Mass rape in the Bosnian War
Encyclopedia
During the Bosnian War
many women from all Bosnian ethnic groups were rape
d. Estimates of the numbers raped range from 20,000 to 50,000. This has been referred to as "mass rape", particularly with regard to the coordinated use of rape as a weapon of war. The International Criminal Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia
(ICTY) declared that "systematic rape", and "sexual enslavement" in time of war was a crime against humanity
, second only to the war crime
of genocide
. The Kunarac case was the first time in judicial history anyone had been found guilty of these crimes.
According to Margot Wallström
, U.N. Special Representative on Sexual Violence in Conflict, only 12 cases out of an estimated 50,000 to 60,000 have been prosecuted.
Judges from the ICTY ruled that rape was used by the Bosnian Serb armed forces as an 'instrument of terror'. They declared that a "hellish orgy of persecution" occurred in various camps across Bosnia.
started, Bosniaks (commonly known as Bosnian Muslims) in Eastern Bosnia
had already begun to be removed from their employment, to be ostracised and to have their freedom of movement curtailed. At the outset of the war, Serb forces also began to target the Bosniak civilian population. Once towns and villages were secured, the military, the police, the paramilitaries and, sometimes, even Serb villagers continued these attacks. Bosniak houses and apartments were systematically ransacked or burnt down while civilians were rounded up, sometimes being beaten or killed in the process. Men and women were separated and detained - many of the men in local camps.
During the early investigations by the United Nations
, in 1992, it became apparent that rape was not random, but systematic and had the support of commanders and local authorities.
Many reports stated that the perpetrators said they were ordered to rape. Others said that the aim was to ensure the victims and their families would never return to the area. Perpetrators told the female victims that they would bear children of the perpetrator's ethnicity. That they would become pregnant and then be held in custody until it was too late to get an abortion. Victims were threatened that if they told anyone they would be hunted down and killed.
Muslim women were specifically targeted, as the rapes against them were one of the many ways in which the Serb forces could assert their superiority and victory over the Bosniaks. For instance, the girls and women, who were selected by convicted war criminal Dragoljub Kunarac or by his men, were systematically taken to the soldiers’ base, a house located in Osmana Đikić street No. 16. There, the girls and women (some of them as young as 14 years old), were raped by Dragoljub or his men. The soldiers demonstrated a total disregard for the Bosniaks in general, and Bosniak women in particular. They removed many Muslim girls from the detention centres, and kept some of them for various periods of time to rape.
Radomir Kovač, who was also convicted by the ICTY, kept four girls in his apartment, abusing and raping three of them many times. "Kovač would also invite his friends to his apartment, sometimes allowing them to rape one of the girls. Kovač sold three of the girls …. Prior to their being sold, he gave two of them … to other Serb soldiers who abused them for more than three weeks."
One woman was taken by Serbian soldiers to the outdoor sport stadium in Foca. "There she was raped by 28 soldiers before losing consciousness. In addition the soldiers burned her body with cigarettes and cigarette lighters."
One case had a Serb soldier telling a Bosnian woman he was raping, "You should have already left this town. We'll make you have Serbian babies who will be Christians."
politicians and army officers have been indicted for various war crimes involving the detention and abuse of thousands of Bosniaks. These crimes include rape in Herzegovina
and Central Bosnia
. During Lašva Valley ethnic cleansing
Croat forces committed number of rapes against Bosniaks.
Around 100 Serb prisoners of war, mainly men, were detained at Čelebići camp near the town of Konjic
, utilised by several units of the Ministry of the Interior (MUP), Croatian Defence Council
(HVO) and later the Territorial Defense Forces (TO) during short period of partnership between Bosnian and Croat forces that was established after Serb forces blocked the town. Detainees at the camp were treated cruelly and inhumanely including a few murders. Some detainees were sexually assaulted. Two women were also raped in Konjic. The prison was closed according to the decision of the Bosnian government in December 1992 and the remaining prisoners released. The commander of the joint Bosnian and Croat forces in the area was acquitted
, whilst the prison commander was given a nine year sentence under the principles of superior responsibility and granted early release in 2003. The deputy prison commander was sentenced to 18 years for crimes which included murder and rape.
, there have been sustained efforts to reconcile the opposing factions.
Much attention has been paid to the need to understand the reality of what happened, dispel myths, and for responsible leaders to be brought to justice and be encouraged to accept their guilt for the mass rapes and other atrocities.
