“My Heart Bleeds, But Where To Take My Grief Is Not
There:” 1 Wartime Sexual Violence Against Men in the Balkan
and Great Lakes Regions
Elysia R. Ruvinsky
Holocaust and Genocide Studies
University of Amsterdam
Dr. Nanci Adler, Advisor
1 June 2012
1
Refugee Law Project, They Slept with Me, (Makerere University, Uganda: 2011) Documentary. Original Quote
says, “grieve.” Text has been altered for readability sake.
1
Forward ...................................................................................................................................3
Introduction ............................................................................................................................5
1.0 Causes of Wartimes Sexual Violence ........................................................................... 12
1.1 Defining Sexual Violence ................................................................................................. 12
1.2 Defining Gender................................................................................................................ 14
1.3 Scholarly Causal Arguments............................................................................................. 15
1.4 Individual and Group Identity, Femininities and Hegemonic Masculinity ...................... 18
1.4.1 Individual and Group Femininities and Masculinities ...................................... 19
1.4.2 Motherhood and Sexuality ................................................................................. 21
1.4.3 Hegemonic Masculinity ..................................................................................... 24
1.4.3.1 Physical Aggression: Militarization ................................................... 25
1.4.3.2 Sexual Aggression: Hetero-Nationality .............................................. 27
1.5 Masculinity in Crisis: Attraction to Gender Roles……………………………………….29
1.6 Conclusion ........................................................................................................................ 34
2.0 Sexual Violence Against Men ......................................................................................... 36
2.1 Functions of Wartime Sexual Violence Against Men ...................................................... 37
2.2 Consequences of Wartime Sexual Violence Against Men ............................................... 43
2.3 Prevalence of MSV in The Balkan and Great Lakes Regions .......................................... 47
2.3.1 Balkan Region .......................................................................................................... 48
2.3.2 Great Lakes Region.................................................................................................. 53
2.4 Contemporary Recognition ............................................................................................... 57
2.5 Conclusion ........................................................................................................................ 59
3.0 The ‘Gendering’ of Sexual Violence.............................................................................. 60
3.1 Societal Rebuke: Stigma, Taboo, Homophobia and Stereotypes ..................................... 61
3.2 Aid Providers .................................................................................................................... 65
3.2.1 United Nations ................................................................................................... 65
3.2.2 Non-Governmental Organizations ..................................................................... 71
3.2.3 Individual Service Providers.............................................................................. 73
3.3 Print Media........................................................................................................................ 75
3.4 Legal Platforms ................................................................................................................. 77
3.4.1 Local .................................................................................................................. 77
3.4.2 International ...................................................................................................... 79
3.5 Feminist Scholarship......................................................................................................... 88
3.6 Conclusion ........................................................................................................................ 90
4.0 Changing Tides and ‘Ungendering’ Sexual Violence .................................................. 92
4.1 Changing Tides ................................................................................................................. 92
4.2 ‘Ungendering’ Sexual Violence ........................................................................................ 99
4.3 Conclusion .......................................................................................................................103
5.0 Conclusion ......................................................................................................................104
6.0 Works Cited ....................................................................................................................107
Forward
2
“No one will talk to you, it is too taboo,” Vladimir said as he leaned back in his chair.
“Men? No, they won’t want to talk about it, especially not to you.” And he was right. The
men who had been sexually assaulted during conflicts in the Balkan in 1992-1995 and Great
Lakes Region of Africa would not talk to me. They would barely talk to local health care
professionals, let alone a young, white American female. But the mere knowledge that these
victims had gone without support, ignored en masse in the congregation of women’s rights
groups, women’s health care professionals and NGO’s that flocked to the regions formed the
impetus and the reason for my stubborn attachment to this topic.
The research was far from easy and even further from comprehensive. Chipping away
at the taboos that surround this subject is something that must be done slowly and
respectfully as these taboos and stigmas are walls often erected in defense. I fielded more
than enough questions about the oddity of my topic choice and I recognize the discomfort this
subject may bring to some readers. But what must be kept in mind is that the discomfort felt
by any of us is nothing compared to the utter destruction wrought on the lives of the victims
of such crimes.
