Kosovo/Kosova As Seen, As Told 33 and returned them later. A 30-year-old man from Pristina described how he heard a woman scream that police had taken her 17year-old daughter. An hour later, he saw the girl in the street crying with her clothes torn. She said, she 34 did not want to go on living any more and that "they have done things to me". A 29-year-old man saw five policemen in Urahovac taking three girls aged between 15 and 20 by force. They took them into the stadium. One hour later, the same girls came back crying from the stadium. The policemen were seen rearranging their own clothing (doing up their shirts and belts). Two of the girls had scratches on their 35 faces and the other one had blood on her head. In a village in Vitina/Viti municipality, eight paramilitaries were seen taking two young women, aged 19 and 21years old, into a house for an hour. When the women came out their skirts had been removed, 36 around their genitals they were covered with blood and they looked to be in shock. Elsewhere, a 17year-old girl described how her friend was taken away from the house where they had been put by paramilitaries. Afterwards the friend had told the girl: "If they take you, they can do anything they 37 38 want." A woman in Pristina was told by two 13-year-old girls that they had been raped by police. A 39-year-old woman who was in a convoy from Mitrovica to Albania in March, saw young women join the group after they had been "somewhere". The women were covered in blood and some of them had torn clothing. 39 Rape and sexual violence connected with extortion. There are many accounts of sexual violence in connection with extortion. In some occasions the perpetrators would rape women if they did not get money, in other cases relatives would hand money over in order to get women back. One man described how two paramilitaries took his neighbour's wife because the neighbour had been unable to give them any money; he was tied up and his wife was taken away in a car. He continues: "I saw how her three 40 children ran screaming after the car. She returned home four hours later crying and visibly shaken." A 32-year-old woman saw how VJ in Makovac/Makofc (Pristina) pulled her sister-in-law from her tractor as they were in a long convoy heading for Pristina. The VJ threatened to rape her but released her after the interviewee gave them some money. The interviewee further saw about 30 young women standing on the side of the column as the paramilitaries continued to select from the crowd. When they wanted to 41 put her sister in that group the interviewee handed over some more money and they let her go. A 17year-old girl saw a group of police abduct two young women. The father of one of them offered DM 8000 in order to get his daughter back. The police took the money but did not release his daughter. 42 Rape in public, or in front of others. A way to increase the humiliation of a woman was to rape her in front of others. There are several statements recounting how women were raped in public, or in front of their families. One interviewee recounted how a 17-year-old girl was raped in front of her parents in 43 Pristina. A 28-year-old man described how at the end of March, on the Pristina-Urosevac road, he and two young women were stopped by a military convoy with many tanks and trucks. A VJ soldier and an http://www.osce.org/kosovo/documents/reports/hr/part1/ch7.htm (10 of 17)12/5/2003 11:51:55 AM