[ALBSA-Info] Bosnian Serbs jailed for war sex crimes

[Iris Pilika]

Bosnian Serbs jailed for war sex crimes

February 22, 2001
Web posted at: 1426 GMT


THE HAGUE, The Netherlands (CNN) -- Three Bosnian Serbs were convicted of 
rape and torture in the first war-time sex enslavement case at an 
international court.

Judge Florence Mumba at the United Nations war crimes tribunal in The Hague 
said the three were among Serb troops who used rape as an instrument of 
terror against women in the village of Foca during the Bosnian war.

Dragoljub Kunarac was found guilty of 11 charges of repeatedly raping and 
torturing Muslim girls and women during the 1992-95 conflict and sentenced 
him to 28 years in jail.

Kunarac, said Mumba, taunted one of his victims by telling her she would 
carry Serb babies and would not know who the father was because of the 
number of men who had raped her.

He became involved in a "nightmarish scheme of sexual exploitation" that was 
"especially repugnant," she said.

Radomir Kovac was sentenced to 20 years in jail for rape and war crimes, 
including sexually abusing a 12-year old girl.

The third defendant, Zoran Vukovic, was convicted of raping and torturing a 
15-year-old girl -- who was about the same age as his own daughter -- but 
acquitted of most charges for lack of evidence.

He was sentenced to 12 years' imprisonment.

The defendants stood in silence as the judgment was read in sombre tones by 
the presiding judge who said they had used rape as an instrument of terror 
against the Muslim population -- having been given a free hand by 
authorities.

The tribunal heard harrowing testimony during the 11-month trial of rape and 
torture in the Bosnian town of Foca after it was overrun in April 1992.

Sixteen women who came to The Hague told how Bosnian Serb paramilitary 
soldiers selected women and girls as young as 12 for nightly gang rapes and 
sexual torture at detention centres.

The women attested to the long-lasting gynaecological damage and other 
injuries, in many cases causing permanent infertility.

"I think that for the whole of my life, all my life, I will feel the pain 
that I felt then," said one woman, who was 15 at the time.

Human rights groups have estimated that tens of thousands of people, mainly 
Muslim woman and girls, were raped during the 1992-1995 war.

The U.N. Security Council established the International Criminal Tribunal 
for the former Yugoslavia (ICTY) in 1993 to go after the alleged architects 
of the Bosnian war's bloody "ethnic cleansing" campaigns.

Those indicted but still at large include the former Bosnian Serb president, 
Radovan Karadzic, and his military chief, Ratko Mladic.

The Associated Press contributed to this report.



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