There are no statistics in Serbia, or even simple assessments, about the number of women who were raped during war. One of the first organizations that women could turn to for support at the time was the Autonomous Women’s Center against Sexual Violence which was established in 1993 in the aim of providing this much needed support. “The Autonomous Women’s Center against Sexual Violence was established so as to help provide emotional support to women who have survived sexual violence on war torn territories in Croatia and Bosnia and Herzegovina, and later on in Kosovo. Many of these women remained in Serbia. From our experiences of working with women, we know that there are women who were raped by men of all nationalities”, noted Lepa Mladenovic. In her opinion, even if there were only a few women who would benefit from such a law, Serbia should still create and adopt such a law. “In that way we would confirm that sexual violence in war existed and that the state is now taking care of its female citizens who survived these crimes”, noted Lepa.

The whole text is available (in Serbian) on the web site of the weekly “Vreme”: http://www.vreme.com/cms/view.php?id=1436584