NetNews Usenet Archive 1993 #3/NN_1993_3.iso/spool/misc/activism/progress/10226

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From: Hilary Naylor <[e-mail]>
Subject: BOSNIA-HERZEGOVINA: Rape
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Date: Thu, 21 Jan 1993 18:22:25 GMT
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/* Written 10:22 am  Jan 21, 1993 by [e-mail] in igc:ai.general */
/* ---------- "BOSNIA-HERZEGOVINA: Rape" ---------- */
Embargoed for 4:00 am EST
Thursday, January 21, 1993

        BOSNIA-HERZEGOVINA: RAPE AND OTHER HUMAN RIGHTS VIOLATIONS
                              STILL GOING ON


Women in Bosnia-Herzegovina have been singled out for horrifying violations
- rape and sexual abuse - at the hands of armed forces, Amnesty
International confirmed today.  "The sexual abuse has been widespread and
sometimes systematic," said the human rights organization, in one of two
reports on Bosnia-Herzegovina they launched today.  "It seems to fit into
the pattern of ethnic repression which has tragically characterized the
war, and women have sometimes been taken captive by soldiers specifically
to be raped."

In its report, the organization cites cases where women have been raped in
houses by soldiers from the town or passing through, where women have been
raped while held in detention centers and cases where women have been
detained in hotels and other buildings specifically so that they could be
raped by soldiers.  Forces from all sides in the conflict have become
rapists, and women from all backgrounds have been victims, although Muslim
women have been chief victims, at the hands of Serbian armed forces.

In one such case, a 17-year-old Muslim girl told a doctor that Serbs took
her and other women from her village to huts in woods nearby.  She was held
there for three months, along with 23 other women - although she believes
she saw around 100 women in total being unloaded.  She was among 12 women
who were raped repeatedly in the hut in front of the other women - when
other women tried to defend her they were beaten by the soldiers.

While it is open to question whether rape has been explicitly selected by
military leaders as a weapon of war, it is clear that local officers must
have known about the abuses - and condoned them.  And that level of
indifference is all too blatant across a frightening range of human rights
abuses in Bosnia-Herzegovina, particularly as rape and other abuses can
amount to a grave breach of the Geneva Conventions.

In the second document by Amnesty International, the organization reveals
an insider's view of atrocities which happened in one town in
Bosnia-Herzegovina between April and November 1992.  The daily diary of
intimidation, woundings, imprisonment, arrests and killings is made more
compelling still by the realization that these horrors were occurring even
as the world was scrutinizing - and fiercely condemning - such violations,
under the spotlight of the media.

The atrocities are illustrated in a diary written by a Muslim man in the
town of Bosanski Petrovac, and documents the descent of the town from
tension to terror.  From initial reports of Muslims losing their jobs, the
situation in the town deteriorated and the document relates how Serbian
soldiers began firing into Muslim homes, how men were imprisoned, homes
burned, civilians killed and eventually thousands were left with no option
but to flee, fearing for their lives.

The diary's writer describes the fear in which the Muslims lived.  "The
coming night is uncertain," he wrote; "one awaits it with fear and
trepidation.  The Muslims are utterly terrified, conscious that they are
surrounded and left to the mercy of those whom no one can pacify...The time
is ideal for murder, plunder, ill-treatment, rape and arson."

All this was going on even as the world was first learning of violations
elsewhere in Bosnia-Herzegovina.  "People in countries around the world
were being sickened by the horrors of detention camps in
Bosnia-Herzegovina, but the armed forces themselves continued to violate
human rights," said Amnesty International.  "We fear that even now, as
peace is being negotiated, violations may spread as a result of hostilities
between Bosnian Croatian and Bosnian Government forces."

But while the forces and their leaders may not seem to care, hundreds of
thousands of other people from around the world care passionately.  When
Amnesty International asked people to write in protesting about the
violations in the former Yugoslavia, they did so in massive numbers -
almost half a million, from scores of different countries and every region
of the world.  These letters will be presented at a press briefing at the
International Service for Human Rights in Geneva on Thursday, January 21,
1993.

"Everyone who is involved - the leaders of all sides, those involved in the
peace talks and all the international community - should realize that human
rights are a crucial part of the future of the region and their violation
is a massive blackspot in its present.  Hundreds of thousands of ordinary
people care enough to write to the delegates - does anyone in authority
care enough to stop the human rights violations?"

{The above mentioned reports; "Rape and Sexual Abuse by Armed Forces" and
"A Wound to the Soul", are available from AIUSA, 322 Eighth Avenue, NY, NY
10001.}

                         -30-

EMBARGOED FOR 4:00 AM EST, THURSDAY, JANUARY 21, 1993