Overview
In this lesson, students will examine the unfortunately widespread and
longstanding phenomenon of wartime rape through a case study of the Yugoslav
War Crimes Tribunal, convened in 1995 to prosecute atrocities committed during the 1993-1995 war in Bosnia.
In the Introductory Activity, students will discuss the background history
of Yugoslavia and how the wars which accompanied its dissolution in the 1990s
were a perfect storm of the factors–civil conflict, ethnic tension inflamed by propaganda,
and irregular military forces–which most frequently result in wartime rape and
other sexual crimes. In the Learning Activities, students will use video
segments from the “I
Came to Testify” episode of the PBS documentary series Women, War
& Peace to more deeply explore the multiethnic nature of
Yugoslavia under Marshall Tito, the unraveling of this peaceful coexistence due to political scapegoating and
fear-mongering, the degeneration
of the ensuing war into atrocities, the Yugoslav War Crimes Tribunal’s
historical prosecution of rape and other sexual crimes as war crimes against humanity,
and the bitter aftermath of these crimes in Bosnia’s now permanently altered political landscape. In
the Culminating Activity, students will write research reports describing other
recent conflict zones which have been characterized by widespread wartime rape,
comparing and contrasting them with what they’ve learned about the Bosnian war.
This lesson is best used during or after a world history unit about
contemporary geopolitics and ongoing military conflicts.
Objectives
Students will be able to:
-
outline the 20th century history
of Yugoslavia and the Balkans
-
describe what life was like in Marshall Tito’s
Yugoslavia
-
explain how and why the
Yugoslavian multiethnic
social fabric unraveled
in the 1990s
-
discuss why civil and ethnic
conflicts have a tendency to devolve into war crimes
-
describe why the establishment
and mission of the Yugoslav War Crimes Tribunal set a historic precedent
-
discuss the consequences of rape
and other sexual crimes for both individual victims and their larger
communities
Grade Level:
9-12
Suggested Time
(3-4) 45-minute class periods
Media Resources
War Was In The Air Video
Neighbor On Neighbor Video
Building The Case Video
The Testimony Video
Judgment And Legacy Video
Materials
For the class:
The History of Yugoslavia Student Organizer
The History of Yugoslavia Student Organizer Answer Key
Web Sites
BBC: Yugoslavia & The
Balkans
Mapping America: Every City, Every Block
Understanding the Dayton
Accords
The Lesson
Part I: Introductory Activity
-
Ask students who they think are generally the most
directly involved in the fighting of wars. (Answers will vary, but will probably include soldiers.)
Explain that wars have generally been fought by the military forces of opposing
nations, but that there is another kind of war which has become increasingly
common; ask students what they think this type of war might be. (Civil wars,
fought within national boundaries.) Ask students if they think civil wars
are fought between uniformed combatants. (Sometimes—as with the American
Civil War—but not usually; explain
that in most civil wars, there is a very blurred distinction between who is a
uniformed combatant, who is an “irregular” or a “guerilla” combatant, and who
is a civilian.) Ask students if they can think of any civil wars from their
global history studies which fit this description. (Answers will vary, but
suggest that one prominent example in recent years was the civil
war—actually a series of civil wars--which accompanied the breakup of
Yugoslavia in the 1990s.) Tell students that in this lesson they will be
taking a closer look at one of the cruelest and bloodiest of those civil
wars—that fought within the former Yugoslavian republic of Bosnia and
Herzegovina from 1993 to 1995.
- Ask students what they know about the history of Yugoslavia. (Accept
all answers.) Distribute copies of the The History of Yugoslavia Student Organizer to each student,
divide students into groups of 4-5, and have each group log on to BBC: Yugoslavia & The
Balkans. Tell
groups that they will have 30 minutes to complete their organizers with information provided on the
website.
After 20 minutes have passed, have each group take turns presenting
their
answers to the class. Use the The History of Yugoslavia Student Organizer Answer Key as
a prompt for
additional questions and discussion of each answer.
