When the Rwandan genocide ended in 1994, the effects of the prolonged violence in the area did not stop within the country's borders. Since then, the conflict has spilled over into the neighboring Democratic Republic of Congo, the site of the United Nations' largest peacekeeping mission in history known as MONUC. 
    The civil war in the Democratic Republic of Congo escalated in 1998 and lasted until 2003. Outbreaks of violence since late August 2008 between rebel general Laurent Nkunda's forces and the Congolese army have brought the periodic eruption of violence in the Congo back into the forefront of the media.
    According to the International Rescue Committee, Congo's civil war has caused the deaths of 5.4 million people within the last 10 years. CBS calculates these deaths to more than the number of those who died in the wars within Iraq, Afghanistan and Darfur combined.
    Many of these deaths were attributed to hunger and disease, direct results of violence in the area. However, death has not been the only tragic and horrifying result of the conflict. CBS News has produced two episodes of "60 Minutes" that focus on the use of rape as a weapon in Congo.
    Anneka Van Woudenberg, senior Congo researcher at Human Rights Watch, said she thinks the use of rape in Congo is different than in other cases of rape during wars throughout the world's history.
    "I think what's different in Congo is the scale and the systematic nature of it, indeed, as well, the brutality. This is not rape because soldiers have got bored and have nothing to do. It is a way to ensure that communities accept the power and authority of that particular armed group. This is about showing terror. This is about using it as a weapon of war," she explained to CBS.
    Hundreds of thousands of women have been raped throughout the past 10 years in Congo. Children as young as three and women as old as 75 have been victims.
    Rape is used as a means of public humiliation, control and destruction of the community and its families. Gang rape has been a prominent force in the violence, and many of the rape victims in Congo have been left severely mutilated as a result of forced sexual encounters. 
    Living rape victims undergo an experience marked by deep and long-lasting pain. As Dr. Denis Mukwege, director of Panzi hospital in eastern Congo, explained, "It's not just physical pain. It's psychological pain that you can see. Here at the hospital, we've seen women who've stopped living."
    Women carrying babies by their rapists are left by their husbands, and public rapes leave the women subject to painful humiliation in front of their entire community.
    At K-State, Wildcats Against Rape and the Women's Center have taken a proactive stance in addressing issues of rape both domestically and internationally.
    The Run Against Rape, held on Oct. 11, donated 50 percent of its proceeds to Congo's Panzi hospital, the main treatment facility for victims of rape in the area. Donations still are being accepted, and I urge everyone to consider contributing to the cause.
    Human Rights Watch reported that U.N. Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon and other international leaders met in Nairobi, Kenya, over the weekend to address the need for immediate action in protecting civilians in eastern Congo.
    Ten human rights and humanitarian agencies have called upon the European Union to send immediate reinforcements to the peacekeeping mission MONUC, as foreign ministers meet in Brussels.