Response To Diken's Rape As A Weapon Of War

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Yugoslavia was a country in Southeast Europe during most of the 20th century. It came into existence after World War I in 1918 under the name of Kingdom of Serbs, Croats and Slovenes with independent Kingdom of Serbia and Kingdom of Montenegro. Yugoslavia gained international recognition on 13 July 1922 at the Conference of Ambassadors in Paris.
This modern Yugoslavia existed from 1945 until the 90’s. Before the 20th century, the region found itself between two great empires, the Ottoman Empire and the Austro-Hungarian Empire who were fighting in order to have the largest part of the region. After the First World War , both of these empires collapsed and many new nations were formed . On December 1, 1918 the Kingdom of Serbs, Croats and …show more content…

Rape was used as a way to terrorize the population, distract the communities and to change the ethnic composition of the next generations. In this paragraph, we will report a research that figured in Diken’s book Becoming Abject, Rape as a weapon of war. According to Diken , the rape was used in two different ways; as a rite of initiation and in order to recreate distinctions between ethnic groups.
Diken found that the majority of the studies of war rape focus either on the woman as victim or on the soldier as aggressor. But he said that it is not true in the Bosnian’s case. In this conflict, some family members were forced to rape one another or to see a family member being raped. Regarded to this case, the author suggested that rape was used as a rite of initiation. He discovered that Soldiers who refused to rape were humiliated and in some cases castrated or even killed. In Bosnia, rape was also used in order to recreate distinctions between Ethnics groups: Serbs, Muslims and Croats.
“Even though rape is often enforced upon them by a third party, both victims and perpetrators find it difficult to face each other after the event …show more content…

“Wars occur changes in behavior, hormonal impairments, neurological disorders, metabolic changes, genetic shifts and all kinds of diseases” . Many diseases can occurs because of the stress such as interrupted pregnancies, suicide and all the other types of violence .
The impact of ICTY’s decisions on inter-ethnic relations
Many sociologists explain that when they ask people about inter-ethnic relations within their community, the majority of them gives the same answer; they are coexisting. They do not have problems or tensions, they even do not fight but they still do not have the same relations as before the conflicts. People who belong to different ethnicities do not celebrate religious holidays together as they were used to, they also do not visit each other’s house like was used to before the war; certain walls and barriers now exist.
“ There has not been the repair and restoration of relationships that is such a key element of reconciliation, and the ICTY’s trials have done little to improve the situation. Indeed, in some respects, they have simply assisted in reinforcing divisions”

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