Tell students that the Balkans have been a historically strategic
crossroads far longer
than the modern era covered by the
BBC: Yugoslavia & The
Balkans website. Ask students which three
larger
religious cultures intersect there. (Western European Catholic
Christianity, Eastern European Orthodox Christianity, and Middle Eastern
Islam.) Explain that even within these religious cultures, numerous
national identities exist. Ask students if they can identify any. (Answers
will
vary, but point out that Slovenes and Croats, for instance, are
generally
both Catholic.) Explain that this ethnic and national diversity has
been a
source of tension in the region for centuries, during which time it has
been
overlain with a series of political boundaries of varying success.
- Ask students whether they think wars fought
along ethnic and religious lines tend toward greater cruelty and bitterness
than those fought along more purely political lines. (Accept all answers,
but suggest that generally speaking, the greater the differences between
combatants—both real and perceived—the deeper the hatred tends to run in war,
and the deeper the hatred, the more likely atrocities are to be committed.)
Ask students if they think atrocities are more or less likely to occur if a war
is fought by paramilitary combatants--i.e. irregular, non-uniformed soldiers. (Accept
all answers, but suggest that the more the line between combatants and civilian
is blurred—as they are by irregular combatants—the more likely that atrocities
will be committed.) Ask students who they think are most often the victims
of wartime atrocities. (Civilians.) Ask students what they would
consider an atrocity, or a “war crime.” (Accept all answers, but point out that
civilian women have long been subjected to rape and other sexual crimes in
wartime--particularly in civil wars fought along ethnic lines by irregular
forces.) Tell students that as they will learn in this lesson, this
was certainly the case during the most recent phase of Balkan political
reconfiguration—the Yugoslavian civil wars in the 1990s.
Part II: Learning Activities
-
Ask the class if they have ever heard of the term
“balkanize.” (Accept all answers, but explain that it is defined as a verb
meaning “to break up into smaller and often hostile units.”) Explain that
while this term gained currency during the first wars of Balkan independence
against the Ottoman Empire which began in 1912, and would be equally applicable
to the violent dissolution of Yugoslavia in the 1990s, there was in fact a
sustained period of peace, unity, and relative prosperity for the region from
the end of World War II in 1945 until the first declarations of nationalist
independence in 1991. Frame the first video by explaining that it contrasts the
terrible reality of the 1990s civil war in Bosnia with what life had been like
for decades in the multi-ethnic, multi-religious, and multi-national state that
was Marshall Tito’s socialist Yugoslavia. Provide a focus by asking what
happened to undo the peace which had prevailed there for so long. Play War Was In The Air.
- Review
the focus question: what happened in the former Yugoslavia to undo the peace
which had prevailed for so long? (Marshall Tito’s death in 1980 dealt a
serious blow to the national unity he had forged; by the 1990s, Muslim and
Croat leaders were pressing for independence while Serbian leader Slobodan
Milosevic and Bosnian Serb leader Radovan Karadzic were fueling fears of a
Muslim takeover.) Ask students what they think had held Yugoslavian
society together for so many decades. (Accept all answers, but explain that
under the leadership of the charismatic war hero Marshall Tito, the disparate
peoples of Yugoslavia saw themselves as living in something of a communist
utopia, and if that utopia ultimately proved economically and politically
unstable, it did succeed for a time in creating among its citizens a mutual
respect for each other as Yugoslavians which transcended their differences and past
hostilities.) Ask students what they think journalist Refik Hodzic
meant when he said “We had a saying that your neighbor is much more important
than your brother.” (Accept all answers, but suggest that he
is describing a process of sublimating one’s ethnic identity to the practical
ideal of social harmony.) Ask students if they themselves agree
with this saying. Why or why not? (Accept all answers.)
Explain that, for better or for worse, the perspective Hodzic describes was in
fact a large element of socialist/communist political philosophy, representing
a utopian ideal of social equality over individual identity.
- Ask
students how they think Yugoslavia’s multiethnic social solidarity could
devolve so quickly into violent and dehumanizing hatred among its ethnicities.
