End Grave Abuses Against Palestinian Detainees, Impunity for Abuses

By Bill Van Esveld, Associate Director, MENA, Children’s Rights Division | –

A standoff at Israel’s Sde Teiman military base this week has thrown longstanding abuses against Palestinian detainees and the Israeli military’s history of impunity for torture into stark relief.

On July 29, Israeli military police arrested nine Israeli soldiers at the base on suspicion of “severe abuse” of a Palestinian detainee. News reports said the man was admitted to the hospital with broken ribs and life-threatening injuries to the anus and lungs.

Soldiers barricaded themselves inside the base to prevent the arrests. Protesters against the arrests, including members of Israel’s parliament, the Knesset, pushed their way through the perimeter fence. When security forces removed the nine soldiers, protesters went to the Beit Lid military base, where the soldiers were eventually taken for questioning, and breached its perimeter as well.

Arrests of Israeli soldiers for abusing Palestinians are rare. From 2017 to 2021, just 0.87 percent of complaints against soldiers led to prosecutions, according to the Israeli rights group Yesh Din.

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu as well as Israel’s defense minister and the military chief of staff condemned the clashes at the two bases, though not the alleged torture of the detainee. Israel’s justice minister criticized detaining for questioning soldiers he said were performing a “holy job.” The finance minister and the national security minister both tweeted “hands off our reservists.” The Knesset’s foreign affairs and defense committee chair slammed “this despicable pursuit of our fighters.”

Since June, Israeli authorities have been transferring Palestinian detainees from Sde Teiman to other facilities due to reports of abuse. But the transfers, and investigations into some cases, are a grossly insufficient response to reports of “widespread torture” and ill-treatment at Sde Teiman. Rights groups cite beatings, stress positions, surgeries without anesthesia, sexual violence, and the prolonged cuffing of arms and legs. An Israeli doctor working there wrote in April that in one week, “two prisoners had their legs amputated due to handcuff injuries, which unfortunately is a routine event.”

The United Nations Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights also reported waterboarding, electrocution, and the detention of healthcare workers, girls, and a woman over 80-years-old with Alzheimer’s disease. One man said Israeli soldiers fired a nail gun into his knee. At least 53 Palestinians have died in custody since October 7.

Israel’s allies should increase pressure to end grave abuses against Palestinians in custody, stop detaining them without charge or trial, and allow independent monitors access to detention facilities.

——
Bonus Video added by Informed Comment:

Israeli protesters enter army base after soldiers held over Gaza detainee abuse | BBC News Video

It is being reported that they were taken into custody because of the recent transfer of a Palestinian prisoner to the Soroka Medical Facility in Beersheba with severe injuries to his nether regions.

Soldiers at Sde Teiman put up resistance to the military police, with a fight breaking out, though the MPs clearly won that one.

Rejecting these charges against the soldiers, a right wing mob that included members of the Parliament from the Likud and the Religious Zionist and Jewish Power blocs, then attempted several times to storm through the gates of the facility and finally succeeded in breaching the military barricades, attacking MPs and reaching the area where Palestinians are held. One soldier said that no one seemed to be in control. The unruly crowd chanted its support for torture and even called for the summary execution of the Palestinian prisoners.

WION Video: “Israel detains 9 IDF soldiers over alleged abuse of a detainee at shadowy military facility”

Journalist Haggai Matar observed, “In essence, soldiers are in open rebellion for the right to rape prisoners, and more and more coalition politicians are joining them – from Likud, Jewish Power, and more.”

The mob, including the parliamentarians, then attempted but failed to storm the Beit Lid base, where the nine detainees were being held for interrogation.

An Israeli military spokesman said, “Following suspicions of serious abuse of a detainee held at the Sde Teiman detention facility, the Military Police opened an investigation at the behest of the Military Prosecutor’s Office.” Major General Yifat Tomer-Yerushalmi is Israel’s military advocate general, who ordered the detentions. The Israeli military said after the right wing mob’s assault that the soldiers had not been arrested, only detained for questioning.

