This is an article from the Daily Dispatch Newspaper on the baby rapes in South Africa.
Anu Pillay Director, Ashoka Southern Africa P O Box 30653,Braamfontein 2017 Johannesburg, South Africa 27-11-4033910 / 4033956 (fax) www.ashoka.org [EMAIL PROTECTED] mobile: (0)834077674 --------- Thursday Dec.13,2001 www.dispatch.co.za Experts search for baby rape motives JOHANNESBURG -- The rape of babies is not a new phenomenon. But experts are at a loss to explain the recent spate of infant rapes which have horrified the country. The toll from the past month includes: *A nine-month-old baby allegedly gang-raped in Louisvale in the Northern Cape; *The abduction and rape of an eight-month-old baby in Ravensmead, Cape Town; *The rape of a five-month-old baby in Joubert Park, Johannesburg; and *The rape of a 12-month-old baby at Nyanga, Cape Town. Some believe that the media coverage given to the rape of nine-month-old Baby Tshepang in the Northern Cape last month may be leading to a series of copycat crimes. Others think the "only possible explanation" is that the perpetrators believe their awful deeds will cure them of HIV infection. The only consensus is that there is a vast difference between paedophilia and infant rape. Paedophiles seek to establish a relationship with their victims and are aroused by prepubescent children, usually between the ages of five to 11 years. But the baby rapists appear to have a different motive. Victims sustain life-threatening injuries. Some of them die. "Infant rape is certainly not for sexual gratification," said Luke Lamprecht, manager of the Teddy Bear Clinic. "This is brutality. It's absolute power. I really, honestly do believe that it's an attempt to kill innocents by attacking the most precious part of the child." Lamprecht does not think that the infant rapes are on the increase, nor that they are motivated by the erroneous belief that sex with a virgin cures HIV. Four years ago he came across the first and only child rape case in which the perpetrator believed in the myth. The mother had agreed that the HIV-positive man could rape her four-year-old daughter in return for cash. Socio-economic factors are generally regarded as major contributors. Rana Eschur, marketing manager for Women and Men Against Child Abuse, said that poverty and alcohol abuse were linked to child rape. Alcohol and poverty feature strongly in both the Louisvale and Joubert Park infant rape cases. "Please don't think that infant rape is new. It really is not. But I think here is a definite increase," Eschur said. Unisa criminologist Herman Conradie said he believed the myth that HIV could be cured by sex with a virgin was the main motivation for the baby rapes. "I know how the mind of a paedophile works. I know that is different (to that of an infant rapist). These guys are not paedophiles. They want to get rid of a virus." Johannesburg Hospital paediatric surgeon Graeme Pitcher, who performed emergency surgery on the five-month-old rape victim on Saturday, firmly believes the HIV myth is behind the baby rapes. "It's the only possible explanation for this phenomenon. It's a distinct entity from paediatric rape," said Pitcher, who has worked at Johannesburg Hospital for a decade. He had not come across such cases until the past two or three years. The distinction lies largely in the brutality of the rapes. Usually the victim's perineum (the section between the anus and vagina) is ripped apart and eventhe muscles in the pelvic floor are torn open. Sometimes the baby's abdominal cavity is also penetrated. "The perpetrator is putting a six-inch penis in a child who is only 13 inches long," Lamprecht said. The rape of babies is, however, relatively rare. A survey conducted at the Red Cross Children's Hospital in Cape Town showed that, over nine years, the hospital dealt with 10 cases of infant rape. An average of 100 cases of child rape were seen each year. A psychologist in private practice said he believed that the baby rapists were probably traumatised individuals with psychological problems. -- DDC ***End-violence is sponsored by UNIFEM and receives generous support from ICAP*** To post a message, send it to: <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> To subscribe or unsubscribe, send a message to: <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>. In the 1st line of the message type: subscribe end-violence OR type: unsubscribe end-violence Archives of previous End-violence messages can be found at: http://www.edc.org/GLG/end-violence/hypermail/
