Kosovo/Kosova As Seen, As Told KOSOVO / KOSOVA As Seen, As Told PART III : The violation of human rights in Kosovo (Chapter 7) Contents Previous Next RAPE AND OTHER FORMS OF SEXUAL VIOLENCE Incidents of rape and sexual violence occurring in the period before the OSCE-KVM's departure from Kosovo Rapes by officers of state authorities and paramilitaries were occurring even before the dramatic escalation of the conflict in March 1999. Very little has been documented on this subject, however. When the OSCE-KVM human rights officers in the former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia took statements about violations that had occurred after the evacuation of the OSCE-KVM from Kosovo, they would also come across acts of sexual violence that had been committed earlier. It is difficult to judge how widespread rape was in the earlier period, but the examples given below may give some indication of how it was used. (This chapter should be read in conjunction with Chapter 6, Torture and illtreatment.) Rape following abduction from public places. Young women were vulnerable to attack in any setting in their everyday lives. One 21-year-old Kosovo Albanian woman described how she and a female relative were subjected to a six-hour ordeal of abduction and rape by Serbian police in mid-February 1999, after being arbitrarily detained as they were on their way to attend a wedding: At 18:00, as we were having some food in the bus station while waiting for the bus …, five [police officers] arrived. They were around 25-30 [years old], except one who was 50, was bald and had some insignia of rank on his arm. They asked what we had in our suitcase. "You have bombs," they said. They searched the suitcase, [and said] "You have to come with us to the police station." … I showed them my ID. "Your family name is [name omitted], you're certainly in the UCK". They took my suitcase and asked us to enter the car. We said we wanted to go on foot to the police station. They caught us by the arm and we were pushed into the police car … The old [police officer asked whether] we wanted to follow them to a hotel. I said it was not our tradition, I pretended to be married. I knew something dangerous was going to happen to us. He said, "Just be good girls. Even if you do not want to do it, you will." The [police] driver, who was the youngest of the group, said to the other to let us go. The old [police officer] said they would not because "our people were killed by the UCK today". We drove for three hours outside Prizren. http://www.osce.org/kosovo/documents/reports/hr/part1/ch7.htm (1 of 17)12/5/2003 11:51:55 AM