Francesour: Rape Now Victims of Silence

Thus begins a French text, dedicated to victims of sexual violence in Kosovo.

Now 41 years old Mr. She was an Education student when members of Serbia's armed forces kidnapped her and her 18-year-old sister in central Kosovo in May 1999. They were later sent to a warehouse of an agricultural village in Serbia, Kosovo conveys.

They drank, sang, played music before we were returned. I don't know how much I was raped because I fainted during my first rape”, she told AFP. When she turned to consciousness, her younger sister was beside her crying. The perpetrators were gone.

Human rights organisations say that during the war between independent Albanian activists and Serbian forces (1998-1999, 13 thousand people were killed), and over 20 thousand girls and women were raped. But so that the culture of silence makes each record impossible.

It has been around 20 years until Kosovo institutions have started making the monthly payment as a 230-euro bailout for war victims in early 2018.

It'll take longer to investigate. Only about 600 cases are known and 115 victims, including Mr., who have received this help. Their identity is kept secret.

War victims

Mr. They've been asking her for a long time to keep quiet. As with hundreds of others, speaking means taking the risk of isolation in a patriarchal society where rape is counted as touching family honor.

I didn't start the procedure for money. Pain does not soften. I did it because this is the first official recognition that I'm the victim of war”, the first “opportunity to share my load with someone outside the”, she said.

“Shame marks remain extremely unconvincing (...) This prevents victims from speaking freely about their trauma and seeking justice”, said Behxhet Shala, director of the Council for the Protection of Human Rights and Freedoms in Kosovo, raising “a taboo of powerful silence as omertes”.

The raped women are not accepted in their families, and therefore neither in society”, Selvije Izeti Charkaxhiu, a psychologist who advises victims, said.

The “Familys have chosen silence as the best way to deal with the case... by hiding the violation, they rape victims for the second time”, said Feride Rushiti, who runs the Centre for the rehabilitation of Tortured Victims in Kosovo.

“solation and silence only help violators”, she added.

Before closing in late 2017, the International Criminal Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia (ICTY) has sentenced only three top Serbian officials for using sexual abuse as a tool for ethnic cleansing and persecution during the war in Kosovo.

“Disgusting women, they intended to weaken the morality of the Albanian resistance movement”, according to Behxhet Shala.

As with courts in Kosovo, they have not served a single sentence since the end of the war, according to the Humanitarian Justice Centre, an NGO specialising in war crimes in the former Yugoslavia. The three system groups have resulted in many excuses, Amnesty International says.

Ease of Pain

This “issue is one of the most serious injuries that continues to deeply affect Kosovo society”, Deputy Prime Minister Behgjet Pacolli has said. But that the inaction of the authorities has been denounced by civil society.

The law formalising distribution dates back to 2014. But the registration process has started four years later. The most important thing is to start the process is not for money ... but to have a close relationship with victims of sexual violence during the war so that the pain can be alleviated”, said Minire Begaj, director of the commission deciding to provide assistance.

Various NGOs regret that only women raped before June 1999 have the right to this assistance. From their point of view here are de facto Serb victims of members of Kosovo Albanian guerrillas, following the withdrawal of Belgrade forces.

Mr. It waits for the day when society will treat him as a victim: “will not find peace until I feel free to say aloud that I have been violated and that I should not be treated as guilty as criminals, but as if someone should be apologized to”

Original text Frenzier.fr, translated KlanKoaova.