RAPED WOMEN WERE ALSO VICTIMS OF

SREBRENICA GENOCIDE

[W]e saw two Serb soldiers, one of them was standing guard and the other one was
lying on the girl, with his pants off. And we saw a girl lying on the ground, on some
kind of mattress. There was blood on the mattress, even she was covered with
blood. She had bruises on her legs. There was even blood coming down her legs.
She was in total shock. She went totally crazy. [See: Prosecutor vs. Krstic
Judgement]

Genocide is a crime so enormous and so heartrending that it

seems to defy understanding. It is also the most serious of
international crimes and the most difficult to prove. Serb
General Radislav Krstic was found guilty of Srebrenica Genocide
and sentenced to 46 years imprisonment by the International
Criminal Tribunal for Former Yugoslavia (ICTY). On appeal,
Krstic's sentence was cut by 11 years as the court redefined his
involvement.

As a result, The Court confirmed, for the second time, that the
1995 massacre of Bosniaks (Bosnian Muslims) in Srebrenica was
indeed an act of Genocide.

In a landmark ruling, the International Criminal Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia widened the
definition of genocide when it found Bosnian Serb General Radislav Krstic guilty of “aiding and
abetting genocide” for his role in the systematic murders of Bosniak men and underage boys (children)
in Srebrenica in July 1995. The Krstic ruling expanded the legal definition of genocide to cover mass
killing on the basis of gender. While the defence argued that “the VRS decision to transfer, rather than
to kill, the women and children of Srebrenica...undermines the finding of genocidal intent”, in its final
judgement the Appeals Chamber found that proof of intent to commit genocide by destroying the group
physically or biologically was met “by the disastrous consequences for the family structures on which
the Srebrenica part of the Bosnian Muslim group was based”.

Over 8,000 Bosniaks perished in the Srebrenica massacre (also see attempts to deny Srebrenica
massacre). Most of them were men and boys (children). Women were also victimized, raped, and as a
result of UN negotiations with Serbs - herded into busses and deported. Over twenty thousands Bosnian
women were raped during the war. This figure is undoubtedly an underestimate due to underreporting
(Lene Hansen, “Gender, Nation, Rape: Bosnia and the Construction of Security”).

The International Criminal Tribunal for Yugoslavia (ICTY) handed down a verdict in February 2001
that found three Bosnian Serb men (Dragoljub Kunarac, Radomir Kovac, and Zoran Vukovic) guilty of
rape, sexual torture and enslavement. This landmark verdict was the first time individuals were
convicted of war crimes solely for sexual violence and the decision set a legal standard for sexual
enslavement as a crime against humanity.

Here are some excerpts from the ICTY's (International Tribunal for Former Yugoslavia) 260
page-rulling in the case of Prosecutor vs. Krstic which resulted in Srebrenica genocide
conviction:

43. Killings occurred.

In the late morning of 12 July 1995, a witness saw a pile of 20 to 30 bodies heaped
up behind the Transport Building in Potocari, alongside a tractor-like machine.
Another testified that, at around 1200 hours on 12 July, he saw a soldier
slay a child with a knife in the middle of a crowd of expellees. He also said
that he saw Serb soldiers execute more than a hundred Bosnian Muslim
men in the area behind the Zinc Factory and then load their bodies onto a truck,
although the number and methodical nature of the murders attested to by this
witness stand in contrast to other evidence on the Trial Record that indicates that
the killings in Potocari were sporadic in nature.

44. As evening fell, the terror deepened.

Screams, gunshots and other frightening noises were audible throughout the night
and no one could sleep. Soldiers were picking people out of thecrowd and taking
them away: some returned; others did not. Witness T recounted how three
brothers – one merely a child and the others in their teens – were taken
out in the night. When the boys’ mother went looking for them, she
found them with their throats slit.

45. That night, a Dutch Bat medical orderly came across two Serb soldiers raping a
young woman:

"[W]e saw two Serb soldiers, one of them was standing guard and the
other one was lying on the girl, with his pants off. And we saw a girl lying
on the ground, on some kind of mattress. There was blood on the mattress, even
she was covered with blood. She had bruises on her legs. There was even blood
coming down her legs. She was in total shock. She went totally crazy.”

