Foča Bosnia-Herzegovina: presentations of identity in survivor narratives and testimony

Abstract

In April of 1992 the Foca municipality of Bosnia-Herzegovina was taken over by the ultranationalist Bosnian Serb, Serb and Montenegrin forces. As part of a larger strategy of genocide, the ultranationalist forces systematically raped and sexually abused the Bosniak girls and women of Foca. The systematic rapes perpetrated in the Foca municipality are representative of the larger pattern of rape during the 1992-1995 genocide in Bosnia-Herzegovina. The use of rape as a tactical force of war in the Foca municipality garnered international media attention; resulting in a wealth of literature, interviews with survivors and the International Criminal Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia court case The Prosecutor v. Dragoljub Kunarac, Radomir Kovac and Zoran Vukovic (Kunarac et al.). The academic discourse surrounding rape as a tactical force of war within the Foca municipality, and Bosnia-Herzegovina, portrays rape survivors as an amorphous group of women defined by their Bosniak identity and, ultimately, their victimhood. Through applying narrative analysis to 26 survivor accounts originating from the texts I Begged Them to Kill Me: Crime Against the Women of Bosnia-Herzegovina, Breaking the Wall of Silence: The Voices of Raped Bosnia and the survivor testimony from Kunarac et al. this thesis revisits the narratives and courtroom testimony of rape survivors from the Foca municipality, studying the presentation of their personal and social identities. Within the context of courtroom testimony, this thesis also examines patterns of questioning by the prosecuting and defense attorneys and the identity of rape survivors within the judicial system. Ultimately, this thesis argues that while there are commonalities between the survivors’ experiences and presentation of their personal and social identities, each individual survivor has her own unique perception, interpretation and coping mechanisms in regards to the trauma she experienced. To assign the Foca rape survivors a unidimensional identity is a denial of their individual identities and personhood.