By STEPHEN CASTLE Herald correspondent
THE HAGUE - Three Bosnian Serbs yesterday became the first men convicted of using mass rape and enslavement as a weapon of terror, as they were found guilty of torturing or assaulting girls as young as 12.
The historic ruling in the The Hague came at the end of one of the most harrowing cases to be heard by the war crimes tribunal, the first in which sexual abuse was prosecuted as a crime against humanity.
Giving her judgment yesterday, Judge Florence Mumba said the Bosnian Serb Army used rape as "an instrument of terror" during the war in 1992. The evidence showed "mothers and daughters together, robbed of the last vestiges of human dignity, women and girls treated like chattels."
The judge found all three men guilty of multiple counts of crimes against humanity and violation of the laws and customs of war. They had, she said, "thrived in the dark atmosphere of dehumanisation of those believed to be enemies."
The prosecution detailed a catalogue of crimes including the gang rape by at least 15 soldiers of a 15-year-old, and the enslavement of a 12-year-old who was forced to dance naked, raped and subsequently sold. She has not been seen since.
Dragoljub Kunarac, commander of a special reconnaissance unit of the Bosnian Serb Army, was sentenced to 28 years, while Radomir Kovac, one of the subcommanders of the paramilitary police, was given 20 years.
The third defendant, Zoran Vukovic, another subcommander of the military police and a former waiter, will serve 12 years in jail; he was acquitted on several counts through lack of evidence.
The defendants, who had filed into the courtroom and exchanged pleasantries with their lawyers, were led away in a more subdued mood.
During the trial, which began last March, 16 witnesses gave evidence just metres from the perpetrators but from behind a screen and with their voices scrambled to protect identities. Many women suffered psychological and physical harm, at least one can no longer have children and some remain traumatised.
The three men were key figures in a vicious series of events which followed the capture of the town of Foca, southeast of Sarajevo, in April 1992.
Muslim men were held in the local prison, but women were taken to a school, a sports hall, hotels and a number of private houses where they were beaten, abused and often gang raped.
The physical conditions in detention centres such as the Partizan sports hall were inhumane, with overcrowding, unhygienic conditions and starvation.
But that was only a beginning of the ordeal of systematic rape and violence. The length of the sentences delivered yesterday reflected the sheer brutality of the attacks.
Victims were often threatened and taunted, told they would become pregnant with Serb babies, that their limbs would be cut, that they would be taken to church to be baptised.
According to the indictment, one 15-year-old was raped by at least 15 soldiers who "sexually abused her in all possible ways."
Kunarac not only abused women personally but organised their transfer to the "rape camps."
In mid-July 1992, he was one of three men who raped one woman whom he taunted by saying that she would never know the identity of the father of her Serb baby.
Giving evidence, one witness recalled: "I remember he was very forceful. He wanted to hurt me. But he could never hurt me as much as my soul was hurting me."
The judge said the participation of a military commander in this "nightmarish scheme" made it "even more repugnant."
By day, girls held at the Brena apartment were enslaved and forced to perform household chores. By night they were subjected to systematic sexual abuse.
One of those was a 12-year-old who was raped repeatedly over several weeks and who, on one evening, was among a group which was forced to strip and dance naked on a table. She was later sold by Kovac to another soldier for 200 marks ($216) and, eight years on, remains missing.
In sentencing Kovac, Judge Mumba said his treatment of the girl illustrated his "morally depraved and corrupt character."
His captive was, the judge added, "a helpless little child for whom you showed absolutely no compassion whatsoever, but whom you abused sexually. You finally sold her like an object in the knowledge that this would almost certainly mean further sexual assaults by other men."
The judge also noted how Vukovic had raped a girl of 15 - the same age as his own daughter - after threatening to kill her mother.
The defence did not deny the occurrence of widespread rapes in Foca but argued that the women who testified had been willing partners.
During evidence, one of the victims, asked if she resisted, replied: "It was impossible. He had a pistol and he threatened me. Even if I risked my own life, I was afraid for my family."
After the verdict Dirk Ryneveld, the lead prosecutor, said that justice had been done and commended "the bravery of the victims who came forward to tell their stories."
However, many of the perpetrators have never faced justice. The indictment has references to rapes by "unidentified" soldiers and not all charged were brought to The Hague.
Of the eight men originally accused in the Foca rape trial, one was killed when troops tried to arrest him and another blew himself up. Three others remain at large.
Rapes a crime against humanity
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