(Accept
all answers.) Is there any historical precedent for such a change?
(Accept
all answers, but point out that while no European state had better
integrated and embraced its Jewish population than interwar Germany, Hitler and
the Nazis were quick to realize that Jews could easily and effectively be made
scapegoats for the nation’s
economic troubles.) Suggest that just as many Germans did not fully
appreciate the dangers of Nazism until it was too late, Hodzic also claims that
he “could never have anticipated what was going to happen” in Yugoslavia. Ask
students what lesson might be learned here. (Accept all answers, but
suggest that peace can never be taken for granted, and that societies need
always be wary of those who sow division.) Frame the next video by
telling students that it further underlines the historical parallels between
Yugoslavia in the 1990s and Germany under the Nazis. Provide a focus
question by asking what was historic about the Yugoslav War Crimes Tribunal
established by the United Nations in 1993. Play Neighbor On Neighbor.
- Pause Neighbor On Neighbor at 1:14, after narrator Matt Damon says “The Serbs’ campaign of ethnic
cleansing was advancing with devastating brutality.” Review the focus question:
what was historic about the Yugoslav War Crimes Tribunal established in The
Hague by the United Nations in 1993? (It was the first such tribunal in
Europe since the Nuremburg Trials, and the first ever to be convened in the
midst of a war.) Why was it convened? What had spurred the UN to action? (Extensive
news coverage of the war.) What in particular had been so disturbing to
international audiences about this news coverage of the war? (Atrocities
against civilians were being reported on all sides.) Why was this
especially upsetting to tribunal prosecutor Hildegard Uertz-Retzlaff? (Aside
from her having a Yugoslavian husband, Uertz-Retzlaff is herself German, so she was well
aware of what had happened during World War II, and how it had become assumed
that such atrocities would never happen again in Europe.) Explain that Secretary of State
Madeline Albright had also played a major role in catalyzing U.N. support for
the Tribunal, and lobbied for the appointment of female judges to serve on it.
Provide a focus for the next part of the video by asking what tribunal prosecutor Peggy Kuo
jokingly says might have moved her to become a prosecutor. Resume playing Neighbor On Neighbor through to the end.
- Review
the focus question: what does Peggy Kuo jokingly say might have moved her to
become a prosecutor? (As a Taiwanese immigrant to a
multiethnic New York City neighborhood, she grew up hearing the racial taunts and insults
that kids would say when their parents weren’t around.) Suggest
that although Kuo is joking, her comment invites an interesting comparison
between the ethnic diversity of Bosnia and that of New York City. Log on to Interactive Map: Understanding the Dayton Accords
and scroll down to the “Shifting Boundaries” interactive map at the bottom of
the page. Explain that the Interactive Map shows the ethnic demographics of Bosnia and
Herzegovina before, during and after the war. Ask
students what conclusion they would draw about the geographical distribution of
ethnicities in pre-war Bosnia. (They are relatively intermingled, with
no clear ethnic boundaries.) Ask students if this conforms with
what they’ve heard about pre-war Yugoslavia. (It does.) Explain that this intermingling was in fact engineered by Tito, who
sought to dilute Serb nationalism by dividing the Serb population into
different political entities. Ask students what they think happened to the geographical
distribution of Bosnia’s ethnicities during the war. (Accept
all answers.) Click on the “Dayton Accords” tab of the Interactive Map, and
explain that it shows the new borders of Bosnia as drawn up by peace
negotiators in Dayton, Ohio in 1995. Explain that the Accord, which
essentially
divided Bosnia into a Serbian half and a Muslim-Croat half, was
controversial
because it was largely based not upon where ethnic populations had lived
before
the war, but rather on where they had since been relocated through the
armed
displacement of “ethnic cleansing.” Click on the “Present” tab of the
Interactive Map and
ask students to what degree Bosnians are ethnically intermingled today. (There
is almost no intermingling; the Serbs are entirely within their own
borders and
even the Muslims and Croats have concentrated within different regions
of their
shared Federation.) What does this suggest about Bosnia’s
prospects
for national unity? (They are poor.)
