There was no major commemoration of International Human Rights Day here or a truce here in Goma in the Eastern Congo despite the UN presence. The Catholic Charity Caritas held a poorly publicized event. A local journalist told me there is almost total impunity for human rights abusers and that all the armed groups on all sides are guilty of human rights abuse.

This is a region of war with an astounding 500,000 rapes reported over the last ten years.

• Human Rights – Justice for victims of sexual violence in the Democratic Republic of Congo

“Women of the Democratic Republic of Congo are starting to fight back, pressing for justice as a fundamental human right in the face of appalling sexual violence. For years now, rape has been used as a tactic of war in the east of the DRC where prosecutions are difficult to achieve.”

President Obama cited that in his Nobel speech, but there has been no “surge” here to help protect the people. The UN mission tries with partial US financing, not US involvement even as the President defended just wars and humanitarian intervention which usually translates into bombing as in Kosovo not a direct presence.

People here believe that the US is not really using its financing of the UN mission as a lever to make it more effective. Yesterday, the NY Times reported that the UN collaborated with the Congolese military on military operations against rebels that led to more abuses. UN lawyers had warned the UN MANUC mission NOT to do that!

Obama mentioned Congo but did not explain how large the crisis is, or that US policy has contributed to the problem.

The US Secretary of State, Hillary Clinton, was here earlier this year raising the rape problem. She announced a gift of $17 million dollars, the cost of just 17 of the US soldiers being sent to Afghanistan for one year.

A local blogger noted that the lead NGO here working to providing services to victims, HEAL AFRICA, which runs a hospital DID NOT GET THE MONEY. Instead, it was given to a US based NGO, The International Rescue Committee, with a long history of cold war service. They will now build a competing hospital.

So much for the politicized vagaries of US aid.