War Crimes of Rape in the Croatian War of Independence (1991 – 1995)

Abstract

The Đakovo-Osijek church is one of the archdioceses in the Republic of Croatia that suffered the most during the Greater-Serbian aggression from 1991 to 1995. With the deaths that occurred during the aggression and occupation, a large part of the population, especially the Vukovar region, was exposed to physical, psychological and emotional abuse after capture. In addition to expulsion, capture, forced labour, starvation, alienation, and appropriation of property in the occupied part of the Archdiocese, torture has occurred, especially the numerous rapes by the Greater Serbian aggressor. First part of this work talks about the nature of war as the most tragic event of civilization. The paper points to the crimes that characterize the Croatian War of Independence as every other war, emphasizing especially rape as the most brutal form of crime and war strategy, with all the possible causes and consequences of rape on a person. In the second part of the paper, parts of the results of the research conducted by the Sunčica Association have been presented. The aim of the aforementioned research was to find specific attitudes, judgments, conditions and feelings of rape victims on the traumatic experience themselves, then discover and evaluate the quality of life of victims after the traumatic experience and identify the difficulties experienced by victims of traumatic experience today. Based on the research, the work in the third section presents ways of dealing with the fact of the traumatic rape experience, emphasizing the need to provide social and even more spiritual assistance, showing a wide range of pastoral opportunities for the Church’s action with the victims of war crimes of rape, always bearing in mind the need for interdisciplinary approach to this complex issue.