SEXUAL VIOLENCE PERPETRATED DURING ARMED CONFLICTS: THE COMPLEX DYNAMICS OF REVICTIMIZATION

Abstract

Wartime sexual violence is not a result of sexual desire, but it is seen as a symbol of power, dominance, victory and abuse of authority. It is used as a military strategy and also as a tool for ethnic cleansing. In the conflicts in Bosnia more than twenty thousand Muslim girls were raped and were compelled to give birth to their victimiser’s child. Bangladeshi independence War witnessed the systematic genocidal rape of around 2-4 lakhs women. Pakistani military gave complete licence to their troops, activists and Islamic leaders to rape the innocent Bangladeshi women who were seen as ‘booty of war’. This is considered to be one the most severe war time atrocities observed. The Nanking Massacre during the Second Sino Japanese War was a heart wrenching episode of the mass rapes of around twenty thousand women who were not spared even after the rape and were killed by penetration of objects or by explicit mutilation. One of the endowment of Nanking Massacre was fortification of comfort station by Japanese high officials. Rather than considering their high officers answerable for the mass assault and murder of the common people in Nanking, Japanese authorities additionally united an underground arrangement of mobilised prostitution by attracting, purchasing or abducting women and girls into sexual slavery. Women are not the sole victims of sexual violence. Children and men are also vulnerable to sexual atrocities during wars. Sexual atrocities against women disintegrates a community in a manner in which a very few weapons can.