prijava
FOČA, June 19 (FENA) - Under the motto "We remember women raped during the war in BiH", the International Day for the Elimination of Sexual Violence in Conflict and 30 years since the crime against women in BiH was marked in Foča today.
The marking of the Day began in front of the Partizan sports hall, a former infamous camp, and continued with a walk to the main square in Foča, where a minute of silence was observed in honor of all murdered and raped women in BiH.
The participants of the walk, which included the organization "Women in Black" from Serbia, then stopped at the Ćehotina Bridge, from which roses were thrown into the river in memory of the killed women, while 30 balloons in the colors of the BiH flag were symbolically released into the air, in a sign of minimal victory and justice for the survivors of crime crimes over the past 30 years.
Genocide researcher and author of the book "Torture, Humiliate, Kill" professor Ismet Karčić, speaking about rape as an instrument of genocide in BiH, stressed that Foča was a kind of center of rape and sexual violence during the aggression against Bosnia and Herzegovina.
“At several locations in and around Foča, there were camps and detention centers where Bosniak civilians - women and girls - were systematically raped and sexually abused. During the aggression against Bosnia and Herzegovina, sexual violence was part of the war strategy of the Republika Srpska leadership with the aim of completely 'cleansing' the occupied area of the Bosniak population. During the aggression on RBiH and the genocide against Bosniaks, the aggressor forces committed systematic rape and sexual abuse of 20,000 to 50,000 women, girls and men,” Karčić reminded.
He noted that the aggressor forces throughout the occupied territories used rape and sexual abuse as a means of war and genocide, and that in this way they tried to destroy the foundations of the Bosniak patriarchal and traditional family.
At the beginning of the aggression in Foča, 22,000 people were expelled in a very short period of time in 1992, almost 3,000 civilians were killed, and 627 were searched for. Among the victims are 586 women, while many facilities were turned into camps during the war.
The families of the victims believe that there are remains in the riverbeds as well, and state that there was no reaction to the concerns of the families and associations of the victims that hydroelectric power plants are being built in the riverbeds of the Bistrica and Drina rivers.
The event in Foča was attended by numerous officials, including FBiH Vice President Melika Mahmutbegović, Prime Minister of the Bosnia-Podrinje Canton Aida Obuća and others.
(FENA) A. B.