The turmoil and governmental and army infighting caused the Israeli government to announce a postponement of the expected attack on Lebanon in reprisal for an alleged Hezbollah drone on the occupied Syrian Golan Heights that left several Druze children dead.

Israeli army radio said that the Palestinian prisoner who was tortured had been arrested in the Gaza Strip several weeks before and had been identified as an “unlawful combatant” and was being held at Sde Teiman under a permanent detention order. The radio station said that this prisoner was observed in serious condition, unable to walk, and was transferred to the hospital, where he underwent surgery. Since that time, the military police had begun gathering evidence and initiating an investigation.

The ten accused soldiers were prison guards at Sde Teiman. They were detained on suspicion of gang rape. One appears to be AWOL and has not yet been detained.

Israeli analyst Shaiel Ben-Ephraim wrote on “X,” “Israeli sources are now confirming the horrific CNN and New York Times reports of the conditions in Sde Taiman. They include electric shocks, amputations due to bad conditions, severe beatings, surgery without anesthesia, playing loud music until inmates’ ears bleed, deaths due to bad sanitary conditions, systematic torture and sexual abuse. Sources in the Israeli justice department are saying the evidence is so clear and the cases so severe, it will be an open and shut case for international courts. This is a horror that will never be forgotten. A permanent stain on the state of Israel.”

Professor Rula Jebreal relayed Israeli television footage of the Israeli parliament or Knesset debating the day’s events, where a member from the Likud Party of Benjamin Netanyahu was asked if it was all right to stuff a stick up a man’s rectum, and he replied that yes, if the man is a terrorist. So there is a pro-rape faction in the Israeli parliament.

Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyanu didn’t say anything for three hours after his extremist allies tried to storm the base, then called for calm. Defense Minister Yoav Gallant issued a communique in support of the troops and rejecting the assault on the military base.

Times of India Video: “Israeli Base Stormed; Fighting Breaks Out Inside Detention Facility After Raid To Detain Troops”

The International Criminal Court has requested warrants for Netanyahu and Gallant over war crimes in Gaza, and some observers believe that they authorized Monday’s detention of the accused soldiers only because otherwise the ongoing abuse at that base might increase the likelihood of their being indicted.

The minister of national security, Jewish Power extremist Itamar Ben-Gvir attacked the MPs and military prosecutor. He said, “The sight of military policemen arriving to arrest our best heroes in Sde Teiman is nothing short of shameful. I advise the defense minister, the chief of staff and the army authorities to support the soldiers and take advantage of the prison service [which is under Ben-Gvir’s responsibility]. Summer camps for and tolerance of terrorists are over. Our soldiers must receive full support.”

Ben Gvir had earlier urged summary executions of Palestinian detainees in Israeli prisons.

Arab 48 writes, “Attorney General Gali Baharav-Miara mentioned Ben-Gvir in a memorandum to Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu regarding a petition being considered by the Supreme Court regarding ‘the conditions of detention at the Sde Teiman facility.’ Baharav-Miara wrote that ‘if the Sde Teiman detention facility is not returned to its intended purpose immediately, this will have far-reaching consequences,’ adding that it has become clear that Ben-Gvir’s National Security Ministry is ‘effectively halting efforts to implement the necessary solutions.’

Since the beginning of the Israeli war on Gaza last October, Sde Teiman has served as a detention center for Palestinian prisoners, the paper says, “who are held in inhumane conditions, where they are kept handcuffed and legged and blindfolded at all times.” The prisoners are held until it is determined whether they will be given long jail sentences or released. Many men are scooped up in Gaza without the Israeli army having a firm knowledge of whether they just happened to be in the vicinity or were enemy combatants. All the Palestinians released from Sde Teiman appear to have been the victims of severe torture.