I have great respect for those who have not shied away from this topic. Most notably,
I owe great thanks to the health care providers, non-governmental organization (NGO)
leaders and many others who have begun to speak out on the subject. Scholars who have
approached this subject head on, must be applauded. I must also thank my advisor Dr. Nanci
Adler for her endless patience and guidance. Finally, thank you to Ilene Ruvinsky for her
unwavering support and understanding.
I owe all of this research to the men who found the courage to reach out to health care
providers, victim groups and even the international law bodies. Unfortunately, this is not the
medium to tell all of their stories and in many ways, the transitional justice measures installed
in these regions have not and will not offer solace. To the victims ignored by these measures
3
it may be of little consolation, but for my own sake I must turn the words of Robert Jackson,
Chief Prosecutor at the Nuremburg Trials: “Many mistakes have been made and many
inadequacies must be confessed. But I am consoled but the fact that in proceedings of this
novelty, errors and missteps may also be instructive to the future.” 2
It is my hope that this work will contribute to the growing body of academic and
social works dedicated to male victims of sexual violence. With new conflicts arising
seemingly by the moment, historical evaluation of mistakes is critical. Redress to victims is
beyond my current capability but I hope to try to bring light to the numerous men who have
been victimized and ignored by the wider community. The following is dedicated to the
survivors both recognized and not.
2
Robert H. Jackson, Report to the President, 7 October 1946.
4
Introduction
The 1990s and early 2000s saw widespread conflict throughout the Balkan and Great
Lakes of Africa. Reports from these regions indicated enormously high death tolls and
destruction on an immense scale. Particularly disturbing were accounts of mass rapes that
made their way, quite literally, into the living rooms of North American and Western
European homes. In Bosnia and Herzegovina alone, some have estimated 20,000 to 50,000
women were raped. 3 According to the report of the United Nations Special Rapporteur on
Rwanda an estimated 250,000-500,000 women were raped during the genocide. 4 The
Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) has been named the worst place in the world to be a
woman and is considered the epicenter of “the rape epidemic.” 5 An estimated one out of three
women have been raped in the eastern DRC. 6 Despite the vast scale of these statistics, the
numbers reflect rapes alone, not other forms of sexual violence and perhaps most
importantly, neglect a formidable victim group, men.
Wartime sexual violence had not seriously been addressed by international law until
the establishment of the International Criminal Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia (ICTY)
and International Criminal Tribunal for Rwanda (ICTR) in 1993 and 1994 respectively. 7 This
brought an end to centuries of considering sexual violence as an unfortunate byproduct of
war. The International Military Tribunal (IMT) in 1945 and the International Military
Tribunal of the Far East (IMTFR) in 1946 largely ignored wartime sexual violence and the
enslavement of ‘comfort women.’ 8 However, by the twilight of the 1990’s, sex had been
3
Anne-Marie L.M. de Brouwer, “Supranational Criminal Prosecution of Sexual Violence: The ICC and the
practice of the ICTY and the ICTR,” (PhD diss., Tilberg University 2 November 2005, Intersentia), 9.
4
United Nations Commission on Human Rights, Report on the Situation of Human Rights in Rwanda Submitted
by Mr. Rene Degni-Segui, Special Rapporteur of the Commission on Human Rights, under Paragraph 20 of
Resolution S-3/1 of 25 May 1994, E/CnN.4/1996/68, 29 January 1996 para. 16 cited in de Brouwer,
“Supranational Criminal Prosecution of Sexual Violence,” 11.
5
Refugee Law Project, Gender Against Men, (Makerere University, Uganda: 2008) Documentary.
6
Ibid.
7
Hilmi M. Zawati, “Impunity or Immunity: Wartime Male Rape and Sexual Torture as a Crime Against
Humanity,” Torture 17, no. 1 (2007): 28.
8
Ibid.
5
recognized as a weapon and sexual violence had been brought to the forefront of human
rights issues. Yet this intense focus on sexual violence was an extremely female-oriented one.
This thesis is about victims who have been systematically ignored by many sectors of
the international community. They form a unit wholly disconnected form their more
recognized female counterparts, and in fact each other. Because of the relative silence on the
topic, many are afraid to speak out and even more ashamed to retell, in detail, their
victimization.