- Ask students how they think Bosnia’s ethnic diversity differs from that of the United States. Are we more or less integrated? (Accept all
answers.) Log on to America:
Every City, Every Block. Explain that the maps on the
website were created by the New York Times using data from the 2010 census, and
that the default map shows the geographic distribution of various racial and
ethnic groups in Peggy Kuo’s hometown of New York City. Ask students what their
initial reaction to this map is. (Answers will vary, but some students
will probably be surprised at the degree of racial and ethnic segregation.)
Input other major cities and locations across the nation, including your own.
To the extent that they are racially and ethnically diverse, are they similarly
segregated? (Most large and diverse cities show patterns of relative
racial and ethnic segregation.) Explain the “segregation” being
discussed here is not the sort of legally mandated separation of races that once
characterized much of the United States, but rather the tendency for different
ethnicities and races to form enclaves where they exist in sufficient numbers.
Tell students that the reasons behind this are complex, controversial, and
beyond the scope of this lesson, but ask if they think the diverse yet largely
divided populations of these cities exist in relative peace with each other. (They
do.) Why is this? What binds these cities and this nation together?
(Answers
will vary, but suggest that we share a powerful political identity as Americas,
as well as a more or less functional economic system.) Did Bosnia’s
different ethnicities have either of these as the imposed political unity and
artificially buttressed economy of Tito’s Yugoslavia crumbled? (No.)
- Ask students if they think the absence of political unity and economic stability left Bosnian Serbs vulnerable and receptive to fear-mongering and ethnic
scapegoating from Serbian leaders like Slobodan Milosevic and Radovan Karadzic. (Yes.)
How did they respond? (They withdrew their children from
school with Muslims, and the men left for militia training.) Ask
students what they had concluded earlier in the Introductory Activity about
civil wars fought by paramilitary combatants. (That they tend
to be particularly bitter, brutal, and fall heavily on the civilian
population.) Ask students how they would define a “war crime.” (Accept
all answers, but explain that it is commonly defined as actions
taken in war that fall beyond the accepted conventions of war—particularly those actions
taken against civilians; in other words, atrocities.)
Ask if it makes sense for wars to have laws and conventions. (Accept
all answers, but explain that traditionally, wars
were fought by one side’s regular military forces against the other’s while
observing more or less formal codes of conducts regarding such things as how to
treat prisoners and civilians.) Ask if such codes are more or less
likely to be observed by regular military or irregular paramilitary forces. (Paramilitary
forces are more likely to break the codes and commit atrocities.)
Why might this be? (Accept all answers, but suggest that
they lack the training and discipline of regular troops; they also tend to be
much more personally and emotionally motivated to fight than regular troops,
who are generally motivated by an obligation to follow orders.) Ask
students if they would consider rape a war crime. (Yes.)
Provide a focus for the next video by asking how rape was dealt with at the famous
trial of Nazi war criminals at Nuremberg after World War II. Play Building The Case.
- Pause Building The Case at 2:28, after Kuo say “It’s worth talking about, and it’s worth
getting it out there, so at least even if we’re not prosecuting every single
rape that occurs, that we’re acknowledging that this is what’s happening, and
women’s experience during wartime.” Review the focus question: how was rape
dealt with at Nuremberg? (Rape was not specifically dealt with,
and women were by and large excluded from the proceedings, even as witnesses.)
What has changed in the decades since then? (More women have entered the legal
profession and gained positions of prominence, like those of the Tribunal
prosecutors.) What were Kuo and her fellow female Tribunal
prosecutors hoping to accomplish by prosecuting rape as a war crime? (To set a legal precedent that rape during conflict is a war crime—not
an inevitable by-product of war—and should be prosecuted as such. They wanted
to provide justice for the victims whose cases were tried at The Hague, and
also hoped the sentences would deter future crimes.) Provide a focus for
the remainder of the video by asking how rape had been deliberately used
as a
tactic by Serb forces in Bosnia. Resume playing Building The Case through to the
end.
