UN AGENCY REPORTS ON RAPE, ABDUCTION OF KOSOVO REFUGEES

By Judy Aita
USIA United Nations Correspondent

United Nations -- Kosovar women refugees have told alarming accounts of
rape and abduction, according to the UN Population Fund (UNFPA).

A report released May 26 by UNFPA said that "Gjakova, Pec, and Drenitza
were often indicated as places where kidnapping and collective rapes took
place. The women were individually raped by many men during a few hours
but sometimes even for days.

"It is primarily the young women who are rounded up in villages and small
cities," the report said. "The soldiers take groups of 5 to 30 women to
unknown places in trucks or they are locked up in houses where the
soldiers live. Any resistance is met with threats of being burned
alive."

"Women who were released have lacerations on their chests, evidence of
beating on their arms and legs," the report said. "Their backs also show
signs of beatings and they were covered in dirt. Agonizing screams could
be heard for many hours."

The report, the first attempt by a UN organization to verify the accounts
and nature of sexual violence among refugees, was prepared by Dominique
Serrano, a psychologist who specializes in sexual violence and trauma
counseling. She interviewed women refugees and health care workers in
camps around Tirana and Kukes, Albania, during the first week of May
1999.

The information comes from victims and direct witnesses. The women spoke
on the condition of anonymity, came forward to talk with Serrano on their
volition, and were not recommended or pre-selected by any humanitarian
organization.

While reports of sexual violence had been circulating for several months
the significant upsurge in sexual violence seems to correspond to the
first week NATO began bombing, Serrano said.

"New women arriving from Kosovo indicate that the violence is
increasing," Serrano said. "According to interviews, it seems that the
phenomenon, and in particular the abduction of groups of women, is more
and more prevalent."

Serrano also fears for the women remaining in Kosovo. The daily
evolution of the situation and the weight of the evidence collected from
the interviews indicate that even though it existed to some extent
already, "the politics of terror have proliferated in the last month
based on a deep-seated racism," she said.

Kosovar men who tried to interfere were killed on the spot, Serrano
reported. One woman was beaten to death in front of the house where her
daughters were being tortured.

"Families are generally turned out of their homes by armed men and
sometimes even by their Serbian neighbors. They often have only a few
minutes to leave the premises and sometimes their homes are burned,"
Serrano said.

One victim's husband said that he saw a building in Prizren where the
first floor contained weapons, the second floor was for the soldiers and
the third floor contained about 30 women. One of the women who was able
to escape was shot down in the street, she said.

In the city of Berlenitz a group of 30 young girls was forced to follow
the soldiers into a house while the mothers waited outside, Serrano also
said. "For two hours the mothers listened to the screams of the young
victims who then came out one by one. Some were covered in blood, others
were crying and their heads were hanging low."

Describing other acts of torture, Serrano said that in Berlenitz young
boys had their ears and noses cut off before their throats were slit;
many pregnant women's stomachs were cut open and the fetus skewered. The
torturers sharpened their knives in front of women and terrorized
children.

All the victims Serrano interviewed were raped or sexually violated in
Kosovo, and none of the women interviewed were locked up for more than
three days. Some of the kidnapped women who were taken to unknown places
have not yet reappeared, according to their families and neighbors.

Serrano said that the victims felt that rape was a "concrete
manifestation" of the profound hate which the Serbians feel toward the
Kosovars. "Judging from the insults and threats of the torturers, some
victims were allowed to live so that they could tell other people about
the determination of Serbian power, and thus eliminate any desire on the
part of the refugees to return," she said.

Some of the women described themselves as being forever "dead" to their
families after the violation, which carries tremendous stigma in their
society.

Serrano discussed the difficulty in getting women to admit to rape let
alone seek help for fear of social stigma. Many victims fear being
divorced, excluded from their community or family, or fear that a husband
will try to take revenge. She added that many women will never discuss
what has happened and other cases will only be revealed when women begin
giving birth.

There were also many other women who did want to talk to Serrano about
what happened but only under appropriate circumstances and on conditions,
including no men or journalists present.

Serrano also found reluctance among some medical personnel in the area to
discuss incidents of rape and found other aid workers not trained to
handle the situation. She told of one aid worker who used a loud speaker
to invite women who had been raped to come forward and complete a
questionnaire.

While there are volunteers and UN personnel in the maternity hospitals
and camps in Tirana who are sensitive to the problems of rape,
"unfortunately the amount of work to be done, the number of refugees that
need assistance and the lack of specifically trained personnel prevents
many women from receiving support," Serrano said.

In response to the report, UNFPA is providing counselling and
psychological support training to health professionals to enable them to
offer help to victims of sexual violence in Kosovo. In addition, local
Albanian women's groups will receive counselling training.
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