The human rights experts held a news conference on Monday to call for an impartial inquiry into the abuses apparently committed by Israeli troops against women and girls, including murder, rape, and sexual assault. They expressed extreme concern at the “horrifying reports” that had reached them

International human rights experts called for an independent investigation into suspected Israeli violations committed against Palestinian women and girls, including murder, rape, and sexual assault. The experts expressed their deep concern about the “horrific reports” that revealed cases of rape and threats of sexual assault by Israeli forces during their arbitrary detention of Palestinian women and girls in Gaza and the Palestinian West Bank. They said there were “credible and conclusive allegations of blatant violations” and that women and girls were victims of arbitrary execution, often alongside members of their families, including children. In a communique, they expressed their shock at the reports of deliberate targeting and extra-judicial killing of Palestinian women and children in places where they sought safety or while they were fleeing.

These human rights experts were appointed by the UN Human Rights Council, but are independent and not UN representatives. I give their names below.

TRT World Video: “Israeli violations against Palestinian girls, women in Gaza”

They pointed to the arbitrary detention of hundreds of Palestinian women, among them human rights defenders, journalists, and humanitarian activists in Gaza and the West Bank. They said, “Many were exposed to inhumane and degrading treatment and to severe beatings. They were deprived of menstrual pads during their periods, of food, and of medicine.”

The Office of the High Commission on Human Rights quotes the experts as saying, “We are particularly distressed by reports that Palestinian women and girls in detention have also been subjected to multiple forms of sexual assault, such as being stripped naked and searched by male Israeli army officers. At least two female Palestinian detainees were reportedly raped while others were reportedly threatened with rape and sexual violence.”

OHCHR adds, “They also noted that photos of female detainees in degrading circumstances were also reportedly taken by the Israeli army and uploaded online.”

They spoke of their dismay at reports of Palestinian women in prison being subjected to multiple forms of sexual assault, including strip searching by male troops of the Israeli army. They demanded an independent, unimpeachable, comprehensive, urgent and effective investigation into these assaults, with full Israeli cooperation.

They said that they had evidence that at least two imprisoned Palestinian women were raped, while others were threatened with rape and sexual violence. They said there were indications that Palestinian girls and women were deliberately targeted and extra-judicially executed in places of asylum or during their attempts to escape. Some of the latter were waving pieces of white cloth but were killed by the Israeli army.

According to OHCHR, the communique concluded, “Taken together, these alleged acts may constitute grave violations of international human rights and humanitarian law, and amount to serious crimes under international criminal law that could be prosecuted under the Rome Statute. . . . Those responsible for these apparent crimes must be held accountable and victims and their families are entitled to full redress and justice,”

The OHCHR notes that the experts were “Reem Alsalem, Special Rapporteur on violence against women and girls, its causes and consequences; Francesca Albanese, Special Rapporteur on the situation of human rights in the Palestinian territories occupied since 1967; Dorothy Estrada Tanck (Chair), Claudia Flores, Ivana Krstić, Haina Lu, and Laura Nyirinkindi, Working group on discrimination against women and girls. The experts are part of what is known as the Special Procedures of the Human Rights Council. Special Procedures, the largest body of independent experts in the UN human rights system.”

The Israeli mission in Geneva hastened to denounce the communique, charging that the international human rights rapporteurs were animated by a hatred of Israel rather than a devotion to the truth. It said that the Israeli authorities had not received any complaints but were prepared to investigate the Israeli security forces if there were credible allegations and evidence.

It is a particularly ugly custom of Israeli officials to meet any criticism with charges of “hating Israel” or hating Jews, which they conflate with the former. Tel Aviv owes an apology to these internationally respected human rights experts, even if they are only women.

UN, Donors Should Scale-Up Support in Sudan, Neighboring Chad

Laetitia Bader

Director, Horn of Africa

 

( Human Rights Watch ) – Nusra and Khadija share the bond of being cousins and of living in the same small town in West Darfur. Now they share a darker bond: both survivors of sexual violence in the conflict in Sudan.

Human Rights Watch researchers spoke with the cousins in eastern Chad, while documenting abuses against dozens of survivors of atrocities committed by the Rapid Support Forces (RSF) and allied Arab militia in Sudan’s West Darfur town of El Geneina.

