Jul 23, 2004

Batwa: Statement at the WGIP


Statement by Colette Mikila, PIDD-KIVU
Untitled Document
I would like to take the floor for the development of the Pygmie people in the DRC. I would like to congratulate you on your election and tell you about situation of Indigenous Peoples in Africa. Pygmie women in DRC face conditions. Indigenous Peoples women face special setting in Africa. Their lifestyle is linked to the environment they have a duty to protect. They can exercise that work and they must be allowed to without conflict. Conflicts undermine the stability of indigenous women. Let’s think of rape and the loss of dignity and the moral decline as well as inability for initiation rights. The DRC is on fire. The war has made the cities into infernos and our areas is where armed gangs kill and steal and rape due to economic designs they live. Some of the hostilities have an ethnic component. We need strengthening of African NGOs. The international community should stop these conflicts.