"Women are raped in Zion;
virgins in the towns of Judah." Lamentations 5:11, from the Hebrew Scriptures (First Testament)
For I [God] will gather all the nations against Jerusalem to battle, and
the city shall be taken and the houses looted and the women raped; half the city shall go into exile, but the rest of the
people shall not be cut off from the city. Zechariah 14:2, from the Hebrew Scriptures (First Testament)
"I was playing jump-rope in front of my house when an automobile pulled
over. I had never seen a car before in my village. When the driver offered me a ride, I, curious and naive, climbed in with
my friend. Immediately, that car rolled on with us in it and then kept on going and going, never returning me to my village...."
Ms. Kim Yoon Shim, a former "comfort woman," (sex-slave) about her abduction at the age of 14 by the Japanese military.
I have posted the full-text
of 998 articles on the topic of war rape, You may find the articles in a single, albeit large, pdf file which may be viewed
and/or download by clicking on this link.
War Against Women: "60 Minutes" Segment
The
civil war in Congo is an ethnic conflict, but gender has become a crucial factor, too, as women are bearing the brunt of one
of the horrible weapons used in the war: rape. See the below segment from "60 Minutes" for an example of the use
of women as an instrument of war.
The Story of Almira Bektovic: Bosnian Child
of War Rape
During the Bosnian war, Serb forces
conducted sexual abuse strategy on Bosniak/Bosnian girls and women which will later be known as mass rape phenomenon. Between
20,000 and 44,000 women were systematically raped by the Serb forces. Considering the estimates and the demographics of Bosnia,
by the end of the war approximately up to seven out of every hundred sexually capable Bosniak women and girls had been raped
by Serb forces. The women and young girls were often held captives for up to 8 months or more, before being released or killed,
often strategically beyond the possibility of abortion. During this time they were kept under constant fear, trauma, threat,
violence, oppression, humiliation, sexual abuse and slavery by soldiers in ages ranging from 20 to 60 years. Common profound
complications among surviving women and girls include gynaecological, physical and psychological (post traumatic) disorders,
as well as unwanted pregnancies and sexually transmitted diseases. The survivors often feel uncomfortable/frustrated/sickened
with men, sex and relationships; ultimately affecting the growth/development of a population and/or society as such (thus
constituting a slow genocide according to some). In accordance with the Bosnian society, most of the girls not married were
virgins at the time of rape; further traumatizing the situation.
Among the
most appalling and deplorable accounts of inhuman treatment and cruelty brought upon young Muslim females of Bosnia is that
of the 12-year-old Almira Bektovic, a helpless war victim for whom virtually no compassion was shown whatsoever. Born in the
town of Mostar in the year 1980, she lived in Miljevina in the municipality of Foca, the birth village of her father, Ramiz
Bektovic, at the time of the Serb attack on these areas in the summer of 1992. Her father was taken away by the Serbs in june
1992 and was never seen again. Almira and her mother were instead detained in the Partizan Sports Hall with hundreds of other
Bosniak women and girls under inhuman conditions and with lack of food or water. In mid-August 1992, Almira Bektovic among
other girls was brought to 'Karaman's house' by Radovan Stankovic, this lasted for ten days until she was returned
to her mother whom she told that "she had worked as a waitress, washed clothes, cleaned and cooked, and that there were
many other girls there who did chores and things for the Serb soldiers". Afterwards in mid-september 1992 deportation
busses were prepared for elderly Muslim women and young children that were to take them to Bosnian-government-controlled areas
for exchange; in a bus were Almira and her mother and two sisters, however suddenly the bus was stopped at the Drina bridge,
and entered did men sent by Radovan Stankovic, who called out the name of the girl and snatched Almira Bektovic from her mother's
arms, who then screamed repeatedly "Give me back my child!" before losing consciousness, Almira was heard screaming
and crying "Don't take me, I'm only twelve!". One of the surviving witnesses from Karaman's house reported
that Almira was brought to the house holding her doll tightly to her chest, apparently not knowing what was awaiting her.
Soon thereafter Nedo Samardzic raped Almira Bektovic and reportedly bragged about "having taken her virginity" and
"having fooled soldier Pero Elez (who was always looking for virgins) in who was to be the first to take her virginity".
Almira was found crying and vomiting after the assault (as part of rape trauma syndrome), by one the surviving girls from
the house. Over the next three months Almira Bekotvic was forced into much the same pattern as all the other women and girls
detained in the house; she had to do household chores, cook for the soldiers and sexually please these, at the age of merely
12. Almira's status however was even more vulnerable than that of the other girls who (in contrast to Almira) were 'assigned'
to specific soldiers who got to rape them only, Almira thus not being assigned to any specific soldier was free to be raped
by any soldier that was granted entrance to Karaman's house. Radomir kovac detained, between or about 31 October 1992
until December 1992 Almira Bektovic (and other girls). During their detention they were also beaten, threatened, psychologically
oppressed, and kept in constant fear. During this period Almira was moved between various locations and apartments in Foca
in order to 'serve' Serb soldiers and friends of Radomir Kovac. At one or more occasions she was forced into sex with
50-year-old soldier Slavo Ivanovic. On about 25 December 1992, Radomir Kovac sold Almira Bektovic to a Montenegrin soldier
(who were known among the detained women as "more aggressive") for 200 DM (100 Euro), and from there on the tracks
of her are lost (probably murdered shortly thereafter).
