From: pnmideast@igc.apc.org
Newsgroups: alt.activism
Subject: Re: Rape After Rape After Rape
Date: 19 Dec 92 09:22:00 GMT
Nf-ID: #R:2097.2b2f8fba@mbcl.rutgers.edu:-2147061692:cdp:1296500460:000:9360
Nf-From: cdp.UUCP!pnmideast    Dec 19 01:22:00 1992


From: <pnmideast>
Subject: Rape After Rape After Rape

Listen guys,
When I first heard about the rapes I was skeptical too. But
when I saw reports ie.below, I started to rethink.

This is crossposted from yugo.antiwar and gn:warresisters on the
IGC/APC networks.

Jennifer Smith
pnmideast@igc.apc.org

/* Written  6:18 pm  Dec  1, 1992 by warresisters@gn.apc.org in igc:yugo.antiwar */
/* ---------- "Rape and death camps in x-YU" ---------- */
Subject: Rape and death camps in x-YU

/* Written  6:17 pm  Dec  1, 1992 by warresisters in gn:wri.news */
/* ---------- "Rape and death camps in x-YU" ---------- */
The following has been posted by WRI from a fax received via the
Women's Environmental Network, 22 Highbury Grove, London N5 2EA (tel
+44 71 354 8823; fax 354 0464). Response 1 is a Castilian 
translation of the same text; transcription and translation by 
michelle.


+++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++
Women's group "Tresnjevika". Mlinarska 71. 41000 Zagreb, Croatia
Tel: 38 41 50 35 31
Zagreb, September 28, 1992
REPORT
The Women's Group "Tresnjevka" addresses the issue of the protection of
women and children, victims and refugees of the war against the
countries of Croatia and Bosnia-Hercegovina.

The stream of survivor testimonies which we came across, together with
the work of other organisations throughout Croatia and information
gathered in refugee camps throughout Europe, prompted our investigation
into the systematic sexual atrocities being committed against women in
the context of the Serbian and Montenegrin occupations of Croatia and
Bosnia-Hercegovina. We are in the second month of our research, which is
bringing staggering and appalling results.

  At the time when the world was shocked by the media pictures of Nazi-
style concentration camps on the occupied areas of Bosnia-Hercegovina,
we were finding out about the existence of rape/death camps for women
and children, mostly of reproductive ages, in occupied territories of
both Bosnia-Hercegovina and Croatia. Very little is known about the fate
of these women, and unfortunately the topic of sexual abuse is still
treated as a secondary concern within the world organisations and the
media which are investigating the war crimes that are occurring on these
territories.                RAPE/DEATH CAMPS

The existence of rape/death camps must be understood as a strategy or
tactic of genocide, of a "final solutions". Unlike rape camps which were
set up during the wars in, for example, Vietnam, Afghanistan, and Korea,
the camps in Bosnia-Hercegovina and Croatia are not solely sexual abuse
centers but are a part of an organised system leading to liquidation,
i.e. "ethnic cleansing" of those of Muslim and Croatian nationalities.
Sexual abuses in this context have modern precedents only in Nazi
Germany.

  The Serbian-Chetnik strategy of "final solution" has resulted in the
establishment of over 100 concentration camps and forced exoduses of
more than 1,500,000 non-Serbian refugees from Bosnia-Hercegovina. Over
120,000 people from all occupied parts of Bosnia-Hercegovina have been
deported to concentration camps as a part of this Serbian-Chetnik
genocidal operation.

  Three major groups of captives make up the population of those in
concentration camps:

  1. people of reputation and hose who are in positions of local power

  2. important intellectuals

  3. other less "threatening" civilians
Captives of the first and second groups are condemned to liquidation
because they represent the most educated and influential aspects of
those ethnicities targeted for "ethnic cleansing"; genocide requires the
destruction of the intellectual, cultural, and national identity of a
people. Those who comprise the third group are primarily civilians from
rural areas. Some of their names have been disclosed to international
humanitarian organisations. This group also includes the largest number
of women, most of whom have been forgotten.

  Thus far, not enough attention has been paid to the sufferings of
women and children in this current war of occupation. The governments of
Croatia and Bosnia-Hercegovina have presented them as individual and
random cases (i.e. 150 women left in late pregnancy from gang-rape),
which taken as a whole are not considered very significant.

