ABSTRACT
This chapter examines two cases wherein women and their bodies have been pawns in male-directed battles over ethnic identity. Rape as politics in the Serbian aggression in Bosnia in 1992-1993 has roots in the Kosovo conflict of the late 1980s. The culture of violence — explicit and implicit approval of violence toward women in Kosovo — allowed the Serbian government to extend the discourse of rape in order to disseminate fear of communication among ethnicities. In Kosovo rape not only became a traumatic experience for the woman involved — carrying with it the stigma, fear, and anxiety that it does all over the world — but it became politicized and manipulated for ethno-political gain. The Independent Commission of the Yugoslav Forum for Human Rights and the Association of the Yugoslav Democratic Initiative issued their report on rape in Belgrade in 1990.
