Kosovo/Kosova As Seen, As Told Young women as targets. From statements cited above and below, it is clear that the Serbian forces targeted young women in their operations against the civilian population. One man from Pristina described how the police and paramilitaries, as they looted the area, threatened that women would be sent to special camps. He further stated that the police separated the beautiful young girls and drove them away in the police cars. 18 The following is an extract from a statement by a 15-year-old girl, which illustrates the way in which the Serbian forces would look for young women: At the beginning of May police came to our house. Two police officers entered the house while one was staying in a car outside. Inside the car I also saw a woman about 18 years old, her mouth was covered and she had a gun held to her head. Her clothing was ripped and she was bruised and bleeding. The police inside asked for our papers and seemed mostly interested in young women. They asked how old I am, and my father answered 14. The police did not believe him and took me outside. He told me that since he had not his wife with him there I would become his wife. He started to kiss me and fired his weapon through the windows when my family tried to look out to see what was happening. He tried to rip off my clothes and when I tried to resist he slapped me. At that time the policeman inside the car stepped out and said that he wanted me for himself. The first policeman took me back into the house. He continued to kiss and grope me in front of my family and said that he would return later that evening. After that the police proceeded to our neighbours' house where they tried to force a young woman with a baby in her arms into their car. As she resisted they took her baby and threw it on the ground where it lay crying. These police went from house to house and afterwards the villagers discussed that 19 it seemed as they had only been interested in taking young girls. Detention of women for sexual slavery. Although not a widely reported phenomenon, there were cases in which groups of women were held as hostages and violated in different ways. In the example below all the women of a village were gathered together and held as prisoners for four days after the village was attacked by a mixed force apparently comprising Serbian police and "soldiers" (it is unclear whether they were VJ or "paramilitaries"). They were forced to work for the Serbian forces and were raped and otherwise sexually humiliated and ill-treated. They were also told they were being used as human shields. On 6 April the Serbian forces arrived in the village. They divided the men from the women and children. The women were taken to an open place in the village and there they were divided into three groups. Their assailants said, "We can use [you] so that NATO can't strike against this village and the UCK can't 20 shoot at us." The women were put into three different houses. There were between 30 and 50 women in each house. Before the women entered the houses they were forced to leave all jewellery and other valuable things, documents and money. One woman described how she was unable to get her ring off her finger, and one http://www.osce.org/kosovo/documents/reports/hr/part1/ch7.htm (7 of 17)12/5/2003 11:51:55 AM