The colonel's war

Colonel Freddy Mukendi is not the most popular officer in the Congolese army. He presides over a mobile court that has begun to bring punishment to the soldiers and militia who have long been raping women and children with impunity. James Oatway reports from the Democratic Republic of Congo

The convicted man is Kado Miranga, in his mid-20s. He is a commandant in the Congolese army.

He has been convicted of rape with aggravating circumstances.

He broke down his victim's door, chased her husband away at gunpoint and raped her three times.

Colonel Freddy Mukendi, Judge President of the South Kivu Military Court, hands down the sentence: "This court sentences you to 20 years' imprisonment, a fine of 200000 Congolese francs, a further fine of US$11000 [to be paid by the government] and expels you from the army with immediate effect."

At this two soldiers rush over to Miranga and rip his military fatigues off him. Buttons fly and fabric tears. He falls to the ground. They tear his pants off.

He is wearing shorts, which slip down, almost exposing his genitals. The court looks on in silence.

Miranga wears a thin, fake smile that appears and disappears as he is pulled around. Humiliated, he is cuffed and hauled away to the cells.

The scene is playing out in Uvira, a town on the banks of Lake Tanganyika in South Kivu Province, part of the troubled eastern Congo.

The region is in the throes of what has been dubbed a "rape epidemic", and has been called "the most dangerous place on earth to be a woman".

The United Nations believes as many as 500000 people - women, men and boys - have been raped or subjected to sexual mutilation since 1996, often at the hands of armed militias, rebels and even government soldiers such as Miranga.

Until a few years ago the men raped without fear of being held accountable. Justice was very hard to come by in Uvira, and nonexistent in other, more remote towns such as Fizi and Baraka.

This was until the American Bar Association's Rule of Law Initiative launched a mobile court programme in South Kivu.

Mukendi and his panel of judges bring justice to the most vulnerable areas, where women at least stand a chance of holding their attackers accountable.

The sheer size of the eastern Congo and the poor roads make getting to the villages a very difficult task. The number of armed militia and renegade army units in the region add to its volatility.

It was in Fizi earlier this year that the mobile court programme, funded by the Open Society Initiative for Southern Africa, marked its biggest success to date.

A high-ranking Congo army officer, Lieutenant- Colonel Mutware Kibibi, had led his troops on a rape rampage into Fizi, where they raped more than 50 women and girls in one day.

A mobile military court presided over by Mukendi, found Kibibi guilty of rape and crimes against humanity. He was sentenced to 20 years behind bars.

"When a soldier is convicted of a crime like rape, it sends a message out to the others," says Mukendi, who is based in the provincial capital, Bukavu.

He starts work every morning at about six o'clock and often works until late at night.

Sending fellow soldiers to jail makes him quite unpopular and he has been the recipient of many death threats. This doesn't discourage him.

"I am a soldier. I can't run away," he says with a shy smile.

Mukendi would like to expand the mobile court programme.

"We need the support of the politicians to make this work better. they need to give us more funds. We need to get to places like Shabunda and Bunyakiri." Shabunda is a particularly dangerous area, home to several militia groups and accessible only by aircraft.

In Uvira, one morning in October, 10-year-old Grace was sitting alone in her house when a young policeman walked in.

"He lit a cigarette.

"He asked me where my parents were."

She speaks slowly and quietly.

"Then he took a machete and said he was going to hit me."

She looks down at her hands.

"Then he grabbed my neck and then he did it to me."

She says the policeman raped her. He squeezed her neck so tightly that she was unable to speak until later the next day.

Grace's father arrived home while the man was violating his daughter. The man ran away, but neighbours were able to catch him.

"He left his radio behind," she adds as an afterthought.

Ernest Radjabu, a clinical psychologist employed by the Rule of Law Initiative, has been counselling Grace and her family.

"War has made rape the big problem that it is. Justice is very important to discourage this," he says.

"It's tough to deal with this every day. In four months we have had 44 cases so far."

Counselling extends beyond the victim: "We try to assist the whole family as rape affects them, too."

Grace's father, Makunya, makes clear how important justice is to him.

"I am shocked at what happened. How can someone do that to a 10-year-old?

"I am still very angry. As long as the man is in prison I am happy," he says.

Elections in the DRC are scheduled for November 28, and the country is in the grip of escalating violence involving what are only the second elections in its history.

In the circumstances, the rape crisis has slipped down the list of national priorities.

But, Mukendi points out during a break between cases, "without justice there can be no peace".

• The names of rape survivors and their family members have been changed.