As common as the fact of rape in war or under repressive regimes is the failure to investigate and punish those accused of this crime. In every instance investigated by Human Rights Watch, officials, whether military or civilian, have been more likely to excuse the actions of rapists or to blame the victims than to denounce the practice as criminal and abusive or to take steps to end it. In Kashmir, for example, where security forces, army and paramilitary troops have engaged in widespread rape, few of the reported incidents have been investigated. There, authorities seek to discredit the victims by casting doubt on their motives in reporting rape, pointing to their relation to or sympathy for the militants challenging the government. In Bosnia, Radovan Karadzic, leader of the Bosnian Serbs, denied reports of widespread rape by his troops, admitting only that "psychopaths" were responsible for less than twenty rapes.3
Reports of the widespread use of rape as a tactic of war in the former Yugoslavia have been instrumental in focusing attention on the function of rape in war. The situation has provoked international condemnation and prompted investigations into reports of rape by all parties to that conflict. The stated commitment of the judges and chief prosecutor for the war crimes tribunal, created by the United Nations initially to try crimes committed in the former Yugoslavia, to prosecuting rape as a war crime marks a critical turn away from accepting rape in war. In late 1994, the United Nations expanded the mandate of the tribunal to investigate and prosecute violations of the laws of war that occurred during the 1994 genocide in Rwanda. In carrying out its expanded mandate, the tribunal should ensure that reports of rape during the Rwandan genocide are vigorously investigated and tried. For these rape victims, an international tribunal may be their only opportunity to hear the crimes against them denounced, to see both the perpetrators of such abuse and the commanders who allowed and participated in rape and other abuses prosecuted, and to seek a remedy for the assaults they have suffered.
This attention to rape in war has also increased awareness that repressive governments use rape, among other abuses, to crack down on and undermine perceived threats to their power. In Haiti, politically motivated rape was well-documented by local activists and international observers, including the United Nations/Organization of American States International Civilian Mission. Their work linking reports of rape to the many abuses perpetratedby the military and police against supporters of President Aristide promoted recognition of the intrinsically political function rape may serve and led to calls to end impunity for this form of abuse. Victims of rape in such situations may not be able to seek redress before international tribunals, but governments should ensure that they too receive justice by trying alleged abuses in national courts.
3 Roy Gutman, "Rape Camps: Evidence in Bosnia Mass Attacks Points to Karadzic's Pals," New York Newsday, April 19, 1993, pp. 7, 31.
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