8 BOSNIAN SERB OFFICERS CHARGED WITH RAPES IN LANDMARK CASE.Byline: Marlise Simons The New York New York, state, United States New York, Middle Atlantic state of the United States. It is bordered by Vermont, Massachusetts, Connecticut, and the Atlantic Ocean (E), New Jersey and Pennsylvania (S), Lakes Erie and Ontario and the Canadian province of Times A United Nations tribunal Thursday announced the indictment of eight Bosnian Serb military and police officers in connection with rapes of Muslim women during the Bosnian war, marking the first time sexual assault has been treated separately as a crime of war. The indictments were announced by the International Criminal Tribunal in The Hague after almost two years of investigations. Court officials said that although rape charges had been included in other cases, this indictment gave organized rape and other sexual offenses their due place in international law as crimes against humanity. ``This is a landmark indictment because it focuses exclusively on sexual assaults, without including any other charges,'' said Christian Chartier, a spokesman for the court. ``There is no precedent for this. It is of major legal significance because it illustrates the court's strategy to focus on gender-related crimes and give them their proper place in the prosecution of war crimes.'' Experts said that while previous postwar courts have heard evidence of rape, they have treated it as secondary, tolerated as part of soldiers' abusive behavior abusive behavior Public health Any of various behaviors–aggressive, coercive or controlling, destructive, harassing, intimidating, isolating, threatening–which a batterer may use to control a domestic partner/victim. See Domestic violence. . The Military Tribunal A military tribunal is a kind of military court designed to try members of enemy forces during wartime, operating outside the scope of conventional criminal and civil matters. The judges are military officers and fulfill the role of jurors. It is distinct from the court martial. in Nuremberg, which judged Nazi crimes after World War II, made no reference to rape in its charter. At a Tokyo war crimes court after World War II, some Japanese officials were convicted of failing to prevent rape, but were not charged as rapists themselves. But evidence of the magnitude of rape in Bosnia was so shocking that it persuaded the tribunal's chief prosecutor, Justice Richard Goldstone Richard J. Goldstone, (born October 26, 1938), South African judge and international war crimes prosecutor. Early life After graduating from the University of the Witwatersrand with a BA LLB cum laude in 1962 he practised as an Advocate at the Johannesburg Bar. , and others to confront the issue. ``Rape has never been the concern of the international community. We have to deal openly with these abuses,'' Goldstone gold·stone n. An aventurine with gold-colored inclusions. Noun 1. goldstone - aventurine spangled densely with fine gold-colored particles said at an early stage of the investigations. According to investigators of the European Union European Union (EU), name given since the ratification (Nov., 1993) of the Treaty of European Union, or Maastricht Treaty, to the European Community and Amnesty International Amnesty International (AI,) human-rights organization founded in 1961 by Englishman Peter Benenson; it campaigns internationally against the detention of prisoners of conscience, for the fair trial of political prisoners, to abolish the death penalty and torture of , rape was often used in Bosnia as a strategy to terrorize ter·ror·ize tr.v. ter·ror·ized, ter·ror·iz·ing, ter·ror·iz·es 1. To fill or overpower with terror; terrify. 2. To coerce by intimidation or fear. See Synonyms at frighten. people. These investigators said that all three parties to the conflict, including Muslims and Croats, committed sexual abuses, but Bosnian Serbs were the main perpetrators. The European investigators calculated that 20,000 Muslim women and girls were raped by Serbs in 1992. The eight Serbs charged on Thursday - all either in the military, the paramilitary or the police - are accused of rapes committed between April 1992 and February 1993 in or near Foca in southeastern Bosnia. They have not been arrested. The indictment described the ordeal of 14 Muslim women in Foca, ``some of them as young as 12 years of age.'' Most were detained in a prison camp, where they were subjected to almost constant rape and sexual assaults Rape and Sexual Assault Definition The various definitions of rape range from the broad (coercing a person to engage in any sexual act) to the specific (forcing a woman to submit to sexual intercourse). , torture and other abuses, according to the indictment. ``The physical and psychological health of many female detainees seriously deteriorated as a result of the sexual assaults,'' the indictment said. ``The detainees lived in constant fear.'' Some became suicidal. Others developed serious depression. All suffered psychological and emotional harm. Some remain traumatized. A woman who complained to the local chief of police, Dragan Gogovic, about the abuse was then raped by him, the indictment said. |
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