The Contribution of Women to Peace and Reconciliation

in Bosnia-Herzegovina so far that the USA had to forbid them from taking
the city of Banja Luka, which had already been deserted by its residents,
to prevent a possible humanitarian catastrophe. Thus was the Serbian
Republic within Bosnia-Herzegovina maintained, so as to establish a bal -
ance of forces.” (Report, pp. 101-102)
The situation of women in socialist Yugoslavia was relatively good.
“...Many women completed their education. Although housework, and
hence the double burden, remained exclusively their responsibility, many
women climbed to the highest levels in politics, the economy and culture.
Before the war of the 1990s, women were amongst the best journalists,
writers and politicians.”
With the war, this situation changed radically. “They were not only expelled,
shot and tortured, they were also raped on a massive scale. The
rapists explained that they actually wanted to humiliate their husbands
by violating their women, so that they would never again return to their
homes. The ‘ethnic cleansing’ was to be achieved by means of violence
against women.” (Report, p. 109)
“Major Yugoslav resistance against the war was impossible, due to the
lack of any party or other opposition. In a country in which the partisans
were the great models, and which maintained an armed defence against
foreign attackers in which all adult citizens were involved, there was
little chance for non-violent resistance by the citizens. Nonetheless, even
during the periods of the worst fighting, there were in all parts of the
country and in all societal strata people with the courage and the silent
solidarity for those affected who, alone or in groups, provided help and
peaceful resistance. ”
An appeal by mothers of soldiers was signed by 64,000 citizens of Zagreb
in the course of just two days. “It remained unanswered. In the
summer of 1991, thousands of women demonstrated in Belgrade”, and
were dispersed by the soldiers. In the spring of 1992, a major demon -
stration was held in Sarajevo; “eight snipers fired at the demonstration
from a building, …; several people were killed.” (pp. 114).
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