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Genocidal rape

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Genocidal rape is a term used to describe the actions of a group who have carried out acts of mass rape during wartime against their perceived enemy as part of a genocidal campaign.[1] During the Bangladesh Liberation War,[2][3][4][5] the Yugoslav Wars, and the Rwandan genocide,[3][6] the mass rapes that had been an integral part of those conflicts brought the concept of genocidal rape to international prominence.[7] Although war rape has been a recurrent feature in conflicts throughout history, it has usually been looked upon as a by-product of conflict, and not an integral part of military policy.[8]

The violence against women during the Partition of India has also been cited as an example of genocidal rape.[9]

Genocide debate

Scholars argue that the Convention on the Prevention and Punishment of the Crime of Genocide should state that mass rape is a genocidal crime.[10] Other scholars argue that genocidal rape is already included in the definition under article two[Note 1] of the convention.[7][11] Catherine MacKinnon argues that the victims of genocidal rape are used as a substitute for the entire ethnic group, that rape is used as a tool, with the target being the destruction of the entire ethnic group.[12]

Siobhan Fisher has argued that forced impregnation and not the rape itself constitutes genocide. She says, "Repeated rape alone is still ‘just’ rape, but rape with the intent to impregnate is something more."[2][13] Lisa Sharlach argues that this definition is too narrow because these mass rapes should not be defined as genocide based solely on those raped having been forcibly impregnated.[2]

Rape as genocide

According to Amnesty International, the use of rape during times of war is not a by-product of conflicts, but is a pre-planned and deliberate military strategy.[14] In the last quarter of a century, the majority of conflicts have shifted from wars between nation states to communal and intrastate civil wars. During these conflicts the use of rape as a weapon against the civilian population by state and non-state actors has become more frequent. Journalists and human rights organizations have documented campaigns of genocidal rape during the conflicts in, the Bosnian War, Sierra Leone, Rwanda, Liberia, Sudan, Uganda, and during the civil war in the Democratic Republic of the Congo. The strategic aims of these mass rapes are twofold. The first is to instil terror in the civilian population, with the intent to forcibly dislocate them from their property. The second is to degrade the chance of possible return and reconstitution by having inflicted humiliation and shame on the targeted population. These effects are strategically important for non-state actors, as it is necessary for them to remove the targeted population from the land. Rape as genocide is well suited for campaigns which involve ethnic cleansing and genocide, as the objective is to destroy, or forcefully remove the target population, and ensure they do not return.[15] One objective of genocidal rape is forced pregnancy, so that the aggressing actor not only invades the targeted population's land, but their bloodlines and families as well. However those unable to bear children are also subject to sexual assault. Victims ages can range from children to women in their eighties.[16]

Notable instances

World War II

Occupied Germany

Main article: Rape during the occupation of Germany

An estimated 2 million German women were raped by Soviet Red Army soldiers in occupied Germany during later stages of World War II. Soviet soldiers raped German women from 8 to 80.[17] According to historian William Hitchcock, in many cases women were the victims of repeated rapes, some as many as 60 to 70 times.[18] At least 100,000 women are believed to have been raped in Berlin, based on surging abortion rates in the following months and contemporary hospital reports,[19] with an estimated 10,000 women dying in the aftermath.[20] Female deaths in connection with the rapes in Germany, overall, are estimated at 240,000.[21][22] An estimated 190,000 German young girls and women could have been raped by US soldiers.[23] German women have also been raped by British and French soldiers. The German historians who wrote the book "Bankerte!" ("Bastards!")[24] found that the occupying soldiers fathered at least 400,000 war children, with at least 300,000 of those children fathered by Soviet Red Army soldiers.[25]

Military brothels of Imperial Japanese Army

Main article: Comfort women

Women and girls forced into sexual slavery by the Imperial Japanese Army in occupied territories before and during World War II and they were called “comfort women”.[26][27][28]

