The politics of identity and sexual violence: A review of Bosnia and Rwanda

Human Rights Quarterly

Volumn 30, Issue 3, 2008, Pages 561-578

  Weitsman, Patricia A ^a  

^a OHIO UNIVERSITY   (United States)

Author keywords

[No Author keywords available]

Indexed keywords

CULTURAL IDENTITY; ETHNICITY; SEXUAL CONFLICT; VIOLENCE; WAR;

AFRICA; BOSNIA AND HERZEGOVINA; CENTRAL AFRICA; EURASIA; EUROPE; RWANDA; SOUTHERN EUROPE; SUB-SAHARAN AFRICA;

EID: 49749139744     PISSN: 02750392     EISSN: None     Source Type: Journal    
DOI: 10.1353/hrq.0.0024     Document Type: Review

References (123)

1. James D. Fearon & David D. Laitin, Violence and the Social Construction of Ethnic Identity, 54 INT'L ORG. 845, 855 (2000);
2. MADAN SARUP, IDENTITY, CULTURE AND THE POSTMODERN WORLD 7, 47 (Tasneem Raja ed., 1996).
3. SARUP, supra note 1, at 182.
4. See also BENEDICT ANDERSON, IMAGINED COMMUNITIES: REFLECTIONS ON THE ORIGIN AND SPREAD OF NATIONALISM 104-05 (1983).
5. Rhonda Copelon, Gendered War Crimes: Reconceptualizing Rape in Time of War, in WOMEN's RIGHTS, HUMAN RIGHTS 197 (Julie Peters & Andrea Wolper eds., 1995);
6. SUSAN BROWNMILIFER, AGAINST OUR WILL: MEN, WOMEN AND RAPE 58, 81 (1975).
7. See SHANA SWISS, PHYSICIANS FOR HUMAN RIGHTS, LIBERIA: WOMEN AND CHILDREN GRAVELY MISTREATED (May 1991) (on file with author);
8. ROBIN KIRK, HUMAN RIGHTS WATCH, UNTOLD TERROR: VIOLENCE AGAINST WOMEN IN PERU'S ARMED CONFLICT (Dec. 1992);
9. ASIA WATCH, BURMA: RAPE, FORCED LABOR AND RELIGIOUS PERSECUTION IN NORTHERN ARAKAN (1992);
10. Copelon, supra note 3, at 198;
11. Catherine N. Niarchos, Women, War, and Rape: Challenges Facing the International Tribunal for the Former Yugoslavia, 17 HUM. RTS. Q. 649, 656 (1995);
12. Adrianne Aron, Shawn Come, Anthea Fursland & Barbara Zelwer, The Gender Specific Terror of El Salvador and Guatemala: Post-traumatic Stress Disorder in Central American Refugee Women, 14 WOMEN'S STUD. INT'L F. 37 (1991);
13. Report on the Situation of Human Rights in Kuwait under Iraqi Occupation, Prepared by Mr. Walter Kälin, Special Rapportuer of the Commission on Human Rights in accordance with Commission Resolution 1991/ 67, U.N. ESCOR, Comm'n on Hum. Rts., 48th Sess., U.N. Doc. UCN.4 /1992/26 (1992).
14. There are many scholars who describe rape as ethnic cleansing in this way. See a discussion in Patricia Weitsman, Children Born of War and the Politics of Identity, in BORN OF WAR: PROTECTING CHILDREN OF SEXUAL VIOLENCE SURVIVORS IN CONFLICT ZONES 110 (R. Charli Carpenter ed., 2007).
15. Other scholars, including myself, find this language problematic when it results in thousands of children born of mass rape. See R. Charli Carpenter, Surfacing Children: Limitations of Genocidal Rape Discourse, 22 HUM. RTS. Q. 428 (2000).
16. See Carol J. Williams, In Kosovo, Rape Seen as Awful as Death, L.A. TIMES, 27 May 1999, at A1.
17. For more on this, see Patricia A. Weitsman, Women, War and Identity, in WOMEN AND HUMAN SECURITY: CHALLENGES OF CONFLICT AND GLOBAL CHANGE (Richard A. Matthew & Heather Goldsworthy eds., forthcoming 2009).
18. See Carpenter, supra note 5.
19. ROBERT PROCTOR, RACIAL HYGIENE: MEDICINE UNDER THE NAZIS 95-97 (1988);
20. PAUL WEINDLING, HEALTH, RACE AND GERMAN POLITICS BETWEEN NATIONAL UNIFICATION AND NAZISM, 1870-1945 (1989).
21. Siobhan K. Fisher, Occupation of the Womb: Forced Impregnation as Genocide, 47 DUKE L.J. 91, 111 (1996).
22. Id.
23. Carpenter, supra note 5;
24. Weitsman, Women, War, and Identity, supra note 7;
25. Weitsman, Children Born of War, supra note 5, ch. 7;