Dedicated to all
the Bosnian women and girls who suffered in the aggression on Bosnia and still have an overwhelming grief in their hearts
and minds.
Whenever there is an unbalance of power, the potential
for rape increased.
Rape during war appears to have gone through
three main stages:
In ancient times: rape was
a reward to the victors: The Hebrew Scriptures (Old Testament) describes the rape of the women of conquered tribes
as a routine act. Foreign woman were often kidnapped as spoils of war, and forced to marry their captors/rapists. This was
probably typical behavior in the Middle East during that era. In ancient times, rape was considered to be a crime against
the victim's father or spouse -- whoever owned her. "The ancient Greeks and Romans would rape and enslave women
after they had conquered a city." 2
More modern times: random cases of rape: Random rape by soldiers during wartime has been a common
phenomenon, particularly when there has been a lack of army discipline. "From [recent] conflicts in Bosnia
and Herzegovina to Peru to Rwanda, girls and women have been singled out for
rape, imprisonment, torture and execution. Rape, identified by psychologists as the most intrusive of traumatic events, has
been documented in many armed conflicts including those in Bangladesh, Cambodia, Cyprus,
Haiti, Liberia, Somalia and Uganda." 3
Recent changes: systematic, organized rape
as a tactic of war: Rape is now increasingly being intentionally used as a tactic of terror. Author Maria B. Olujic
wrote:
"Rape was a weapon of terror
as the German Hun marched through Belgium in World War I; gang rape was part of the orchestrated riots of
Kristallnacht which marked the beginning of Nazi campaigns against the Jews. It was a weapon of revenge as the Russian Army
marched to Berlin in World War II, it was used when the Japanese raped Chinese women in the city of Nanking, when the Pakistani
Army battled Bangladesh, and when the American G.I.s made rape in Vietnam a 'standard operating procedure aimed at terrorizing
the population into submission'."4 Numerous recent cases have been seen, mostly
in religiously-motivated wars:
1991-1994:
Serbian paramilitary troops used rape systematically as a tactic to encourage Bosnian Muslim women to flee from their land.
1994: In Rwanda, Hutu leaders ordered
their troops to rape Tutsi women as an integral part of their genocidal campaign.
1997: Secular women were targeted by Muslim revolutionaries in Algeria and
reduced to sex slaves.
1998: Indonesian
security forces allegedly raped ethnic Chinese women during a spate of major rioting.
Late 1990s: Serbian military and paramilitary units systematically raped
ethnic Albanian Muslim women during the unrest in Kosovo.
The
evolution of rape from a largely random event into a premeditated, organized act of terrorism during warfare has motivated
international action to punish, and thus to hopefully prevent, such activity in the future.
Rape during the World War II era:
There were many such incidences
during the World War II era. The most serious were:
In
Nanjing, China, during 1937 & 1938, Japanese soldiers were responsible for massive levels of rape among the local Chinese
population. One source estimates that over 80,000 women were raped. 6
Millions of women victims raped by Russian soldiers during
the last months of World War II. Anthony Beevor's book "Berlin -- The Downfall 1945" documents
rape by Russian soldiers. "Beevor's conclusions are that in response to the vast scale of casualties inflicted
on them by the Germans the Soviets responded in kind, and that included rape on a vast scale. It started as soon as the Red
Army entered East Prussia and Silesia in 1944, and in many towns and villages every female
aged from 10 to 80 was raped." The author "was 'shaken to the core' to discover that even their
own Russian and Polish women and girls liberated from German concentration camps were also violated." He estimates
that "a 'high proportion' of at least 15 million women who lived in the Soviet zone or were expelled from
Germany's eastern provinces were raped." Until recent years, East German women from the World
War II era referred to the Red Army war memorial in Berlin as "the Tomb of the Unknown Rapist." 8,9
Hundreds of thousands of kidnapped "comfort women"
who probably endured in excess of ten million incidences of rape by Japanese soldiers from the mid 1930s to the end of hostilities
in 1945. The Japanese military's mass program involving kidnapped "comfort women" during World War
II was probably "the largest, most methodical and most deadly mass rape of women in recorded history." More details.
Rape during recent wars:
More than 20,000 Muslim girls and women were raped during the religiously-motivated
atrocities in the former Yugoslavia in Bosnia. This was mainly during an organized Serbian program of cultural genocide. One
goal was to make the women pregnant, and raising their children as Serbs. 10 Another was to terrorize
women so that they would flee from their land.
