Date: Mon, 11 Jan 1993 17:13:00 CET
From: caa_beograd@zamir-bg.comlink.de
Reply-To: caa_beograd@zamir-bg.comlink.de
Distribution: world
Newsgroups: soc.culture.yugoslavia
Subject: women victims of war
Organization: Zamir = for peace, Beograd
Content-Length: 4092    
X-Gateway: UC xclhh [UZERCP V3.99]

                 STATEMENT OF BELGRADE FEMINISTS

We, Women in Black Against War, women from theSOS Hotline for
Women and Children Victims of Violence, feminists and other
Belgrade pacifists, wish to voice our protest against all
international campaigns which are using the fact of the rape of
women in Bosnia and Herzegovina for propaganda purposes.

First of all, the background to our statement is as follows:

In Belgrade, every Wednesday sinice October 9, 1991, Women in
Black Against War demonstrate their absolute disagreement with
the policies of the Serbian regime and all other natioalist
politics which have led to and are maintaining this war, with
militarism, and with the spread of fascism.

The SOS Hotline telephone service for victims of violence keeps a
daily record of incidents of violence against women.  This proves
that a kind of war against women has always existed, it has
simply intensified since the beginning of the war in Croatia and
Bosnia.

In December, 1992, the SOS organization set up a group for women
raped in war, which aims togather independent and reliable
documentation about women raped both in war and inpeacetime, adn
to establish a center for victims of rape.

Our view of the current situation as regards war rape is as
follows:

Looking at the history of women's experience worldwide, it is
clear that the rape of women in wartime has never been either
socially visible nor acknowledged as a war crime.  It is this
that we are working to change.

However, we find ourselves in a contradictory situation:  on the
one hand rape in war is for the firt time in history becoming an
issue at the highest international political levels; at the same
time the motive of those leading the discussion is not the
protection of women's rights and well-being, but the use of women
for war propaganda and the intensification of ethnic and
nationalist hatred.  Women's suffering is being turned into an
excuse for possible escalation of military action.  It is being
instrumentalised.

The reality is that rape is a military tactic used by all armie,
in this war as in all others, against women of the enemy side.
But if these are not available, it is used against women of the
soldiers' own side as well, both on the battlefield and at home.


Because of all of this, we demand:

1.  That the women raped in war in Bosnia should not be divided
nor valued differently on the basis of their nationality.  The
suffering of Bosnian, Croatian, Serbian and women of any other
nationality has the same value for us.

2.  That rape in war be established as a war crime, and that all
soldiers/rapists in all armies in the world be brought to trial
for committing this crime.

3.  That an international court be established immediatel to
prosecute perpetrator of race in war, and that this court be
staffed only by women.

4.  That women who are pregnant as a consequence of war rape be
given the right to choose whether to carry the pregnancy to term
or to abort it.  The right to make this choice is the right of
the individual woman, not that of her nation, political party,
government or church.

5.  That the governments of the international community provide
political asylum to women raped in war.

6.  That the international community and public put pressure on
the regimes of Slobodan Milosevic, Radovan Karazic, Alije
Izetbegovic, Mate Boban, and Franjo Tudjman to release women
from all concentration camps, private prisons, military whore
houses and othe institutions in which female sexual slavery is
officially and unofficually perpetrated and maintained.


WITH THIS INFORMATION AND THESE DEMANDS WE WISH TO TURN THE
INTERNATIONAL PUBLIC CAMPAIGN ABOUT WOMEN RAPED IN WAR IN BOSNIA
FROM AN ARGUMENT FOR AGGRESSION TO AN ARGUMENT FOR THE PROTECTION
OF WOMEN'S RIGHTS.  AT THE SAME TIME WE WANT TO JOIN THE NETWORK
OF WOMEN'S GROUPS THAT SHARE OUR POLITICAL VIEWS SO THAT
INTERNATIONAL WOMEN'S SOLIDARITY REPLACE THE PATRIARCHAL VOICE OF
PUBLIC OPINION WITH THE VOICE OF WOMEN.


January, 1993
Belgrade
fax - Center for AntiWar Action
        +38 11 635813