User:HanzoHattori/Foča camp

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Foča (Serbian Cyrillic: Фоча), is a town and municipality in southeastern Bosnia and Herzegovina on the Drina river, on the border with Serbia and Montenegro. Foča was the site of some of the most brutal crimes committed during the 1992-1995 war in Bosnia and Hercegovina, including the systematic rape of many local women in detention centres that became known as rape camps and were part of the campaign for the ethnic cleansing of Eastern Bosnia.


Bosnian Serb civilian, police, and military officials, in collaboration with paramilitary troops and former Yugoslav Army reservists called in from Serbia and Montenegro, took over Foča in April 1992. They established a wartime government called the "Crisis Committee," much like those established in many towns in Bosnian Serb-controlled territory, to plan and carry out the expulsion of the non-Serb population.


The military takeover of Foča began on April 7, 1992. The takeover was a coordinated effort between Serb irregulars from Serbia proper and Montenegro, and paramilitary forces of the Bosnian Serb army.


Once the Bosnian Serb and Serb forces had completely occupied the Foča municipality, they began rounding up all non-Serb civilians from the surrounding villages, separating the men from the women, and imprisoning them in numerous detention facilities.


During the arrests many civilians were killed, beaten or subjected to sexual assault. Bosniak women, children and the elderly were detained in houses, apartments and motels in the town of Foča and in surrounding villages, or at short and long-term detention centres such as Buk Bijela, Foča High School and Partizan Sports Hall.


Many of the detained women were subjected to humiliating and degrading conditions of life, to brutal beatings and to sexual assaults, including rapes. A number of women were detained in houses and apartments used as brothels, operated by groups of soldiers, mostly paramilitary.


The Foča police worked closely with the Serb military forces occupying the municipality and played primary and direct roles in the arrest, expulsion, detention, rape, torture, and murder of the non-Serb population of the town.


The International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) was denied access to Foca from the time of the takeover on April 7, 1992, until the beginning of October of that year. By the time they gained access, it was too late for thousands of non-Serbs from Foča who had been imprisoned and subsequently either expelled or killed. By the time the ICRC entered, few non-Serbs were left alive in the municipality.


The International Criminal Tribunal for the Former Yugoslavia (ICTY), issued its initial indictment in Case No.: IT-96-23 (the "Foča" case") in 1996 charging Dragan Gagovic, Gojko Jankovic, Janko Janjic, Radomir Kovac, Zoran Vukovic, Dragan Zelenovic, Dragoljub Kunarac and Radovan Stankovic with crimes against humanity (torture and rape) and violations of the laws or customs of war (torture and rape).[1]


On 22 February 2001, the Trial Chamber found Dragoljub Kunarac, Radomir Kovac and Zoran Vukovic guilty of the charges[2], rendering a historic judgment described as "a landmark contribution to international legal history"[3] in handing down the first ever convictions for rape as a crime of war. On 12 June 2002 the ICTY Appeals Chamber dismissed the appeals by Kunarac, Kovac and Vukovic and confirmed their sentences.[4]


[edit] See also

[edit] References

  1. ^ http://www.un.org/icty/indictment/english/foc-ii960626e.htm the "Foča" case" initial indictment (ICTY Case No.: IT-96-23)
  2. ^ http://www.un.org/icty/kunarac/trialc2/judgement/kun-tj010222e.pdf ICTY Trial Chamber Judgment, Kunarac et al.
  3. ^ http://www.guardian.co.uk/serbia/article/0,2479,515344,00.html Prosecuting for Humanity by Ed Vulliamy, Guardian, 1 July 2001 (reference in article about Nancy Peterson, Chief Strategist, ICTY Office of the Prosecutor)
  4. ^ http://www.un.org/icty/kunarac/appeal/judgement/kun-aj020612e.pdf ICTY Appeals Chamber Judgment, Kunarac et al.

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