Fwd: UN court establishes rape as a war crime

From: Wade T.Smith (wade_smith@harvard.edu)
Date: Fri Feb 23 2001 - 17:43:22 GMT

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    Subject: Fwd: UN court establishes rape as a war crime
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    UN court establishes rape as a war crime

    3 Serbs convicted in Bosnia assaults

    By Kevin Cullen, Globe Staff, 2/23/2001

    http://www.boston.com/dailyglobe2/054/nation/UN_court_establishes_rape_as_a
    _war_crimeP.shtml

    LONDON - In a judgment that for the first time establishes rape as a
    crime against humanity, three former Bosnian Serb soldiers were convicted
    by a United Nations court yesterday of systematically raping and
    torturing Muslim women during the Bosnian war.

    The verdict, by a court sitting in The Hague, sets legal precedent by
    declaring that forcibly holding someone for the purpose of rape
    constitutes slavery.

    Three judges sitting without a jury at the International Criminal
    Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia found the three men guilty of raping
    and torturing women in the Bosnian town of Foca in 1992. They were among
    many Serb soldiers and paramilitary fighters who rounded up Muslim women
    and held them as sex slaves, the judges found.

    The trial, which began 11 months ago, was watched closely because it was
    the first time that rape and sexual assault were the sole basis for a war
    crimes prosecution. Previous cases have included rape with a series of
    other crimes. Under international law, the concept of slavery previously
    had been applied only to cases of forced labor.

    Swanee Hunt, who as US ambassador to Austria dispatched some of her staff
    to take statements from rape victims in the Bosnian war, hailed the
    verdict.

    ''This verdict has opened an important door,'' said Hunt, now director of
    the Women and Public Policy Program at the Kennedy School of Government
    at Harvard University. ''The issue of rape has been viewed by many as
    just interpersonal. The Hague court has said clearly that rape can be a
    war crime and a crime against humanity.

    ''This isn't just about justice, it's about healing. Healing for these
    women could not begin until the truth came out, and the truth is out
    now.''

    Prosecutors and human rights advocates estimate that at least 20,000
    women were raped during the Balkan wars of the 1990s, and additional
    prosecutions are expected to follow. Prosecutors have already gathered
    evidence from ethnic Albanian women who said they were raped by Serb
    forces in Kosovo during the conflict there that ended in June 1999 after
    78 days of NATO bombing.

    Florence Hartmann, a spokeswoman for the chief war crimes prosecutor,
    Carla Del Ponte, said the ruling also means prosecutors can bring charges
    against the superiors of those who enslave and systematically rape women.

    ''This is an important day for international justice,'' Hartmann said.
    ''This says rape can be a crime against humanity, that it is an
    instrument of terror. It also proves that slavery isn't just about forced
    labor. We have precedent now.''

    Hartmann said prosecutors would have to study the judges' ruling before
    deciding whether there is enough evidence to charge the superiors of the
    three convicted men, who were relatively low-level figures in the Bosnian
    Serb chain of command during the 1992-95 Bosnian war.

    The war crimes tribunal has tried to focus on those who gave the orders
    that led to war crimes during the Balkan wars of the 1990s, crimes that
    were judged so cruel and unusual that the UN created a special court to
    prosecute them. Prosecutors decided to go after the Foca rape camps not
    only to seek justice for the hundreds of women raped and tortured there,
    but to establish a precedent that would put rape on the same legal
    footing as other forms of terror used against civilians.

    Patricia Sellers, an American lawyer who is the prosecutor's adviser on
    sexual assault issues, said the case was especially important because the
    international justice system had let down women who were sexually
    enslaved in the past, such as those who suffered at the hands of Japanese
    forces during World War II.

    Dragoljub Kunarac, 40, was sentenced to 28 years in prison. Prosecutors
    said he commanded a small Serb unit in Foca, and victims testified that
    he was in charge of the house where Serb fighters came to take their pick
    of Muslim women held as sex slaves. Kunarac tormented some of his victims
    by saying they would give birth to ''Serb babies,'' they said.

    Florence Mumbia, the presiding judge, poured particular scorn on Kunarac,
    telling him he had been the author of a ''nightmarish scheme of sexual
    exploitation.''

    ''You abused and ravaged Muslim women because of their ethnicity, and
    from among their number you picked whomsoever you fancied,'' the judge
    said.

    Radomir Kovac, 40, a paramilitary fighter, was convicted of rape and
    torture along with Kunarac and was sentenced to 20 years. Zoran Vukovic,
    45, was found guilty of raping and torturing a single victim, a
    15-year-old girl, but was acquitted of the more serious charges and was
    sentenced to 12 years.

    Peggy Kuo, one of the prosecutors, said the sentences proved ''that the
    court takes these kinds of crimes seriously.''

    In April 1992, the town of Foca, southeast of Sarajevo, was overrun by
    Serb forces seeking to rid Bosnia of Muslims and Croats. About half of
    Foca's 40,000 residents were Muslims; the rest were Serbs.

    Hundreds of Muslim women were made sex slaves, held in homes, apartments,
    hotels, and the local sports auditorium and high school to serve Serb
    soldiers who returned from a day of fighting. According to testimony, the
    men would line the women up and pick from them at whim to be raped.

    The witnesses' stories were gut-wrenching. A 12-year-old girl told of
    being raped daily by soldiers for months. A woman described how she lost
    her virginity at 15 to a group of soldiers. Another said she fainted when
    her attackers bit her breasts bloody while raping her. Another said she
    was gang-raped by 15 soldiers for three hours. Another said she was raped
    by more than 20 soldiers after they had killed her mother in front of her.

    One woman said a neighbor had raped her.

    ''He was 20 years older, married,'' she testified. ''He laughed, and I
    had the feeling he was doing it exactly because he knew me, to cause me
    even more evil.''

    When they were not being raped, the women were forced at gunpoint to
    cook, clean, and do laundry. Soldiers sold them to others for less than
    $100.

    ''Muslims, we will show you!'' one soldier cried before committing rape,
    according to testimony.

    This story ran on page A01 of the Boston Globe on 2/23/2001. © Copyright
    2001 Globe Newspaper Company.

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