Historians such as Niall Ferguson
have assessed a key factor behind the high level decision to use mass rape for ethnic cleansing as being misguided nationalism.
Prior to 1980, Croatian and Serbian nationalism had been effectively repressed by Marshal Josip Broz Tito
, though his suppression of any talk about nationalist issues had failed to diminish the intensity with which they were felt. Milošević had inflamed Serbian feelings with a speech referring to the Battle of Kosovo
. Feelings of victimhood and aggression towards Bosniaks were further stirred up with exaggerated tales about the role played by a small fraction of Bosnian Muslims in the Ustaše
genocide Serbians had suffered in the 1940s. Other myths invoked included suggestions that Bosnian Muslims were racially different, when in fact DNA tests have shown they are genetically identical with Serbs. Despite the government led hate campaigns, some Serbs tried to defend Bosnians from the atrocities and had to be threatened - invading troops would announce by loud speaker that "every Serb who protects a Muslim will be killed immediately".
In the aftermath of the conflict, ethnic identity is now of much greater social importance in Bosnia than it was prior to 1992. From the 1960s to the war, the percentage of mixed marriages between communities has been close to 12% and young citizens would often refer to themselves as Bosnians rather than identifying their ethnicity.
After the conflict it has been effectively mandatory to be identified as either Bosniak, Serb or Croat and this has been a problem for the children of rape victims as they come of age.
By December 2009, tensions still exist between the different communities, with the re-opening of a railway service between the Serbian and Bosnian Capital cities being seen as a merely "symbolic re-establishment of ties".
:
Convicted by the Court of Bosnia and Herzegovina
:
Bosnian War
Films - Grbavica
was the 2006 Golden Bear winner at the 56th Berlin International Film Festival
- Part III. The Struggle for Bosnia
Audio documentaries
Bosnian War
The Bosnian War or the War in Bosnia and Herzegovina was an international armed conflict that took place in Bosnia and Herzegovina between April 1992 and December 1995. The war involved several sides...
many women from all Bosnian ethnic groups were rape
Rape
Rape is a type of sexual assault usually involving sexual intercourse, which is initiated by one or more persons against another person without that person's consent. The act may be carried out by physical force, coercion, abuse of authority or with a person who is incapable of valid consent. The...
d. Estimates of the numbers raped range from 20,000 to 50,000. This has been referred to as "mass rape", particularly with regard to the coordinated use of rape as a weapon of war. The International Criminal Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia
International Criminal Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia
The International Tribunal for the Prosecution of Persons Responsible for Serious Violations of International Humanitarian Law Committed in the Territory of the Former Yugoslavia since 1991, more commonly referred to as the International Criminal Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia or ICTY, is a...
(ICTY) declared that "systematic rape", and "sexual enslavement" in time of war was a crime against humanity
Crime against humanity
Crimes against humanity, as defined by the Rome Statute of the International Criminal Court Explanatory Memorandum, "are particularly odious offenses in that they constitute a serious attack on human dignity or grave humiliation or a degradation of one or more human beings...
, second only to the war crime
War crime
War crimes are serious violations of the laws applicable in armed conflict giving rise to individual criminal responsibility...
of genocide
Genocide
Genocide is defined as "the deliberate and systematic destruction, in whole or in part, of an ethnic, racial, religious, or national group", though what constitutes enough of a "part" to qualify as genocide has been subject to much debate by legal scholars...
. The Kunarac case was the first time in judicial history anyone had been found guilty of these crimes.
According to Margot Wallström
Margot Wallström
Margot Elisabeth Wallström is a Swedish social democratic, currently holding the job as . Prior to this post, she served as European Commissioner for Institutional Relations and Communication Strategy...
, U.N. Special Representative on Sexual Violence in Conflict, only 12 cases out of an estimated 50,000 to 60,000 have been prosecuted.
Systematic rape by armed forces
Early stages
Before the Bosnian warBosnian War
The Bosnian War or the War in Bosnia and Herzegovina was an international armed conflict that took place in Bosnia and Herzegovina between April 1992 and December 1995. The war involved several sides...
started, Bosniaks (commonly known as Bosnian Muslims) in Eastern Bosnia
Bosnia and Herzegovina
Bosnia and Herzegovina , sometimes called Bosnia-Herzegovina or simply Bosnia, is a country in Southern Europe, on the Balkan Peninsula. Bordered by Croatia to the north, west and south, Serbia to the east, and Montenegro to the southeast, Bosnia and Herzegovina is almost landlocked, except for the...
had already begun to be removed from their employment, to be ostracised and to have their freedom of movement curtailed. At the outset of the war, Serb forces also began to target the Bosniak civilian population. Once towns and villages were secured, the military, the police, the paramilitaries and, sometimes, even Serb villagers continued these attacks. Bosniak houses and apartments were systematically ransacked or burnt down while civilians were rounded up, sometimes being beaten or killed in the process. Men and women were separated and detained - many of the men in local camps.