- Review
the focus question: how had rape been deliberately used as a tactic by Serb
forces in Bosnia? (Serb
soldiers and paramilitary forces had used rape as a
terror tactic, knowing that as word spread of women being raped, Muslim
civilians would flee the Serb advance, effectively accomplishing “ethnic
cleansing.”) What had happened to the Bosnian town of Foca during
the civil war? (20,000 Muslims–half the prewar total population–had
disappeared, their 14 mosques had been reduced to rubble, and the town itself
had been renamed Serbina, or “Place of the Serbs.”) How many
specific rapes are estimated to have occurred in Bosnia? (Between
10,000 and 20,000, but perhaps over 50,000.) Ask students if they think it’s
possible to come up with accurate figures for wartime rape victims. Why or why
not? (Accept all answers.) What distinction does Refik Hodzic make
between the short and long term effects of the rapes? (The
short term effect had been the terrorization and displacement of Muslims, but
the long term effect was “the destruction of the soul of communities.”) Ask students what they think he means by this. (That the Serbian
rape offensive was not merely intended to displace Muslims, but to permanently
destroy the very foundations of their society, in part by
impregnating Muslim women with Christian Serb babies.) What was the
historic step taken by the Hague Tribunal to address this? (The
indictment of rape and other sexual crimes as specific war crimes, rather than
burying them–as Nuremberg prosecutors had–beneath more general charges of
“crimes against humanity” or “inhumane treatment.”) How many defendants were
charged by the Tribunal? (Three.) Ask students what
they think could be accomplished with a case against so few defendants, when it
was clear that the rapes were far more widespread. (By prosecuting these three, an important and symbolic precedent in international law would be set.) Explain that many legal systems–including that of the United
States–operate on a
system of precedent to establish and justify new laws. Ask if students can
think of any example in American history when a legal case involving a few
individuals resulted in laws which dramatically affected the lives of the
entire population. (Answers will vary but may include famous
civil rights cases
like Brown vs. Board of Education in 1954.)
- How does Refik Hodzic describe
the importance of the Tribunal to Bosnia’s future? (As “the institution crucial to the hope for the recovery of Bosnian
society.”) Ask students what they think he means. (That the Tribunal was more than three men on trial--it was also a
symbolic trial of Bosnian society itself, and only by acknowledging and
punishing these crimes could it begin to heal.) Who provided the key
testimony against the three accused rapists? (16 Muslim women who had suffered rape and other sexual crimes in Foca
during the war.) What challenges did they face in doing so? (Speaking of sexual crimes one has suffered
is difficult under any circumstances, but doing so before a Tribunal of mostly
male foreigners, while fearing retaliation in their still deeply divided
homeland, required extreme courage.) What motivated them to overcome their
fears and testify? (A desire for justice,
and a sense of obligation to the many others like them who suffered similar
crimes but were not getting their day in court.) Provide a focus for the
next video by asking students if the witnesses’ testimony suggests that the Serb
soldiers accused of rape acted on their own, independently. Play The Testimony Video.
- Review
the focus question: does the witnesses’ testimony suggest that the Serb
soldiers accused of rape acted on their own, independently? (No.
The testimony indicates that rape was conducted by groups of Serbian troops who encouraged each other
in the crimes, and who
were in fact acting with the tacit encouragement
of their commanders.) Why is this significant? (It
emphasizes the guilt not only of the three Serbs on trial, but that of the Serb
forces more generally, and even that of the Serbian civilians who witnessed and
even encouraged the crimes while doing nothing to intervene.) How
did Dragoljub Kunarac attempt to defend himself against these charges? (He
claimed that he was “seduced” by his victim, and only had sex with her in a
confused state, and against his will.) What did prosecutor
Hildegard Uertz-Retzlaff do to refute this? (She needed only
describe the utter absurdity of a frightened and captive woman wanting
to have
sex with her captor in front of his troops.) How does prosecutor
Peggy Kuo say she responds to those who describe the witnesses as having
been
“humiliated” by their rapists and tormenters during the war? (She
insists that the rapists and tormenters attempted to humiliate their victims,
but the fact that those victims bore witness to these crimes is a testament to
their enduring dignity and humanity.) Provide a focus for the next video segment by asking students how effectively digital obscuring of the witnesses' faces and voices during their testimony at the Tribunal would protect their identities back in Bosnia. Play Judgment And Legacy.