  Women and children are the victims of grenades, snipers, the knives of
Chetnik butchers, diseases, hunger, exhaustion from hiding in shelters
and basements. They comprise almost 70% of the total number of killed
people in the republic of Bosnia-Hercegovina. They are 75% of the known
number of 120,000 captured people in concentration camps. Yet everyone
remains silent about them. These figures attest to the fact that these
are not sporadic cases but are a gender-specific onslaught that is
systematic.

  Our sources indicate that there are over 35,000 women and children in
Serbian-run rape/death camps, enduring the most frightful methods of
terror and torture. Such tortures include rapes, gang-rapes, forced
incest, the draining of the blood of captives to provide blood for
transfusions for the needs of the criminals, setting children ablaze,
and drowning babies. These are only a part of the daily death crimes.

  Females between the ages of 10 and 30 years of age are the primary
objects of daily gang-rapes. They are raped daily by between 40 and 50
Chetniks. The females suffer from venereal diseases, internal injuries,
starvation, and other forms of humiliation based on both gender and
ethnicity.

  The Women's Group "Tresnjevka" demands that the concentration camps be
shut down immediately. This also means that we demand that women's
rights to sexual and reproductive control be upheld absolutely and
without compromise both in this present situation and in all
circumstances. To this end of condemning and halting the war crimes, we
appeal to all international organisations and to all women's groups and
initiatives to assist us.

                                             Women's groups "Tresnjevka"

                                                        Zagreb, Croatia*

   Vice President. Nina Kadic* This appeal and research is being done in
conjunction with women's organisations in Bosnia-Hercegovina, of which
Nina Kadic is coordinator. Address: Office of the Government of Bosnia-
Hercegovina in Croatia, Savska St., 41000 Zagreb, Croatia.

Women's group "Tresnjevika". Mlinarska 71. 41000 Zagreb, Croatia

Tel: 38 41 50 35 31

                                              Zagreb, September 28, 1992

            A LIST OF RAPE/DEATH CAMPS IN BOSNIA-HERCEGOVINA

1. Motel "Vilina Vias", Visegrad. This camp was established at the end
of April 1992. The number of women captives is not known, but we suspect
that it is very high since the areas surrounding the camp have been
rendered almost completely "ethnically clean". 

2. Hotel "Galeb", Brcko County.

3. Restaurant "Vestialia", Brcko County.

4. Brezovo Polje, Brcko County.

5. Hotel "Elvis", Brcko County. These four concentration camps were set
up immediately after the Serbian occupation of Brcko. Their captives
come mainly from east and west Bosnia. The rape/death camp of Brezovo
Polje has been moved to the school centre in Bijeljina County.

6. Trnopoije, near Prijedor. Survivors testify about the establishment
of a number of smaller local residences for the purposes of sexually
abusing females.

7. Secondary School Center, Bijeljina County.

8. Peikovici Village, Bijeljina County.

9. Mrakovica Mountain, on the way from Prijedor to Bosanska Dubica. The
female population from the Croatian and Muslim villages on the slopes of
the Kozara Mountain are prisoners in this rape/death camp. This camp was
established at the beginning of 1992 since part of Bosnia-Hercegovina
has been under occupation for over a year. The number of captives is not
known.

10. Lakiasi, Baja Luka County. There is a rape/death camp for girls and
women up to 24 years of age.

11. Teslic, near Prijedor. This is the main center for the ultrafascist
Serbian military forces from Western Bosnia. This camp of over 1000
women and children is located in the woods, 20 km. from Teslic.
Survivors testify that girls of 10 years of age were also raped. Twelve
(12) women who managed to escape the camp are now in advanced stages of
pregnancy, and are awaiting birth in Zagreb hospitals.

12. Ripac, near Bihac. At the beginning of May 1992, Serbian forces
massacred the Muslim and Croatia populations of this area. Some
survivors fled to Bihac and Cazin. Some were taken to this camp for
Croatian and Muslim Inmates.

13. Lomnica, near Sekovici, Tuzla County. This is a rape/death camp in
which over 200 girls up to 15 years of age have been enduring sexual
atrocities for several months now.

14. Jesenica, near Bosanska Krupa. This rape/death camp was established
in May 1992. Its captives are from Bosanska Krupa, Cazin and from
surrounding regions.

15. Kamen-Grad, Sanski Most County.

16. Duboki Potok on Kozara Mountain, near Mostanice Monastery. We have
no information about when this camp was founded, but women from Banja
Luka and its surrounding villages have been held captive there for over
a year. There is no specific age group, but the largest number is of
reproductive age.

                                              Vice President. Nina Kadic
Newsgroups: alt.activism