These victims are men and they have been subject to varying forms of sexual violence
in the Balkan and Great Lakes regions during the conflicts described above. For the purpose
of this discussion, conflict zones will be defined as areas where there is active physical
discord, which includes at least one regular or irregular armed force. Likewise, a combatant is
any individual reported to be a part of these forces in any capacity. 9
In order to understand wartime male sexual violence (referred to hereafter as MSV)
we must start at the beginning, by examining the causes of wartime sexual violence against
both genders. It attempts to answer the most difficult question I have encountered: why is
there sexual violence in war? Why is it, that when extreme physical violence or death is
imminent, that sex, or the act of creating life, is also utilized?
From this gender general discussion, we will then turn to an examination of wartime
sexual violence specifically against men. The functions and consequences of victimization
will be explored in depth. In addition, it will explore the prevalence of MSV in conflicts in
the Balkan and Great Lakes Regions and attempt to explore patterns and evidence from each
region. Though not overwhelming, data is certainly available on this subject and research has
been conducted as to the prevalence, types and patterns of wartime sexual violence against
9
Kristen Johnson, Jennifer Scott, Bigy Rughita, Michael Kisielewski, Jana Asher, Ricardo Ong and Lynn
Lawry, “Association of Sexual Violence and Human Rights Violations with Physical and Mental Health in
Territories of the Eastern Democratic Republic of the Congo.” The Journal of the American Medical
Association 304, no. 5 (2010): 555.
6
men in both regions. These studies offer a glimpse of the patterns of perpetration and
victimization and call for further investigation.
The availability of information leads to the most perplexing quandary, the knowledge
of MSV and the ability of institutions to ignore them in favor of their female counterparts. If
the prevalence of wartime MSV is so widespread and was documented in international
reports such as the Bassiouni report, why has it been overshadowed by sexual violence
against women? Furthermore, how has ‘gender-based violence’ come to relate to women
only? This chapter will explore how the social rebukes, the abandonment of MSV victims by
the United Nations (UN), NGOs, aid providers, media and national and international legal
bodies has allowed for near total ignorance of MSV. By rejecting concern for MSV these
entities have systematically excluded male victims.
The final chapter will explore current trends of recognition of wartime MSV by the
entities mentioned above. In addition, it will explore possibilities for nurturing the visibility
and concern for wartime MSV. These suggestions are far from exhaustive but imply that
increased dialogue on the subject is the only way to curb perpetration and support the healing
process for wartime MSV survivors.
The accounts and analysis in this thesis are based on the events in two regions
beginning in the 1990s. The ‘Balkans’ refers to the region formerly known as the Socialist
Federal Republic of Yugoslavia and what is now Albania, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Croatia,
Kosovo, Macedonia, Montenegro and Serbia. Though a relatively loose term, the Great Lakes
Region refers to the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC), Rwanda, Uganda and Burundi.
In the summer of 1991, the Socialist Federal Republic of Yugoslavia began a rapid
descent into a series of wars that brought the region to the forefront of international attention.
The scramble for territory and separate statehood fractured the country along the ever more
significant ethno-nationalist fault lines. With Slobodan Milosovic at the helm, Serbian
7
nationalism espoused, in extreme terms, an exclusive Serbian identity and state that barred
the participation of other people. It called upon violent action to redress past oppression and
secure future glory. 10
According this ideology, glory would come when Serbs could flourish in their own
state of Greater Serbia. This Serb homeland laid claim to ‘historic’ Serb lands including most
of Bosnia, eastern Croatia (Krajina and Slavonia), Macedonia, Montenegro and Vojvodin. 11
As descendants of long-ago Serb heroes, nationalists defended their duty to live in their
historic homeland and demanded that Greater Serbia should be populated exclusively by
ethnic Serbs. 12 At the heart of this ideology is the epic of subjugation under Ottoman rule in
the Balkans. Muslims, or the tangible remnants of Ottoman domination and injustice, were
seen to constitute, by their very being, “a threat to the Serbian future, and it required the full
power of the state and its security forces to remove them.” 13
Serb nationalism was by far not the only nationalist program active in the Balkans, yet
it was clearly the most extreme, exclusive and racialized. 14 It was also the most fervent and
the one to which many Serbs “responded with enthusiasm.” 15 The heterogeneity of Bosnia
meant that it became the metaphorical hotbed of murder and persecution. Approximately 2
million people were displaced and tens of thousands killed including the murder of more than
7,000 Bosnian Muslim men and boys at Srebrenica in 1995. 16
When genocide in Rwanda erupted in the midst of the Balkan wars in 1994, nearly
800,000 Tutsi and moderate Hutu were murdered in roughly 100 days. An average of 333.5
deaths were perpetrated per hour and 5.5 deaths per minute, though the rate of murder was
10
Eric D. Weitz, A Century of Genocide: Utopias of Race and Nation, (Princeton and Oxford: Princeton
University Press, 2003), 192.
