(20) July-August 92:
A 40-year-old Muslim woman was at home on July 14, 1992, in Foca when 26 Serbian soldiers - claiming to be Seseljovci from Trebinje - came to her door. She said that she did not know most of the soldiers because their accents were not local, but that two Foca Serbs had led them to the Muslim homes. The soldiers hit the witness on the head twice with a police troncheon, asked for her husband, and ordered her to go outside. They sliced the neck of a 16-year-old boy with a rusty knife while asking for his father; the boy was not seriously injured. Then they ordered the Muslims to kiss an Orthodox cross, which they all did.
After separating the men from the women and children, they took the later group to the police station. As the group was leaving, the soldiers burned the Muslim houses. The women and children were separated into four groups at the police station and taken to separate houses confiscated from Muslim owners. The witness was placed with a group of 28 women. One of the soldiers told her that women, children, and old people were being taken to these homes because they were "not worth a bullet." They were kept in this house for 27 days.
Day and night, soldiers came to the house taking two to three women at a time. They were four to five guards at all times, all local Foca Serbs. The woman knew the rapes would begin when 'Mars na Drinu' was played over the loudspeaker of the main mosque. ('Mars na Drinu,' or 'March on the Drina', is reportedly a former Chetnik fighting song that was banned during the Tito years.)
While 'Mars na Drinu' was playing, the women were ordered to strip and soldiers entered the homes taking the ones they wanted. The age of women taken ranged from 12 to 60. Frequently the soldiers would seek out mother and daughter combinations. Many of the women were severely beaten during the rapes.
The witness was selected twice. The first time, soldiers had entered and grabbed an 18-year-old girl, asking her if she were a virgin. She said she was. Licking his knife, one of the soldiers said that if they found she was not, he would butcher her. The witness pleaded with them not [to] take the girl but to take her instead. "We'll take you too," they said. While the witness was being raped, her rapist told her, "You should have already left this town. We'll make you have Serbian babies who will be Christians." Two soldiers raped her at that time; five soldiers raped the 18-year-old girl in full view of the witness.
The next time the witness was raped, her rapists showed her that they had had themselves circumcised so as not to "disgust" the women. She said she knew of four local Serbs who had had themselves circumcised for the rapes. She said at least 12 other women could testify to this.
The witness also said she was forced to drink alcohol and eat pork at the rape house. Many women threw up and they were beaten for getting sick. Some women from her house were taken to a hotel near Tjentiste and raped there. The women were permitted to leave on August 18, 1992, on a convoy evacuating Muslims from Foca. (Department of State)
He's probably busy with other things...
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