JOHANNESBURG, SOUTH AFRICA — For most of her recent African tour, Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton sounded much like any visiting foreign official, male or female. Except in Congo.
When Clinton ignored security advice and flew to Goma, in the east of the Democratic Republic of Congo, her focus on the region's rape crisis resonated with some of the continent's most powerless people: women.
It wasn't just that she was the first top-level American official to go to the epicenter of one of the world's deadliest wars, nor even the U.S. aid money she promised. It was her reaction to victims' stories of rape -- and the hope that she might do something about it.
The conflict in eastern Congo is a toxic mix of jostling militias, ethnic tensions, greed for resource wealth, a tragic colonial history, a predatory army and opportunistic neighbors. Rape is commonly used as a weapon in this war. Although reliable statistics are difficult to come by, it's estimated that close to 200,000 women have been raped since the conflict began 13 years ago.
In a recent surge in violence, an estimated 3,500 women and girls have been raped since the beginning of the year. Men and boys also are increasingly victims of sexual assault.
In America, Clinton might have been portrayed as a bit of a shrew in her sharp reaction to a Congolese student's question about her husband's thoughts on an issue -- a momentary loss of her usual steely control that got so much media coverage that it became the single moment some people remember about her trip.
But women's rights activists in eastern Congo weren't talking about that. They were talking about the tears they saw glistening in her eyes Tuesday as she talked to rape victims and heard their horrendous stories of suffering, including a woman who was raped while pregnant and who lost her baby.
Clinton was so warm and compassionate, activists said, they felt they could almost call her Hillary.
Christine Schuler Deschryver, a prominent Congolese activist with the organization VDAY, which fights gender violence in Congo, is cynical after many futile visits from envoys of various countries and organizations.
But Clinton's visit gave her a renewed sense of hope, said Deschryver, who was one of the activists who met with the secretary of State.
"For the first time in a decade, I have hope again," she said, speaking by telephone from the city of Bukavu. "The message I gave her first of all, as a woman, not as secretary of State, is that a woman can feel the pain all these women feel.