46. Bosnian Muslim refugees nearby could see the rape, but could do
nothing about it becauseof Serb soldiers standing nearby. Other people heard
women screaming, or saw women being dragged away. Several individuals
were so terrified that they committed suicide by hanging themselves. Throughout
the night and early the next morning, stories about the rapes and killings
spread through the crowd and the terror in the camp escalated.
.... ... ...

150. On 12 and 13 July 1995, upon the arrival of Serb forces in Potocari, the
Bosnian Muslim refugees taking shelter in and around the compound were
subjected to a terror campaign comprised of threats, insults, looting
and burning of nearby houses, beatings, rapes, and murders.
... ... ...

517. More significantly, rapes and killings were reported by credible witnesses and
some committed suicide out of terror. The entire situation in Potocari has been
 depicted as a campaign of terror. As an ultimate suffering, some women
about to board the buses had their young sons dragged away from
them, never to be seen again.

According to the Secretary-General's Report, A/54/549:

389. The same day [17 July 1995], one of the Dutchbat soldiers, during his brief
stay in Zagreb upon return from Serb-held territory, was quoted as telling a
member of the press that "hunting season [is] in full swing... it is not only men
supposedly belonging to the Bosnian Government who are targeted... women,
including pregnant ones, children and old people aren't spared. Some
are shot and wounded, others have had their ears cut off and some
women have been raped.

General Krstic thus incurs liability also for the incidental murders, rapes, beatings and
abuses committed in the execution of this criminal enterprise at Potocari.

You can read 260-pages Judgement, in the case of Prosecutor vs. Krstic, here.

Here is an excerpt from Der Spiegel article titled Srebrenica Massacre Widows Sue UN,
Dutch Government: Toast to the Dead, originally published July 4th 2006:
Sabaheta Fejzic and her husband ran with their baby to a Dutch
military base....The Serbs also took her husband, and literally tore her
son from her arms. Sabaheta Fejzic never saw either of them again.
[read full article here]

I have said it before, and I will say it again: Only because of exhaustive UN
negotiations with Serb troops, Srebrenica women were 'spared' from executions
by being forcibly bussed to the Government-controlled territory. Had UN
negotiations with Serb troops failed, Srebrenica women would likely meet the
fate of Srebrenica men and boys.

Some busses never reached the safety. For example, according to the witness accounts given
by Srebrenica Massacre survivor - Kadir Habibovic - who hid himself on one of the first buses
taking women and children from the Dutch United Nations base in Potocari to government-
held territory in Kladanj, "Habibovic saw at least one vehicle full of Muslim women
being driven away from Bosnian government-held territory." One of his captors
at one point complained that they were not getting a good choice of the Muslim
women from Srebrenica. [source]

Habibovic's account corroborates reports from refugees that many Srebrenica women
were raped by Bosnian Serb soldiers. Habibovic said the men were taken to a remote
location near Rasica Gai late in the evening. When the first group was taken from the truck
and shot, he said he leapt from the truck and tumbled down a nearby slope. Gunfire from the
soldiers missed him and he escaped. He later heard a large amount of gunfire, which he
believes were the other prisoners being killed. He reached government-held territory on Aug
20, with his wounds still fresh.
Hague officials say that the tribunal's progress in dealing with rape has come from three
factors - the courage of the victims and witnesses who testified, the tenacity of the
prosecuting lawyers, and the years of tireless lobbying by pressure groups.

The breakthrough came when prosecutors established that these rapes were entirely
foreseeable. Judges agreed that the generals in charge should have reasonably predicted that,
under these conditions, the sexual assaults were likely. It was concluded that any rapes that
took place in Srebrenica were therefore the fault of the commanders.

Update: Serbs Raped Bosniak Women in Potocari >> read here >>

Source:

http://srebrenica-genocide.blogspot.com/2006/06/women-srebrenica-massacre.html