Nusra and Khadija, both in their twenties, told us that they were raped – three weeks apart – when RSF fighters and Arab militiamen searched house-to-house for men, boys, and weapons in the predominantly ethnic Massalit neighborhoods of El Geneina. We are using pseudonyms to protect their identities.

While Human Rights Watch and other organizations have reported on the killing of Massalit men by RSF forces and Arab militia in West Darfur, much less has been documented about the targeting of women and girls for sexual violence.

Rights monitors have reported on dozens of cases of rape in El Geneina between May and late June. Sudan has a long and distressing history of sexual violence against women and girls during armed conflict that has never been addressed. Sudanese authorities and allied militias used rape and sexual violence as deliberate strategies against Darfur’s non-Arab communities in the early 2000s and since.

Get updates on human rights issues from around the globe. Join our movement today.

Have it sent to your inbox.

Nusra described the RSF and militia’s raid on her house. “He [RSF member] said I would have to lie down. I said, ‘I won’t give myself to you.…’ He put the gun to my head. Then he raped me.”

An aid worker who also fled to Chad said some survivors accessed emergency support, but the widespread attacks on health care, including massive looting of health facilities, have severely restricted access to time-sensitive treatments.

Article continues after bonus IC video
Al Jazeera English: “Sudan conflict at 100 days: Thousands killed, millions displaced”

The cousins are living in a makeshift settlement in eastern Chad where assistance for survivors is severely limited. Both struggle with horrible physical, mental, and emotional scars. “Until two days ago I wasn’t able to get out of bed,” Nusra said six weeks after being attacked.

Khadija, a single parent of three young children, told us, “I can’t be pregnant again, please help me find a solution.” We referred her to the main medical center in the camp; a few days later she found out she was pregnant. Khadija needed the reproductive care that should be guaranteed to survivors in crisis situations known as the Minimum Initial Service Package.

The United Nations Security Council, which has largely failed to respond to the armed conflict that broke out in Sudan in April, should urgently call for a briefing by the special representative of the secretary-general on sexual violence in conflict. The council should impose the UN’s Darfur sanctions regime on the commanders of the men who raped Khadija and Nusra.

Donors should provide more resources to ensure that survivors in Darfur and eastern Chad receive meaningful care, including emergency care, longer-term psychosocial and other health care, and help should they want to seek redress against those responsible.

The world should no longer be comfortable ignoring the physical and mental burden facing Nusra, Khadija, and countless other survivors in Sudan.

Via Human Rights Watch

To honor those who have died and suffered from the fires Biden nominee Elliott Abrams lit and fanned abroad, we must stop his appointment.

( Otherwords.org ) – As Russia’s war in Ukraine continues, human rights groups have gathered evidence of Russian atrocities against civilians — including executions, rapes, and mass murder. These are war crimes, President Biden asserted recently, adding that Russian President Vladimir Putin “should be held accountable.”

Biden is right.

Russia’s crimes in Ukraine clearly violate the laws of war enshrined under the Geneva Conventions as well as the UN Charter, which prohibits wars of aggression. The International Criminal Court, or ICC, has already opened an investigation into Russia’s alleged crimes in Ukraine.

The U.S. wants to support the move, but there’s one big problem: Like Russia, the United States itself refuses to join the court. And that could make it more difficult to get justice for Ukrainians.

National courts would ideally prosecute the perpetrators of international crimes. But when states prove unable or unwilling to prosecute them — including for political reasons — the ICC has stood as the court of last resort.

Established in 2002 by the Rome Statute, the ICC has 123 member states where it can investigate and prosecute crimes of genocide, crimes against humanity, war crimes, and state acts of aggression. (Ukraine has also not formally joined the court, but has submitted to its jurisdiction in the past.)

International courts have long played an important role in pursuing justice — and the larger fight against impunity under international law.

After World War II, the prominent Nuremberg trials, led by the U.S. and allied powers, prosecuted Nazi war criminals. The U.S. has also backed international criminal tribunals for the former Yugoslavia, Rwanda, and Sierra Leone, which have held high-ranking individuals accountable for terrible crimes.

But what happens when a state is too powerful to be bound by international courts?

