WUNRN
International Business Times
http://www.ibtimes.com/bosnian-war-court-orders-compensation-rape-victim-landmark-ruling-1983083
Also Via SVRI – Sexual Violence Research Initiative
Bosnia – Court Orders Compensation for War Rape Victim in “Landmark” Ruling
For the first time ever, a Bosnian court has ordered two former
Bosnian Serb soldiers who raped a Croat woman during the 1992-1995 war to pay
monetary compensation to the victim.
Pictured: A Bosnian Muslim woman
looks through the window of a bus as she arrives at Potocari in the wartime
U.N. protected enclave of Srebrenica Reuters/Damir Sagolj
By Avaneesh Pandey - June 25 2015
For the first time ever, a Bosnian court has ordered two former
Bosnian Serb soldiers who raped a Croat woman during the 1992-1995 war to pay
monetary compensation to the victim. The two soldiers -- Bosiljko Markovic and
Ostoja Markovic -- were also sentenced to 10 years in prison by the court
on Wednesday, according to media reports.
The two soldiers were reportedly ordered to pay 26,500 Bosnian
marka (approximately $15,200) to the victim. The woman -- one among the
thousands who were raped during the multilateral conflict involving various
Serbian and Croat entities with Bosnia and Herzegovina -- was repeatedly raped
during an attack on her village of Orahova in 1992, according to media reports.
Estimates by various human rights groups suggest that up to 60,000
women -- mostly Muslim Bosniaks -- might have been raped by Bosnian Serb
soldiers.
“Many women were raped, sometimes repeatedly, in front of family
members in their homes. Others were raped in public, outdoors, in broad
daylight,” the Women Under Siege project run by U.S.-based Women’s Media
Center, said.
Trial BiH, an organization that provides legal assistance to the
victims, welcomed the “landmark sentence” in a statement released Wednesday.
“Money will not erase the pain caused by the perpetrators, but it
is nevertheless a very important day for the victim. For her, justice has been
fully served,” Adrijana Hanusic, a legal adviser at Trial BiH said, in the
statement. “This verdict is of key importance for other victims of war crimes
in BiH and the region: they can now hope for adjustments in legal practice that
would compensate them while bringing criminals to justice.”
Although Bosnian courts have, in the past, prosecuted and jailed
several war criminals for sexual violence during the war, they have directed
victims to pursue compensation claims in expensive civil procedures -- a
recourse many victims have avoided because it requires them to reveal their
identities.