Emir Ramić: Humiliation of rape victims is equivalent to a crime

Director of the Institute for Research of Genocide Canada (IGK) Emir Ramić, on behalf of the victims and witnesses of aggression and genocide against the state of Bosnia and Herzegovina, informed numerous organizations for the protection of human rights and freedoms worldwide about the shameful and anti-civilizational humiliation of rape victims in BiH by Serbian host Ivan Ivanović, reports the BiH news agency Patria.

In a letter to the mentioned organizations and communities, it was stated, among other things:

- In some court proceedings after World War II, rape was qualified as a war crime. The International Criminal Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia (ICTY) concluded that rape can be treated and punished as an even more serious crime. Rapes, primarily of Bosniak women, in BiH constituted crimes against humanity because they were committed as part of systematic attacks on civilians and because they had the characteristics of enslavement. Thus, sexual crimes were treated for the first time in the history of international law as the most serious crimes in themselves, not as an accompanying phenomenon of war. At the same time, the ICTY legally clarified what sexual enslavement means. The following elements of enslavement were highlighted: the fact that Bosniak women were captured, that they had to do whatever they were ordered, including cooking and cleaning, that Serbian soldiers claimed exclusive rights over certain girls who were constantly available to them, that soldiers took money when they gave them to others for rape, and that they had no control over their lives - it is stated.

According to the opinion of Serbian host Ivanović, victims of rape, i.e., victims of aggression and genocide in BiH, no longer have the right, given that the war is over, to speak the truth about it and its consequences, nor to seek justice for the victims of these greatest crimes after the Holocaust in Europe.

We remind Ivanović and all Ivanovići that the humiliation of rape victims, i.e., victims of aggression and genocide, is equivalent to a crime, equivalent to inciting new crimes, an attack on truth and justice.

We continue our fight for the truth about the aggression and genocide in BiH and justice for the victims of these crimes, not in the name of revenge but in the name of a better future for both BiH and humanity and civilization in general. An integral part of our struggle is also the fight against those who deny the greatest crimes after the Holocaust in Europe and the fight against those who humiliate the victims of these crimes.