Concentration and rape camps; interesting stories
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Topic: Concentration and rape camps; interesting stories
Posted By: Mila
Subject: Concentration and rape camps; interesting stories
Date Posted: 23-Apr-2006 at 23:49
I've been browsing through some of the United Nation's records
regarding the thousands of concentration and rape camps which operated
during the war in Bosnia and Herzegovina. Most were independently
verified and most are tagged with witness testimonies and stories;
others are rumor or have a single witness' testimony with no
independent (ie international) verification.
Some of the stories, though, are quite inspiring and I'll copy/paste some of the information here.
Here is the story of one unproven camp near YuGo's hometown, Teslic:
Unknown facility outside Teslic: The existence of this
detention facility has been corroborated by multiple sources
however none among them are neutral. There are several sources
which refer to an exclusively female camp in a wooded area just
west of Teslic. The former female inmates who provided the
information for these reports were all from the village of
Kalosevic. *4045
In one report, a Muslim victim alleged that her village
was overrun by Serbian forces in mid-March 1992 and the women and
children were collected and taken to this facility in the woods.
*4046 She noted that the building in which she was contained
appeared to be a newly erected brick structure. *4047 She was
placed in a room with 12 other girls and a guard was posted in
front of the door to prohibit movement or escape. *4048 The
victim recalled five of the other girls as having also come from
the village of Kalosevic. *4049
The victim reported that all the girls who shared the
room with her were raped. *4050 The soldiers came to the room on
a daily basis and sexually assaulted them. *4051 They were told
that they were to give birth to Serbian children. *4052
After being held captive for three months, a Serbian
from the village of Kalosevic, dressed in «Cetnik» uniform and
assisted by friends from the Croatian Defence Council,
facilitated the escape for 12 of the inmates. *4053
In a similar report a female victim recounted that
women and children from her village were thrown into JNA trucks,
with approximately 24 of them per truck. *4054 She identified
the perpetrators as «Cetniks» wearing uniforms of the former JNA
*4055 as well as militiamen clad in uniforms with skull and bones
insignia. *4056
The «Cetniks» took the victims through Teslic to an
unidentifiable wooded location and
«began taking us to some kind of rooms which were for the
most part dug out of the ground, resembling mining areas or
spaces; there was no light. There were over 100 of us in
this space.» *4057
There was reportedly no exit from the room. According to the
witness, the room was always dark, the only illumination came
from a light burning in the hall. *4058 Inmates, she recalled,
were fed bread and water two times
daily. *4059
The detainees were divided once again and the witness
was put in a hut with 23 other women. *4060 The witness and some
11 others were repeatedly raped in the hut in front of the other
women. *4061 Reportedly some women's hands were bound before
they were raped. Others were kicked and beaten. The
perpetrators were camp guards as well as «Cetniks» from outside the
camp. *4062 In addition to the rapes, the Serbs occasionally
took women from the group and executed them by random firing
squad. *4063
The witness remained in detention at this facility for
three months, until the end of July at which time a named Serb
helped several victims escape. *4064
Another female victim stated that the «Cetniks» who
invaded her village of Kalosevic wore masks and White Eagle
insignia on their uniforms. *4065 They rounded up all the women
and young girls and led them on foot. The women were required to
walk for some five hours; shepherded through the forest, to a
clearing. *4066 Upon arrival, they found a place that the witness
characterized as «some kind of forest motel.» *4067 The cabins
were designated as sentry-boxes, and the entire encampment was
fenced with barbed wire. *4068
The witness was placed with the girls and younger
women. She was raped every night. *4069 The White Eagles took
their victims every evening and brought them back in the
mornings. *4070 There were nights when more than 20 of them
came. *4071 The women were reportedly also made to cook for the
guards and to serve them naked. *4072 The perpetrators
reportedly also raped and killed some of the girls in front of
the other victims. *4073 Those women who resisted had their
breasts cut. *4074
The most famous camps of all:
http://www.ess.uwe.ac.uk/comexpert/ANX/VIII-05.htm#III.A.62 - Prijedor
- http://www.ess.uwe.ac.uk/comexpert/ANX/VIII-05.htm#III.A.62.a - Omarska Camp
- http://www.ess.uwe.ac.uk/comexpert/ANX/VIII-06.htm#III.A.62.b - Keraterm Camp
- http://www.ess.uwe.ac.uk/comexpert/ANX/VIII-06.htm#III.A.62.c - Trnopolje
- http://www.ess.uwe.ac.uk/comexpert/ANX/VIII-06.htm#III.A.62.d - Other camps
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Replies:
Posted By: Mila
Date Posted: 24-Apr-2006 at 00:02
Some of it is very graphic, though. This one make me angry. It's in
relation to a camp in Visegrad. I remember it because the witness
they're talking about was on the news, Jasmina something - she was Miss
Zepa in 1991 and she said that was why these things happened to her:
Sometime after the men were taken, the others went to
sleep, but were later awakened when about seven or eight
«Cetniks» showed up again with socks over their heads and «with
colours and dirt on their faces». *4262 They wore plastic gloves
and were shouting that they wanted to test something in the
building. First, they took two girls to be raped. Then, they
chose from the other women using a flashlight in the dark room to
see their faces. *4263
The witness was one of the women chosen. She was taken
upstairs with two others. Upstairs in the hallway, they were
grabbed at and kissed by several men. Then, they were brought
into a small office with four men and forced to strip naked.
