Baby Rape
Baby Rape
Perpetrators Believe Myth that Rape Will Cure AIDS
By Martin
Seemungal
C A P E T O
W N, South Africa, July 30, 2002
— She was too young to walk or talk — yet she was a victim of an unspeakable
crime. Baby Tshepang, a nickname meaning "have hope," was brutally
raped last October when she was 9 months old. The nickname was given to her at
the hospital where she was treated. Her rapist, David Potse, was sentenced last week to life in prison
for what the judge called the most gruesome violation of human rights he has
ever ruled on.
It took hours of
delicate surgery to repair the damage.
"I was
really horrified because the nature of the injury must have been a very
destructive painful injury," said Dr. Heniz Rhode of Red Cross Children's
Hospital in
Tshepang was
raped in a dingy room in a poor township in
Tshepang's
grandmother, who didn't want her name used, found the child crying
uncontrollably. "I put her on the bed and I saw all this blood and I said
this child has been raped," she recalled. Wiping away tears, she said she
will never forget that night.
Doctors say the
pain would have been too much to bear and that in all likelihood the baby lost
consciousness during the rape.
The
attack has triggered outrage across the country and a renewed call for the death
penalty, which was abolished in
It
also focused attention on a frightening myth prevalent in parts of
Blood
tests appear to indicate that Baby Tshepang's attacker was HIV-positive.
"When
we now arrest a person, the person will be telling us exactly the same thing —
that he thought by sleeping with a child of 2 to 5 years old will then cure the
HIV/AIDS disease," said Daniel Sono, a policeman with a child protection
unit near Cape Town. He says sexual abuse of the very young has risen sharply in
the past two years.
Reuters
reported that 21,000 cases of child rape were reported to police last year.
Unemployment and
the legacy of apartheid's oppressive system are also blamed for the spate of
attacks, some South African observers say. Baby Tshepang's case only focused
attention on a serious problem that has been around for years.
According to
police figures, some 15 percent of all rapes are committed against children
under the age of 11, but only 9 percent of the cases yield convictions.
Law enforcement
agencies say it's virtually impossible to police child abuse and win convictions
against child rapists.
Police inspector
Roland Rhoode says he's often frustrated by the legal system.
"Our system
gives the [perpetrator] a lot of rights. That is the right to a fair trial and
that is frustrating because we have victims that are real," he said.
"We have children that also have rights and their rights have been
violated."
The government offers little in the way of solutions, but has promised to establish a task force to search for answers that might help young girls.