26. Patricia A. Weitsman, The Discourse of Rape in Wartime: Sexual Violence, War Babies, and Identity, Paper presented at the Annual Meeting of the International Studies Association, Portland, OR, 26 Feb.-1 Mar. 2003 (on file with author). In terms of criminal law, however, the intentions of the perpetrators matter. If the ultimate intention is to destroy the community, then prosecuting for genocide may be appropriate. The distinction here may be between the short-term goals of forced impregnation policies and the long-term goal of destroying a community. My thanks to Bert Lockwood for this insight.
27. SARUP, supra note 1, at 3.
28. See also LEWIS A. COSER, THE FUNCTIONS OF SOCIAL CONFLICT (1956).
29. BRUCE LINCOLN, DISCOURSE AND THE CONSTRUCTION OF SOCIETY 10-11 (1989).
30. See Carpenter, supra note 5, for an excellent and insightful analysis of the myriad ways these children are marginalized.
31. Louise Branson, A Generation of Children of Hate: The Unwanted Children Conceived in the Rapes of Some 20,000 Women May Be the Most Lasting Scar Left by Yugoslavia's Bitter Civil War, TORONTO STAR , 29 Jan. 1993, at D13. She describes one mother who calls her child a Chetnik baby.
32. Helen Smith, Revealed: The Cruel Fate of War's Rape Babies, OBSERVER (London), 16 Apr. 2000, at 1.
33. James C. McKinley, Jr., Legacy of Rwanda Violence: The Thousands Born of Rape, N.Y. TIMES, 25 Sept. 1996, at A1.
34. BINAIFER NOWROJEE, HUMAN RIGHTS WATCH, SHATTFRED LIVES: SEXUAL VIOLENCE DURING THE RWANDAN GENOCIDE AND ITS AFTERMATH 3 (Dorothy Q. Thomas & Janet Fleischman eds., 1996).
35. ROBERT S. MCKELVEY, THE DUST OF LIFE: AMERICA'S CHILDREN ABANDONED IN VIETNAM (1999).
36. Lydia Polgreen, Darfur's Babies of Rape are on Trial from Birth, N.Y. TIMES, 11 Feb. 2005, at A1.
37. See Carpenter, supra note 5.
38. In contrast, the babies born in Britain during WWI to unwed mothers by departing soldiers led to a call for reform in "bastardy laws." These children were considered the result of "self or race preservation" and were not to be condemned. They also were considered "unborn children ... left to us in trust by our soldiers." See SUSAN R. GRAYZEL, WOMEN'S IDENTITIES AT WAR 96 (1999).
39. See also Susan R. Grayzel, The Mothers of our Soldiers' Children, in MATERNAL INSTINCTS: VISIONS OF MOTHER-HOOD AND SEXUALITY IN BRITAIN, 1875-1925, at 122 (Claudia Nelson & Ann Sumner Holmes eds., 1997).
40. Ruth Harris, The "Child of the Barbarian": Rape, Race and Nationalism in France During the First World War, PAST AND PRESENT , Nov. 1993, at 170.
41. Carol J. Williams, Bosnia's Orphans of Rape: Innocent Legacy of Hatred, L.A. TIMES, 24 July 1993, at A1.
42. This was true in Kosovo as well. See American's Offer to Adopt War Child Born of Rape: A Home Must be Sought in Kosovo First, OTTAWA CITIZEN, 11 May 2000, at A9;
43. Donatella Lorch, Rwanda: Rape, Used as Weapon, Creates "Genocide Orphans," OTTAWA CITIZEN, 20 May 1995, at H10.
44. For a discussion, see Weitsman, The Discourse of Rape in Wartime, supra note 12.
45. Labeling a child a "genocidal orphan" virtually negates his or her existence. This abnegation of self gives rise to gross violations of human rights which dramatically undermines the quality of the child's life. The same thing is true of all of the labels mentioned in the text. See Emily Wax, Rwandans are Struggling to Love Children of Hate, WASH. POST, 28 Mar. 2004, at A1;
46. Dele Olojede, Genocide's Child, NEWSDAY, 30 Apr. 2004;
47. Lorch, supra note 24.
48. See Weitsman, The Discourse of Rape in Wartime, supra note 12.
49. Daniel McGrory, Ten Years on, Sarajevo Mourns Forgotten Dead, TIMES (London), 6 Apr. 2002.
50. For a detailed discussion of these cases, see Weitsman, Women, War and identity, supra note 7.
51. My focus here is on the rape and forced impregnation of Bosnian Muslim women, who were the principal targets of the sexual violence. However, they certainly were not the only victims. Numerous rapes were committed against women and men of other ethnic groups as well.
52. For a more detailed description of what took place in some of these camps, see Weitsman, Women, War, and Identity, supra note 7.
