Compilation of Different Reports on Rape of Bosnian Women

Call Number
350-1-1:475/1

General information

Call No.:
350-1-1:475/1
Part of series
HU OSA 350-1-1 Records of the International Monitor Institute: Europe: Balkan Archive
Located at
BetaSP NTSC #475 / No. 1
Digital ver. identifier
HU_OSA_00000475
Date of production
1993
Date
1993
Level
Item
Primary Type
Moving image
Language
English, French, Serbo-croatian
Duration
31 min.
Notes
mostly excerpts from reports, sponsored by Soros program "How to be citizens"

Content

Form/Genre
Television program
Contents Summary
This tape contains a medley of news reports on the rape of Bosnian Muslim women; none of the reports are featured in their entirety.
- (1) BBC (in English W/SCB subtitles, beginning cut off): Allan Little reports from Bihac on an unidentified 16-year-old girl who was raped repeatedly by Serbian irregular forces and became pregnant as a consequence. Although her story is not corroborated by other testimonies, it is supported by her internal and other injuries. She lives in Zagreb and will not be allowed to have an abortion because the Croatian law prohibits it.
- (2) TVBiH (in SCB): This report includes a brief interview with a 12-year-old girl from Foca who was raped repeatedly by Bosnian Serb soldiers. She mentions that she was in Kalinovik and that she was jailed; two or three soldiers would usually come to take her out of jail and rape her. She also mentions that a soldier tried to protect her. If it weren't for the war, she would now attend sixth grade in elementary school.
- (3) TVBiH (in FRENCH W/SCB VO & English subtitles): Originally produced by a French network TV5, this report features an interview with Slobodan Panic, a Serb soldier and former detention camp guard who admitted to raping five women. Panic explains how his commanders forced him to commit the rapes.
- (4) BBC (?) (in English W/SCB subtitles): This report shows an unidentified Bosnian Muslim woman with her three children. The woman was raped and shot three times in the leg by Bosnian Serb soldiers. Two of her children died, while the third one was injured in the leg.
- (5) TVBiH (in SCB): Arijana Saracevic interviews several rape victims, an unidentified Bosnian Muslim woman and three teenage girls who were all held together at a camp in Rogatica. The first woman describes in detail the torture, rape, and severe beatings which she and other women endured at the hands of the Bosnian Serb soldiers; according to her, women between the ages of 14 and 45 were raped and beaten. She knew each one of the perpetrators. One of the teenage girls explains how hard it was to face the fact that her former friends and neighbors were now their assailants.
- (5) TVBiH (in German W/SCB subtitles): Originally produced by ORF2, this report features a testimony by the Bosnian Serb soldier Borislav Herak, who admitted that Bosnian Serb commanders turned the Vogosca motel complex "Sonja" into a bordello. He states that Bosnian women held there were raped en masse and then killed in the nearby forest.
- (6) TVBiH (in FRENCH W/SCB VO & English subtitles): Originally produced by French TV5, this broadcast shows an anonymous woman describing how she was raped by four Cetniks.
- (7) HTV (in German W/SCB subtitles): (a brief segment) Originally produced by ORF (?), this report shows Fata Zahbac (sp), a Kozarac woman who lost her mind after being tortured. (segments 1-7 end at 00:08:30)
- (8) TVBiH: A longer program entitled "The Story of Rape" features a Bosnian TV reporter Haris Kulenovic interviewing an anonymous woman who was raped by the Bosnian Serb soldiers. According to Kulenovic, 30,000 women were raped during the Bosnian war. The woman and her three children lived near the airport in the suburbs of Sarajevo, from where they were taken to the nearby Kula prison in June (1992 ?). Their house was destroyed in a shell explosion. The woman describes how she was captured, how she and her daughter were raped, and how they eventually escaped from the prison. She explains that soldiers who imprisoned her were all former neighbors, and that even some of the Muslim neighbors also participated in rounding up the women. She describes the living conditions in the prison, and mentions a man named Trapara who raped and beat her. Women were called out by name, then taken to rooms where numbers of soldiers, who were often drunk, would beat, torture, and rape them. The woman explains how she and her eldest daughter deal with their experiences. She believes that the victims of rape have to talk about their experiences because that is the only way the three ethnic groups can live together again. (segment ends at 00:25:36)
- (9) HTV (SCB W/German VO & SCB subtitles; poor quality). Originally produced by a German TV station, the report contains an interview with Asja Kesma, a 22-year-old Visegrad native raped by the Bosnian Serb soldiers. She alleges that seventeen men raped her, four to five each night. During the last evening of her detention, she was raped by twelve men. According to Kesma, many women who had become pregnant went to Visegrad to get abortions. She thinks she would have killed her baby if she was pregnant as a result of rape.
- (10) HTV (in SCB): A segment of a report mentions ITN's efforts to document on-camera statements by rape victims. A report by European Community estimates that about 20,000 Bosnian women were raped from May to September, 1992. Brief statements by a former Bosnian Serb detention camp guard, Slobodan Panic; an anonymous victim of rape; and Nusreta Sivac are featured.
- (11) TVBiH (in SCB)): Reporter Arijana Saracevic interviews an unidentified woman who became pregnant after she was raped by Bosnian Serb soldiers, who were her neighbors in the past. She recalls being taken to a room with thirteen other women, then being raped twice a night. Late into her pregnancy the soldiers took her to Hres, near Sarajevo, and told her to "feed the Chetniks," a statement that refers to a forced pregnancy. She says that she was afraid to tell her brothers that she was pregnant, and that she does not care what happens to the child. Portions of a Borislav Herak confession are intertwined with her story. Herak, a Bosnian Serb soldier who admitted to raping and killing Muslim women and other civilians, reveals that his commander Boro ordered him and his fellow soldiers to rape the Muslim women detained in the "Sonja" restaurant. He describes in detail how he treated a 20-year-old Amela, whom he later killed.
- (12) TVBiH (in English w/ SCB VO) ABC Nightline: Rape in Bosnia (same as tape 010).