WOMEN'S LOBBY ZAGREB
Tkalčićeva 38
10000 Zagreb
Croatia
Zagreb, 05. December 1992
Our experience and history tell us the degree of violence against women increases during every war. The war on the territory of the former Yugoslavia confirms the rule. Rape is one of the most merciless crimes as it affects the most innocent persons - those who have never had the opportunity to decide about war or peace.
We, members of the organizations listed above have the following demands:
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We want all the camps on the territory of the former Yugoslavia to be closed immediately, first of all those ones where women are exposed to sexual abuse, psychical torture and humiliation.
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We want rape to be treated as the crime of war. Therefore we demand the changing of the 3rd part of the 4th Geneva Convention from 1949. We ask European governments to pass the law which grants the political asylum to women who are the victims of sexual violence.
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We appeal to all women's organizations - international ones, governmental ones and non-governmental ones, to peace groups and women's groups to establish independent women's teams as soon as possible, to help in organizing the rape crisis centres offering support and all other kinds of help to the women who are the victims. We demand from the governmental authorities on these territories to give support to such initiatives according to all the international conventions.
Soldiers, army volunteers, professional soldiers, guards in camps and neighbours impose violence on women. The women of all nationalities are the victims of sexual abuse. In every war, rape is committed by soldiers of all the parties involved. The information, going around at present, says that Serbian military and paramilitary forces on the occupied territories of Bosnia have women's camps in which rape and violence against women are the regular practice. This is only the top of the iceberg of the violence which goes on in the peace as well.
That is why we, women from the organizations listed above, ask the world, world's governments, governments and regimes of the parties involved in the war on the territories of the former Yugoslavia, to pay their full attention to this problem and to our demands.
AT THE SAME TIME, WE OPPOSE STRONGLY TO ANY KIND OF MANIPULATION WITH VICTIMS, UNCHECKED STATEMENTS, NUMBERS OF VICTIMS, UNCHECKED INFORMATION, AS WELL AS TO USING THE WOMEN WHO ARE THE VICTIMS OF RAPE FOR THE PURPOSE OF SPREADING HATE, NATIONAL INTOLERANCE AND WAR PROPAGANDA.
Women's Lobby