Citation

AIDS Wkly. Plus 1996; ePub(ePub): 13-14.

Copyright

(Copyright © 1996, C. Henderson)

DOI

unavailable

PMID

12347566

Abstract

At an international conference attended by 2000 delegates, violence against women in Rwanda, former Yugoslavia, and Kurdistan was discussed. Kalliope Migirou, of the United Nations Human Rights Field Operation in Rwanda, described the slaughter of between 500,000 and 1.5 million Tutsis and moderate Hutus in 1994; estimates of the number of rapes ranged from 15,700 (Rwandan government) to 250,000-500,000 (UN special representative). Women were gang-raped and sexually mutilated; fathers were forced to rape their daughters, and sons, their mothers. The transmission of HIV was used as a weapon to murder women and their communities. Women were taken to refugee camps as sex slaves and have written their families about their "new marriages" to Hutu militia men. No rape charge is found among the more than 4000 cases prepared for the Rwandan war crimes trial. 80,000 Rwandans are in prison on suspicion of participating in the genocide; 8% are women. Violete Krasnic, of the Autonomous Women's Center Against Sexual Violence in Belgrade, spoke about the war in former Yugoslavia, which increased all forms of violence against women: 1) domestic violence, particularly in inter-ethnic marriages; 2) death threats against women (up 30-50%); 3) rape (up 30%); and 4) threats with weapons (40%). Men, upon exposure to nationalistic propaganda, used violence against their wives. Nazaneen Rasheed, a London-based representative of the Women's Union of Kurdistan, stated that women in northern Iraq had no power or land. While some turned to prostitution to survive, hundreds were killed by male relatives because of shame to the family.

Language: en