Monograph on rape and sexual abuse during the war in Bosnia and Herzegovina, Book promotion

Monograph on rape and sexual abuse during the war in Bosnia and Herzegovina, Book promotion

On Monday, July 9, 2018, the promotion of the Turkish translation of the book “Monograph on rape and sexual abuse during the war in Bosnia and Herzegovina” by the author Mr. Saliha Đuderija, was held at the International University of Sarajevo.

Prof. Dr. Admir Mulaosmanović, Dean of the Faculty of Arts and Social Sciences at the IUS, welcomed the audience and guests.

Members of the Association "Women Victims of the War" from Sarajevo, who ruin the taboos of women victims of this form of crime, showed extraordinary courage and contributed to the full capacity of telling the truth about committed war crimes of rape and sexual abuse in the territory of Bosnia and Herzegovina participating in cooperation with Youth Association "ForSa" from Sarajevo in preparation of this Monograph.

Bakira Hasečić, the co-author of this Monograph and the president of the Women Victims of the War Association, said: "With this monograph, we send a message to all those who need to read and understand the position of women victims of war who survived all these terrible tortures. The monograph is the publication of the truth and the facts that marked our lives”. She also thanked IUS for the support provided, as well as an anonymous sponsor from Turkey who supported the publishing of this Monograph.

The author of the book, Mr. Saliha Djuderija, stated: "We are not hiding our efforts to, at least, influence in this way a change of attitudes in the sphere of public and general political support for all victims, and in particular in gaining the professional support of the entire BiH intellectual community, and the general public can, through joint professional work, advocate equal treatment and recognition of equal status for all victims of war crimes and prevent revisionism that offends victims. " She also pointed out that this project has not been completed, and that translating the book into foreign languages, in this case Turkish, helps spread the truth beyond the borders of the region.

The reviewer Prof. Dr. Elmedin Muratbegović said, "Describing monstrous acts through the testimony of victims of war rape, using procedures designed for the purpose of degrading the victim and the fact that the victims (according to the findings of this study) very often knew their rapists, makes this study extremely useful for the process of clarifying and proving these crimes ".

The reviewer, Dr. Emir Vajzović, emphasized: "The aggravating circumstance for the victims, and for the society as a whole, is the fact that in Bosnia and Herzegovina, until now, no consensus has been reached on important facts, causes and consequences of the war, and the denial of crimes (including perhaps in the first place, sexual abuse) can practically be understood as continuation and war torture, but also the same war policies that led to unpunished unlawful act. I sincerely suggest to all adults, no matter how much and what they did or did not know about this, to read this monograph, because we do not have the right not to know”.

In the end, the guests were greeted by the Ambassador of Turkey in Bosnia and Herzegovina, His Excellency Mr. Haldun Koc, who promised help and future support on the promotion of the truth.

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