PRESS CONFERENCE of the Society for Threatened Peoples

Berlin, 24th October 2008

Film opening: „Anonyma – A Woman in Berlin”

German and Bosnian victims of rape speak out openly in public

Persons taking part at the press conference:

Ms. Sibylle Dreher, President of the Women’s Association in the

Federation of Expellees

Ms. Elfriede Seltenheim, victim of rape, Germany

Prof. Dr. Gabi Köpp, historical witness

Ms. Marija Kovac, victim of rape, Bosnia, about 70 years old. She

lived in the Grbavica area of Sarajevo and was taken to the KULA prison

camp. Her son and her husband fell in defence of Sarajevo. She was a witness at The Hague and gave evidence at the trial of Biljana Plavsic and

Krajisnik. She is today an active member of the „Women’s Section of the

Association of Former Camp Internees, Canton of Sarajevo” and in the society „Women victims of the War”, Sarajevo.

Ms. Sabiha Turkanovic, victim of rape, Bosnia, was at the Omarska

camp with 36 other women. Several members of her family, among them her three-year old granddaughter, were interned at the same camp. She was a witness at The Hague. Her son-in-law was murdered in her native town of Kozarac by Serb militia. She is today an active member of the society „Hearts for Peace – Kozarac Prijedor” and the „Izvor Society” in Prijedor.

Rape camps in Bosnia and Herzegovina

About 20,000 mainly Bosnian Moslem women were victims of systematic rape by Serb troops. Many rape camps were set up above all in East Bosnia, in towns like Foca, Rogatica and Visegrad. In many concentration camps women were held for months, being mishandled, tortured and raped. Rape was used on a planned basis to destroy the families of the Bosniaks, to humiliate the women and their families and to accelerate the expulsions. Today the victims of these crimes are severely traumatised, mostly impoverished and cannot return to their former homes in the so-called „Republika Srpska”. Their former tormentors are still living there today..

The victims’ associations in Bosnia:

„Women’s Section of the Association of Former Camp Internees, Canton of Sarajevo” – Sarajevo

This movement of the survivors of the Serb rape camps unites the traumatised victims, whose husbands and children were mostly murdered. The section has already more than 1000 members, the majority of them coming from the towns of East Bosnia. The Women’s Association was founded on 15th July 2000 and has since then been fighting for the securing of the rights of this group of victims. A great success can be seen in the fact that the Women’s Association in a joint campaign together with the Society for Threatened Peoples – B & H and several other NGOs and women’s organisations managed to secure the recognition of the raped women as civilian casualties of war. Each woman now receives a small pension, having to prove the fact of rape. Many of the women cannot however name any witnesses because these were murdered or disappeared. The ethnically cleansed „Republika Srpska”, in which the rapists live in freedom, has not to date accepted the status of civilian casualties of war for non-Serb women.

„Women – Victims of the War” – Sarajevo

The society „Women – Victims of the War” was founded in May 2003. The publication of the truth on the crimes, the identifying of the war criminals and the preparedness of the members of the society to give evidence against accused war criminals all help to further the work of the Tribunal at The Hague and the courts in Bosnia and Herzegovina. The society has now over 1000 members – raped and mishandled women. This number is constantly increasing with new registrations. The main body of its work consists in collecting statements of women who have suffered war crimes

and the setting up of a data-bank with all details on victims and wrongdoers.

The demands of the victims’ associations are:

Arrest and sentencing of all war criminals, first and foremost Ratko

Mladic;

Change in the rules of the ICTY, so that the documents of the

Supreme Defence Council of Serbia, which was classified as confidential by

the ICTY, can be published;

Support in the search for missing persons, for their exhumation and

identification;

Support, compensation and medical care for the relatives of the

victims of genocide and war crimes and the support of their children;

Appeal to the governments of the EU to ensure that the eyewitnesses

of war crimes are given proper protection and to sign agreements with the

state of Bosnia and Herzegovina for programmes securing the safety of

eyewitnesses;

Abolition of the division of the country, which before the expulsions was multi-ethnic and multi-religious, into two entities and the creation of new cantons with due consideration for tradition and geography;

Establishment of a multi-cultural police force for the whole of Bosnia and the disbanding of the police force of the „Republika Srpska”, which was partially responsible for the genocide;

Economic and administrative special status for the municipality of Srebrenica by the international community and investment to serve the reconstruction of the whole economic structure;

Support for the return of all persons expelled to their home-towns and previous homes;

Job creation for survivors of the genocide and war-crimes and for all persons returning;

Support for a rapid entry of Bosnia and Herzegovina.to the EU

without any conditions.