11
Ibid., 199, 200.
12
Ibid., 200.
13
Ibid., 204.
14
Ibid., 195.
15
Ibid., 195, 201.
16
Martin Mennecke, “Genocidal Violence in the Former Yugoslavia: Bosnia Herzegovina and Kosovo,” in
Samuel Totten and William S. Parson (eds.), Century of Genocide (New York and London: Routledge, 2009),
423.
8
much higher in the first four weeks of the massacre during which time most of the deaths
occurred. 17 The Hutu and Tutsi groups both originated from small groups of settlers in what
is now Rwanda over a period of 2,000 years. 18 Belgian colonial authorities capitalized on
categories based on agricultural identities. They decreed that only Tutsi, considered
“Hamatic” by Christian missionaries who allegedly identified distinctive Ethiopian features
in this group, should be government officials. 19 Belgian colonial authorities systematically
removed Hutu from positions of power, excluded them from higher education and thus
imposed a Tutsi monopoly of public life. 20 In 1959 the last Tutsi king died and the
exclusively Hutu party Parmehutu won the first elections in 1960. 21 They declared Rwanda
independent, bringing an official end to the monarchy in what became known as the “Hutu
revolution.” As a result of this transition, thousands of Tutsis went into exile. In 1973 Hutu
Major Juvenal Habyarimana carried out a military coup d’etat and two years later, Rwanda
was officially a single party state.
By the late 1980s the Rwanda community in exile, mostly in Zaire (now called the
DRC) and Uganda, had increased to approximately 600,000 people. 22 They maintained a
precarious statelessness and in October 1990 the Tutsi-dominated Rwandan Patriotic Front
(RPF) crossed the boarder from Uganda, touching off the Rwandan Civil War. A ceasefire
was signed in 1993 but the assassination of Habyrarimana in April 1994 served as spark for
the Hutu massacre of Tutsis and moderate Hutus throughout Rwanda. Unlike many other
genocides, the Rwandan genocide was executed with little use of modern technology.
Machetes were the predominant weapons of choice.
17
Michael Barnett, Eyewitness to a Genocide: the United Nations and Rwanda (Ithaca and London: Cornell
University Press, 2002) 1.
18
Human Rights Watch, Leave None to Tell the Story: Genocide in Rwanda (New York, Washington, London,
Brussels: Human Rights Watch, 1999) 31.
19
Rene Lemarchand, “The 1994 Rwanda Genocide,” in Samuel Totten and William S. Parson (eds.), Century of
Genocide (New York and London: Routledge, 2009), 405.
20
Human Rights Watch, Leave None to Tell the Story, 35.
21
Ibid., 39.
22
Ibid., 48.
9
Hutu nationalism as it developed leading up to the genocide was founded on
emotionally charged social categories. ‘Hutu’ and ‘Tutsi’ are not simply ethnic labels, but
differentiate between authentic Rwanda Bantu people and “Hamatic invaders from the North”
who used their gift of cattle and beautiful women to “enslave unsuspecting Hutu
agriculturalists.” 23 According to Hutu nationalist ideology, these alien and clever Tutsi
invaders from the north constituted a permanent threat to unsuspecting Hutus. 24 Thus, the
elimination of all Tutsis from the national community was vital. 25 Their removal was initiated
via 581,000 machetes. 26
The ongoing civil war and genocide in Rwanda destabilized the kleptocratic regime of
Joseph Mobutu in neighboring Zaire (DRC). Many Hutus and Hutu militias sought refuge in
camps in eastern Zaire as the Tutsi-dominated government in Rwanda, along with Uganda,
supported the rebel forces that overthrew Mobutu’s dictatorship in May 1997. 27
Unceremoniously dismissed by their former ally and new President Laurent-Desire Kabila,
Rwanda and Uganda backed rebel movements that attacked the DRCs fragile army a little
over a year later. 28 Angola, Zimbabwe and Namibia became involved militarily and the war
became known as The Great War of Africa.
