How do the authors relate culture (political, gender, etc.) and war in trying to make sense of the role of rape in the Yugoslav wars? Is the case of rape in war in the Balkans fundamentally different than other cases of violence against women in other conflicts, and if so, why?
Rape is a downplayed and often misunderstood tool of war. It is different in that unlike murder or torture, rape is wholly and completely gender biased: only women can be raped. Rape is utterly ignored in the terms of human rights violations. Also rape is not limited in its scale. For example, Moroccan troops fought with the Free French on the stipulation that they get to use rape. However the Yugoslavian case presents a different picture of rape and its effects.
Dorothy Q. Thomas and Regan E. Ralph, in their article Rape in War: the Case in Bosnia, say “But, while other abuses such as murder and other forms of torture have long been denounced as war crimes, rape has been downplayed as an unfortunate but inevitable side effect of sending men to war.” The authors also remind us that rape, while also can and is committed against men, is overwhelmingly committed against women. The difference comes in because the act of rape is inherently gendered; men are raped for information while women are raped due to their gender.
What made the rape that occurred in Bosnia special was, as Rhonda Copelon says “The mass rape in Bosnia has captured world attention and remains there largely because of its association with “ethnic cleansing” or genocide.” However, this capturing of attention has also raised an important question, which Copelon addresses; is rape a war crime? She states that rape is considered a crime against honor or dignity while things like murder are crimes of violence. This presumption has lead to rape going unprosecuted in war crime trials.
Furthermore, casting rape as a crime of honor is very problematic, as Rhonda Copelon explains. As Copelon states, most often if rape is a crime of honor, that implies that some position has been lost. Also, virginity predetermines honor. However when rape is used as a tool of genocide or subjugation, the crime of honor argument becomes weak, rape is now, beyond any doubt, a crime of violence. Copelon reinforces that fact when she says “And while the concept of dignity potentially embraces more profound concerns, standing alone it obfuscates the fact that rape is fundamentally violence against women.”
In conclusion, rape is a powerful tool and when used as tool for ethnic cleansing it become more so. Rape has been long overlooked, only recently being brought to the foreground in Bosnia, by government officials and society at large, as both a crime of honor and a private crime, not needing a trial after the war is over. Rape, unlike in previous conflicts, served a primarily cultural function. It was used by men against Bosnian-Muslim Women, and needs to be classified by the Geneva Conventions as a crime of violence, punishable by trial and prison, not just a crime of honor, where it is perpetrated and remains private.
