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FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE June 21, 2004 Contact: Phoebe Jones, Global Women's Strike 215-848-1120 philly@crossroadswomen.net (www.globalwomenstrike.net) or Dorothy Mackey, STAAAMP: 937-879-9304 dmack500@aol.com (www.staaamp.org). For information on benefits, contact Susan Avila-Smith, Women Organizing Women 425 313-7666 (smith715@comcast.net) (www.vetwow.com) Survivors
of sexual assault by the military, and supporters, go to There was an outpouring of frustration and anger by women survivors of military rape, and their supporters who attended The National Summit of Women Veterans Issues that took place on June 18 -20. They complained about the Department of Defense (DOD) refusal to act to stop rape, and the difficulty many survivors have in getting benefits and services from the Veterans Administration. Sexual assault of US servicewomen and men is widespread – some estimates are as high as 43-50% among some sectors. Among active duty soldiers, 78% of women have experienced sexual harassment. At the same time, some of these women survivors of rape have been fighting for 20 years to get benefits and services owed to them, calling this deprivation a second and third rape. Many women veteran survivors have experienced homelessness, one of the workshop topics, as a result of their trauma and lack of benefits. Survivors Take Action Against Abuse by Military Personnel (STAAAMP) and the Global Women's Strike, along with Women Organizing Women, are coordinating an initiative called STAAAMP Out Rape by the Military which began with a press conference on Thursday of survivors and supporters (see below) and continued with participation at the National Summit. They called above all for the truth to emerge about the rapes of US servicewomen, men, and children globally, and Iraqi women detainees by the military, as well as the rapes of women inmates in US prisons, and for an independent body outside the DOD to investigate and prosecute all military rapes and sexual assaults. Rev. Dorothy Mackey, a former Air Force captain and commander, a survivor of multiple rape and sexual assault while serving in the military, and founder and executive director of STAAAMP, said that over 4300 women, men and children have contacted her about their sexual assault by military men, from World War II to the Iraqi War. Some of those women attended the Summit with STAAAMP Out Rape, while others came forward for the first time at the Summit. At a packed workshop on Mental Health and Sexual Trauma, Phoebe Jones - from the Crossroads Women's Center where the Strike in Philadelphia is based - raised the problems women veterans who have contacted the Center have: that nothing happens to the rapist; it is the victim who gets punished especially if they complain - women are told to put up and shut up for the greater good. The problem, they said, goes all the way to the top of the chain of command. To add insult to injury, it is very hard to get benefits needed to rebuild your life and confidence. There was an explosion of support and agreement from women who have clearly had enough when Ms Jones relayed what a US serviceman and himself a military sexual abuse survivor said at the press conference, that soldiers are trained to take what they want, whether from fellow servicewomen or Iraqi detainees, and know that they will be protected. At a Working Group on Mental and Behavioral Health, women spelled out the changes that need to happen:
At the Thursday press conference, STAAAMP and the Global Women's Strike demanded the truth about the rapes of women in Iraqi prisons, the rapes of (mainly female) US military personnel serving in Iraq and the rapes of women in prisons in the US – noting the overlap of those responsible for prison rapes in this country then having positions of power in Iraqi prisons – and for justice for all victims, women and men of whatever nationality. A multiracial group of five survivors, including one man, spoke out. Each one, regardless of whether they were a person of color or not, remarked on racial harassment within the military. Dozens of groups and individuals endorsed the action and sent statements of support. School of Americas Watch made the connection between the abuse at Abu Ghraib and other US military prisons and the history of US-sponsored torture in Central and South America. Stephen Funk, a Marine who was jailed for refusing to serve in Iraq, said, “If people in the military live strict codes of conduct and operate in such a controlled environment, why does the abuse of women still flourish? The answer is that the military does indeed encourage and foster such abuse.” Statements were also read from Payday, a multiracial network of men who have initiated the Refusing to Kill website (www.refusingtokill.net); London-based Black Women’s Rape Action Project and Women Against Rape, which co-authored a letter to US Congresswomen and women Members of Parliament in the UK demanding accountability for the rapes, which inspired the STAAAMP Out Rape by the Military initiative; and others. Other problems include that many women are denied benefits on technicalities or on the claim that the trauma was not service-related. Many suffer from Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder, which is often unrecognized and undiagnosed. If the precise wording requested is not used, applications are often denied. Many women have to make their case to men who are often unsympathetic. There is serious concern that some men who did nothing about rapes while in the military are now in second careers overseeing veteran services and the application process for veterans with sexual trauma seeking disability benefits. The