SWAZILAND has ruled out insurance for rape victims, despite an alarming rise in rape cases. Recent research reported 350 ‘official’ rape cases in the country between January and May this year, as against 649 cases reported for the whole of 1998 and 588 cases in 1995. But the Royal Swaziland Insurance Corporation says it is not interested in following the example of South African insurance brokers, who have recently included policies for rape victims among their services. “We do not think this problem has reached a stage where it needs a policy created for it,” said the corporation’s assistant general manager, Lucky Mahlalela. “We would have to make our decision with the support of statistics from police investigations into the effects of rape in the Swazi kingdom.” He added it would be difficult to rate how much emotional damage one victim endured against another, and this would create much problems for the insurers.