The problem isn’t the absence of law but rather its breakdown, when states refuse to comply and aren’t held accountable. This can further inflame conflicts. The resulting pattern of war, displacement, and rampant human rights violations we’re seeing in Ukraine has tragically become all too familiar.

But it’s not just Russia.

When President Bill Clinton signed the Rome Statute, he advised against U.S. ratification out of concern that the court could assert jurisdiction over U.S. officials and servicemembers. President George W. Bush then famously “unsigned” the Rome Statute less than one year before his illegal invasion of Iraq.

The Trump administration went so far as to sanction ICC prosecutors who were investigating possible U.S. crimes in Afghanistan.

The U.S. now has an opportunity to reset its contentious relationship with the ICC — and the global rule of law more broadly.

A resolution now in Congress, introduced by Rep. Ilhan Omar (D-MN), calls for the U.S. to join the ICC. Another resolution would repeal a 2002 law that prohibits U.S. support for ICC investigations. Enacting both would bolster the court’s effectiveness through greater U.S. involvement and show that the U.S. is serious about international criminal justice.

Ultimately, no country should stand in the way of accountability and remedy for victims of conflict, whether in Ukraine, Palestine, Yemen, or elsewhere. That includes the United States, which must also reckon with its own crimes committed during the wars in Afghanistan and Iraq.

“We cannot successfully cooperate with the rest of the world in establishing a reign of law,” warned Robert H. Jackson, the chief U.S. prosecutor at Nuremberg, “unless we are prepared to have that law sometimes operate against what would be our national advantage.”

Law alone won’t deliver global justice. But if we want fewer wars, more diplomacy, and more international cooperation, then no country can remain above it.

Farrah Hassen, J.D., is a writer, policy analyst, and adjunct professor in the Department of Political Science at Cal Poly Pomona.

Via Otherwords.org )

Senior General Min Aung Hlaing heads an army accused of “ethnic cleansing” by the United Nations, including the widespread rape and murder of civilians in its “clearance operations” ostensibly targeting Rohingya militants.

AFP/File / Ye Aung THU. A UN Security Council delegation is making a belated first visit to Myanmar to ratchet up pressure for a safe and dignified return of the Muslim minority.

Launched in August 2017, that campaign drove around 700,000 Rohingya refugees into Bangladesh, fleeing burnt villages and army atrocities.

Denied access to Myanmar in the months immediately after the crisis, a UN Security Council delegation is making a belated first visit to Myanmar to ratchet up pressure for a safe and dignified return of the Muslim minority.

Late Monday they met the army chief, who controls all security matters in the country without oversight from the elected government.

“The Tatmadaw (army) is always disciplined… and takes action against anyone who breaks the law,” he told the delegates, according to a post late Monday on his official Facebook page.

Rohingya women and girls in Bangladesh have provided consistent accounts of sexual violence — reports verified by conflict monitors — but Min Aung Hlaing said his forces have “no such history of sexual abuse.”

“It is unacceptable according to the culture and religion of our country,” he said, adding anyone found guilty of crimes would be punished.

He also repeated the official line that Myanmar was ready to take back the refugees who could be verified as residents as per a repatriation deal with Bangladesh.

Several months after the deal was signed, no refugees have returned.

That has enraged Bangladeshi officials, who accuse Myanmar of pretending to co-operate for the benefit of the international community.

AFP / Thet AUNG. The UN delegation is in Myanmar to investigate the violence that spurred last year’s mass exodus of Rohingya refugees.

Calling the refugees “Bengalis” — official shorthand for illegal immigrants from over the border — Min Aung Hlaing blamed “terrorists” for causing the violence.

The UN delegates will travel by helicopter Tuesday over the scarred landscape of northern Rakhine state and give a press conference back in the capital Naypyidaw later in the afternoon.

Their visit to Myanmar comes after an emotionally-charged stay in Bangladesh where Rohingya refugees told delegates of their trauma including sexual abuse.

Myanmar denies the Rohingya citizenship and the accompanying rights.

