Critically Assess the Reasons for the Widespread Use of Rape as a Weapon of War in the Former Yugoslavia

In 1992 media stories began circling about the mass rapes in Yugoslavia, swiftly followed by public outcry and the beginnings of what was to become vast academic and journalistic interest in rape as a weapon of war. 20,000 is the conservative estimate of the number of raped women during the Yugoslav wars, with reports of gang rapes, public rapes, enforced brothels, ritualistic torture, rape camps and forced impregnation. The focus was on Muslim and Croat women raped by Serbian men. Yet mass rapes in times of war and crisis were not a new phenomenon. …