During the early investigations by the United Nations
United Nations
The United Nations is an international organization whose stated aims are facilitating cooperation in international law, international security, economic development, social progress, human rights, and achievement of world peace...
, in 1992, it became apparent that rape was not random, but systematic and had the support of commanders and local authorities.
Many reports stated that the perpetrators said they were ordered to rape. Others said that the aim was to ensure the victims and their families would never return to the area. Perpetrators told the female victims that they would bear children of the perpetrator's ethnicity. That they would become pregnant and then be held in custody until it was too late to get an abortion. Victims were threatened that if they told anyone they would be hunted down and killed.
Houses and camps
There were numerous rape camps in the town of Foča. "Karaman’s house" was one of the most notable rape camps. While kept in this house, girls were repeatedly raped. Among the women held in "Karaman's house" were minors as young as 12 years of age. In the findings of the Kunarac trial, the appalling conditions of the detention centers being used for mass rape were described.Muslim women were specifically targeted, as the rapes against them were one of the many ways in which the Serb forces could assert their superiority and victory over the Bosniaks. For instance, the girls and women, who were selected by convicted war criminal Dragoljub Kunarac or by his men, were systematically taken to the soldiers’ base, a house located in Osmana Đikić street No. 16. There, the girls and women (some of them as young as 14 years old), were raped by Dragoljub or his men. The soldiers demonstrated a total disregard for the Bosniaks in general, and Bosniak women in particular. They removed many Muslim girls from the detention centres, and kept some of them for various periods of time to rape.
Radomir Kovač, who was also convicted by the ICTY, kept four girls in his apartment, abusing and raping three of them many times. "Kovač would also invite his friends to his apartment, sometimes allowing them to rape one of the girls. Kovač sold three of the girls …. Prior to their being sold, he gave two of them … to other Serb soldiers who abused them for more than three weeks."
One woman was taken by Serbian soldiers to the outdoor sport stadium in Foca. "There she was raped by 28 soldiers before losing consciousness. In addition the soldiers burned her body with cigarettes and cigarette lighters."
Ethnic dimension
Early United Nations investigations concluded that "Rape has been reported to have been committed by all sides to the conflict. However, the largest number of reported victims have been Bosnian Muslims, and the largest number of alleged perpetrators have been Bosnian Serbs. There are few reports of rape and sexual assault between members of the same ethnic group." It has been claimed that "For the Serbs, the desire to degrade, humiliate, and impregnate Bosnian Muslim women with ‘little Chetniks’ was paramount." Women were forced to go full term with their pregnancies and give birth. Many of the reports of the abuses illustrated the ethnic dimension of the rapes.One case had a Serb soldier telling a Bosnian woman he was raping, "You should have already left this town. We'll make you have Serbian babies who will be Christians."
Non-Serb camps
There were rapes and sexual assaults in non-Serb prison camps, mostly in Croat camps against Bosnian Muslims and Serbs, although not on the same scale as the systematic rape carried out by members of the Serb armed forces. There is a case being heard by the ICTY where a group of six Bosnian CroatCroats of Bosnia and Herzegovina
Croats of Bosnia and Herzegovina form one of the three constitutive nations in Bosnia and Herzegovina.There is no precise data regarding Bosnia and Herzegovina's population since the last war. Ethnic cleansing within Bosnia and Herzegovina in the 1990s saw the vast majority of Croats move and take...
politicians and army officers have been indicted for various war crimes involving the detention and abuse of thousands of Bosniaks. These crimes include rape in Herzegovina
Herzegovina
Herzegovina is the southern region of Bosnia and Herzegovina. While there is no official border distinguishing it from the Bosnian region, it is generally accepted that the borders of the region are Croatia to the west, Montenegro to the south, the canton boundaries of the Herzegovina-Neretva...
and Central Bosnia
Central Bosnia Canton
The Central Bosnia Canton is one of the ten cantons of The Federation of Bosnia and Herzegovina.-Geography:It is located in the center of the country, to the west of Sarajevo...
