DRC DR. Dennis Mukwege Wins EU Prize, Congo OBGYN Treats 30,000 War Raped In 'Fight For Protection Of Women' Without National, International Intervention
DRC DR. Dennis Mukwege Wins EU Prize. Sakharov Prize, formally called the Sakharov Prize for Freedom of Thought is awarded by the European Union. Nominations for the Sakharaov Prize included various names from diverse human rights movements like Leyla Yunus, an Azerbaijani human rights activist, Ms Ayaan Hirsi Ali, a Somali-born activist, along with the EuroMaidan, the pro-European Ukrainian movement. But the Sakharov Prize went to DRC DR. Dennis Mukwege who wins the EU Prize for his formidable work as a Congolese gynaecologist, DRC DR. Dennis Mukwege wins EU Prize for providing specialised treatment to rape victims. He has also founded the Panzi Hospital in Bukavu, in the Democratic Republic Congo,
Dr. Mukwege's work has been inluential in ending rape as a weapon of war and has treated thousands of women in a campaigning against mass rape.
The president of the European Parliament, Martin Schulz, said in a statement DRC DR. Dennis Mukwege wins EU Prize at the age of 59 "for his fight for protection, especially of women," SFGate.com reports.
According to a report by the Huffington Post, Dr. Mukwege has treated 30,000 victims of war rape. "The perpetrators of these crimes destroy life at its entry point," Mukwege said, adding, "the women can no longer have children. Often they get infected with AIDS and will spread the disease. Their men are humiliated. So the perpetrators destroy the entire social fabric of their enemies, their communities, their future generations,
without even killing the woman."
DRC DR. Dennis Mukwege wins EU Prize for his campaign against 'rape as a war crime.' The gynecologist sees patients at the Panzi Hospital, where patients with the most internal damage is caused by rape, epidemic by numbers in the area.
A New York Times reports said, "The $65,000 award was established in 1988 in honor of the Soviet dissident Andrei Sakharov." Nelson Mandela, who was a former champion against apartheid in Africa was the first person to with the Sakharov Prize and last year, famed Pakistani human rights activist Malala Yousafzai won the prize for education and women's rights. Previous winners include Kofi Annan, the former U.N. secretary-general, one of the recipients of this year's Nobel Peace Prize, for which Mukwege was a front-runner."
The report added, "In many armed conflicts around the world, rape is used as a weapon of war," according to the EU statement said adding, DRC DR. Dennis Mukwege wins EU Prize because "Mukwege helped victims in his country, the Democratic Republic of Congo, by founding the Panzi Hospital in Bukavu in 1998, and he still treats victims of sexual violence."
