Rape: The Ultimate Tool of Intimidation

Rape, just say the word and many cringe from the ugliness implicated in it's meaning. It has been used as a method of intimidation, degradation, and shame since ancient times. It has been implemented by many as a way to show power over those weaker than them. What better way to get those you are attempting to conquer bend to your will than to physically and emotionally threaten the most powerless members of the group: women and young girls? However, no case of rape as a method of ethnic cleansing has been more brutal or "central to the purposes of punishing and driving out the 'other'" as in the conflicts in Yugoslavia. (Naimark, 167)
Naimark points out that while all the different groups involved in Bosnia were guilty at one point or another of targeting women by means of rape and other methods of aggression, the main victims were Muslim women by Serbian soldiers and para militarymen. Rape was carried out in a number of different ways including: a means of interrogation, in front of families and neighbors, and in buildings where women and young girls are group raped. All of this to attempt to force the minority groups to abandon their homes and stay away for good. Muslim women were seen as less than human, as dirt to their society.
To further the humiliation cause by the rape, many soldiers would forcibly impregnate Muslim women to give them a daily reminder of the terrible act. Also, because many Serbs believed that these groups were once Serbs that were made to convert to Islam; they thought that the babies might have a chance. It was the one drop rule working in the favor of these children: one drop of Serbian blood made you a Serb. These women were forced to carry the pregnancy to term by being imprisoned throughout the pregnancy. This prevented them from finding ways to terminate it.
In his article, Arab militia use 'rape camps' for ethnic cleansing in Sudan, Benjamin Joffe-Walt interviews a young thirteen year old girl named Ilham Isaak Abakker Abdulla about her experience in the rape camps in the Sudan. he listens as she explains the night she was taken and how she escaped. This article is an eye-opener for someone who has never experienced that form of systematic violence firsthand. Ilham's story many have taken place in the Sudan, but it paints a similar picture to what happened to the Muslim women in Bosnia. Muslim women were also taken to rape camps and kept there. Most were not as lucky as Ilham was in being able to escape. Within these camps, Muslim women were often raped by neighbors that they had either grown up with, or watched grow up. These people knew each other on a personal basis which made the heinous acts that much more humiliating.
The method of rape as a means of ethnic cleansing is not just an ancient one. In another article, Rape for Ethnic Cleansing: Sexual Abuse at Wartime, Reham Hussain discusses how despite the fact that we have more modern warfare laws, rape is still used systematically to tear down the moral of the enemy. It is not just in Bosnia and Sudan as I mentioned earlier, but was also present in Darfur and Rwanda. There seems to be no way to stop these terrible acts from occurring. Is there no hope for women and young girls in these wartime countries? Maybe it is time to look for a better solution to the problem.