After Kabila’s assassination in 2001 and the succession of his son Joseph Kabila, a
peace agreement was tentatively reached between the DRC, Rwanda and Uganda. 29 UN
peacekeepers, MONUC, arrived in April 2001 and in January 2002 ethnic clashes in the
northeast reignited and both Uganda and Rwanda halted their withdrawal. 30 A power sharing
peace accord allowed for all foreign armies to withdraw in 2003 and the installation of the
23
Lemarchand, “The 1994 Rwanda Genocide,” 405.
Ibid., 406.
25
Ibid., 407.
26
Jared Diamond, Collapse. (New York: Penguin Books, 2005), 316.
27
Gérard Prunier, Africa's World War: Congo, the Rwandan Genocide, and the Making of a Continental
Catastrophe, (Oxford, New York: Oxford University Press), 149.
28
Jason K. Stearns, Dancing in the Glory of Monsters: The Collapse of the Congo and the Great War of Africa
(New York: PublicAffairs, 2011), 183.
29
Ibid., 307.
30
Ibid., 313.
24
10
Transitional Government of the Democratic Republic of Congo. 31 In 2006 the DRC held its
fist multi-party elections since independence in 1960.
The fragility of the government has allowed for continued conflict and human rights
abuses including the ongoing conflict in Kivu, where the Democratic Forces for the
Liberation of Rwanda (FDLR) continues to threaten the Rwanda boarder. In the northeast, the
Lord’s Resistance Army (LRA) led by Joseph Kony has been active since 2005, setting up
camps in the Garama National Park. 32 The LRA migrated from their original base in Uganda
and South Sudan where they claim to be fighting a 20-year rebellion against Yoweri
Museveni. Museveni gained power in 1986 after leading the National Resistance Army
(NRA) in their victorious ‘bush war.’ Laurent Kabila’s Mai-Mai militia is active in northern
Katanga, DRC. In the northeastern region of Ituri, MONUC forces have struggled to control
conflicts between the Lendu and Hema people and the Nationalist and Integrationist Front
(FNI) and the Union of Congolese Patriots (UPC). 33 Sometimes called the deadliest war in
modern African history, it has directly involved eight African nations, 25 armed groups and
killed over 5 million people. 34 One study found that the crisis killed 45,000 people a day,
making it the deadliest conflict since WWII. 35
31
Prunier, Africa's World War, 289.
Thomas Fessy, "Congo Terror After LRA Rebel Raids," BBC News. 23 October 2008.
33
Prunier, Africa's World War, 293.
34
Joe Bavier, "Congo War-Driven Crisis Kills 45,000 a Month: Study," Reuters. 22 January 2007 and Stearns,
Dancing in the Glory of Monsters, 4.
35
Bavier, "Congo War-Driven Crisis Kills 45,000 a Month.”
32
11
1.0 Causes of Wartimes Sexual Violence
Wartime sexual violence is hardly a new phenomenon and has long been considered
an unfortunate side effect of war. Following the genocides in the Balkan region and in
Rwanda, it has sprung to the forefront of international humanitarian law. Sexual violence has
become a part of the international law discourse and a salient point of academic debate.
Before focusing on sexual violence committed explicitly against men, we will begin with a
foundational exploration into the definitions, causes and functions of wartime sexual violence
in general.
Sexual violence is a vicious weapon used against both women and men. As individual
gender and nation fuse, masculinities and femininities are reshaped in accordance to new
societal understandings that accompany genocide. Traditional roles of provider/protector
functions for men and reproducer/victim functions for women are exaggerated while
hegemonic masculine qualities of physical and sexual aggression translate into militarization
and sexual dominance. Accordingly, sexual violence results from highly militarized, heteronationalist hegemonic masculinity and acts as an expression of supreme dominance. At the
same time, changing femininity increases tensions of motherhood and sexuality of feminine
identities between perpetrator and victim groups resulting in the need to impair these qualities
in the victim group via sexual violence.
1.1 Defining Sexual Violence
Sexual violence is not a new phenomenon, and certainly not during wartimes or in
conflict zones. It is the enumeration and codification of sexual violence crimes that is new.