The name "comfort women" is a translation of the Japanese ianfu (慰安婦),[Citation] a euphemism for "prostitute(s)".[29] According to estimates, more than 400,000 women were being forced into sexual slavery by Japanese Army.[30] Most of the women were from occupied countries, including Korea, China, and the Philippines.[31] Women were used for military "comfort stations" from Burma (now Myanmar), Thailand, Vietnam, Malaysia, Taiwan (then a Japanese dependency), Indonesia (then the Dutch East Indies), East Timor (then Portuguese Timor),[32][33] and other Japanese-occupied territories. Stations were located in Japan, China, the Philippines, Indonesia, then Malaya, Thailand, Burma (now Myanmar), New Guinea, Hong Kong, Macau, and French Indochina.[34] A smaller number of women of European origin were also involved from the Netherlands[35] and Australia with an estimated 200-400 Dutch women alone.[36]

According to testimonies, young women were abducted from their homes in countries under Imperial Japanese rule. In many cases, women were also lured with promises of work in factories or restaurants; once recruited, they were incarcerated in comfort stations both inside their nations and abroad.[37]

Approximately three quarters of comfort women died, and most survivors were left infertile due to sexual trauma or sexually transmitted diseases.[38] Beatings and physical torture were said to be common.[39] The women who were not prostitutes prior to joining the "comfort women corps", especially those taken in by force, were normally "broken in" by being raped.[40]

One Korean woman, Kim Hak-sun stated in a 1991 interview about how she was drafted into the "comfort women corps" in 1941-

"When I was 17 years old, the Japanese soldiers came along in a truck, beat us [her and a friend], and then dragged us into the back. I was told if I were drafted, I could earn lots of money in a textile factory...The first day I was raped and the rapes never stopped...I was born a woman but never lived as a woman...I feel sick when I come close to a man. Not just Japanese men, but all men-even my own husband who saved me from the brothel. I shiver whenever I see a Japanese flag...Why should I feel ashamed? I don't have to feel ashamed.”[41]

Kim stated that she was raped 30–40 times a day, everyday of the year during her time as a "comfort woman".[42] Reflecting their dehumanized status, Army and Navy records where referring to the movement of "comfort women" always used the term "units of war supplies".[43] One Japanese Army doctor, Asō Tetsuo testified that the "comfort women" were seen as "female ammunition" and as "public toilets", as literally just things to be used and abused, with some "comfort women" being forced to donate blood for the treatment of wounded soldiers.[42]

At least 80% of the "comfort women" were Korean, who were assigned to the lower rank Japanese military personnels while European women went to the Japanese military officers with for example Dutch women captured in the Netherlands East Indies (modern Indonesia) being reserved exclusively for the officers.[44] Korea is a Confucian country where premarital sex was widely disapproved of, and since the Korean teenagers taken into the "comfort women corps" were almost always virgins, it was felt that this was the best way to limit the spread of venereal diseases (now sexually transmitted diseases) that would otherwise incapacitate soldiers and sailors.[45]

Ten Dutch women were taken by force from prison camps in Java by officers of the Japanese Imperial Army to become forced sex slaves in February 1944. They were systematically beaten and raped day and night.[39][46] As a victim of the incident, in 1990, Jan Ruff-O'Herne testified to a U.S. House of Representatives committee-

“Many stories have been told about the horrors, brutalities, suffering and starvation of Dutch women in Japanese prison camps. But one story was never told, the most shameful story of the worst human rights abuse committed by the Japanese during World War II: The story of the ‘Comfort Women’, the jugun ianfu, and how these women were forcibly seized against their will, to provide sexual services for the Japanese Imperial Army. In the ‘comfort station’ I was systematically beaten and raped day and night. Even the Japanese doctor raped me each time he visited the brothel to examine us for venereal disease (now sexually transmitted diseases)”.[39][46]

During the last stand of Japanese forces in 1944–45, "comfort women" were often forced to commit suicide or were killed.[47] At the Truk naval base, 70 "comfort women" were killed prior to the expected American assault as the Navy mistook the American air raid that destroyed Truk as the prelude to an American landing while during the Battle of Saipan "comfort women" were among those who committed suicide by jumping off the cliffs of Saipan.[47] The Japanese government had told the Japanese colonists on Saipan that the American "white devils" were cannibals, and so the Japanese population preferred suicide to falling into the hands of the American "white devils". In Burma (now Myanmar), there were cases of Korean "comfort women" committing suicide by swallowing cyanide pills or being killed by having a hand grenade tossed into their dug-outs.[47] During the Battle of Manila, when Japanese sailors ran amok and simply killed everyone, there were cases of "comfort women" being killed, through does not seem to have any systematic policy of killing "comfort women".[47]