startling fact that “rapists continue to get promoted” while survivors spend years attempting to recover, was noted in the March 31, 2004 US Congressional Women’s Caucus hearing. Sexual predators are often released from the military into civilian life without sexual predator records, a recipe for the assaults to continue. Many women wind up in the psychiatric ward and heavily treated with drugs – it was no surprise that Pfiser pharmaceutical was issued an award at the Summit! Despite desperate pleadings from STAAAMP, GWS, and many individual military rape and trauma survivors, for an outside investigative agency, and despite their knowledge that the DOD has refused to adopt any recommendations to stop sexual misconduct in the last 19 task forces investigations in 16 years, on June 17, 2004 the Congressional Women’s Caucus proposed $3 million for the DOD to establish a Victim’s Office of Assistance and maintain control of abuse cases. This was shown to be entirely unacceptable to the victims themselves this weekend. To whom is the Congressional Women’s Caucus accountable, the DOD which has protected rapists, or women who have been raped while serving in the military? * * * * * * * * * * * * * * *
Letter to US Congresswomen from International Women Count Network/US Dear
US Congresswomen: We join our sisters in Britain who have written to women in both Houses of Parliament, and ask that you as a woman legislator help ensure that this information is no longer kept from the public so that strong action is immediately taken to stop the rapes and prosecute all those responsible, beginning with those at the top who bear the greatest responsibility. We enclose the letter to women Members of Parliament and to US Congresswomen from the British-based Black Women’s Rape Action Project and Women Against Rape, “Neither Blood Nor Rape for Oil”. We have been reliably informed, including by religious supporters of President Bush, that photos of rape and other sexual torture of women in Iraqi prisons are commonly used as pornography among US troops. Yet these rapes, if referred to at all, have been described as “sex with a female prisoner”. We understand that Congress has seen photos of women being gang-raped, and there is ample evidence that orders to torture, including through sexual abuse, have come from the highest levels – The New Yorker has mentioned Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld’s involvement. We also understand that some of the top ranking US officials in Iraq presided over torture in Guantánamo, Central America, Haiti and elsewhere. This includes Ambassador to Iraq Negroponte who was directly connected with torture in Honduras. We have also been informed that rape and other sexual torture is common in US prisons, where women prisoners are kept naked in cages, and that some of the military accused of sexual torture in Abu Ghraib were originally prison guards. Please urgently confirm or deny this, bearing in mind that such things, if true, come out sooner rather than later: nowadays fewer and fewer people are willing to be complicit with such crimes by staying silent. We also have hard evidence that US military women are raped by their male colleagues. About 10 days ago National Public Radio reported that 100 servicewomen who returned from Iraq claimed to have been raped. Why have we had to hear it from the media and from the women themselves but not from any official source? Below is a document on rapes of US servicewomen, military wives, partners and children, from Dorothy Mackey, founder of STAAAMP (Survivors Take Action Against Abuse by Military Personnel), a former US Air Force captain and commander who was herself raped in the military. She testifies to the fact that such criminal conduct goes unpunished, and that it has wide consequences not only for the US military but for civil society generally. The widespread rape and other torture in Viet Nam, and Central and South America at the hands of US personnel or by those funded and trained by the US in such places as School of the Americas, is well documented. There are now reports (including in The New Yorker and some of the most reputable British media such as Channel Four News) that thousands of people are being detained in secret CIA centers around the world who may be suffering unbearable torture without any of us knowing. We demand to know the truth of these allegations. Have their loved ones been informed about where they are, what their situation is and what their prospects for release are? Are there women or children among those detained? Women have constantly made the case that rape is not treated seriously by either police or courts or legislators. What has happened in Iraq proves that case. Not only are Iraqi women and US servicewomen being raped by the military and hired mercenaries (‘civilian advisers’), but there is a conspiracy of silence and a screen of protection for this brutalization of women, beginning with women of color. (Those of us who know the civil rights movement were shocked into recognition by the torturers’ use of hoods and dogs.) We are urging Congresswomen to respond immediately to what we are raising, which is of crucial importance to women and men who abhor this latest descent into barbarism. Either the Pentagon and its military command are incompetent and don’t know what is happening under their command, or they are brutes with the power of life and death over millions of people. In either case they must be prosecuted. We will not allow this to be imposed on any human being, at home or abroad, in our name. Will you? We look forward urgently to hearing from you. Margaret Prescod and Phoebe Jones, co-coordinators International Women Count Network/US; Global Women’s Strike/US.
