WUNRN
“We
Are Hungry in Three Languages”: Citizens Protest in Bosnia."
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Violence
Against Women, A War Legacy in Bosnia and Herzegovina – UN Special
Rapporteur on Violence Against Women
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BOSNIA - THE WAR - THE WORLD'S
ATTENTION MOVES ON; THE WOMEN VICTIMS' PAIN LINGERS - WUNRN SHARING
WUNRN has been involved with women
and girls of Bosnia for years, and including a Mission to Bosnia, not long
after the war.
Some 10 years ago, while still
living in the US, WUNRN was a founder of the Bosnian Women's Network in the
Midwest United States. The Bosnian women wanted to unite, and now have a strong
program, a center, specialized services, and funding.
In order to start the Bosnian
Women's Network, we met in homes and community centers. Women of all ages came.
They had escaped Bosnia as war refugees, and had often gone first to Germany or
to Canada, with two suitcases at most to hold all the possessions of their
lives. Then, they came to the US.
At the Bosnian women's gatherings,
they sat in a circle, and each told a story, often sharing pictures of loved
ones. Everyone had lost at least one relative in the war. There were tears,
very close moments, even photos of homes that had been destroyed, lives
shattered.
They told me and my Bosnian
organizer colleague, about Srebrenica and the battery factory where they had
gone for protection from the Serb military. Their cried as they told me about
that fateful night when the Serb forces came and separated males from
females, taking boys over 16 with their fathers. They shuddered with pain as
they recalled that night in 1995, when they heard the soldiers shooting their
men and boys, killing some 8,000 over a five-day period. Many of the
unidentified bodies are still buried in mass graves in the surrounding forest.
I have data that before the
war, Srebrenica had some 37,000 inhabitants, 73% Bosnian Muslim, and 23% Serb.
Ten years later, after the war, the population of Srebrenica was around only
10,000, made up of 4,000 Muslim returnees and 6,000 Serbs.
But the murders of the men were only
part of the horror for the women of Bosnia, of Srebrenica. They were
raped, tortured, forced to flee their homes for safety, to live in fear and
trauma. Many women became pregnant from the rapes. The women and girl victims
of abuse were shunned by society with the stigma.The Bosnian War is considered
the largest European genocide since World War II.
The Bosnian Women's
Network encouraged me to GO TO BOSNIA, and to experience truly the
magnitude and devastation of the lives of women and girls in Bosnia.
So, a some years ago, after the UN
Human Rights Session in Geneva, I went on Mission to Bosnia, representing
several programs.
I met with the Widows of Srebrenica,
who were trying to rebuild their lives, move from horrific memories and
poverty, to forms of economic stability and renewed spirit. The women were
strong, and they comforted and helped each other. They told me many stories.
There were so many tears.
I had with me an album from the
Bosnian Women's Network in the US, with pictures and greetings, in their own
language. I asked them what they wanted me to tell the Bosnian women in the
United States, and they said, "DON'T FORGET US."
One particularly gathering in
Sarajevo, I will remember all my life.... I sat in a room, in the old
quarter, filled to capacity with women victims of war crimes. They
expressed emotionally, their experiences (with sensitive
women interpreters), and the continued challenges.They knew that much of
the world had forgotten the Bosnia war, and that the attention and
aid had moved to Iraq, Afghanistan, Sudan, Congo, and multiple
countries in conflict/war, or facing natural disasters.
They wanted to have justice for
their rights, their homes, their land, and to see war criminals prosecuted.
One elderly woman, held my hand
tightly, and suddenly, stood up, and though covering her head with the Muslim
scarf, lifted her blouse to show us all the scars from the torture she had
endured during the war.
ALL THESE WOMEN ARE THE
FEMININE LENS, THE PERSONAL TRAUMATIC EXPERIENCE FOR A LIFETIME, OF
THE WAR IN BOSNIA.
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