30,000 Rape Victims in the Bosnian GenocideExcerpt from Mazian Nordin OP/ED, entitled “May New Dawn Bring Justice to Bosnia“, and published by New Straight Times on 1 Jan. 1993.
So begins today a new day in the march of history, if one is permitted to be pompous or ponderous about it. How often have we been reminded of Santayana’s advice, ”Those who do not remember history are condemned to repeat it.”
But as a latter-day writer and cynic has said it, there are people who remember the past very well indeed, and enjoy repeating it.
History repeats itself in Bosnia following reports about the sad plight of some 30,000 Bosnian and Croat women being held for months as forced prostitutes. They are the equivalent of “comfort girls” who became victims of the Japanese soldiery during World War II.
Lest this be said to be propaganda, the following excerpts of a report by a British news correspondent, Richard Beeston in Sarajevo after talks with a pregnant survivor of a Serbia military brothel, and others, helps to explain their ordeal:
“When Safa Konakovic feels the movement of the unborn child in her vomb, the memories of her five-month ordeal as a prisoner in a Serbian military brother return to haunt her … Borislav Herak, a captured fighter has confessed to visiting the bordello in Vogosca a dozenn times. He also admitted killing six of his rape victims and dumping their bodies on the Zuc hill north of Sarajevo on the orders of brothel-keeper, Miro Vukovic, who complained that there was not enough space to accommodate the constant arrival of more women prisoners.”Surely not forgotten were those pictures of Bosnians in a prison camp run by the Serbian militia, reminiscent of Nazi concentration camps during Hitler’s tyranny when the victims were mostly Jews.
The new year may well be worse now that Serbian leader, Slobodan Milosevic, has won rump Yugoslavia’s elections last week. This is the person who, as the London Times put it, US Secretary of State, Lawrence Eagleburger,came close to naming as a war criminal guilty of crimes against humanity. Scores of civilians were killed every day by Serbian artillery commanded by military commanders supporting him.
The victory of Serbian chauvinists may well spread the war to Kosovo with its majority Albanian population and Macedonia.
All of which have prompted Western newspapers to persuade their Governments to act.
“The Serbs must be stopped before it is too late,” one said.
A question which arises now is whether rump Yugoslavia will be awarded sovereignty over
Bosnian areas occupied by Serbian militia and Government forces. To do so would be against the principle of animus domini, as one diplomat puts it, meaning that the occupier must be convinced that his conduct is founded on the law. It cannot be legitimized when the occupier comes into possession through an act of force.
This is now the state which a few members of the Non-Aligned Movement (NAM) were reluctant to expel. Surely uncomplimentary to them was the statement by Milan Panic, former Yugoslav Prime Minister (who contested against Milosevic) when asked at the time about his country’s participation in the NAM summit in Jakarta in September.
“What’s that?” he asked of the movement, and added, “Non-alignment no longer exists. What Yugoslavia should seek is alignment with Europe.”