It has driven two thirds of its roughly 1.5 million Rohingya population out since 2012.

But the country is under mounting pressure to respond to a humanitarian crisis of its making.

Civilian leader Aung San Suu Kyi also met the UN delegates on Monday afternoon, urging their understanding of a complex, festering conflict and vowing to repatriate the refugees.

GENEVA, Switzerland (IPS) – The war in Syria has now entered its 6th year and is becoming the world’s worst man-made disaster.

The humanitarian calamity in Syria has affected millions of lives; more than half of Syria’s pre-war population has been forced to flee, including 6.3 million internally displaced persons and 5.1 million refugees living in refugee camps in the Middle East and in Europe. It is also estimated that approximately 465,000 people have lost their lives because of this enduring conflict with no immediate end in sight.

Arab civilians are also suffering in other major armed conflicts in the Middle East. According to UNHCR and the Internal Displacement Monitoring Centre, at least 3 million Iraqis have been displaced as a result of the civil strife in Iraq.

Iraq Body Count estimates that more than 50% of the war-related deaths – following the 2003 Iraq invasion – were civilians.

In Yemen, the United Nations estimates that more than 10,000 civilians have perished from the fighting between Yemeni government forces and the Houthi rebels. On top of this, IOM and UNHCR estimates that around 3 million Yemeni civilians have been displaced from their homes since the beginning of the conflict.
World Humanitarian Day / Dr. Hanif Hassan Ali Al Qassim. Credit: United Nations Library at Geneva

The high civilian tolls witnessed in these conflicts reveal that civilians are increasingly bearing the burden of armed conflicts in the Arab region.

The pattern of modern warfare has changed: battles that were once fought in the unpopulated shores of Normandie and in the desert of El Alamein are now being fought in the urban centres of Gaza, Mosul, Baghdad and Aleppo affecting the lives of millions of civilians.
The theme of the 2017 World Humanitarian Day – Civilians caught in conflict are not a target – reaffirm the vision expressed in the 10 May 2017 report of the United Nations Secretary-General on the protection of civilians in armed conflict calling for “collective action to strengthen the protection of civilians in armed conflict.”

A “global protection crisis” has emerged – noted the Secretary General in the same report – owing to the rise of use of force of which civilians are ultimately the main victims. Since the end of World War II, it is estimated that between 60-90% of war-related deaths are primarily among civilians. Civilians have become the primary casualties of war in the 21st century.

The irregular and black market arms trade have fuelled the rise of violent and extremist groups in numerous countries in the Arab region.

The illicit arms trade has enabled terrorist groups to thrive in countries affected by conflict and violence. Disturbing images of civilian infrastructure such as schools and hospitals being bombed in Palestine, in Syria and in Iraq show that civilian infrastructure is increasingly being targeted by belligerents.

Although the Arms Trade Treaty sought to regulate the international arms trade, the flow of arms and weapons to violent and extremist groups continues to fuel bloody conflicts in the Arab region owing to the lack of ratification of the Treaty by the member states of the United Nations.

Warfare and armed conflicts are increasingly being fought in urban centres in the Arab region. It has brought the war closer to people. The pattern of modern warfare has changed: Battles that were once fought in the unpopulated shores of Normandie and in the desert of El Alamein are now being fought in the urban centres of Gaza, Mosul, Baghdad and Aleppo affecting the lives of millions of civilians.

World Humanitarian Day / Civilians are Not a Target

The use of heavy weapons, so-called strategic bombardments and the use of modern technologies such as drones have increased the likelihood of inflicting collateral damage on civilians during armed conflicts. The disproportionate use of force has caused immense suffering leading to abuse and to killings of civilians. Collateral damage has emerged as an acceptable term to justify errors and the indiscriminate use of force.

In order to respond to the need to provide protection to civilians in armed conflict, the world has a moral responsibility to end the illegal trade of arms and weapons fuelling the growth of violent and extremist groups.

