Darfur rape study finds lasting scars

CAMBRIDGE, Mass., May 31 (UPI) -- The widespread use of rape as a weapon against women from Sudan's Darfur region has left deep psychological and physical scars, a U.S. report says.

The study, released Sunday by Physicians for Human Rights, based in Cambridge, Mass., and the Harvard Humanitarian Initiative, indicated that continuing fear of rape among Darfuri refugees in eastern Chad has done nearly as much damage as the physical crimes themselves, The Boston Globe reported.

"What is striking is the extent of rape and fear of rape in Chad itself," said Susannah Sirkin, deputy director of Physicians for Human Rights. "So it's a two-fold revelation of real horror and shame and sorrow, and really of failure."

The groups interviewed 88 women, 32 of whom suffered rapes at the hands of Arab militiamen backed by the Khartoum government. Dr. Sondra Crosby of the Boston Medical Center, who participated in the study, told the newspaper the interviews produced many horrifying revelations on the details and long-lasting effects of the rapes.

"(One) woman told me … she was beaten on her arms so badly that she couldn't use them, and she was raped by four to six men," Crosby told the Globe.