DATE=8/18/1999
TYPE=CORRESPONDENT REPORT
TITLE=RAPE / WAR CRIMES (L ONLY)
NUMBER=2-252923
BYLINE=LISA SCHLEIN
DATELINE=GENEVA
CONTENT=
VOICED AT:
INTRO: A U-N special investigator says the systematic
rape of women in armed conflict is used as a weapon of
war and a tool of genocide. The investigator is
calling for concerted action to bring those
responsible for these crimes to justice and to
compensate the victims. Lisa Schlein in Geneva
reports the investigator this week submitted her
report to a U-N human rights committee.
TEXT: The U-N report says the use of sexual violence
as a weapon of war is abundantly clear. It says such
atrocities have been and continue to be committed in
conflicts around the world, including Afghanistan,
Burma, Colombia, Congo-Kinshasa, Indonesia, Sierra
Leone, and Kosovo.
The report says such abuses include the detention and
rape of women and girls in their homes and in so-
called "rape camps", and the abduction of women and
girls for forced labor and as sexual slaves.
Despite its prevalence in armed conflict, U-N
Investigator Gay McDougall says rape never has been
taken seriously as a criminal offense in the context
of the laws of war. She says this is because women
are devalued and these crimes are not considered
important.
/// McDOUGALL ACT ONE ///
When it has been taken seriously, I might add,
it has been taken seriously, not as an offense
of violence against a woman -- but, more as an
offense against the honor, if you will, of the
family or of particularly, the male head of the
family.
/// END ACT ///
Ms. McDougall says events stemming from the wars in
Bosnia-Herzegovina and Rwanda have begun to change
attitudes. She says rape in these conflicts was
widespread, systematic, and used as a tool of
genocide. As a consequence, she notes the
international war crimes tribunal has brought
indictments against several suspects in both
countries.
The U-N investigator says rape in armed conflict has a
unique effect of humiliating the victim, as well as
the whole community and ethnic group to which she
belongs. She says that in Bosnia, the rape of women
was used as a way of achieving genocide.
/// McDOUGALL ACT TWO ///
Either the women who were the victims of rape
would be such outcasts within their own
societies oddly enough, within their own
societies, that if they were not already
married, they would never be married. And, if
they were married, their husbands would divorce
them.
/// END ACT ///
Ms. McDougall says people who perpetrate these acts
have to be held accountable for them. She says this
includes the person who physically rapes women as well
as those who gave the orders. (SIGNED)
NEB/LS/JWH/RAE
19-Aug-1999 09:37 AM EDT (19-Aug-1999 1337 UTC)
NNNN
Source: Voice of America
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