Projects of the women:

All information from: „Befreier und Befreite”

War, rape, children

Published by Sander and Johr

Information on Berlin and the Soviet zone of occupation

The result: When in 1945 over 450,000 soldiers of the Red Army were fighting in Berlin there were 1.4 million girls and women living in the city. Between the early summer and the autumn of 1945 at least 110,000 of these girls and women were raped by Red Arms soldiers (7.1%). Most of the rape, involving at least 110,000, took place in April, May and June 1945. Of the women concerned 600,000 were of child-bearing age. 57,800 of them were raped and more than 11,000 of them became pregnant (20%). This means according to the basic premises of the authors that more than 1,100 children were born (10%): i.e. 5% of the children born in Berlin between the end of 1945 and summer 1946. Page 54

The author Reichling estimates the number of raped girls and women in Berlin at no less than 100,000 (6.7%) from an evaluation of German and foreign documents and statistics, excluding records from clinics. He, like Sander and Johr, comes by a different route to similar results. The figures of Sander and Johr do not match the statements of contemporary witnesses that 60-70% of the female population was raped, i.e. over 800,000 women.

The number of raped girls and women is not identical with the number of rapes. All records evaluated by Sander and Johr show that over 40% were raped on several occasions. The number of rapes in Berlin is therefore considerably higher than that of the victims. Some of the victims did not survive the crime, many suffered lifelong. Reichling estimates that in Berlin about 10,000 girls and women paid for the rape with their lives or lasting damage to their health (illness resulting in death, suicide, mishandling with fatal consequence). Page 55

Reichling’s findings:

Dr. Gerhard Reichling estimated the number of raped girls and women for the Soviet zone of occupation, the former German eastern areas and flight and expulsion. His figures show that girls and women in rural areas and on the refugee treks ran a greater risk of being raped than those in towns because there was less chance of being able to hide. Reichling’s research shows that 1.9 million German women and girls were raped during the advance of the Red Army towards Berlin, of those 1.4 million in the former German eastern provinces and during flight and expulsion, 500,000 in the later Soviet zone of occupation. Over 4 million soldiers were involved in the fighting on German soil: in East Prussia 1.1 million, between the Weichsel and the Oder 1.6 million, between the Oder and Berlin 1.4 million. It is not possible to make out how many children were born as a result of this rape. The estimate of Dr. Reichling is 292,000. Definitive figures are not possible. Page 58

Further information:

In Berlin not less than 100,000 women were raped. The figures could be higher, there are indeed indications in this direction, but there is no proof.

(There were 75,000 deaths in Berlin by the end of the year 1945. Some men killed their wives and then themselves!)

In the whole of Germany, above all in the eastern provinces, about 2 million women were affected from December 1944 until the winter of 1945, i.e. about 10% of the German female population was raped once or several times in the course of one year.

Ryan cites in his book „Der letzte Kampf” (The last battle) the statement of doctors that the rape figure in Berlin lies somewhere between 20,000 and 100,000. Sander and Johr interviewed women who can be classed as contemporary witnesses and in their opinion the number ranges between 60 and 70% of the female population, i.e. between 840,000 and 980,000 girls and women in Berlin.

About 20% of the raped women became pregnant

About 90% of these women had an abortion, 10% gave birth.

About 5% of the children born in Berlin between the end of 1945 and the summer of 1946 were „Russian children”.

See projection for the population statistics for Berlin, page 54.

re 4) In 1945 600,000 women of childbearing age (18 to 45 years) were

living in Berlin. 57,800 of them were raped, i.e. 9.5% in this age-group.

re 5) In 1945 there were 800,000 girls and women aged between 14 and 18 and over 45. If one assumes that in this age-group also 9.5% were raped, this means 73,300 of the younger and older persons (36,650 at 4.75%).

re 6) Result: Of 1.4 million people and women (Menschen und Frauen!) in

Berlin between 94,450 and 131,100 were raped. But, if one takes the

midpoint, more than 110,000 girls and women were raped between the early summer and the autumn of 1945 (average of 7.1%).

There is no proof of this, but it is said that German soldiers produced

about one million children with Russian – White Russian and Ukrainian –

women.