Triumph of Ethnic Hatred and the Failure of International Political Will: Gendered Violence and Violence in the Former Yugoslavia and Rwanda

Description

Awarded the Adele Mellen Prize for Distinguished Contribution to Scholarship This inquiry is carried out in three interrelated parts. The first part explores the roots of ethnic conflict in the former Yugoslavia and Rwanda and analytically discusses the mechanisms and motivations that led to genocidal rape, ethnic cleansing and mass killings in these regions. It reveals and analyzes the dramatic and overwhelming relationship between national extremism, mass killings, and sexual violence in ethno-national conflicts. The second part of this analysis establishes a framework for understanding the nature and contours of sexual violence through case-studies of systematic rape as an integral element of ethnic conflict and genocide in the former Yugoslavia and Rwanda. It provides a critical view of the ideology of wartime sexual violence and wartime rape motivations as among the most destructive weapons of war, highlighting the historical invisibility of this crime in which women were, and still are, the major targets and most vulnerable victims. Finally, part three of this volume discloses the equivocal role of the international community in managing the crisis. It addresses the ambiguous question of why the international community, represented by United Nations peacekeeping missions, was unable to prevent or to stop the mass killing and atrocities.