Sexual violence is easily equated to rape, especially the rape of women, as is the case with
the initial attempt at legal redress through the ICTY. At the time of the ICTY’s creation in
1993, rape was the only sexual crime to be included in the statute and it was categorized as a
12
crime against humanity. However, sexual violence is a much broader term, which
encompasses a more comprehensive list of violent acts.
To date, there is no generally accepted definition of sexual violence in international
law. 36 Of the definitions that do exist, the one used by the Special Rapporteur on Systematic
Rape, Sexual Slavery and Slave-like Practices During Armed Conflict and by the Rome
Statue of the International Criminal Court are particularly applicable. The first defines sexual
violence as
any violence, physical or psychological, carried out through sexual means
or by targeting sexuality… both physical and psychological attacks
directed at a person’s sexual characteristics, such as forcing a person to
strip naked in public, mutilating a person’s genitals, or slicing off a
woman’s breasts
and “situations in which two victims are forced to perform sexual acts on one another or to
harm one another in a sexual manner.” 37 This definition is particularly helpful in that it
includes psychological sexual violence, and despite the initial anatomical specificity towards
women, it can be applied to male genital mutilation such as castration and testicular
mutilation. It does not, however, enumerate the variety and breadth of sexually violent acts
and is ambiguous in its definition of “sexual characteristics.”
According to the Rome Statute of the ICC, “[r]ape, sexual slavery, enforced
prostitution, forced pregnancy, enforced sterilization, or any other form of sexual violence” is
a crime against humanity, the implementation and application of which should be assisted by
the Elements of Crimes. 38 This latter definition is also quite ambiguous, as a myriad of crimes
can fall under the heading of “any other form of sexual violence.” The danger in using these
36
Sandesh Sivakumaran, “Sexual Violence Against Men In Armed Conflict,” The European Journal of
International Law, 18, no. 2 (2007): 261.
37
M. Cherif Bassiouni, “Sexual Violence: An Invisible Weapon of War in the Former Yugoslavia,” Occasional
Paper No. 1, International Human Rights Law Institute, DePaul University College of Law (1996): 3 and
Human Rights Watch, Shattered Lives: Sexual Violence during the Rwandan Genocide and its Aftermath, New
York, (1996), 62 cited in Gay J. McDougall, “Final Report,” Special Rapporteur, Contemporary Forms of
Slavery: Systematic Rape, Sexual Slavery and Slavery-like Practices During Armed Conflict,
E/CN.4/Sub.2/1998/13, paras 21-22.
38
Rome Statute of the international Criminal Court, art. 7(1)(g) and art 9(1) cited in Sivakumaran, “Sexual
Violence Against Men In Armed Conflict,” 262.
13
ambiguous categories is that doing so may minimize the significance and gravity of these
crimes. By subsuming them under a generic grouping, it makes sexual crimes of rape, sexual
slavery, enforced pregnancy, enforced sterilization appear as more common, more acceptable
to talk about and more easily categorized as sexual violence. This second definition also lacks
the psychological component present in the Special Rapporteur’s definition. These definitions
are especially wanting in the case of male victims of sexual violence.
For the purpose of the following discussion, we shall elaborate on the “other forms of
sexual violence” mentioned in Rome Statute’s definition while including the critical
component of physiological violence of the Special Rapporteur’s definition. Along with rape,
sexual slavery, enforced prostitution, forced pregnancy and enforced sterilization we will add
genital mutilation, blunt trauma, forced nakedness, forced sexual acts and psychological
violence including sexual assault of a third party. It is important to separate genital mutilation
and blunt trauma from enforced sterilization, as the latter requires that the intent of the
violence is to prohibit procreation, which mutilation and blunt trauma may not include.
1.2 Defining Gender
Present in both the following discussion are the twin concepts of ‘masculinity’ and
‘femininity.’ Simone de Beavoir’s 1949 work, The Second Sex is often cited as the origin of
the concept of gender and the analysis of gender roles in society. De Beavoir rejected widely
held beliefs that men and women’s behaviors resulted from ingrained, and innate differences
between the sexes, and instead argued that masculine and feminine identities are a product of
social construction. 39 ‘Second-wave’ feminists of the 1970s and 1980s went further to
distinguish between
39
Kanchan Mathur, Countering Gender Violence: Initiatives Towards Collective Action in Rajasthan (New
Delhi: SAGE Publications, 2004) 25 cited in Adam Jones, “Feminism, Gender Analysis and Mass Violence: A
Historiography,” in Adam Jones, Gender Inclusive: Essays on Violence, Men and Feminist International
Relations, (London and New York: Routledge, 2009), 139.
