Rape, War, & the Fragmentation of Feminism in the Dissolution of Yugoslavia

[Yoshie Furuhashi <furuhashi.1@xxxxxxx>]

Obrad Kesic writes in "Women and Gender Imagery in Bosnia: Amazons, Sluts, Victims, Witches, and Wombs," _Gender and Politics in the Western Balkans: Women and Society in Yugoslavia and the Yugoslav Successor States_, ed. Sabrina P. Ramet (University Park, PA: Penn State UP, 1999):

*****  Another truism concerning rape and war is that the victims of rape will be used to manipulate support for the cause of continuing the fight and will be used to manipulate international public opinion with the hope of provoking enough outrage to lead to an intervention that would change the course of the war.  All of the above elements can be seen in the wars in Croatia and Bosnia.

One of the most damaging effects of the rapes and the manipulation of these rapes for the war effort, other than the psychological trauma to the victim herself, has been the fragmenting effects it has had on feminists and women's groups within the territory of the Yugoslav successor states.  Feminists and women's groups have been split into two relatively antagonistic groups: those who see rape as a universal problem of violence against women which needs to be identified and combated as such, and those who see the high incidence of rape in this particular war as being unique and the product of a contempt or hatred by one particular army (Serbian) for the women of a particular ethnic group (Muslim or Croatian).

This split was best illustrated in two international meetings held in Zagreb, Croatia.  The first meeting, called Women In the War, was held in October 1992 and was organized by the women's groups Kareta and Women's Help Now....The meeting became extremely controversial when the organizers of the meeting and the Croatian media attacked five of the most prominent feminists in Croatia for trying to undermine the basic purpose of the conference.  They claimed these feminists were undermining the conference by insisting that rape is a universal act of violence by men against women and that, by holding this position, these women were aiding the Serbian aggressors because they failed to single out "Croatian" and "Muslim" women as the victims.

The second meeting, the International Congress of Women's Solidarity, was held in January 1993, also in Zagreb.  The idea for the Congress originated with German feminist groups from Berlin....It created a public split between Croatian women's groups, the Zagreb Women's Lobby and associated groups who welcomed the congress, and other groups (Kareta, Women's Group Tresnjevka, and Bodem Ljubavi) who criticized the idea.  Opposition to the congress centered upon its perceived neutrality....The leaders of Bodem Ljubavi and the other groups favoring a singling out of the aggressors came to the congress with the hope of passing a resolution that would condemn Serbian aggression and specifically name Muslim and Croatian women as the principal victims.

When discussion at the congress did not proceed according to the wishes of these groups, Bodem Ljubavi issued an official protest.  When a Serb-American, Vesna Bozic, got up to speak, the Bodem-led group walked out.  Bozic gave a speech that was an emotional indictment of Milosevic government, but when the Bedem group was told about the nature of her speeh, its members dismissed it....

....Bodem Ljubavi and like-minded groups are glorified in the patriarchal culture of nationalist politics, while members of the Zagreb Women's Lobby were portrayed as disloyal and morally suspect....

The battle line drawn between women of one nation over the politicization of rape carries into the international arena.  The pressure to differentiate between types of rapists and types of victims as "theirs" and "ours" is overwhelming, the underlying meaning of this being that "they" are guilty for everything, even the crimes of "our" side.  The desire to differentiate between "their" bestial war crimes and our "defensive" crimes can be seen in an article written for _The Nation_ by Slavenka Drakulic....In the article, Drakulic struggles to differentiate the rapes committed by Serbs from those committed by Croats and Muslims.

> Of course, Croats and Muslims have raped Serbian women in Bosnia, too, but the Serbs are the aggressors, bent on taking over two thirds of the territory.  This does not justify Croat and Muslim offenses, but they are in a defensive war and do not practice systematic and organized rape.

Later in the article, she adds:

> But even if the rapes were used for political propaganda, this could be justified because of the Serbian policy of exiling and destroying the Muslim population.  If an entire ethnic group is systematically destroyed to the point of genocide, it is legitimate to use accounts of rape (or anything else for that matter) as a means of getting attention and influencing public opinion.

This attempt to single out Serb-committed rape as being uniquely evil and horrible can also be seen in the writings of Western feminists and proponents of Bosnia's cause, such as Catherine MacKinnon [who argues that the origins of the wars in the former Yugoslavia can be traced to the culture of pornography that existed in the prewar former Yugoslavia and that the Serb rapes of Muslim and Croatian women are "to everyday rape what the Holocaust is to everyday anti-Semitism"] and Alexander Stiglemayer.

....Both MacKinnon and Stiglemayer, knowingly or unwittingly, are embroiled in the internal struggle between feminist groups in the Yugoslav successor states, and both rely heavily on information from these groups, such as Kareta, which want to specify the ethnicity of victims and aggressors.  MacKinnon even attacks the feminists who had denounced the nationalist politicization of rapes in Bosnia by attacking the prewar magazine _Start_....

In response to MacKinnon's article in _Ms._, Vesna Kesic, one of the former editors of _Start_, reveals the full implications of MacKinnon's accusations and conclusions:

> ...MacKinnon has embraced a nationalistic argument which has become a part of the war propaganda which stirs ethnic hatred and promotes revenge -- fueling actions which are often expressed violently by men against women.

Each of the govenments involved in these wars has sought to manipulate and politicize rape and its victims.  These efforts at manipulation and the media which eagerly cooperate with these efforts victimize the victims a second time.  The use of inflated numbers also helps set up rape victims for a hard fall....

Furthermore, the image of women as victims as used by nationalist regimes assists in fueling the war by appealing to the patriarchal notions of women as property and the responsibility of men for protecting their property and taking revenge on those who would "pollute" this property.  Women who become "tainted" by the enemy receive attention as symbols but tend to be surrounded by shame in public life.  The underlying implication is that women who are raped by the enemy have in some absurd way betrayed the nation.... (194-8)

[Obrad Kesic is the former program coordinator of the Democratic Transition Program of the International Research and Exchanges Board (IREX).  At IREX, Kesic was responsible for Balkan programs.  Kesic also servs as a consultant on Balkan affairs for various American and international organizations and agencies and has provided analysis and briefings for U.S. government agencies and officials, at the Department of State and Defense as well as USIA.  Kesic is a member of the Atlantic Council/Woodrow Wilson Balkan Security Task Force.]   *****

Yoshie