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DATE=3/20/2000
TYPE=CORRESPONDENT REPORT
TITLE=YUGOSLAV WAR CRIMES (L-ONLY)
NUMBER=2-260377
BYLINE=LAUREN COMITEAU
DATELINE=THE HAGUE
CONTENT=
VOICED AT:
INTRO:  War crimes prosecutors opened their case 
against three Bosnian Serbs charged with rape, torture 
and enslavement of Muslim women in 1992.  Lauren 
Comiteau reports from The Hague, where prosecutors are 
charging that rape was used as a weapon of ethnic 
cleansing in Foca, Bosnia.
TEXT:  Prosecutors say this is a case about rape camps 
- about girls as young as 12 brutalized by Bosnian 
Serbs, like the three accused, in their drive to 
create an ethnically pure Serbian state.
Prosecutor Dirk Ryneveld outlined the case to the 
tribunal.
            /// RYNEVELD ACT ///
      It will become clear that what happened to the 
      Muslim women of Foca and surrounding area, 
      occurred purely because of their ethnicity or 
      religion and because they were women.
            /// END ACT ///
Prosecutors say what happened to the women and girls 
of Foca was unimaginable.  Many were held prisoner for 
up to eight-months by paramilitary troops and army men 
twice their age, gang raped nightly, tortured, and 
forced to cook and clean for the soldiers.
The three accused, two paramilitary leaders and a 
commander in the Bosnian-Serb army, are charged with 
raping the women themselves.  Two are also charged 
with enslavement, a legal first for an international 
criminal court that is trying to prove the accused 
owned the women.
Prosecutors plan to call 10-victims of sexual crimes. 
Prosecutor Dirk Ryneveld gave judges an inkling of 
what they would hear.  He quoted from a witness' 
statement.
            /// RYNEVELD ACT///
      I was raped by many soldiers that night, one 
      after the other.  I was out of myself, like a 
      machine in their hands.  I felt horrible.  
      During these months, I felt like an object that 
      was being constantly exchanged.  I never knew 
      what was going to happen to me the following 
      days.  All the time I was afraid for my life.
            /// END ACT ///
It is evidence like this that prosecutors say will 
allow the judges to see the human faces of the 
atrocities.  But the public will most likely not get 
to see or hear the victims, who prosecutors say are 
scared and need to be protected.  There are other men 
accused of these crimes still free in Foca.   (SIGNED)
NEB/LC/GE/RAE 
20-Mar-2000 10:04 AM EDT (20-Mar-2000 1504 UTC)
NNNN
Source: Voice of America
.