14
Sex as the anatomical and physiological characteristics, which signify
biological maleness and femaleness, and gender as socially constructed
masculinity and femininity. Masculinity and femininity are defined not by
biology but by social, cultural and psychological attributes, which are
acquired through becoming a man or a woman in a particular society at a
particular time. The term gender was hence used to describe those
characteristics of men and women, which are socially defined, in contrast
to those which are biologically determined. 40
Building upon this distinction, R. Charlie Carpenter argues that gender is based on
“social beliefs and interactions that direct our awareness to sex differentiation and regulate
human interaction on that basis.” 41 On the other hand sex “adheres biologically rather than
being socially ascribed.” 42 The differentiation between gender and sex is crucial, as the
following discussion relies on the interplay between biological sex, gender and changing
societal beliefs. The fluidity in this definition is vital, and it is on this flexible definition of
gender upon which the following analysis will be based. However, it is important to note that
there is no one ‘masculinity.’ This construct covers a wide array of differing manifestations
of masculinities in societies and should be explored with a broad understanding of gender
expression. 43
1.3 Scholarly Causal Arguments
In order to analyze the causes of sexual violence in conflict zones, it is helpful to draw
upon our understanding of sexual violence in general. The contemporary understanding of the
dynamics of rape and sexual violence against both women and men is driven by the exercise
of dominance and power by the perpetrator. 44 It is in no way a sexual act in that it does not
40
Ibid.
Ibid.
42
Ibid.
43
Jeff Hearn, “Forward: On Men, Women, Militarism, and the Military” in Paul R. Higate (ed) Military
Masculinities: Identity and the State. (Westport, Connecticut and London: Praeger, 2003), xii.
44
Susan Brownmiller, Against Our Will: Men, Women and Rape. 2nd edition (New York: Penguin Books, 1976),
15 and A. Nicholas Groth and H. Jean Birnbaum, Men Who Rape: The Psychology of the Offender, (New York:
Plenum Press, 1979), 126-130 cited in Sivakumaran, “Sexual Violence Against Men In Armed Conflict,” 267.
And Michael Scarce, Male On Male Rape: The Hidden Toll of Stigma and Shame (Cambridge: Perseus
Publishing, 1997), 10.
41
15
fulfill sexual functions in the perpetrators psyche, but an “aggressive act.” 45 The “humiliation
and abasement of his victim and the sense of power and dominance over a women” gives
fulfillment. 46 Though this understanding is specifically geared towards women as victims and
men as perpetrators, the power and dominance factors are largely similar in instances of
sexual violence against men. 47
According to Susan Brownmiller, wartime sexual violence is “a conscious process of
intimidation, by which all men keep all women in a state of fear.” 48 “It is,” she continues, “a
phenomenon rooted in inequality, discrimination, male domination and aggression, misogyny
and the entrenched socialization of sexual myths.” 49 Though it describes domination and
aggression at play in sexual violence, Brownmiller’s definition is based on an inherent
male/female understanding. It implies that males are always the perpetrators and that women
are always the victims. This understanding completely ignores female perpetrators such as
former president of Republika Srpska Biljana Plavšić and former Rwandan Minister for
Family Welfare and the Advancement of Women Pauline Nyiramasuhuko. During the Balkan
and Rwandan genocides respectively, these women not only condoned but encouraged sexual
violence. In addition, it leaves little room to explain sexual violence perpetrated by men
towards other men.
Miranda Alison somewhat agrees with the presumption that men are perpetrators of
sexual violence. She argues that sexual violence stems from the inherent ‘homosocial’ 50
45
Ruth Seifert, “The Second Front: The Logic of Sexual Violence in Wars,” Women’s Studies International
Forum 19, no. 1/2 (1996): 36.
46
Ibid., cites Harry Feldmann, Vergewaltigung und ihre psychischen Folgen: Ein Beitrag zur post-traumatishen
Belastungsreaktion. (Stuttgart: Enke 1992).
47
Sivakumaran, “Sexual Violence Against Men In Armed Conflict,” 269.
48
Brownmiller, Against Our Will, 15.
49
Ibid., 20.