. During Lašva Valley ethnic cleansing
Lašva Valley ethnic cleansing
The Lašva Valley ethnic cleansing, also known as the Lašva Valley case, refers to numerous war crimes committed during the Bosnian war by the Croatian Community of Herzeg-Bosnia's political and military leadership on Bosnian Muslim civilians in the Lašva Valley region of Bosnia-Herzegovina...
Croat forces committed number of rapes against Bosniaks.
Around 100 Serb prisoners of war, mainly men, were detained at Čelebići camp near the town of Konjic
Konjic
Konjic is a town and municipality in Bosnia and Herzegovina. It is located in northern Herzegovina, around southwest of Sarajevo. It is a mountainous, heavily wooded area, and is above sea level. The municipality extends on both sides of the Neretva River. The town of Konjic, housed about a third...
, utilised by several units of the Ministry of the Interior (MUP), Croatian Defence Council
Croatian Defence Council
The Croatian Defence Council was a military formation of the self-proclaimed Croatian Republic of Herzeg-Bosnia during the Bosnian War.-History:...
(HVO) and later the Territorial Defense Forces (TO) during short period of partnership between Bosnian and Croat forces that was established after Serb forces blocked the town. Detainees at the camp were treated cruelly and inhumanely including a few murders. Some detainees were sexually assaulted. Two women were also raped in Konjic. The prison was closed according to the decision of the Bosnian government in December 1992 and the remaining prisoners released. The commander of the joint Bosnian and Croat forces in the area was acquitted
Acquittal
In the common law tradition, an acquittal formally certifies the accused is free from the charge of an offense, as far as the criminal law is concerned. This is so even where the prosecution is abandoned nolle prosequi...
, whilst the prison commander was given a nine year sentence under the principles of superior responsibility and granted early release in 2003. The deputy prison commander was sentenced to 18 years for crimes which included murder and rape.
Psychological and physical effects
A medical study of 68 Croatian and Bosniak victims of rape during the 1992-1995 war found that many suffered psychological problems as a result. None had any psychiatric history prior to the rapes. After the rapes 25 had suicidal thoughts, 58 suffered depression immediately after and 52 were still suffering from depression at the time of the study, one year later. Of the women 44 had been raped more than once and 21 of them had been raped daily throughout their captivity. Twenty nine of them had become pregnant and 17 had an abortion. The study reached the conclusion that the rapes had "deep immediate and long-term consequences on the mental-health" of the women.Aftermath
Following the end of hostilities with the 1995 Dayton AgreementDayton Agreement
The General Framework Agreement for Peace in Bosnia and Herzegovina, also known as the Dayton Agreement, Dayton Accords, Paris Protocol or Dayton-Paris Agreement, is the peace agreement reached at Wright-Patterson Air Force Base near Dayton, Ohio in November 1995, and formally signed in Paris on...
, there have been sustained efforts to reconcile the opposing factions.
Much attention has been paid to the need to understand the reality of what happened, dispel myths, and for responsible leaders to be brought to justice and be encouraged to accept their guilt for the mass rapes and other atrocities.
Historians such as Niall Ferguson
Niall Ferguson
Niall Campbell Douglas Ferguson is a British historian. His specialty is financial and economic history, particularly hyperinflation and the bond markets, as well as the history of colonialism.....
have assessed a key factor behind the high level decision to use mass rape for ethnic cleansing as being misguided nationalism.
Prior to 1980, Croatian and Serbian nationalism had been effectively repressed by Marshal Josip Broz Tito
Josip Broz Tito
Marshal Josip Broz Tito – 4 May 1980) was a Yugoslav revolutionary and statesman. While his presidency has been criticized as authoritarian, Tito was a popular public figure both in Yugoslavia and abroad, viewed as a unifying symbol for the nations of the Yugoslav federation...
, though his suppression of any talk about nationalist issues had failed to diminish the intensity with which they were felt. Milošević had inflamed Serbian feelings with a speech referring to the Battle of Kosovo
Battle of Kosovo
The Battle of Kosovo took place on St. Vitus' Day, June 15, 1389, between the army led by Serbian Prince Lazar Hrebeljanović, and the invading army of the Ottoman Empire under the leadership of Sultan Murad I...