Others

In the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC) it is estimated that in 2011 alone there were 400,000 rapes.[48] In the DRC the genocidal rape is focused on the destruction of family and communities. An interview with a survivor gave an account of gang rape, forced cannibalism of a fetus taken from an eviscerated woman and child murder.[49]

During the 1971 Bangladesh Liberation War, members of the Pakistani military and supporting Urdu-speaking Biharis (ethnic minority), Razakars (local collaborators) and paramilitary forces from Bangladeshi Islamic fundamentalist political party “Jamaat-e-Islami” such as Al-Badr (literally meaning 'The Moon', but also has a reference to the famous Battle of Badr) and Al-Shams (The Sun) raped between 200,000 [50] and 400,000[51] Bangladeshi women in a systematic campaign of genocidal rape. Some women may have been raped as many as eighty times in a night.[52]

In the ongoing War in Darfur the Janjaweed militias have carried out actions described as genocidal rape, with not just women, but children also being raped, as well as babies being bludgeoned to death and the sexual mutilation of victims being commonplace.[53]

During the Rwandan genocide the violence took a gender specific form, with women and girls being targeted in a systematic campaign of sexual assault. It is estimated that between 250,000 and 500,000 were victims of rape.[54][48] Those who survived the genocidal rape found themselves stigmatised, and many also discovered that they were infected with HIV. This has resulted in these women being denied their rights to property and inheritance as well as their employment chances being restricted.[55] The first woman charged and convicted for genocidal rape was Pauline Nyiramasuhuko.[56]

In 1996 Beverly Allen wrote Rape Warfare: The Hidden Genocide in Bosnia-Herzegovina and Croatia in which the term genocidal rape was first introduced, she used the term to describe the actions of the Serbian armed forces who had a policy of rape with the intention of genocide.[57] In her book she compares genocidal rape to biological warfare.[58] During the conflict in Bosnia Allen gave a definition of genocidal rape as "a military policy of rape for the purpose of genocide currently practiced in Bosnia-Herzegovina and Croatia by the Yugoslav army the Bosnian Serb forces and the irregular Serb forces known as Chetniks"[59] Coverage of the mass rapes during the ethnic cleansing carried out by the Serbian forces in the 1990s began the analysis over the use of rape as a part of genocide. Catherine MacKinnon argues that the mass rapes during the conflict "were a simultaneous expression of misogyny and genocide", and argues that rape can be used as a form of extermination.[Note 2][2][60]

Footnotes

  1. ^ "...any of the following acts committed with intent to destroy, in whole or in part, a national, ethnical, racial or religious group, as such:
    (a) Killing members of the group;
    (b) Causing serious bodily or mental harm to members of the group;
    (c) Deliberately inflicting on the group conditions of life calculated to bring about its physical destruction in whole or in part;
    (d) Imposing measures intended to prevent births within the group;
    (e) Forcibly transferring children of the group to another group. Convention on the Prevention and Punishment of the Crime of Genocide, Article 2"
  2. ^ "It is also rape unto death, rape as massacre, rape to kill and to make the victims wish they were dead. It is rape as an instrument of forced exile, rape to make you leave your home and never want to go back. It is rape to be seen and heard and watched and told to others: rape as spectacle. It is rape to drive a wedge through a community, to shatter a society, to destroy a people. It is rape as genocide"