- Pause Judgment And Legacy, after
narrator Matt Damon says “In Bosnia, the task of prosecuting war crimes fell to
a disparate web of national and local courts spread across a country still
fractured along ethnic lines.” Review the focus question: how effective was the
digital obscuring of the witnesses’ faces and voices in protecting their
identities back in Bosnia? (Not very effective. As Refik Hodzic notes, these
measures would only keep them anonymous to complete outsiders; within their
communities, their identities could be easily established.) What was the
historic legacy of these women’s courageous testimony? (Rape, sexual assault, and sexual enslavement were established as specific
“crimes against humanity,” setting a precedent in international law which will help
protect women from such atrocities in future conflicts, and seek justice for
those who’ve already suffered them.) Ask students how impactful they think
this legal victory may actually be for women in conflict zones far from the
courtrooms of The Hague. (Accept all
answers.) Provide a focus for the next and final video segment by asking
students how the residents of Foca responded to an attempt by Muslim women (including
one of the key witnesses at the Tribunal) to place a memorial to those who had
suffered rape and other sexual crimes there during the war. Resume playing Judgment And Legacy through to the end.
- Review
the focus questions: how did the residents of Foca respond to an attempt by
Muslim rape victims to place a memorial to those who had suffered sexual crimes
there during the war? (They vigorously protested the memorial
placement, shouting and gesturing across police barriers that “what happened,
happened” and that the Muslim rape victims should get out of their now mostly Serbian
town.) Since the Tribunal, how many wartime rapes have been
prosecuted by local Bosnian authorities? (28.) What does this very
low number, along with the response of Foca’s Serb residents to the memorial
placement, suggest about the nature of civil wars? (Accept all
answers, but suggest that in a civil war like Bosnia’s, hatreds and wounds of
neighbors turned enemies run particularly deep for being that much more
intimate, personal, and lingering.) What does it suggest about the
nature of sexual crimes against humanity? (Accept all answers, but suggest that it
confirms Hodzic’s
claim that rape “destroys the souls of communities,” poisoning relationships
between entire peoples with fear, shame and angry refusals to even acknowledge
sexual crimes, let alone seek justice for their victims.)
Part III: Culminating Activity
- Explain to students that despite the successful convictions
of the Yugoslav War Crimes Tribunal, rape and other sexual crimes
continue in
conflict zones across the world--virtually all of which share some
fundamental characteristics
with the war in Bosnia by virtue of being civil wars, fought along
ethnic
lines, largely by poorly trained and disciplined irregular troops. As
homework,
have students research the nature and extent of rape and other sexual
war
crimes against humanity in one of the following recent conflicts:
- The civil war in Sri Lanka (1983-2009)
- The civil war in Sierra Leone (1991-2002)
- The war in the Darfur region of Sudan (2003-2009)
- Have each student write a report briefly summarizing:
- The identities of the opposing sides (e.g. ethnic,
political, and/or religious)
- The war aims of the opposing sides and the extent of
their realization (e.g. defeat, displacement, and/or extermination of
the
opposing sides)
- The military composition of the opposing sides’
combatants (e.g. regular military vs. irregular paramilitary)
- The number and nature of the sexual crimes against
humanity committed in each conflict
- Whether or not rape was deliberately used as an
organized terror tactic
- International response and/or intervention and its
effect (if any)
- Whether sexual war crimes prosecutions have been conducted
- Parallels and/or similarities with the 1993-1995 war in
Bosnia
Loading Standards
Standards