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In Kosovo, thousands of people suffered sexual violence during the war: today institutions recognise them as civilian victims of the conflict, but for many talking about the trauma they suffered remains an insurmountable obstacle
"Unheard Voices" is a memoir that collects untold stories of men and boys, as young as 14, who were raped during the war in Kosovo.
Even though they have not yet spoken publicly, at least ten men raped by Serbian forces during the war told their tragic stories to civil society organisations that support survivors of wartime sexual violence. This confirms that sexual violence as a weapon of war does not target only women and girls.
"I have a certain shadow, a certain ice in my soul, I can't take it away, because what they have done to me doesn't hurt anymore, the pain has passed, but my soul is ice cold", writes one of the witnesses in the book, a survivor who was only 14 at the time.
The book was presented at the Women Peace Security Forum , organised by the President of Kosovo in Prishtina last week, as part of an awareness campaign dedicated to survivors of sexual violence during the war in Kosovo which started on April 14, the Memorial Day for victims of sexual violence during the war.
The number of survivors is estimated up to 20,000 including women, girls, men and boys. However, few have spoken up publicly, mainly because of social norms and taboos that still dominate Kosovo's society, especially when it comes to acknowledging rape as a war crime instead of shaming the victims.
Likewise, very few victims had their status recognised by the Government Commission on Recognition and Verification of the Status of Sexual Violence Victims during the Kosovo liberation war, created in 2017 .
Deadlines
At the very beginning, the time limit for applications was five years, the same as the duration of the Commission's mandate. Last year, this term expired, but the Kosovo government decided to extend it for another two years, namely until May 15, 2025, due to the small number of applications.
At the Peace Forum, Minister of Justice Albulena Haxhiu said that 1555 people, including 88 men, have had their status recognised by the Commission so far.
"It is estimated that in Kosovo, about 20,000 thousand people were raped during the war; together with the President and Prime Minister, we are working to encourage them to apply for recognition, because it is not their fault that they have been sexually abused".
Civil society organisations believe that the government should not put a deadline to applications.
"Taking into account the specific nature of crimes of sexual violence, the peculiarities of the trauma, the difficulties of documentation, the stigma and exclusion surrounding the victims both in the family and in the community they live in, as well as other international practices, we as an organisation have constantly advocated that the right to apply should be a permanent right guaranteed by law", Feride Rushiti, Executive Director of the Kosovo Rehabilitation Center for Torture Victims, told OBCT.
According to some sources speaking to OBCT, decision-makers hoped that a deadline would motivate survivors to apply. Unfortunately, this was not the case. According to an electronic answer by the Commission, since the beginning of the process on 05.02.2018, the Commission has received 2028 applications.
Vasfije Krasniqi Goodman became the first woman to speak out publicly, first on public TV in 2018 and then on several other platforms. When she was only 16, she was abducted by a Serbian police officer and raped by him and another civilian in a village nearby her home.
"I believe there is no need to put deadlines on this", she said to OBCT, adding that she is in permanent contact with the victims, and some of them told her that their husbands have died and now they are ready to apply.
Krasniqi Goodman also asked the Kosovo Government to reconsider all the applications that the Commission has refused as not completed due to the difficulties victims have 25 years after the crime to testify about what really happened.