References

  1. ^ Totten & Bartrop 2007, pp. 159–160.
  2. ^ a b c d Sharlach 2000, pp. 92–93.
  3. ^ a b Sajjad 2012, p. 225.
  4. ^ Ghadbian 2002, p. 111.
  5. ^ Mookherjee 2012, p. 68.
  6. ^ Sharlach 2000, p. 90.
  7. ^ a b Miller 2009, p. 53.
  8. ^ Fisher 1996, pp. 91–133.
  9. ^ R. Brass, Paul (2003). "The partition of India and retributive genocide in the Punjab, 1946–47: means, methods, and purposes". Journal of Genocide Research.
  10. ^ Sharlach 2000, pp. 89–102.
  11. ^ Totten & Bartrop 2007, p. 159.
  12. ^ MacKinnon 2006, pp. 209–233.
  13. ^ Bisaz 2012, pp. 90–91.
  14. ^ Smith-Spark 2012.
  15. ^ Leaning, Bartels & Mowafi 2009, p. 174.
  16. ^ Smith 2013, p. 94.
  17. ^ Beevor, Antony (1 May 2002). "'They raped every German female from eight to 80'". The Guardian. ISSN 0261-3077. Retrieved 10 November 2017.
  18. ^ The Struggle for Europe by William I. Hitchcock | PenguinRandomHouse.com.
  19. ^ "BBC - History - World Wars: The Battle for Berlin in World War Two". Retrieved 10 November 2017.
  20. ^ Grossmann, Atina (1995). "A Question of Silence: The Rape of German Women by Occupation Soldiers". October. 72: 43–63. doi:10.2307/778926.
  21. ^ Helke Sander/Barbara Johr: BeFreier und Befreite, Fischer, Frankfurt 2005
  22. ^ Seidler/Zayas: Kriegsverbrechen in Europa und im Nahen Osten im 20. Jahrhundert, Mittler, Hamburg Berlin Bonn 2002
  23. ^ Wiegrefe, Klaus (2 March 2015). "Postwar Rape: Were Americans As Bad as the Soviets?". Spiegel Online. Retrieved 10 November 2017.
  24. ^ ""Bankerte!", ein Buch von Silke Satjukow, Rainer Gries - Campus Verlag". www.campus.de (in German). Retrieved 10 November 2017.
  25. ^ (www.dw.com), Deutsche Welle. "Troops fathered 400,000 children in post-war Germany | News | DW | 06.02.2015". DW.COM. Retrieved 10 November 2017.
  26. ^ "Who were the Comfort Women?-The Establishment of Comfort Stations". www.awf.or.jp. Retrieved 10 November 2017.
  27. ^ "Who were the Comfort Women?-Who were the Comfort Women?". awf.or.jp. Retrieved 10 November 2017.
  28. ^ M., Argibay, Carmen (2003). "Sexual Slavery and the Comfort Women of World War II". Berkeley Journal of International Law. 21 (2). doi:10.15779/z38vw7d.{{cite journal}}: CS1 maint: multiple names: authors list (link)
  29. ^ 藤岡信勝 (1996). 污辱の近現代史: いま、克服のとき (in Japanese). 徳間書店.
  30. ^ Huang, Hua-Lun (25 January 2012). The Missing Girls and Women of China, Hong Kong and Taiwan: A Sociological Study of Infanticide, Forced Prostitution, Political Imprisonment, “Ghost Brides,” Runaways and Thrownaways, 1900–2000s. McFarland. ISBN 9780786488346.
  31. ^ "Who Are the "Comfort Women" of World War II?". ThoughtCo. Retrieved 10 November 2017.
