A survivor of sexual violence during the war in Kosovo has shared a harrowing account of her experience under the terror of Serbian forces, telling of the rape she experienced inside a mosque in the village where she had taken refuge with her relative.
The story was made public in the documentary series of Debat Plus, “The Silence That Kills – The True Cry of War”, where the victim, now a surviving woman, shared the emotions and wounds she still carries after more than two decades.
“We were with a group of people, they gathered us in a mosque, there was a lot of people, we didn’t see each other. Men, women, children were crying. They took the men in front, separated the women, the children were screaming… they were exhausted, without eating, without drinking, taking us from one place to another. The worst happened in the mosque, that’s where I experienced rape. Inhumanely. Only an unconscious person could do such a thing,” she said, shocked.
She said she was only 19 years old at the time when a Serbian paramilitary man sexually raped her while another guarded the door. According to her, their faces were painted over, making it impossible to recognize or identify them.
“It’s an experience that can’t be described in words. Every time you judge yourself, why it happened, how it happened, what would have happened if I hadn’t been there. But when it happens, you have to face it. They strip you with a knife, you have no power to defend yourself. You are defenseless. If I were dressed as a soldier, maybe they would kill me and my family would remember me as a martyr, not as…”, she continued amidst heavy emotions.
Her story comes at a time when the wounds of wartime sexual violence continue to remain open for many women and men in Kosovo. She calls for justice, remembrance and recognition of the pain she suffered, saying that silence continues to be a second form of violence.