Genocidal Rape in Bosnia-Herzegovina - Research Paper Example

?Genocidal rape in Bosnia-Herzgovina Genocidal rape in Bosnia-Herzgovina is one of the most intense, terrifying, and grave genocidal accounts that history can provide. Causes of the genocidal rape in Bosnia-Herzgovina can be traced back to the World War I when Yugoslavia disintegrated into several small countries, thus forming Bosnia as one of those countries. Historical rival religious and ethnic groups living in Yugoslavia were bitter enemies. They mainly included three groups; the Serbian Christians, the Albanian Muslims, and the Craots that were Catholics. Yugoslavia went into chaos economically as well as politically after the death of the Communist leader Josip Tito. Systematic mass rape and forced impregnation of women to cause pregnancy was related to the policy of “ethnic cleansing” of the Serbian genocide. Methods used in the campaigns of ethnic cleansing included but were not limited to torture, murder, detention, arbitrary arrest, sexual assaults in general and rape in particular, extra-judicial executions, forcible removal, confinement of the civilians into the ghettos, civilian deportation and displacement, exposure of the civilians to deliberate military attacks, and property destruction. Widespread ethnic cleansing was accompanied with the outbreak of war from 1992 to 1995 in Bosnia and Herzegovina. Bosnian Serbs forced Bosnian Muslims in large numbers along with some Bosnian Croats to flee their homes. There was also a small population of Bosnian Croats that conducted similar campaign against the Serbs and the Muslims, though they were far outnumbered by the violent Serbs. In the start of 1991, Balkans saw political upheavals displacing a total of nearly 2,700,000 people, 700,000 of which sought refuge in Europe. There was an obvious military intent behind the systematic policies of rape in conflict with the International Humanitarian Law adopted by the Serbs. Giuseppe Zaccaria, an Italian journalist, summarized the Serb army officers’ minutes of meeting conducted in late 1991 in a Belgrade suburb in which he noted that the explicit policy of the Serbs was meant to target the children and women, they being the most vulnerable part of the social and religious structure of the Muslims. The reason why Bosnian Serbs targeted women and children can be summarized in these words: “Our analysis of the behavior of the Muslim communities demonstrates that the morale, will, and bellicose nature of their groups can be undermined only if we aim our action at the point where the religious and social structure is most fragile. We refer to the women, especially adolescents, and to the children. Decisive intervention on these social figures would spread confusion among the communities, thus causing first of all fear and then panic, leading to a probable [Muslim] retreat from the territories involved in war activity” (Zaccaria cited in Alien 57). In spite of the media reports discussing the mass killings, the secret camps, the destruction of architecture of Bosnia and mosques, most of the global community showed indifference to them. In response to such media reports, the UN implemented economic sanctions upon Serbia. The first UN peacekeeping force during the Yugoslav wars in Bosnia and Herzegovina was the United Nations Protection Force (UNPROFOR). Mandate of the UNPROFOR for Bosnia and Herzegovina was to keep the people alive as the war reached its end. In an attempt to supervise the food and medicine distribution among the Muslims, the UN deployed its troops. However, these troops were not allowed by the UN to make any sort of military interference against the Serbs. UN had its own reasons not to stop the Serbs from killing Bosnian Muslims; the UN security forces thought that this was not their war and so they should not risk their lives trying to stop the Serbs from committing the atrocities. In addition to that, some soldiers of the UN security forces were held hostage by the Serbs. The safety and security of those captured UN soldiers was the prime concern of the UN security forces. For the most part, because of their fear and lack of interest and consideration, the UN did not exercise its power according to the potential it had. Following this policy, the UN troops showed a steadfastly neutral attitude and indifference to the conditions. Lack of any military intervention by the US, the UN, and the European Commission instilled more confidence in the Serbs in Bosnia and they freely killed Muslims throughout 1993. Radovan Karadzic, the illegitimate Bosnian Serb Republic’s president shared his views over the cause of genocide with the journalists; “Serbs and Muslims are like cats and dogs. They cannot live together in peace. It is impossible” (Karadzic cited in “Bosnia-Herzegovina 1992-1995”). Bosnian Muslims soon realized that the UN would not protect Srebrenica. Reaching this realization, Muslim fighters gained the help from outsiders and started infiltrating weapons and fighters into the safe haven in large numbers. As their training and equipment increased, Muslim fighters started venturing out of Srebrenica. Along the way, they burned the Serb villages and assassinated their occupants. In 1994, these attacks reached their apogee and were sustained till early 1995 after the replacement of the Canadian infantry company by a larger Dutch contingent. The issue has been discussed differently in the media and literature. Some people like Beverly Allen introduced “genocidal rape” in her book as a term to refer to the rapes intentionally made as part of a policy in Bosnia-Herzegovina by the Serb forces. Allen suggests that it is inappropriate to consider the forced rapes of Bosnian women as genocidal because of the inherent differences between the results of the two actions; while rape leads to forced pregnancy, genocide leads to assassination. Such philosophers and writers like Beverly Alien rationalize the actions of Serb rapists suggesting that the intent of these Serb forces was to produce little Serbs. Other writers like Claudia Card have challenged such philosophical justifications, trying to question and compliment other writers’ views and assertions. (Card) has re-examined the paradox articulated by Allen and has shared her views on the fact that rape can, indeed, be genocidal whether or not it is aimed at forced pregnancy. Card has drawn on Allen’s