  32. ^ "JapanFocus". 26 March 2009. Retrieved 10 November 2017.
  33. ^ "Evidence documenting sex-slave coercion revealed". www.etan.org. Retrieved 10 November 2017.
  34. ^ Reuters & 2007-03-05.
  35. ^ "Documents detail how Imperial military forced Dutch females to be 'comfort women'". The Japan Times Online. 7 October 2013. ISSN 0447-5763. Retrieved 10 November 2017.
  36. ^ ""Comfort Woman" Ellen van der Ploeg passed away | janbanning.com". www.janbanning.com. Retrieved 10 November 2017.
  37. ^ Yoshimi 2000, pp. 100–101, 105–106, 110–111; Fackler & 2007-03-06; BBC & 2007-03-02; BBC & 2007-03-08.
  38. ^ Brouwer, Anne-Marie de (2005). Supranational Criminal Prosecution of Sexual Violence: The ICC and the Practice of the ICTY and the ICTR. Intersentia nv. ISBN 9789050955331.
  39. ^ a b c O'Herne 2007.
  40. ^ Hicks, George "The 'Comfort Women'" pages 305–323 from The Wartime Japanese Empire, 1931–1945 edited by Peter Duus, Ramon Myers and Mark Peattie, Princeton: Princeton University Press, 1996 page 315.
  41. ^ Watanabe, Kazuko "Trafficking in Women's Bodies, Then and Now: The Issue of Military "Comfort Women"" pages 19–31 from Women's Studies Quarterly Volume 27, Issue # 1/2, Summer 1999 pages 19–20.
  42. ^ a b Watanabe, Kazuko "Trafficking in Women's Bodies, Then and Now: The Issue of Military "Comfort Women"" pages 19–31 from Women's Studies Quarterly Volume 27, Issue # 1/2, Summer 1999 page 20.
  43. ^ Hicks, George "The 'Comfort Women'" pages 305–323 from The Wartime Japanese Empire, 1931–1945 edited by Peter Duus, Ramon Myers and Mark Peattie, Princeton: Princeton University Press, 1996 page 316.
  44. ^ Watanabe, Kazuko "Trafficking in Women's Bodies, Then and Now: The Issue of Military "Comfort Women"" pages 19–31 from Women's Studies Quarterly Volume 27, Issue # 1/2, Summer 1999 pages 20–21.
  45. ^ Watanabe, Kazuko "Trafficking in Women's Bodies, Then and Now: The Issue of Military "Comfort Women"" pages 19–31 from Women's Studies Quarterly Volume 27, Issue # 1/2, Summer 1999 page 21.
  46. ^ a b Onishi & 2007-03-08.
  47. ^ a b c d Hicks, George "The 'Comfort Women'" pages 305–323 from The Wartime Japanese Empire, 1931–1945 edited by Peter Duus, Ramon Myers and Mark Peattie, Princeton: Princeton University Press, 1996 page 320.
  48. ^ a b Poloni-Staudinger & Ortbals 2012, p. 21.
  49. ^ Joeden-Forgey 2010, p. 74.
  50. ^ Saikia 2011b, p. 157.
  51. ^ Riedel 2011, p. 10.
  52. ^ Brownmiller 1975, p. 83.
  53. ^ Rothe 2009, p. 53.
  54. ^ Eftekhari 2004, p. 7.
  55. ^ De Brouwer 2010, p. 19.
  56. ^ Fielding 2012, p. 25.
  57. ^ Card 2008, pp. 176–189.
  58. ^ Allen 1996, p. 131.
  59. ^ Vetlesen 2005, pp. 196–200.
  60. ^ Russell-Brown 2003, p. 1.

