An Instrument of Genocide in Bosnia - Essay Example

?Genocide Studies The contention that organised rape has been an instrument of genocide in Bosnia The genocide in Bosnia was committed by Serbian forces during the Bosnian War (1992-1995) in the form of an ethnic cleansing campaign, and especially in Srebrenica in 1995, between July 12 and 17. It involved beatings, torture, killings and rape. Consequently, many people have been displaced, or they are missing. Around 2.2 million people have had to flee their homes (Mikelic et al., 2005: 27). Most of the Bosnian men were targets of systematic torture, beatings and killings while most of the female gender had to face the brunt of humiliation and rape. Ramet (1999: 267) put the figure of killings at between 200,000 and 400,000 between June 1991 and December 1994, i.e. prior to year in which the further massacres took place at Srebrenica. As of 2010, nearly 90,000 deaths, directly attributable to the war have been individually documented (Zwierzchowski & Tabeau, 2010). The International Criminal Tribunal for the former Yogoslavia (ICTY) put an estimate of the total number of persons killed at 104,732 (ICTY, 2010). However, this figure is even lower than estimates from other Western sources such as the unclassified CIA memorandum and the Ministry of Public Health, which both put the figure around 150,000 (SrebrenicaGenocide, 2009). The focus of this paper however, is on the issue of organised rape as an instrument of genocide in Bosnia. It examines the extent, to which this instrument was used, the forms it took, and the effects on women’s lives. The number of rapes that occurred is usually estimated at between 20,000 and 60,000. Others however, have dismiss the number of rapes as being exaggerated. For example, Alex (1993 in Gorin, 2007) points out that there are very few rape counselling centers, but this ignores the fact that rape is felt to be an extreme humiliation so many victims are reluctant to seek counselling. In fact, many women have not even reported their cases for the same reason, which suggests the real figure may actually be higher than the estimates. Similarly, the low number of documented cases by the United Nations does not mean those cases are exhaustive. This tragedy took place in present day Europe while the ‘civilised’ West looked on and indirectly abetted the genocide by applying sanctions on the victims and appeasing the aggressor (Sonyel, 1994). The Muslim nations too, failed to bring about any significant control to the situation. It was a period in modern history when the much-vaunted principles of human rights and human dignity were set aside and a mass scale massacre was allowed to happen. It also showed how selective the West is in coming to the aid of others, given that only a few years earlier the people of Kuwait were liberated from the Iraqi invasion. The United National General Assembly passed several resolutions during the war, beginning with Resolution 757 (Ryan, 2000: 116), but it had no impact in making the Serbs change their intentions. Srebrenica was even declared a safe area, and it was supposed to be under UN protection by Dutch troops (FT, N.d.). Consequently, many Muslims sought protection in Srebrenica only to meet a horrendous fate while the international community pretended to be powerless to do anything to stop the genocide. The Dutch claimed the UN provided no air support but it seems senior Dutch officers refused to do anything (ibid). The 1949 Geneva Conventions grant non-combatants special protection, but women especially, are also protected against rape and other forms of sexual assault (Krill, 1985). Despite these resolutions, the conventions and the safe haven, as history has shown, neither the civilian men nor the women and children were immune from the war. The Bosnian War showed that ordinary women could also become victims of war, in particular, from rape. The International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) (2001) studied the impact of armed conflict on women. They identified several areas in which women are affected, which include displacement, security, problems in access to food and medical care, and sexual violence such as rape, sexual slavery, and forced prostitution and impregnation. Women also constitute an estimated 8% of the 18,00 persons registered as missing from the Bosnian conflict. The first set of rape cases handled by the ICTY was about Foca in 2001 where thousands of females in eastern Bosnia were sexually abused (Ahmetasevic, 2010). Although this encouraged the later cases to be put forward, as mentioned above, not all rape cases have been reported let alone legal action taken to address the injustice. The shame and silence