Rape in The Bosnian War - Aftermath

Aftermath

Following the end of hostilities with the 1995 Dayton Agreement, there have been sustained efforts to reconcile the opposing factions. Much attention has been paid to the need to understand the reality of what happened, dispel myths, and for responsible leaders to be brought to justice and be encouraged to accept their guilt for the mass rapes and other atrocities. Historians such as Niall Ferguson have assessed a key factor behind the high-level decision to use mass rape for ethnic cleansing as being misguided nationalism. Prior to 1980, Croatian and Serbian nationalism had been effectively repressed by Marshal Josip Broz Tito, though his suppression of any talk about nationalist issues had failed to diminish the intensity with which they were felt. Slobodan Milošević had inflamed Serbian feelings with a speech referring to the Battle of Kosovo. Feelings of victimhood and aggression towards Bosniaks were further stirred up with exaggerated tales about the role played by a small fraction of Bosnian Muslims in the Ustaše genocide of Serbs in the 1940s. Other myths invoked included suggestions that Bosnian Muslims were racially different, when in fact DNA tests have shown they are genetically identical with Serbs. Despite the government-led hate campaigns, some Serbs tried to defend Bosnians from the atrocities and had to be threatened, including instances when troops would announce by loud speaker that "every Serb who protects a Muslim will be killed immediately".

In the aftermath of the conflict, ethnic identity is now of much greater social importance in Bosnia than it was prior to 1992. From the 1960s to the war, the percentage of mixed marriages between communities has been close to 12% and young citizens would often refer to themselves as Bosnians rather than identifying their ethnicity. After the conflict it has been effectively mandatory to be identified as either Bosniak, Serb or Croat and this has been a problem for the children of rape victims as they come of age.