Nobel Prize winner: In Kosovo rapes have been used as ethnic cleansing technique

He made these comments in Pristina, where he is participating in the international conference under the 20th anniversary of the establishment of the Kosovo Centre for the rehabilitation of Torture Survivors, an organisation dealing with the treatment of rape cases during the war in Kosovo.

Doctor Mukwege, has spent much of his life helping victims of sexual violence in the Democratic Republic of Congo. He and his staff have dealt with thousands of victims of such attacks.

Dr. Mukwege said that the failure to observe sex violence authors during the war sends negative messages to all victims and that, according to him, healing rape victims can only be done when all those who have experienced such a thing start to speak.

The curiosity is an absolute weapon that allows the continuation of sexual violence, a weapon that protects the head of the act. If we leave him unannounced, he'll continue the violence. The second factor is impunity. Twenty years from the war in Kosovo, there have been no sentences in any case. This is a very negative message for victims of sexual violence. Justice not only plays the role of punishment, but also plays a role in preventing such things from happening again, helping the victim recover”, he said, underlining that it is the duty of the entire society to help this category.

Whatever we go, we will find the same consequences, but in Kosovo rape has been used as a technique for ethnic cleansing or by forcing the population to leave their country. In Syria women are being sold and ashamed of our humanity. Rape of war should not be confused with a sexual act without consent and humiliation. Rape is to deny human character and aims to destroy women. Our joint responsibility is intended to humanity respond to this evil”, said Mr. Mukwege.

Kosovo Centre for the rehabilitation of Torture Survivors Director Feride Rushiti said these twenty years have not been easy, since sexually violent survivors have often been found alone and biased.

“Under such circumstances the survivors of sexual violence have often been found alone and can say in our 20-year experience of despair, put aside by family, society, but even institutions. Most of the victims unfortunately were women and girls, while there were reports of male survival of sexual violence”, Rushiti said.

She said that even after twenty years, the number of persons raped during the war in Kosovo is still unknown

“Bilanc of these war rape crimes cannot be known exactly, but international sources say there are about 20 thousand people, unfortunately many of them have died, many of them are missing. Unfortunately, women and girls have been directly targets of violence as a means of war, a war that will never end because women raped during the war are not only victims of sexual violence but survivors of torture but also carriers of this serious episode. They are often victims of prejudice and discrimination”, Mrs. Rushiti said.

The exact number is still unknown, but it is believed that thousands were victims of rape by Serb forces during the war in Kosovo. The exact number may never be learned, and the stories about them until later were very few because of the fear of stigmatism. So far no one has been convicted of this crime, though it is punishable by domestic and international laws. / VOA