prevents most women from coming forward. According to many legal authorities however, only the massacre at Srebrenica is considered an act of genocide. For example, the International Criminal Tribunal for the Former Yugoslavia (ICTY, 2011) and the International Court of Justice (ICJ, 2007) have acknowledged there were widespread killings, mass rapes and torture, but did not consider Serbia to have committed genocide, rather it failed to prevent it from happening in Srebrenica. The legal definition of genocide is narrower than what is generally accepted. Nonetheless, to date, several individuals have been convicted of war crimes and more cases are in progress. It was reported in The Guardian that mass rape is now recognised as a crime against humanity (Osborn, 2001). The Yugoslav war crimes tribunal reached an agreement while sentencing three Serbs for their part in organising a large rape camp and using rape as an instrument of terror. The terms ‘mass rape’ is used because the Serbs engaged in a large scale and systematic campaign of rape and torture of Bosnian Muslim women. Incidents of rape were not therefore isolated or random. This is a case of rape being used a main tool of warfare. It is said that all sides carried out rape, but by far the majority of perpetrators were Serbian men and the majority of victims were Bosnian women. Moreover, some of the victims were as young as 8 years of age (Sonyel, 1994: 33), there was a deliberate intention to impregnate them (Osborn, 2001), and there are several instances where the women were forced to confess of having a different ethnic origin. Stiglmayer & Faber (1994: 76) mentions several cases where the raping was combined with propaganda to spread disinformation. For example, in one incident, a woman was made to confess that she was a terrorist. A number of women in Banja Luka were presented on news as Serbian and as having been raped by Croatians or Muslims. In another incident, a woman was tied and repeatedly raped while being filmed, but a lapse in recording also aired a few seconds of sound in which it was clear that the rapists were all Serbian. There were thus, at least three kinds of rapes during the war: Rapes occurred when the Serbs first occupied a place, rapes occurred in the camps, and rapes occurred in houses during sexual enslavement (Rejali, 1996). In addition, there were rapes that occurred in public places to provide a scene for onlookers, and for televising propaganda. Thus, the typology of the rapes is varied and comprises of abduction-rape-murder, detention rape-forced impregnation-enforced pregnancy, public rape, and so on (Jones, 2004: 255). The true horror of the rape camps however, has been described more explicitly by Ahmad (1993). There were extreme cases of young girls with their vocal chords torn from repeated raping in the mouth and pregnant women whose stomachs had been ripped open to remove the foetus. One six year old girl was raped in front of her mother (Hassan, 1993). In short, the scenes were a display of unprecedented cruelty of the worst kind. The mass raping of Bosnian women and girls has had various long-term repercussions as well, both physical and psychological. Not surprisingly, the rapes have resulted in the impairment of their social and interpersonal functioning (Londar et al., 2006). The rapes have brought the Bosnian women to humiliation and disgrace. Many of the rapes led to offspring as well because the women were kept in concentration camps until it was no longer possible to have abortions. Many of these children are now suffering from problems of identity (Weitsman, 2008). Some of these children were given away for adoption but not all. The rapes have become a collective trauma of the Bosnian nation. This lingering impact of the rape was documented in a moving drama in titled Grbavica, which won the Berlinale’s Golden Bear award in 2006 (UK Film Council, N.d.). It features the story of Esma, a single mother and her daughter Sara who was conceived as an outcome of being raped. Esma attempts to hide the truth about her past from Sara. The phenomenon of wartime rape that was a key feature of the war in Bosnia, has led to many theories to explain this abnormal human behaviour. Rajali (1996) also mentioned that the raping served as ethnic markers to distinguish between the ethnic divisions. Gottschall (2004) put forward a biosocial theory, which seems to explain the situation better than other feminist, cultural pathological and strategic rape theories. Various socio-cultural factors played an integral part in the disgraceful sexual atrocities. Thus, such a situation can only be prevented through changing human behaviour. In this case, the socio-cultural background of the Serbs had