Bibliography

  • Allen, Beverly (1996). Rape Warfare: The Hidden Genocide in Bosnia-Herzegovina and Croatia. University of Minnesota Press. ISBN 978-0816628186. {{cite book}}: Invalid |ref=harv (help)
  • Bisaz, Corsin (2012). The Concept of Group Rights in International Law: Groups as Contested Right-Holders, Subjects and Legal Persons. Martinus Nijhoff. ISBN 978-9004228702. {{cite book}}: Invalid |ref=harv (help)
  • Brownmiller, Susan (1975). Against Our Will: Men, Women, and Rape. Simon & Schuster. ISBN 0-449-90820-8. {{cite book}}: Invalid |ref=harv (help)
  • Card, Claudia (2008). "The Paradox of Genocidal Rape Aimed at Enforced Pregnancy". The Southern Journal of Philosophy. S1 (46): 176–189. doi:10.1111/j.2041-6962.2008.tb00162.x. {{cite journal}}: Invalid |ref=harv (help)
  • De Brouwer, Anne-Marie (2010). "Introduction". In Anne-Marie De Brouwer, Sandra Ka Hon Chu (ed.). The Men Who Killed Me: Rwandan Survivors of Sexual Violence. Douglas & McIntyre. ISBN 978-1553653103. {{cite book}}: Invalid |ref=harv (help)
  • Eftekhari, Shiva (2004). Rwanda, Struggling to Survive: Barriers to Justice for Rape Victims in Rwanda. Human Rights Watch. {{cite book}}: Invalid |ref=harv (help)
  • Fielding, Leila (2012). Female Génocidaires: What was the Nature and Motivations for Hutu Female. GRIN Verlag. ISBN 978-3656324409. {{cite book}}: Invalid |ref=harv (help)
  • Fisher, Siobhán K. (1996). "Occupation of the Womb: Forced Impregnation as Genocide". Duke Law Journal. 46 (1). JSTOR 1372967. {{cite journal}}: Invalid |ref=harv (help)
  • Joeden-Forgey, Elisa Von (2010). "Gender and Genocide". In Donald Bloxham, A. Dirk Moses (ed.). The Oxford Handbook of Genocide Studies. Oxford University Press. ISBN 978-0199232116. {{cite book}}: Invalid |ref=harv (help)
  • Jones, Adam (2006). Genocide: A Comprehensive Introduction. Routledge. ISBN 978-0415353847. {{cite book}}: Invalid |ref=harv (help)
  • Leaning, Jennifer; Bartels, Susan; Mowafi, Hani (2009). "Sexual Violence during War and Forced Migration". In Susan Forbes Martin, John Tirman (ed.). Women, Migration, and Conflict: Breaking a Deadly Cycle. Springer. pp. 173–199. ISBN 978-9048128242. {{cite book}}: Invalid |ref=harv (help)
  • Miller, Sarah Clark (2009). "Atrocity, Harm, and resistance". In Andrea Veltman, Kathryn Norlock (ed.). Evil, Political Violence, and Forgiveness: Essays in Honor of Claudia Card. Lexington. pp. 53–76. ISBN 978-0739136508. {{cite book}}: Invalid |ref=harv (help)
  • MacKinnon, Catherine A. (2006). "Genocide Rape Is Different Than War Rape". Center on Law & Globalization. {{cite news}}: Invalid |ref=harv (help)
  • Poloni-Staudinger, Lori; Ortbals, Candice D. (2012). "Rape as a Weapon of War and Genocide". Terrorism and Violent Conflict: Women's Agency, Leadership, and Responses. Springer. ISBN 978-1461456407. {{cite book}}: Invalid |ref=harv (help)
  • Rothe, Dawn (2009). State Criminality: The Crime of All Crimes. Lexington. ISBN 978-0739126721. {{cite book}}: Invalid |ref=harv (help)
  • Russell-Brown, Sherrie L. (2003). "Rape as an Act of Genocide". Berkeley Journal of International Law. 21 (2). {{cite journal}}: Invalid |ref=harv (help)
  • Sajjad, Tazreena (2012). "The Post-Genocidal Period and its Impact on Women". In Samuel Totten (ed.). Plight and Fate of Women During and Following Genocide (Reprint ed.). Transaction. pp. 219–248. ISBN 978-1412847599. {{cite book}}: Invalid |ref=harv (help)
  • Sharlach, Lisa (2000). "Rape as Genocide: Bangladesh, the Former Yugoslavia, and Rwanda". New Political Science. 1 (22): 89–102. doi:10.1080/713687893. {{cite journal}}: Invalid |ref=harv (help)
  • Smith, Roger W. (2013). "Genocide and the Politics of Rape". In Joyce Apsel, Ernesto Verdeja (ed.). Genocide Matters: Ongoing Issues and Emerging Perspectives. Routledge. pp. 82–105. ISBN 978-0415814966. {{cite book}}: Invalid |ref=harv (help)
  • Smith-Spark, Laura (8 December 2004). "How did rape become a weapon of war?". British Broadcasting Corporation. Retrieved 29 December 2013.
  • Totten, Samuel; Bartrop, Paul R. (2007). Dictionary of Genocide. Greenwood. ISBN 978-0313329678. {{cite book}}: Invalid |ref=harv (help)
  • Vetlesen, Arne Johan (2005). Evil and Human Agency: Understanding Collective Evildoing. Cambridge University Press. ISBN 978-0521673570. {{cite book}}: Invalid |ref=harv (help)
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