海角大神

As Mariam Traor茅 began her work counseling women, she learned she would have to listen closely.

鈥淭hey managed to catch me,鈥� some of them would say. Or, 鈥渕en dragged me somewhere and I did two hours.鈥� 鈥淭hey wanted to rape me, but I defended myself,鈥� another one would explain.

Despite the understatements and denials, 鈥渁utomatically, we understand what happened. These are cases of rape,鈥� Ms.听Traor茅 says, sitting in the office of the Association for the Development of Women鈥檚 Rights (APDF) in Mali鈥檚 capital, Bamako.

She gathered the testimonies in a dusty, black notepad filled with passport-sized pictures of girls as young as 13.听The book speaks to the extent of sexual violence that fell upon Mali鈥檚 women in 2012.听Amid a conflict pitting the state against separatist rebels and jihadists in the north, the crisis largely went unnoticed.

At first, when thousands fled to Bamako in search of safety, women refused to speak about a crime they thought unspeakable: one that left many excluded, and blamed, by their own families. 鈥淵ou are marginalized, rejected by society, as if you were trash. That鈥檚 why women keep quiet,鈥� says Moctar Mariko, who heads the Malian Association for Human Rights.

And in a country where not a single perpetrator of sexual violence in the conflict has been prosecuted, the risks for women who come forward are often too high for the elusive reward of justice.听But a recent case against听Al Hassan Ag Abdoul Aziz Ag Mohamed Ag Mahmoud听of Timbuktu听could bring justice to survivors where national courts have failed, advocates say. The former Islamic police chief is accused of overseeing听forced marriages leading to the sexual enslavement of women, among other crimes.

The International Criminal Court case, if it moves forward after a May confirmation hearing, would be the first ever to focus on 鈥減ersecution on the grounds of gender.鈥�

So far, there has been no successful conviction for sexual violence crimes at the court, despite a push by ICC prosecutor Fatou Bensouda since 2014. (The conviction of Jean-Pierre Bemba, a former vice president of the Congo, was overturned in June.)

鈥淚t sends a message to both victims and perpetrators that the ICC is willing and able to prosecute if national courts are not. That applies to both Mali and beyond,鈥� says Mar铆a Mingo Jaramillo, a legal and program officer for Women鈥檚 Initiatives for Gender Justice, an advocacy group based in the Hague. 鈥淚t is important to start developing jurisprudence on this crime.鈥�

The ICC鈥檚 move 鈥渕ay encourage national courts to prosecute [gender-based persecution], which is prevalent in many conflicts around the world today, and is often overlooked.鈥澨�

Life under occupation

The takeover of key northern cities by Tuareg rebels and armed Islamist groups marked the end of life as they knew it for its women. In Timbuktu, they had to cover their hair with veils, could not be seen in public with men other than their husbands, and had to sit down while browsing goods in the market听because bending over to pick up an item was seen as provocative.

Those who did not obey 鈥渨ere arrested, beaten, and sent to the women鈥檚 prison. In that prison, women were systematically raped,鈥� says Bintou Bouar茅 Foun茅 Samak茅, president of the WILDAF women鈥檚 group, who went to the city to gather evidence for potential prosecutions.

But the violence wasn鈥檛 limited to those who went against the Islamists鈥� rules. Awa Tour茅 (whose name has been changed for privacy) started spending most of her days indoors once they settled in her central Timbuktu neighborhood. After a trip to the market to buy food for the family, she received two marriage proposals from those she calls the 鈥渙ccupiers.鈥�

鈥淥n the third proposal, they left us no choice. I did not consent. My parents did not consent,鈥� Ms.听Tour茅 says by phone from her hometown. After the marriage, she was moved to another district and locked inside the house.

For 13 days, she was forced to have sex with him. Then he divorced her. 鈥淥ut of nowhere this man destroyed my life: I didn鈥檛 know how to look at people, how to talk to people anymore,鈥� Tour茅 says. When she learned he had remarried shortly after, she was distraught to think that another woman had experienced the same thing.

Tour茅鈥檚 story is similar to other stories from all over the north. In other cases, armed men teamed up to pay bride prices jointly, with one officially acting as the 鈥渉usband鈥� and the others visiting, and raping, the unwilling wife at night.

In 2012 and 2013, WILDAF registered 173 survivors across the country who needed help with trauma, injuries, and pregnancies. Advocates say the real number of victims, however, are likely in the thousands. 鈥淲e have statistics, but they do not reflect reality,鈥� according to Bernadette Sene, the chief advisor for women鈥檚 protection for MINUSMA, the UN peacekeeping mission in Mali.听

Alternate road to justice?

When dozens of these women started demanding justice, human-rights groups in the country initiated lawsuits. The second complaint, focusing on war crimes and crimes against humanity including rape in Timbuktu, named Mr.听Al Hassan as one of the perpetrators.

Al Hassan, who has been in custody in The Hague since March 2018,听was a member of the Ansar Dine Islamist group that, alongside Al Qaeda in the Islamic Maghreb, imposed strict sharia law until Malian and French soldiers drove them out in early 2013. Despite a peace agreement in 2015, insecurity prevails, and there is no functioning justice system in the north.

At the height of the violence, the Supreme Court ruled that all conflict-related cases would be handled in the capital Bamako, which had been spared by the violence. The rights groups filed the sexual violence cases, a judge heard more than 30 victims, and evidence was gathered. Then in 2015, that ruling was reversed.

鈥淲e can鈥檛 file complaints anymore because there are no judges in the north to take up our cases; there is nothing in place to protect the victims,鈥� says Mr. Mariko, from the Malian Association for Human Rights. Effectively, while authority to prosecute lies with northern courts, the sexual violence cases are gathering dust in Bamako offices.

In July 2012, however, Mali鈥檚 minister of justice requested an ICC investigation into war crimes committed in the north, stating that the country鈥檚 courts were unable to try the perpetrators. Among the crimes listed were 鈥渢he rapes of women and young girls.鈥�

Al Hassan鈥檚 case, and international justice, could provide an alternative to a gridlocked national justice system. But it covers a small fraction of the crimes committed against women since 2012. For those outside Timbuktu, justice remains distant.

And sexual violence did not stop when the occupiers left the city. Several women鈥檚 organizations even say that violence is on the rise, from frequent rapes on buses going to Gao, to the increasing number of attacks on women fetching water and wood in the central region 鈥� where ethnic tensions and jihadist violence have led to the killing of听more than a thousand people in the past two years.

鈥淭he conflict shattered all the safeguards against violence against women,鈥� Ms.听Bouar茅 says. And in the meantime, 鈥渧ictims live with their aggressors on the ground.鈥