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Concentration and rape camps; interesting stories

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  Quote Mila Quote  Post ReplyReply Direct Link To This Post Topic: Concentration and rape camps; interesting stories
    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:

Prijedor

  1. Omarska Camp
  2. Keraterm Camp
  3. Trnopolje
  4. Other camps

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  Quote Mila Quote  Post ReplyReply Direct Link To This Post 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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  Quote Maju Quote  Post ReplyReply Direct Link To This Post 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".

NO GOD, NO MASTER!
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  Quote Mila Quote  Post ReplyReply Direct Link To This Post 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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  Quote Guests Quote  Post ReplyReply Direct Link To This Post 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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  Quote Komnenos Quote  Post ReplyReply Direct Link To This Post 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 Deli: Bosnian Muslim, Bosnian prison camp deputy commander, sentenced to 18 years by the ICTY for murder and rape at Celebici prison camp.


Source: Wikipedia
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