{Residents of Mukamira Sector in Nyabihu District have bee called on to lead the fight against gender and domestic violence saying that effects of such violence are enormous to an extent that they affect the development of the communities involved, Police also urged residents to always report such cases in the quickest time possible.}
“You don’t have to wait for violence to erupt; anywhere you sense some misunderstanding in your neighbors report to the police immediately,” Assistant Inspector of Police (AIP) Marie Rose Uwizera, the District Community Liaison Officer, told the resident during a meeting held on February 4.
She added that; “gender and domestic violence is a burden on the social systems of a community and it drastically affects the development of a nation… batterers cost nations fortunes in terms of law enforcement, health care, lost labor and general progress in development.”
“These costs do not only affect the present generation; what begins as an assault by one person on another, reverberates through the family and the community into the future.”
AIP Uwizeye hastened to add that, “this is why we need to stop it before it happens. We can’t afford the risks and the loses, we have to collectively fight this vice and where it is, we uproot it.”
The DCLO reminded residents that domestic violence is not simply an argument. “It is a pattern of coercive control that one person exercises over another. Abusers use physical and sexual violence, threats, emotional insults and economic deprivation as a way to dominate their victims and get their way”
“Many forms of verbal and psychological abuse appear relatively harmless at first, but expand and grow more menacing over time, sometimes gradually and subtly. As victims adapt to abusive behavior, the verbal or psychological tactics can gain a strong foothold in victims’ minds, making it difficult for them to recognize the severity of the abuse over time,” Uwizeye told residents.
In detailing psychological and emotional violence, Uwizeye told resident that this covers “repeated verbal abuse, harassment, confinement and deprivation of physical, financial and personal resources. Violence not only causes physical psychological and emotional damages, it also undermines the social, economic development of the victim and the society as a whole.”
Following the meeting, residents committed to strengthening their partnership with security organs especially sharing information to ensure that cases of domestic violence are stamped out.
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