Violence against women on the icrease in Vanuatu

News

By Patrick Decloitre

In the face of an increasing number of rapes and abuses on teenage girls, Vanuatu’s women have blamed the local authorities, including the police, for not doing anything to tackle what is becoming a nation-wide problem.

Although the most recent concern in the region was to combat a new type of crimi nals in the South Pacific, paedophiles, Vanuatu still seems to have to come to grips with a problem from within: in the past few weeks, Solomon said teenage girls ranging from age 12 to 16 had been victims of brutal rapes.

The worst case was a nine-year old girl,

Emily William, who was raped early last March in Lokaim village, on Tanna island (250 kilometres, 138 miles south of here).

She died one month later. Early reports indicate the rapist was a close member of the family.

“She didn’t get attention, nothing hap pened. There are so many other cases unre ported in this country and hidden ”, she

said. "We are shocked no official action was taken against the alleged perpetrator of the crime until poor Emily died a month later”, Solomon said.

"The authorities of Tanna, the police, the health department, the provincial administration and the local chiefs must explain why and how this apparent lack of action after a violent sexual assault

occurred”. Referring to other reported rapes recently in other islands of this archipelago, she said domestic violence in Vanuatu was “endemic”. “This can’t be allowed to continue, it’s a great concern for us, this has been on for quite a while and it’s increasing, rape, domestic violence at home and in public.” “People are not tak ing it seriously. The law is already in place.

so it has to be enforced; whenever the rapist is identified, he should be con demned.” The roots of such brutal actions were to be found deep in Vanuatu’s male dominated, traditional culture and “cus tom”.

“Recently a man told a court when he felt his sexual impulse he didn’t know where to go, so he went to a girl and raped her. He couldn’t refrain. That’s the prac tice. Is that a good enough excuse at all?”

Solomon said.

“Sex can be controlled by human beings and we’re human beings today. If someone thinks he cannot control this, then it’s too bad.” She also blamed foreign influence through the introduction of tele vision here (five years ago) and violent, sexually-oriented video tapes for rent here for the upsurge and change in men’s behaviour.

“And newspapers, they’re available everywhere in Port Vila. That could also contribute to this kind of reaction from a man”. “Rape is something police cannot stop, women either. They must work with us to create awareness among young girls.

It’s everyone’s responsibility, starting from home to the highest level”, Police spokesman Pakoa Samuel said.

“But sometimes, women claim they have been raped when they were consent ing to start with. In our culture, to ‘force’ has a slightly different meaning. Some women also dress in a way that encourages men to rape them.

Short dress, that sort of thing. Of course, there are the genuine rape cases”.

Police last month issued a warning to par ents, telling them to ask their children not to go alone at night or know what to do if confronted with a potential abuser.

“There are so many unreported cases, many of them are exclusively dealt with by traditional chiefs. Very few get reported. But often women who have been raped are ashamed to talk about it.

This is our custom. What we hear is only the tip of the iceberg”, Samuel said.

Solomon agreed and called on a nation wide concern including parents, churches, government and villagers to tackle the issue.

“The key is education. The culture doesn’t allow us to talk about sex openly, this is still taboo. But it can’t be taboo any more, we have to break the wall of silence imposed by culture. Everyone will have to join hands”, she said. ■