become ripe to carry out such horrendous acts on women. The strong sexually obsessive nature of the genocide is explained by the fact that before the war started and after the collapse of communism, Yugoslavia was a highly liberal and pornography saturated country Stiglmayer & Faber (1994: 77). Pornography had become a very normal part of daily life through widespread displays and its presence even in mainstream news magazines. The male population were therefore primed to dehumanise women and enjoy themselves in inflicting sexual assault as a result of the normalcy of pornography (Rejali, 1996). Those who have been convicted of the rapes since are known to have been surrounded by pornography. There were also sexual materials and markings in the camps, and nude pictures were clad on some Serbian tanks, soldiers often invited others to the rape sessions, and rapes were also televised (Stiglmayer & Faber, 1994: 76-78). Kuperman (2002) examined the opposing perspective, i.e. what is was about the background of the Bosnians that made them particularly vulnerable, whereas the Albanians for example were largely able to avoid being mass raped. He suggested that groups become vulnerable to genocidal violence due to their own demise as a consequence of either engaging in armed secession or provoking revolutions against the state. In addition, it is suggested that the groups become falsely optimistic by expecting outside military intervention and humanitarian aid. It would be wrong to put the blame entirely on the victims, as they suffered from intolerable aggression and did nothing to provoke the Serbs at a political level. The reason for the vulnerability was very much due to religious differences. The Christian Serbs wanted to simply exterminate the Muslim population and expand its own territory. This explains the mass slaughter of Muslim men while ‘cleansing’ villages. It also explains the targeting of Muslim women for rape and impregnation, and forcing them to endure their pregnancies. As one soldier commented, the aim was to make them have children who would become Christian (Osborn, 2001). The Serbs were also strongly attached to the Christian faith and promoted the cross, so religion was clearly the ideological driver behind the events. They also wanted to avenge for what they perceived as a humiliation when their ancestors voluntarily accepted Islam during the time of the Ottoman Empire (Sonyel, 1994: 33). However, the Muslims were also blameworthy to an extent in that they had become too integrated with the non-Muslim culture becoming barely distinguishable, so as Rajali (1996) suggested, a need arose for ethnic, but also religious, distinction. In addition, Kuperman’s (2002) point about optimism is a valid one. As mentioned at the outset, the UN had arranged a save haven in Srebrenica, but as it turned out, this was precisely the place where the genocide and raping was at its worst. Other nations and organisations therefore posed a moral hazard instead. Indeed, the self-interest of nations seems to override any concerns for human dignity and human rights. There have been many instances where deliberate false promises have been given, such as when the former U.S president Bush encourage the Shias to start an uprising against Saddam Hussein but ended up having to endure an onslaught on their own. In conclusion, whereas the actual number of rapes that occurred in Bosnia can be disputed, there is no denying the fact that the Serbs were sexually obsessed, rape was a key instrument of the genocide, it was conducted systematically, and many women, including young girls, were raped. Moreover, the rapes took various forms, and its impact continues today in terms of humiliation and other psychological effects. In addition, this paper also highlighted the background conditions that created the basis for the genocide and the issue of indifference of other nations to prevent the genocide and raping at the time. Although legal proceedings have since been taking place for those who were prepared to reveal their victimisation, there needs to be a serious examination of our collective responsibilities to protect human rights and dignity. References Ahmad, Akbar S. 1993. New metaphor in the new world order. Impact International March-April 1993. Ahmetasevic, Nidzara. 2010. Silence and shame shield Srebrenica rapists from justice. Couch Tripper. Available at http://couchtripper.com/rapedbysoldiers/?tag=bosnia [Accessed 6 April 2011]. FT. N.d. Dutch government sued over Srebrenica. Financial Times. 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Conference Paper for the International Research Workshop on The Global Costs of Conflict, held in Berlin, Germany, 1-2 February 2010. Read More