Nobel laureate Mukwege gets hero’s welcome in DR Congo
BUKAVU, DR Congo: Thousands of people in DR Congo turned out to welcome Nobel Peace Prize laureate Denis Mukwege, the surgeon who helps women recover from the trauma of rape.
“We won! We won!” sang Mamy Magasine as she improvised a celebratory rumba in a rainsoaked courtyard in Bukavu, in the eastern province of South Kivu on the border with Rwanda.
“He is the pride of Congolese women, and even women of the whole world,” said Magasine, the local head of the country’s ministry for families.
A little earlier, Mukwege arrived on a UN flight and was driven into the city with an escort of UN peacekeepers.
Mukwege’s Panzi hospital has treated tens of thousands of victims of sexual violence in his war-weary native province of South Kivu.
But since an attempt on his life in October 2012, he lives inside the hospital compound under the protection of UN peacekeepers.
Wearing a scarf bearing the national colours, he arrived to a rapturous reception from the crowd, composed mainly of women, in front of a local college.
“We will build a more beautiful country than before, with peace,” he said.
Mukwege showed the crowd his Nobel prize and said the US$ 400,000 prize money that came with it would be ploughed back into treating the women under his care.
“This is a beautiful day for me, this prize is your prize, protect it! Let’s build a lasting peace,” he added, to applause.
Speaking mainly in Swahili but passing sometimes into French, Mukwege also called for the creation of a compensation fund for victims of sexual violence and urged UN member states to contribute.
“Why not a special tribunal for the Congo?” he added, referring to past examples of the International Criminal Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia ( ICTY) and the International Criminal Tribunal for Rwanda ( ICTR).
He drew more applause after calling for a state of law, adding: “A country without violence, it’s a bit difficult, but it’s not impossible.”
Muwkege arrived a day after the country’s election panel announced yet another delay to presidential, legislative and municipal elections in troubled parts of the country, provoking violent protests.
He noted that no local politicians had turned out for this event, said the electoral process appeared to have stalled, and called for the Constitution to be respected. — AFP