It has been estimated
that Iraqi soldiers raped at least 5,000 Kuwaiti women during Iraq's invasion of Kuwait. 11
During the civil war in Rwanda:"One United
Nations report estimated that as many as 500,000 women and girls suffered brutal forms of sexual violence , including gang-rape
and sexual mutilation, after which many of them were killed." 11
"In Algeria, the women of entire villages have been raped
and killed. The government estimates that about 1,600 girls and young women have been kidnapped to become sexual slaves by
roving bands from armed Islamic groups." 11
One source referred to rape of Tamil women in Sri Lanka and of women in Somalia, Haiti, Kashmir and Peru. 12,13,14
Another source referred to rape "in Bangladesh,
Cambodia, Cyprus, Haiti, Liberia, Somalia
and Uganda." 3
A resolution of the United Methodist Church mentioned rape in the Republic of Georgia.15
International law concerning rape during wartime:
Current international laws that touch on rape are mainly contained in four documents:
The 1949 Geneva Conventions
The 1977 Supplementary Protocols of the Geneva Conventions
The body of law from the Nuremberg Tribunal held at the close of World War
II
The Military Tribunal of the Far East. 12
Article 27 of the Fourth Geneva Convention states
that "women shall be especially protected against any attack on their honour, in particular against rape, enforced
prostitution, or any form of indecent assault."
Countries
are required to punish "grave breaches" of the Geneva Conventions and Protocols in their own national
courts. Article 147 of the Fourth Geneva Convention includes, as grave breaches, any actions willfully committed
that cause great suffering or serious injury to body or health.
Common
Article 3 of the Geneva Conventions prohibits "violence to life and person, in particular murder of
all kinds, mutilation, cruel treatment and torture" as well as "outrages upon personal dignity, in particular
humiliating and degrading treatment."
Protocol
II Additional to the Geneva Conventions murder as well as cruel treatment such as torture, mutilation and outrages upon
personal dignity -- in particular humiliating and degrading treatment, rape, enforced prostitution and any form of indecent
assault, as well as slavery and the slave trade in all their forms.
Rape was listed in Article 6 of the Nuremberg Charter as a "Crime Against Humanity."
At the International Criminal Tribunal of Rwanda, the rape of Tutsi women was
found to constitute torture when it was "by or at the instigation of or with the consent or acquiescence of a public
official or others person acting in an official capacity."
Recently, rape during armed conflict has received a higher priority internationally. "...proceedings have
been commenced in the International Court of Justice by Bosnia Hercegovina, criminal proceedings in the domestic courts of,
for example, France, Germany and the Bosnian Military Tribunal in Sarajevo, civil actions in the USA... and of course the
establishment of a International Criminal Tribunal in the former Yugoslavia." 4
If the strong resistance of the U.S. government is overcome, the new permanent International
Criminal Court will give future women victims of rape an opportunity to initiate lawsuits against their attackers and
obtain justice. The existence of the Court should cause combatants to fear future prosecution, and thus deter future
mass rapes.
Books and articles concerning rape during wartime: 16
Thomas S. Abler, "Scalping, torture, cannibalism and rape: An ethno-historical
analysis of conflicting cultural values in war," Anthropologica 34, pp. 3-20, (1992).
Christine Ball, "Women, rape, and war: patriarchal functions and ideologies,"
Atlantis 12, pp. 83-92, (1986).
Susan Brooks Thistlehwaite, "
'You may enjoy the spoil of your enemies:' rape as a Biblical metaphor for war," Semeia 61, pp. 59, (1993).
Marlene Epp, "The memory of violence: Soviet and East
European Mennonite refugees and rape in the Second World War," Journal of Women's History 9, pp. 58-87, (1997-8).
Pamela Gordon, "Women, war and metaphor: language and
society in the study of the Hebrew Bible," Semeia 61 (1993).
Anita Grossmann, "A question of silence: the rape of German women by occupation soldiers," October
72, pp. 54-55 (1995).
Gullance Nicoletta, "Sexual violence
and family honor: British propaganda and international law during the First World War," American Historical Review
102, pp. 714-747, (1997).
Ruth Harris, "The child of
the barbarian: rape, race and nationalism in France during the First World War," Past & Present
141, pp. 170-206, (1993).
Stanley Rosenman, "The
spawning grounds of the Japanese rapists on Nanking," Journal of Psychohistory 28: pp. 2-23, (2000).
Louise Ryan, " 'Drunken tans:' Representations
of sex and violence in the Anglo-Irish war (1919-1921)," Feminist Review 66: pp. 73-94, (2000).
Ruth Seifert, "The second front: the logic of sexual violence in wars,"
Women's Studies International Forum 19: pp. 35-43, (1996).
Hsu-ming
Teo, "The continuum of sexual violence in occupied Germany," 1945-49," Women's History
Review 5: pp. 191-218, (1996).
International courts which have or will deal
with cases of rape:
Maria B. Olujic,
"Women, Rape, and War: The Continued Trauma of Refugees and Displaced Persons in Croatia," Anthropology
of East Europe Review, Volume 13, No. 1 Spring, 1995; Special Issue: Refugee Women of the Balkans
"Tamil Centre
for Human Rights," cited by Reference 17
"Human
Rights Watch Global Report on Women�s Human Rights," 1995-AUG, cited by Reference 17.
"Rape in Times of Conflict and War: A resolution from the General Board of
Global Ministries approved by the 1996 General Conference of The United Methodist Church," at: http://gbgm-umc.org/mission/resolutions/rapewar.html