First, the other two women were raped. Then, they were sent into
the hallway and she was left alone with the men. *4264
One of them told her to sit down «in the Turkish way»
in front of him. He made her kiss the cross he wore around his
neck three times and cross herself. When she told him she did
not know how, another of them showed her and made her do it. He
then told her that she had changed religion and that she was now
a Serb. *4265
After this time, the three other men left the room.
She had to perform fellatio on the perpetrator while he held a
knife to her throat. He ejaculated inside her. Then, the second
man came in, and she was forced to do the same thing to him, then
the third, and the fourth. *4266
While upstairs, the witness noted that there were three
rooms: two smaller offices and a big room where a lot of folders
and paperwork were stored. The two smaller rooms were empty.
She reports that only one of these rooms, the one in which she
was raped, was used for rape. *4267
On the third day, she was again taken away from the
station at around 2:00 p.m. The «Cetniks» took her to the «New
Bridge» where they interrogated and kissed her in front of the
Muslim men being killed there. *4268 She was met by a named man
and brought to the Vilina Vlas Hotel. Though she had never met
this man, she knew him to be one of the main perpetrators of
crimes in the area. He raped her at Vilina Vlas all that day and
night and brought her back to the fire station at 12:00 a.m.
*4269
Only five minutes after she was returned, the «Cetniks»
came for her again. This time there were three of them. They
took her to an empty house not far from the station, interrogated
her about Zepa, and raped her. *4270
After five days of detention, the witness was
transferred with her two children to Kalina near Olovo. During
her transport, the convoy was stopped three times as various
«Cetniks» continued to look for her. She successfully evaded
them by hiding underneath other prisoners during their searches
of the convoy trucks. *4271
Among the perpetrators she reports were involved in
activities at the fire station were three identified man, one man
identified by nickname, and many of Arkan's and Seselj's men.
*4272 She states, «They all had beards, black dresses, all in
black with hats and Serbian crosses, long hair.» She adds that
she did not know any of them from before the war but learned that
some were from Uzice, Bijolje, and Visegrad. *4273
Other reports indicate that two other men were also
present at the station. In addition, a man identified by one
name only from Visegrad was there. *4274 One witness
specifically alleges that she and three other women were raped
when they had no valuables to give him. *4275
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Posted By: Maju
Date Posted: 24-Apr-2006 at 00:31
We know that rape has been used before as war instrument but I believe that the cases when this has been done in such a systematic way are not so many - much less in modern times. This was maybe what made the war of Bosnia so aberrant: specially the Patriarchal pretention of forcing women to bear their enemies' children.
What I don't understand is why the womens' communities have not adopted the children, as would be normal and therapeutic.
I find your adjectives almost benevolent: those camps aren't "famous" but "infamous".
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NO GOD, NO MASTER!
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Posted By: Mila
Date Posted: 24-Apr-2006 at 00:40
I know the difference between the two words but not... it's not at the
surface of my mind enough that I know to choose "infamous" when I'm
writing.
As for the children, it's especially difficult. I have not personal but
family experience with this situation and it's more difficult than
people really realize. The child always resembles in some way the
father. It's often not physically - but a certain expression, or a
certain movement. There is always the... obviously N. wishes the war
never happened, and says this without thinking in certain incidents and
for Z. it's like saying: I wish I never had you.
Normal teenage fights take on a different dynamic. As far as Z. knew,
she was just being a normal teenage b-tch mad at her mother, but when
she asked N. in anger to show her to write her name in Cyrillic... it
was several weeks before N. could... breathe, really. People respond
differently to Z, it's like everyone makes a senile old lady
expression, glossed over eyes, when they look at her - no warmth, even
though they're smiling, etc.
It's just very hard every day and every day you think: why didn't I...
you know? Why did I get this deep, why didn't I end this back then.
Then you hate yourself. It's just endless, really.
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Posted By: Guests
Date Posted: 10-May-2006 at 10:12
Those things did not happend in the numbers most Bosnian muslim media presents.
Rape was never used as a wepon on any side in Bosnan conflict, specialy not systematic or on camps.
Not any single International organisation was able to confirm all those media stories about thousents raped woman.
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Posted By: Komnenos
Date Posted: 10-May-2006 at 11:55
Originally posted by cinoeye
Those things did not happend in the numbers most Bosnian muslim media presents.
Rape was never used as a wepon on any side in Bosnan conflict, specialy not systematic or on camps.
Not any single International organisation was able to confirm all those media stories about thousents raped woman. |
Miroslav Bralo: Bosnian Croat, HVO military policeman, sentenced to 20 years by the ICTY for his role in the multiple murder, rape, torture, unlawful confinement andinhumane treatment of Bosnian Muslim civilians, including a number of children, in central Bosnia and Herzegovina (BiH) between January and mid-July 1993.
Ranko Cesic: Bosnian Serb; member of the Intervention Squad in the Reservist Corps of the Bosnian Serb police force, sentence of 18 years by the ICTY for murder and sexual abuse in the Luka camp.
Hazim Delić: Bosnian Muslim, Bosnian prison camp deputy commander, sentenced to 18 years by the ICTY for murder and rape at Celebici prison camp.
Source: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_ICTY_indictees - Wikipedia
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