CONGO CASE STUDY: Furaa, girl soldier

Furaa was a child soldier in eastern Congo. She fought with the Interahamwe, a militia of Hutu extremists including many implicated in the 1994 Rwandan genocide. The genocide ended when mainly Tutsi fighters invaded Rwanda from Uganda, forcing tens of thousands of Interahamwe to cross into eastern Congo, where they regrouped and bolstered their ranks with Congolese Hutus.

Furaa, who was about 15 and pregnant at the time of this interview, was living in the east of the country at a transit centre supported by Save the Children, which was tracing her family. Her name has been changed to protect her identity.

"My father liked women a lot. My father gave our clothing to those other women. It was customary for him to burn the clothing of my mother as well and our clothes also. He beat me.

One day my father took the money that we had in the house and gave that money to a prostitute. Then he said that he would kill me, accusing me of taking the money he had given away. He took a machete and he wanted to kill me, but then some people came and tried to stop him.

I entered the armed forces because of the situation with my father. I fought for the Interahamwe. I spent three years with my unit. We fought because we have to return to Rwanda through our own strength.

Sometimes we carried many things - weapons, bullets, and if you had a child you needed to carry the child as well.

A spell was cast over me while I was with them, and I became ill for a year. They have no medicines there - only local medicinal herbs and plants. There was great suffering.

In general, as we were in a forest, the men looked after and stayed with their women. When the men were pillaging people's villages, they would rape women. But at that time they wouldn't take us with them.

I became the wife of a soldier. It was the first time that I knew a man.

One day he was sent to attack and pillage someone's house. He was caught and put in prison.

It was strong war - a terrible war. The higher officers were scared of the war. As I was a sub-officer, when they gave me orders to go in front, I couldn't ignore the orders. In one battle, I fought against some Tutsis and was harmed. They shot me. Happily I was wearing new boots and the bullet didn't enter into my leg.

We fought in four battles and in the fourth battle our commander was killed, and since that day we never fought on the front again. I found people in my armed group to be very bad. They were pillaging people's houses, they didn't work and they stole other people's things. So I asked God to help me escape that situation that I was in.

At that time (the U.N. Mission in Congo) MONUC started to make calls over the radio telling people to stop and to return to their country. MONUC freed my husband from prison and put him in a transit centre. I was also at the transit centre with him and we carried on our relationship together.

After three months of staying at the centre, his papers were organised, his family was found in Rwanda, and he was sent to Rwanda by MONUC.

"Now God has blessed me because life right now is good. I am wearing a new dress bought at the market, which hasn't been stolen."

Interview with Suzanne Fisher, February 2005

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