insight that in rape, sperm plays the role of a biological warfare weapon, and has proposed ways in which rape causing forced pregnancy is genocidal in effect. The rape has produced very grave and shameful consequences that are aggravating over the passage of time as the children born to the rape victim women are growing up. These children have been abandoned by their mothers and understandably, they have no fathers to take care of them. They are growing up with a reprehensible identity. Sexual assault of women leaves emotional and psychological scars in the victims that are much deeper than the physical scars. Victims of rape experience long term effects of rape. Many ostracized women are subjected to further violation of rights on the basis of being women. In conservative societies, husbands cannot develop emotional bond with women that have been subjected to sexual violence in one way or another. To a certain extent, victims of rape themselves do not remain very healthy, stable, and normal to be able to live a normal life. Most of the rape victims have still not been able to accept the children born to them as a result of forced pregnancies. Head of obstetrics and gynecology, Asim Kurjak from the Zagreb’s Holy Spirit Hospital said, “Not one of the women I spoke with, and I spoke with them for hours, had even a minimal wish to take their babies. We had to put blindfolds on them for the deliveries…The babies are innocent third parties, but I personally do not believe any of these women will ever change their minds. They tell me they don’t consider that these are their babies. They are like foreign objects to them” (Kurjak cited in Williams). Cry From The Grave is a movie that presents the genocide. It offers a detailed account of the genocide, including testimonies not only of the eye witnesses, but also original footage of certain events. Video recordings from different sources have been offset against each other to provide a detailed insight into the genocide. The testimonies of the victims and the survivors reflect a kind of personal horror of a high degree. “It is enough that those progeny are therefore largely unwanted and yet the responsibility of those who do not want them, that they are a permanent reminder of their origins in torture, that their identity is problematic, and that women who gave birth to them are so traumatized that they may never regain the desire to engage in sexual relationships or to procreate further” (Card). This movie uses oral testimonies and title cards to reflect the desperation of the Muslims and a feeling of intense guilt and uncertainty in the Dutch UN soldiers. It is, indeed, shameful, that a genocide took place right before the UN, in Europe, as the 20th century was reaching its end. This movie questions the passive presence and obedience of the Dutch peacekeepers during the progress of genocide. Grbavica is another movie that describes how single mothers who are rape-victims of the genocide are living in the contemporary Sarajevo. It is about their insecurities, fears, trauma, and complexity of relationship that these single mothers have with their children. Esma, single mother of Sara, tries to raise her with the impression that her father was a Bosnian hero. It is only after circumstances naturally take such a turn that Esma can no longer hide the identity of Sara’s real father from Sara, that she tells Sara that she is actually the daughter of a Chetnik. Although she is taken by a shock, yet this truth strengthens Sara’s relationship with Esma as well as with her country Bosnia. This movie encourages such single mothers as Esma that things might change for the better if they manage to stop hiding from the reality themselves, though it is certainly very demanding emotionally as well as psychologically. I have personally seen these movies and I must say, that while watching these movies, particularly, Cry From The Grave, I was taken by uttermost despair and shock. It is hard for me to realize that a human being like a Bosnian Serb, who has emotions, and who senses happiness and sadness, or at least, has sensed these natural feelings for some time in the life, until all these feelings were crushed by the army training, can be so dehumanized so that doing rape becomes nothing more serious than an exercise routine. Their seniors ordered them and they raped innocent women like they were not even living beings! I also feel pity for the children that were born to those women. These children have a lot of questions in their minds that have never been answered; Why did they came into existence? Who are their parents? Where would they go? What is their identity? Those children have been punished for sins they had never committed. On the other hand, I totally understand how difficult it might be for a rape victim to accept the child of the rapist that, more importantly than anything else, is a constant reminder of the heinous humiliation forced upon them by the Bosnian Serbs. Looking at the role played by the UN in the genocidal rape in Bosnia-Herzgovina, I also question the effectiveness and integrity of the UN as it assumes the responsibility of protecting the rights of humans and establishing peace (“Sudan, Darfur Rape” 9), and yet, everything happened right in front of the fully equipped and armed UN forces. In fact, I would say that the UN indeed played a role in making things more difficult for the Muslims. Had they not come and assured Muslims of providing them with security, Muslims might have been more careful and taken the necessary measures to protect themselves. However, since they trusted the UN security forces and placed their confidence in them, their vulnerability to violence and attacks by the Serbs increased when the UN security forces left the Muslims right in the mid of trouble.   Works Cited: Allen, Beverly. 1996. Rape warfare: The hidden genocide in Bosnia-Herzegovina and Croatia. Minneapolis: University of Minnesota Press. “Bosnia-Herzegovina 1992-1995 200,000 Deaths.” The History Place. 1999. Web. 9 Oct. 2013. . Card, Claudia. “The Paradox of Genocidal Rape Aimed at Enforced Pregnancy.” The Southern Journal of Philosophy. 46 (2008). “Sudan, Darfur Rape as a weapon of war: Sexual violence and its consequences.” Amnesty International. 2004. Williams, Carol J. “What do to with Bosniak Children Born to Rape Victims in Bosnia?” 31 March 2011. Web. 8 Oct. 2013. . Read More