53. See also Final Report of the United Nations Commission of Experts, established pursuant to Security Council Resolution 780 (1992), Annex IX Rape and Sexual Assault, U.N. SCOR, 49th Sess., at 13, U.N. Doc. S/ 1994/674/Add.2 (Vol.V) (1994).
54. One can also read the narratives of the women who have testified at the International Criminal Tribunal Yugoslavia (ICTY). There were 16 individuals from Foca alone who testified in 2000. The documents and transcripts are available at http://www.un.org/icty.
55. Lisa Sharlach, Rape as Genocide: Bangladesh, the Former Yugoslavia, and Rwanda, 22 NEW POL. SCI. 89, 97 (2000).
56. See also Todd A. Salzman, Rape Camps as a Means to Ethnic Cleansing: Religious, Cultural, and Ethical Responses to Rape Victims in the Former Yugoslavia, 20 HUM. RTS. Q. 348 (1998);
57. Jennifer Scott, Systematic Rapes, REUTERS, 3 July 1996;
58. Mass Rape in Bosnia Took Place on Orders from Above, DEUTSCHE PRESSE-AGENTUR, 2 July 1996;
59. Fisher, supra note 10.
60. Even individuals who did not believe that the rapes were systematic became convinced that it was indeed true, upon collecting statements from survivors. See David Barnsdale, Mass Rape in Bosnia: Breaking the Wall of Silence, an Interview with Seada Vranic, available at http://www.barnsdle.demon.co.uk/bosnia/rapes.html.
61. George Rodrigue, Women: The Targets of Terror; Serbs Accused of Systematially Raping Muslims in Bosnia, GAZETTE (Montreal), 23 Nov. 1992, at B1.
62. Prosecutor v. Karadzic & Mladic, Case No. IT-95-5/18, Trial Transcript at 412 (2 July 1996).
63. Alexandra Stiglmayer, The Rapes in Bosnia-Herzegovina, in MASS RAPE: THE WAR AGAINST WOMEN IN BOSNIA-HERZEGOVINA 82, 119 (Alexandra Stiglmayer ed., 1994).
64. Robert Fisk, Rape Victims Say Serb Troops "Wanted Babies," TORONTO STAR, 8 Feb. 1993, at A3.
65. See also Fisher, supra note 10, at 110-11.
66. Fisher, supra note 10, at 113.
67. Id. at 110-11.
68. Id.
69. See Lynda E. Boose, Crossing the River Drina: Bosnian Rape Camps, Turkish Impalement, and Serb Cultural Memory, 28 SIGNS: J. WOMEN IN CULTURE & SOC'Y 71, 75 (2002). Boose's argument is extremely interesting - that ultimately Bosnian Muslim identity was linked to the Turks by the Serbians despite the fact that in reality there is no connection. But the constructed memory and association of them by the Serbians culminated in the dreadful sexual violations witnessed in the war.
70. Women who survive these horrendous experiences have undergone egregious human rights violations. The children born of these experiences are, of course, innocent. Yet because they represent, or stand in for, the perpetrators of the crime to their mothers, they are frequently punished in terrible and unjust ways.
71. See Weitsman, Children Born of War, supra note 5;
72. Carpenter, Surfacing Children, supra note 5, at 458,
73. quoted in BEVERLY ALLEN, RAPE WARFARE: THE HIDDEN GENOCIDE IN BOSNIA-HERZEGOVINA AND CROATIA 99 (1996) (explaining that many women "attempt to kill their babies at birth in a reaction that, speaking strictly in terms of the mother's psychological well-being, might even be considered healthy").
74. Estimates vary as to how many Rwandans were killed, but the number that appears most frequently is 800,000. See Alan J. Kuperman, Provoking Genocide: A Revised History of the Rwandan Patriotic Front, 6 J. GENOCIDE RES. 61 (2004).
75. See MAHMOOD MAMDANI, WHEN VICTIMS BECOME KILLERS 4-7 (2001);
76. ALISON DES FORGES, LEAVE NONE TO TELL THE STORY 325-27 (1999).
77. Lisa Sharlach, Gender and Genocide in Rwanda: Women as Agents and Objects of Genocide, 1 J. GENOCIDE RES. 387, 397 (1999).
78. Weitsman, Children Born of War, supra note 5, at 115.
79. DES FORGES, supra note 44, at 66-68.
80. NOWROJEE, supra note 19.
81. Peter K. Landesman, A Woman's Work, N.Y. TIMES, 15 Sept. 2002, § 6 (Magazine), at 82.
