Viagra the Rape Drug Gadhafi Allegedly Distributed to Soldiers

If women were not worried enough about being sexually assaulted, a new rape drug has come to light, and many have easy access to it through doctors. Viagra, the drug used to treat impotence, is allegedly being used by Moammar Gadhafi as a weapon of war. Evidence that the politician distributed the impotency drug to the Libyan army as part of an official rape policy is mounting.

Luis Moreno-Ocampo, the chief prosecutor for the International Criminal Court, has requested a warrant for Gadhafi on crimes against humanity and wants the ICC to add the mass rape allegations to the indictment.

News of the Viagra distribution to Libyan soldiers came to light when Susan Rice, U.S. ambassador, raised the rape allegations to the UN Security Council in April. However, "The remark did not cause a stir at the time," according to U.S. diplomat who was at the meeting with Rice. How is it possible that such an atrocious act would "not cause a stir"?

Moreno-Ocampo believes, as does Rice, that Gadhafi was using rape as a form of punishment and repression against the people of Libya. Moreno-Ocampo sees this as a new aspect for Gadhafi's Libyan regime and the attempts to control the population. At first Moreno-Ocampo was skeptical on whether Gadhafi could be held responsible or even be associated with the rapes but then claimed, "now we are getting some information that Gadhafi himself decided [to authorize the rapes] and this is new. It never was the pattern he used to control the population. The rape is a new aspect of the repression. Apparently he decided to punish using rapes." And the use of Viagra was, "to enhance the possibility to rape women."

The ICC prosecutor believes hundreds of women have been victims of rape at the hands of Gadhafi's soldiers, but doesn't know how widespread the victims may be.

Women in war zones already worry about violence against them and their children, hunger, poverty and the prospect of being victims of rape, but the use of Viagra by soldiers that is encouraged (or demanded) by their commanding officer to actually commit the atrocity of rape is beyond deplorable. Rape is an act specifically meant to repress and control. It is one of the darkest acts that exist in the world because the victims suffer from the act itself and then have to live and cope with the violation for the rest of their lives.