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Taboos surrounding the issue of wartime sexual violence against men are not the only obstacle to the collection of empirical data, though. Many people, including professionals in the field of gender, or in the medical field, seem to be surprisingly unaware or oblivious of the problem. I have found, for instance, while trying to gather testimonies of local doctors or of local medical personnel in the Great Lakes region of Africa, that many confused male-on-male rape and even other types of male sexual victimization with homosexuality. That was not the case of course in some highly specialized places such as the Panzi Hospital in South Kivu, well known for its expertise in dealing with the consequences of sexual violence, especially obstetric fistula. Public awareness on these issues seems to be a bit higher in the DRC than in the rest of the sub-region (though still limited to hospitals and some specialized NGOs), but this is not a real surprise since over the past few years the issue has been brought up in the DRC by some international NGOs such as Médecins Sans Frontières. In Rwanda, because of the numerous trials and cases involving sexual violence that have been examined by the traditional tribunals, or gacaca, there is a growing awareness not only of the role played by women in violence (a fact that used to be taboo too) but also of the sexual violence perpetrated during the genocide on men, by both men and women. In Burundi, even those with a good awareness on issues pertaining to gender-based violence seemed to be mostly unaware of the issue, and most people I spoke to expressed surprise and dismay when I mentioned the matter and the cases or figures I had come across. This lack of awareness seems to be linked to the taboo existing in Burundi around homosexuality, as well as to its penalization.[7] Collecting information in Europe has been far easier, as all my informants, be they (former) members of paramilitary groups in Northern Ireland, or humanitarian and medical staff in Northern Europe, were well aware of the existence of wartime sexual violence against men. If the subject remains somehow taboo among non-medical staff, most agreed on the fact that it has, so far, received insufficient medical, policy and academic attention, and were willing to share their experiences with me.

Needless to say, researching wartime sexual violence against men hasn’t been a smooth process for me either. Dealing with negative reactions, from open disgust—who, in his or her right mind, could possibly want to study such a gruesome topic?—to accusations of undermining feminist work, has been the least complicated. But collecting survivors’, perpetrators’ and bystanders’ stories has brought its fair share of nightmares, anxiety and distress—especially when coming back from the field—which were also fed by my own doubts about using these very personal and intimate stories in order to write a book. I have sometimes had the feeling of being a voyeur and of profiting from the trust that my interviewees and local contacts, some of whom have become friends, have put in me. How to “reciprocate their generosity”? (Wood 2006, 382) I am deeply conscious of the power relations entailed in my work, from how I have selected my research participants, to interactions during interviews, to the fact that I am the one who has determined what is important in the stories that I have collected, and how to interpret them (Dauphinée 2007, 53). How can I speak “for” the victims, and, for that matter, “for” the perpetrators? How can I accurately convey their stories, safely back in the comfort of my everyday Western academic life? I am still unsure about what answer(s) to give to these questions. In the chapters that follow I have tried to accurately transcribe the diversity in their testimonies, and to convey the irreducible complexity of their journeys, emotions and choices. I hope that by choosing to focus on their truly gruesome experiences, I have not entirely obliterated the courage and resilience that often seeped through their stories.

PRESENTATION OF THE BOOK OUTLINE

The approach to wartime sexual violence against men developed in this book proposes to understand wartime sexual violence as a gendered performance that uses patriarchal and heterosexual norms in order to enforce or enact a new power order. The book begins by an examination of the available empirical evidence on wartime sexual violence against men, which has been collected by conflict scholars, historians but also medical doctors or humanitarian staff. Various patterns and recurrences in types and circumstances in which sexual violence against men is perpetrated are highlighted. The book then describes the theoretical foundations of the study, which are applied to different contexts and configurations of wartime sexual violence against men, from ethnic conflicts to insurgencies and to international interventions. The core empirical evidence collected during fieldwork is subsequently presented and analysed in two chapters dealing respectively with perpetrators and with survivors of wartime sexual violence against men. The book proceeds to presenting the context in which this type of violence can be understood, narrated but also addressed, either through support programs for survivors or through legal means.

Chapter 1, “Conflict-Related Sexual Violence Against Men: An Overview”, opens up the discussion by providing a brief overview of existing theoretical frameworks on conflict-related sexual violence, and by highlighting how they have so far failed to mainstream the existence of sexual violence against men. Against this backdrop, the chapter details the mounting empirical evidence regarding conflict-related sexual violence against men in various settings, and underscores a clear diversity in patterns. The chapter shows that it is far from being a recent phenomenon, and that it can be observed in most contemporary conflict settings. Some variations in types of male sexual victimization are highlighted, showing, for instance, that sexual violence in detention displays different characteristics from sexual violence exerted in other types of conflict settings, and that the victims’ profiles are also likely to greatly vary from one conflict context to another.

Chapter 2, “Making Sense of Wartime Sexual Violence Against Men”, sets the theoretical foundations of the book and proposes to explore sexual violence against men as not only connected to other types of wartime violence, but also to wider societal relations. In particular, it shows how wartime sexual violence against men can be understood as an expression of power struggles between militarized groups, and the masculinity models that they embody. Conflict-related sexual violence can thus be read as an attempt to either impose a new hierarchy and order, or to reinforce and strengthen the existing one. This conceptual framework is then discussed in relation to different contexts and configurations of wartime sexual violence against men, from ethnic conflicts to insurgencies and to international interventions, showing that the phenomenon is not only more common than assumed, but also embedded in the same patriarchal principles that underpin patterns of sexual violence against women.

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Homosexuality has been banned in Burundi since 2009. Those found guilty of engaging in consensual same-sex relations risk imprisonment of two to three years and a fine of fifty thousand to one hundred thousand Burundian francs.