. Feelings of victimhood and aggression towards Bosniaks were further stirred up with exaggerated tales about the role played by a small fraction of Bosnian Muslims in the Ustaše
Ustaše
The Ustaša - Croatian Revolutionary Movement was a Croatian fascist anti-Yugoslav separatist movement. The ideology of the movement was a blend of fascism, Nazism, and Croatian nationalism. The Ustaše supported the creation of a Greater Croatia that would span to the River Drina and to the border...
genocide Serbians had suffered in the 1940s. Other myths invoked included suggestions that Bosnian Muslims were racially different, when in fact DNA tests have shown they are genetically identical with Serbs. Despite the government led hate campaigns, some Serbs tried to defend Bosnians from the atrocities and had to be threatened - invading troops would announce by loud speaker that "every Serb who protects a Muslim will be killed immediately".
In the aftermath of the conflict, ethnic identity is now of much greater social importance in Bosnia than it was prior to 1992. From the 1960s to the war, the percentage of mixed marriages between communities has been close to 12% and young citizens would often refer to themselves as Bosnians rather than identifying their ethnicity.
After the conflict it has been effectively mandatory to be identified as either Bosniak, Serb or Croat and this has been a problem for the children of rape victims as they come of age.
By December 2009, tensions still exist between the different communities, with the re-opening of a railway service between the Serbian and Bosnian Capital cities being seen as a merely "symbolic re-establishment of ties".
Individuals convicted of related war crimes
Convicted by the International Criminal Tribunal for the former YugoslaviaInternational Criminal Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia
The International Tribunal for the Prosecution of Persons Responsible for Serious Violations of International Humanitarian Law Committed in the Territory of the Former Yugoslavia since 1991, more commonly referred to as the International Criminal Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia or ICTY, is a...
:
- Dragoljub Kunarac (28 years in prison) was found guilty of several rapes; inciting his soldiers to commit collective rape and forcing women into slavery. Judged guilty of crimes against humanity (Torture, enslavement and rape).
- Radomir Kovač (20 years in prison)
- Zoran VukovićZoran VukovicZoran Vuković is a Bosnian Serb who was charged with crimes against humanity by the International Criminal Tribunal for the Former Yugoslavia for his actions in the city of Foča during the Bosnian War...
(12 years in prison) - Milorad Krnojelac (15 years in prison)
- Dragan Zelenović (pleaded guilty, 15 years in prison) Personally found guilty of 9 rapes, 8 of which qualified as torture. Two rapes through 'co-perpetratorship' and one through aiding and abetting where the woman was raped by at least 10 soldiers and lost consciousness.
- Hazim DelićHazim DelicHazim Delić was the Bosniak Deputy Commander of the Čelebići prison camp, a Konjic defence forces run prison camp. He was sentenced to 18 years by the ICTY Appeals Chamber on April 8 2003 for murder and cruel treatment of the prisoners....
(18 years in prison) Found guilty of raping two Serbian women whilst he was Deputy Commander of Čelebići prison-camp. Also found guilty of willful killing and torture. - Anto Furundžija (10 years in prison) Found guilty of torture, outrages upon personal dignity, including rape of a Bosniak woman during Lašva Valley ethnic cleansingLašva Valley ethnic cleansingThe Lašva Valley ethnic cleansing, also known as the Lašva Valley case, refers to numerous war crimes committed during the Bosnian war by the Croatian Community of Herzeg-Bosnia's political and military leadership on Bosnian Muslim civilians in the Lašva Valley region of Bosnia-Herzegovina...
carried out by the Croats against Bosniaks in 1993.
Convicted by the Court of Bosnia and Herzegovina
Court of Bosnia and Herzegovina
The Court of Bosnia and Herzegovina is a domestic court of the State of Bosnia and Herzegovina which includes international judges and prosecutors...
:
- Radovan Stanković (20 years in prison; escaped from prison in May 2007) Committed, incited, aided and abetted; enslavement, torture, rape and killing as part of a widespread attack against the non-Serbian population.
- Neđo Samardžić (13 years in prison)
- Gojko Janković (34 years in prison) Indicted for ordering, committing and inciting the rape of a Bosniak woman and found guilty of raping, murdering and torturing Bosniak and Croat civilians between 1992 and 1993.
- Dragan Damjanović (20 years in prison) Convicted of war crimes including murder, torture and rape.
- Momir SavićMomir SavicMomir Savić is a Bosnian Serb paramilitary commander convicted for war crimes committed during the ethnic cleansing of the Višegrad region of eastern Bosnia during the 1992-1995 Bosnian War.-Crimes:...
