By Chantal Wynter and Kim Linden
MELBOURNE — Eighty people attended a forum on March 14 at Budinski's Theatre of Exile, in association with the reading of Classroom 3A, the testimony of Bosnian rape-camp survivor, Amira S.
Elly Varrenti read Amira S's description of the brutal encounter of a woman who had been continuously raped and a young soldier who was ordered to rape her and had his penis cut off by the commanding officer for refusing to do so.
Speakers included Jan Ruff O'Herne, author of Fifty Years of Silence, a "comfort woman" for the Japanese forces in Indonesia during World War II; Roz Zalewski, a lawyer with the International Commission of Jurists; Kelly Askin, a US attorney; Tom Morton, ABC Radio's former correspondent in Bosnia; and Tahir Cambis, director of Budinski's Theatre.
The forum was promoted as addressing issues including refugee women; rape as a weapon of ethnic genocide; why the Yugoslav conflict happened and who is profiting; and the myth of ancient rivalries. However, while the speakers were interesting, they didn't speak on these themes. Instead, they focused on saying that rape in Bosnia, and elsewhere as a method of oppression in war, can be dealt with by an International War Crimes Tribunal. All the speakers felt that it is individuals who should be prosecuted by such an international court.
Members of the audience pointed out that the issue will not be resolved by prosecution of individuals or perpetrators. How does a war crimes tribunal determine who is a perpetrator?
In the case of the war in Bosnia, countries like Britain and France could be considered perpetrators, having been complicit in stirring up Serbian nationalism because of their business interests in the Balkans.
Members of the audience went away frustrated that the only solution offered was through the courts. As one put it, why is it that when a child is born it is innocent and when it grows up it can carry out such acts? It is also worrying to think that men, like the soldier in the extract from the testimony of Amira S, could be tried for actions that they have been forced to carry out as part of a war which was engineered in the name of profit.