82. Sharlach, Gender and Genocide in Rwanda, supra note 45, at 395.
83. NOWROJEE, supra note 19;
84. Sharlach, Gender and Genocide in Rwanda, supra note 45, at 393;
85. Rachel Rinaldo, Women Survivors of the Rwandan Genocide Face Grim Realities, IPS NEWS, 6 Apr. 2004, available at http: //www.aegis.com/news/ips/2004/IP040404.html.
86. Landesman, supra note 49.
87. Id. See also NOWROJEE, supra note 19;
88. Report on the Situation of Human Rights in Rwanda, submitted by Mr. René Degni-Segui, Special Rapporteur of the Commission on Human Rights, under Paragraph 20 of the Resolution S-3/1 of 25 May 1994, U.N. ESCOR, Comm'n on Hum. Rts., 52nd Sess., U.N. Doc. E/CN.4/1996/68 (1996).
89. Landesman, supra note 49.
90. Prosecutor v. Nyiramasuhuko, Case No. ICTR-98-42 (2007). Nyiramasuhuko's case is currently underway at the International Criminal Tribunal Rwanda. The case minutes of her trial are available at http:// www.ictr.org.
91. Landesman, supra note 49.
92. Wax, supra note 25;
93. Olojede, supra note 25;
94. Lorch, supra note 24.
95. Prosecutor v. Akayesu, Case No. ICTR-96-4-T, Judgment, ¶¶ 449-460 (2 Sept. 1998).
96. Prosecutor v. Kamuhanda, Case No. ICTR-99-54, Indictment, ¶¶ 4.2-4.4, 6.45-6.46 (15 Nov. 2000).
97. Prosecutor v. Kamuhanda, Case No. ICTR-95-54A-T, Judgment, ¶ 367 (22 Jan. 2004).
98. Id. ¶ 496. Most of the individuals convicted by the ICTR thus far have been found guilty of charges of organizing and overseeing systematic rapes, perpetrated by themselves and/or their subordinates.
99. DES FORGES, supra note 44, at 215.
100. NOWROJEE, supra note 19, at 12.
101. Id. at 32.
102. Human Rights Watch/FIDH Interview, Member, Association des femmes chefs de familles, Kigali (28 Mar. 1996),
103. quoted in NOWROJEE, supra note 19.
104. MAMDANI, supra note 44, at 54;
105. DES FORGES, supra note 44, at 215.
106. There are two broad schools of thought regarding the significance of the distinction between the Hutu and Tutsi. The first highlights the difference in the two groups; the second emphasizes the sameness between them. For the first, proponents argue that the two identity groups have different physical characteristics (e.g., height) and different blood factors (e.g., sickle cell trait), different cultural memories, and/or different historical origins. The school of thought arguing that the Hutu/Tutsi distinction is insignificant asserts that the difference between the two groups is principally economic and cultural, but not genetic, particularly as the two groups have integrated, intermarried, and cohabitated. In fact, all of the major clans in Rwanda include Hutu and Tutsi (and Twa). This perspective holds that the difference between Hutu and Tutsi stems principally from social selection and privilege, endowed on the Tutsis by the Belgian colonizers in the colonial and pre-coionial era. This school of thinking about identity emphasizes the role of colonization in constructing the rift between Hutu and Tutsi. During colonization, the Hutu/Tutsi difference became racialized; Tutsis were constructed as nonincligneous, Hutus as indigenous to Rwanda. See MAMDANI, supra note 44, at 41-75, 76-102;
107. Kuperman, supra note 43, at 63;
108. GÉRARD PRUNIER, THE RWANDA CRISIS: HISTORY OF A GENOCIDE (1998).
109. NOWROJEE, supra note 19, at 12.
110. Id.
111. For a discussion of this policy aspect, see DES FORGES, supra note 44, at 10, 215.
112. Landesman, supra note 49.
113. Wax, supra note 25.
114. see NOWROJEE, supra note 19, at 39;
115. Wax, supra note 25;
116. Olojede, supra note 25;
117. Lorch, supra note 24.
118. Wax, supra note 25.
119. NOWROJEE, supra note 19, at 40.
120. Leslie Shanks & Michael J. Schull, Rape in War: The Humanitarian Response, 163 CANADIAN MED. ASS'N. J. 9 (2000).
121. Wax, supra note 25;
122. Olojede, supra note 25.
123. McKinley, supra note 18.