(18 years in prison) "For the killing, rape and torture of Muslims in eastern Bosnia early in the 1992-95 war." - Željko LelekŽeljko LelekŽeljko Lelek was the first individual indicted for the mass rape crimes that were a feature of the expulsion of the Bosniak population of the town of Višegrad as part of the strategic campaign of ethnic cleansing carried out in the Drina Valley in the early days of the Bosnian War.Željko...
(13 years in prison) "For the persecution and torture of Bosnian Muslims and the rape of Muslim women in the early 1990s." - Miodrag Nikacevic (8 years in prison) "For the rape and illegal detention of Muslims in the eastern town of Foca early in the country's 1992-95 war."
- Ante Kovač (9 years in prison), former Commander of the Croat Military Police in Vitez, has been sentenced under a second instance verdict for crimes against Bosniak civilians in Vitez including rape.
See also
General- Japanese war crimes - "comfort women"
- Nanking MassacreNanking MassacreThe Nanking Massacre or Nanjing Massacre, also known as the Rape of Nanking, was a mass murder, genocide and war rape that occurred during the six-week period following the Japanese capture of the city of Nanjing , the former capital of the Republic of China, on December 13, 1937 during the Second...
- Rwandan war rape
- Sexual enslavement by Nazi Germany in World War II
- Sexual enslavement - Crime against humanity
- War rapeWar rapeWar rapes are rapes committed by soldiers, other combatants or civilians during armed conflict or war, or during military occupation, distinguished from sexual assaults and rape committed amongst troops in military service...
Bosnian War
- Bosnian genocideBosnian GenocideThe term Bosnian Genocide refers to either the genocide committed by Bosnian Serb forces in Srebrenica in 1995 or the ethnic cleansing campaign that took place throughout areas controlled by the Bosnian Serb Army during the 1992–1995 Bosnian War....
- Foča massacresFoca massacresThe Foča massacres, also known as the Foča genocide, were a series of killings committed by Serb military, police and paramilitary forces on Bosniak civilians in the Foča region of Bosnia and Herzegovina from April 7, 1992 to January 1994...
- Siege of SarajevoSiege of SarajevoThe Siege of Sarajevo is the longest siege of a capital city in the history of modern warfare. Serb forces of the Republika Srpska and the Yugoslav People's Army besieged Sarajevo, the capital city of Bosnia and Herzegovina, from 5 April 1992 to 29 February 1996 during the Bosnian War.After Bosnia...
- Srebrenica massacreSrebrenica massacreThe Srebrenica massacre, also known as the Srebrenica genocide, refers to the July 1995 killing, during the Bosnian War, of more than 8,000 Bosniaks , mainly men and boys, in and around the town of Srebrenica in Bosnia and Herzegovina, by units of the Army of Republika Srpska under the command of...
- Višegrad massacreVišegrad massacreThe Višegrad massacres also known as the Visegrad Genocide were acts of mass murder committed against the Bosniak civilian population of the town and municipality of Višegrad during the ethnic cleansing of eastern Bosnia by Serb police and military forces during the spring and summer of 1992, at...
- Serbian war crimes in the Yugoslav Wars
External links
General- Odjek: Zločin silovanja u Bosni i Hercegovini
- Women's International League for Peace and Freedom: Mass Rape in Bosnia: 20,000 women, mostly Muslims, have been abused by Serb soldiers
- Gendercide Watch - Case Study: Bosnia-Herzegovina
- Mass rape - New York Times 1993
- Bosnia's rape babies: abandoned by their families, forgotten by the state
- Rape: weapon of war
Films - Grbavica
Grbavica (film)
Grbavica is a 2006 film by Jasmila Žbanić about the life of a single mother in contemporary Sarajevo in the aftermath of systematic rapes of Bosniak women by Serbian troops during the war...
was the 2006 Golden Bear winner at the 56th Berlin International Film Festival
56th Berlin International Film Festival
The 56th Berlin International Film Festival was held from February 9 to February 19, 2006.-Jury:*Charlotte Rampling: UK *Matthew Barney: USA*Yash Chopra: India*Marleen Gorris: Netherlands*Janusz Kaminski: Poland*Yeong-ae Lee: Korea...
- Part III. The Struggle for Bosnia
Bosnia and Herzegovina
Bosnia and Herzegovina , sometimes called Bosnia-Herzegovina or simply Bosnia, is a country in Southern Europe, on the Balkan Peninsula. Bordered by Croatia to the north, west and south, Serbia to the east, and Montenegro to the southeast, Bosnia and Herzegovina is almost landlocked, except for the...
Audio documentaries