Phoebe Jones, 215-848-1120; fax: 215-848-1130 in Philadelphia philly@crossroadswomen.net The IWCN worked with the Congressional Black Caucus in the 1990s to get The Unremunerated Work Act introduced in Congress. The legislation sought to implement the 1995 decision we had won at the UN Decade for Women Conference in Beijing, with the support of 2000 non-governmental organizations worldwide, to get women’s unwaged caring work recognized, measured and valued in economic statistics. The Global Women Strike is a network of grassroots women in over 60 countries campaigning under the banner “Invest in Caring Not Killing” to demand that the $1 trillion world military budget be used to support the care of people and the planet, beginning with payment for all caring work. (www.globalwomenstrike.net). Endorsers
of "Stop the rape & other torture of Iraqi women and US
servicewomen by US military personnel, and women in US prisons"
letter to US Congresswomen from Activist San Diego, San Diego, CA Alexandria House, Los Angeles, CA Nancy Ashton, Haddonfield NJ Bonnie L. Awan (Member, Central Ohioans for Peace), Columbus, Ohio Ellen Barfield, Baltimore, MD Erin Basta, Los Angeles, CA Cynthia Bell, New York Laura Bennett, Baltimore, MD Michael S. Berg, West Chester, PA Kathy Black (President, Coalition of Labor Union Women), Philadelphia, PA Brandywine Peace Community, Swarthmore, PA Laura Brose, Staten Island, NY Bayina Brown, Philadelphia, PA Martha Bushnell, Boulder, CO Scott Campbell, Oakland, CA Mary Capps, Ph. D., New Orleans, LA Mike Ciul, Philadelphia, PA Marlene Colbeck, Merchantville, NJ Linda Dann, (Member, Military Families Speak Out), Philadelphia, PA DC Labor for Peace & Justice, Washington, DC Latifa di Paolo, Philadelphia, PA Doctors for Peace, Los Angeles, CA Katie Dreisbach, New York, NY Shannon Dunham, Philadelphia, PA EPICA (Ecumenical Program on Central America and the Caribbean), Washington DC Jennifer Fasulo (Member, Solidarity with Org. of Women's Freedom in Iraq), Jersey City, NJ Stephen Funk, San Francisco, CA Richmond L Gardner, Horsham, PA Judith Gatz, Huntington, MA David G. Gil, Waltham, MA Green Party of Philadelphia, Philadelphia, PA Leone Hanke, Los Angeles, CA Damon Harvey, Philadelphia, PA Thomas Heikkala, Austin, TX Karl Howeth, Tulsa, OK Susan B. Hyatt, Philadelphia, PA Wanda Imasuen (Member, FUREE - Families United for Racial & Economic Equality), Brooklyn, NY Gloria Jackson, New York, NY Mario Jimenez, Los Angeles, CA Kbong Women’s Group, Uganda Mary C Kormancik, West Chester, PA Kirsten E. Larson, Burlington, NJ Michele Larson, Burlington, NJ Edna M. Lopez, Los Angeles, CA Jorge Marin, Boston, MA Elizabeth Marsh, Philadelphia, PA Eugene V. Mehling, Venice, CA Heather Morelli, New York, NY Mildred Mortello (Member, Military Families Speak Out), Pennington, NJ National Youth & Militarism Program/ American Friends Service Committee, Philadelphia, PA Donald Nollar, Los Angeles, CA Michael Novick (Anti-Racist Action), Los Angeles, CA Holly Phares, Philadelphia, PA Payday Philadelphia NOW, Philadelphia, PA Angela Pohlman, Mount Pleasant, MI Meryl Rizzotti, Beverly Hills, CA Lynn Robinson, Philadelphia, PA Dorothy Goldin Rosenberg MES, PhD, Toronto, Ontario, Canada Roaring Fork Peace Coalition, Carbondale, CO Laura Saiter Sue Sapir (Member, Military Families Speak Out), Pennington, NJ Emily Savin, Philadelphia, PA School of the Americas Watch Jordan Schusler (Member, Draft Discussion. Org), New York, NY Janine Schwab, Philadelphia, PA Patricia Shaw, Birmingham, IA Brenda Stokely (President DC1707 of AFSCME), New York, NY Maggie Swanson (Member, Women For Peace Iowa), Marion, IA United Christian Fellowship Spiritual and Community Development Center, Bowling Green, OH Marie Sophia Vassilakidis, Houston, Texas Washington Peace Center, Washington, DC Michelle Williams, Washington, DC Winifred WindRiver, Venice, FL Ann Yasuhara, Princeton, NJ YA-YA Network, New York, NY |