States need to ratify the Arms Trade Treaty and comply with its provisions so as to end the illicit arms trade that is currently estimated to lie at around 10 billion US dollars per year. Weapons and arms should not end up in the hands of extremist groups such as DAESH that commit heinous and unscrupulous crimes on civilian populations in the Arab region.

I also appeal to the international community to ensure that all parties to conflict comply with their provisions to protect the lives of civilians in line with the provisions set forth in the Convention for the Protection of Civilian Persons in Time of War commonly known as the Fourth Geneva Convention.

Respect for international law must guide the actions of belligerents in armed conflicts. Widespread crimes against humanity affecting civilians must be condemned uniformly by world leaders regardless of where they take place. Civilians should not bear the burden of the devastating consequences of military conflicts.

The author is Chairman of the Geneva Centre for Human Rights Advancement and Global Dialogue

Licensed from Inter Press Service

——

Related video added by Juan Cole:

AFP: “Civilians in eastern Syria flee IS conscription

On 12 June, 5,000 skirts and dresses were hung on 45 clotheslines in the football stadium in Prishtina, capital of Kosova. “The laundry is washed clean, like the women who are clean and pure—they carry no stain,” asserted artist Alketa Xhafa-Mripa, the Kosovar originator of the art installation. The football stadium was chosen as the place of installation for the contrast with its masculine association, its centrality in Prishtina, and for the clear visibility of the skirts and dresses on the field.

In the 1998-1999 war in Kosova, an estimated 20,000 Albanian women and girls were raped by Serbian soldiers and especially Serbian paramilitary. Until now, there was no effective way of remembering this. Albanian culture is traditional and such matters could not be mentioned for fear of the social stigma. Almost all Albanians in Kosova are Muslim and this adds to the social conservatism.

The International War Crimes Tribunal in the Hague was particularly ineffective in dealing with rape in Kosova. Kosovar women who had been raped by Serbian forces and who had been convinced to testify as anonymous witnesses found that while their identities were protected while at the Tribunal in the Hague, they were revealed back in Kosova by Milošević’ team. They felt betrayed by the Tribunal, and some reportedly threatened to commit suicide rather than return to Kosova.

Sevdije Ahmeti, who had convinced the women to testify, said she would never again counsel women to testify under such circumstances. “If the Tribunal had understood the importance of family honor in Kosova, it would never have requested them to testify, or at the very least, it would have worked harder to maintain anonymity.” Sevidje Ahmeti later explained that only women with no close living male relative would even consider reporting a rape (Trix, F. “Underwhelmed”— Kosovar Albanians’ Reactions to the Milošević Trial,” in Timothy Waters (ed.) The Milošević Trial: An Autopsy. New York: Oxford University Press, 2013, 229-248).

Earlier, in the 1990s during the Bosnian War, Turkish women had sent white crocheted head scarves to Bosnian women who had been raped as symbols of purity and that they were martyrs. Again the attempt was to counter the social stigma that accrues to women who have been violated through no fault of their own.

What is more memorable and impressive about the Kosovar installation is its public nature. Even before it was put up, Alketa Xhafa-Mripa spent a month going around to different towns in Kosova hearing stories of survivors and encouraging people to donate skirts. Xhafa-Mripa who is Kosova-born but now lives in London got Tony Blair’s wife to make a donation. President Atifete Jahjaga, the first woman president of Kosova, also made a donation and supported the installation throughout.

More important are the local donations. A red satin dress with a rosebud pattern was donated with the message on it: “This dress has a bitter story.” And most important, fathers, husbands, and brothers brought dresses and skirts and helped in the installation.

As President Atifete Jahjaga said, “This is a call the break the silence, to fight the stigma, a call to act, a call to raising awareness, and a call for acceptance.” The fact that the clean skirts and dresses were hung out clothes-lines on 12 June, the 16th anniversary of the entry of NATO into Prishtina, a day of commemoration in Kosova is meant to bring the sacrifices of the women into a positive sense of community.

Frances Trix is professor of linguistics and anthropology at Indiana University.

—-

Related video added by Juan Cole:

AJ+: “Kosovo Artist Hangs Dresses For 20,000 Wartime Rape Victims”