed women’s bodies being treated as if they were battlefields. It goes against our culture and traditions. I’m horrified. We’re all horrified.”

- A doctor who treated women raped during a crackdown on pro-democracy protesters in Guinea

Click Here to read a very moving, important piece from NPR- it includes personal accounts of women who were raped during this crisis.

A message from Steve Smith:

This is not going away.  The pressure is building and two international investigations have begun – one by the UN, the second by the International Criminal Court.

Now is the time to keep the pressure up with the advocacy.  Don’t let up.  These stories provide some very good information to share with elected representatives.  The important thing is to keep sharing the information.  Even here there is not a lot of knowledge about what happened.

Message:

1. Medical Aid for the women who were attacked.
2. Protection and free movement of humanitarian groups.
3. Support for international investigations of atrocities and prosecution of those involved.

Actions:

• Follow up calls and letters to your representatives, White House, State Department.  Keep them informed with new info or to let them know of your continued interest.  Ask if they have called or written the White House regarding this matter.  Ask them to take these kinds of actions to show interest and support for a just solution to this event.
  
• Discussions with church and other groups.
• Opeds and call in radio shows
• Talk to local reporters about what you are doing
  
• Letters to Kaiser Aluminum  -  need to see what other American companies are there.

I think it is a very positive sign that the media continues to report on this story three weeks after the events.  It reveals real movement that needs to be supported.

There has been a great deal of movement in the international community to bring those responsible for these atrocities to justice, but many of our lawmakers still need to be educated on this issue. Your voices can help with this!

What Happened?!!!

On September 28, soldiers of the Republic of Guinea opened fire on a peaceful rally attended by thousands of people and the leadership opposition.  An estimated 157 were killed, over one thousand were wounded.  Soldiers raped women in the streets in broad daylight.  Many women had bayonets or other objects used against them.  These events have deeply shocked this conservative country.  The women who were subject to these attacks now face a lack of medical care due to the difficulty in overcoming the humiliation and additional risk of coming to hospitals or the Red Cross to seek treatment.

The Need

There is an urgent need for immediate medical and psycho-social care for these women and their families.  There is also a need to provide immediate protection to these women from further abuse through shelters and the deployment of human rights monitors in Guinea.

It is critical that these actions happen as soon as possible before further harm is done to both the woman, Guinean communities, and the movement towards democracy.

Our Immediate Objectives

To accomplish these goals, the following actions are needed:

1. Deploy additional medical resources, especially surgeons skilled repairing the damage resulting from gang rape, bayoneting, and other atrocities.
2. Deploy specialists in healing psycho-social trauma, especially women’s groups skilled in working with Gender Based Violence
3. Use upcoming meetings by the US, France and other with the government of Guinea in Abuja, Nigeria (and through all other channels) to insist on the free and unfettered movement of humanitarian organization in Guinea.
4. Support an international investigation of who is responsible for the atrocities of Sept 28^th and hold them accountable.
5. Deploy human rights monitors and other observers to Guinea as a means of reducing violence against women.
6. If necessary, deploy an international peace keeping force from West Africa or the UN to provide security for the population and permit the country to move to democratic elections.

Build relationships with congressional staffers.  They are your best resources and strongest allies.

Women strengthening women

Important alert: On September 28^th, women were gang raped and killed in the middle of the streets in broad daylight in the Republic of Guinea.  Guinea is on the West Coast of Africa located near Sierra Leone, Liberia, the Cote d’Ivoire, and Guinea-Bissau.  It has suffered under constant dictatorship for nearly forty years.  This act of brutal suppression occurred because these courageous women participated in a peaceful rally asking for free and fair elections and that the current military dictator not participate in them.

Steve Smith was in Guinea on assignment with the United Nations working to create programs to encourage peaceful dialogue.  He is a regular yoga student at yogahOMe when he is not serving in crises overseas.  He was just extracted from Guinea due to the recent unrest.  Women who have been the victims of these unacceptable criminal acts have had very little, if any medical attention and live under constant threat.   Steve is here for only a few days before he must deploy to the Darfur region of Sudan to work on the crisis there.  Steve will provide background on the attacks against women in Guinea as well as international diplomatic efforts to intervene in the crisis.  He will also discuss the tremendous impact we can have through our actions to raise awareness and bring urgent need or our sisters  – women to women.

Please join us in this time critical initiative to stop the violence and bring aid and spiritual support to women who are being suppressed, tortured, and killed.    We will create our intentions to join together to accomplish this goal .

Help us unite against these atrocities.

It is unacceptable for soldiers to make it a military tactic to gang rape and kill women in broad daylight on the streets

It must stop.  It can be stopped.

We must serve in this effort.