50
For the purpose of this exercise, homosocial behavior describes same-sex relationships that are not of a
romantic or sexual nature.
16
nature of “life among men in military and paramilitary groups.” 51 Since heterosexuality is a
key ingredient in dominance culture, sexual violence is an attempt to reassert men’s
heterosexuality. 52 This is necessary, she claims, to counter the homosocial conditions
“necessary for cohesion.” 53 But this does not address sexual violence perpetrated by civilians
or individuals not living in military-like conditions, as in some cases in the Balkan and great
Lakes Region. In addition, much like Brownmiller, Alison’s explanation is not applicable to
forms of sexual violence other than male/female rape.
Sandesh Sivakumaran sees a more gender-neutral cause. He sees sexual violence
committed by military and civilian groups as being a result of power vacuums and
dominance. As Sivakumaran explains, wartime sexual violence is intrinsically tied to the
exercise of power and dominance. He argues,
In time of armed conflict, the traditional power dynamics are more
susceptible to reconfiguration. Law and order has broken down, the
balance of power is in the process of being reshaped and here may be
room for movement within the pre-existing social hierarchies. As rape and
other forms of sexual violence are about maintaining and restoring certain
power balances, 54 sexual violence will most likely to be committed in time
of potential imbalance. 55
Thus we can understand that wartime sexual violence is about the struggle for
power and dominance that occurs in a vacuum of stable societal structures and a
plethora of violent, previously unacceptable acts. As applied to genocidal situations or
during conflict between ethnic groups, however, this definition is lacking. It is too
singular and does not take into consideration the broader ideological factors at play.
51
R.W. Connell, Masculinities (Cambridge: Polity Press, 1995), 196 cited in Miranda Alison, “Wartime Sexual
Violence: Women’s Human Rights and Questions of Masculinity,” Review of International Studies, no. 33
(2007): 77.
52
Alison, “Wartime Sexual Violence,” 77.
53
Ibid.
54
Catharine A. MacKinnon, ‘Reflections on Sex Equality Under Law,’ The Yale Law Journal 100, no. 5
(1991),1302 and Sandesh Sivakumaran, “Male/Male Rape and the “Taint” of Homosexuality,” Human Rights
Quarterly 27, no. 4 (2005): 1281-1282 cited in Sivakumaran, “Sexual Violence Against Men In Armed
Conflict,” 267.
55
Sivakumaran, “Sexual Violence Against Men In Armed Conflict,” 267.
17
In genocidal situations and during ethnic conflicts, pre-existing social hierarchies are
completely reshaped. Balance has already been thrown so completely off tilt that it is no
longer a question of maintaining or restoring power balances as Sivakumaran claims, but of
creating new societal hierarchies based on ethno-national lines. Dominance, power and
humiliation are indeed factors, but they are part of the implementation of radicalized ethnonationalist ideology that focuses on heightened gender roles. These gender roles fuse national
and individual concepts of domination and soldiering, and sexual violence is the proof of
ethnic superiority and membership in the superior group. In essence, it is a three-step process.
Firstly, nationalist ideology adopts hyper hegemonic masculinity, which translates to the
second stage of hegemonic masculinity at the individual scale. Thirdly, exhibitions and
exercise of membership in this group are implemented by displaying their hegemonic
masculinity by sexually dominating women and men, making the victims subservient.
1.4 Individual and Group Identity, Femininities and Hegemonic Masculinity
Perhaps the most effective approach is to expand Sivakumaran’s explanation.
If we understand wartime sexual violence as the result of reshaping societal norms
and extend it to encompass the complete restructuring of society in genocidal and
ethnic-conflict situations, sexual violence can be understood as an integral to the
reshaping process. In ethnic conflict, gender norms are restructured in accordance to
new societal racial/ethnic identities, which fuse individual gender identity with
national identity. In turn, they champion hyper militarized and hetero-national
hegemonic masculinities of men. This emphasizes the physical and sexual aggression
of hegemonic masculinity and expands it to become fundamental part of a group
identity. Conversely, roles of motherhood and sexuality are emphasized for women
18
creating inherent tension against the motherhood and sexuality of the ‘Other.’ 56 Both
genders are highly sexualized and combined with the violence inherent in mass
murder result in widespread s exual violence.
This understanding of that causes of wartime sexual violence is encompassed
in what Inger Skjelsbaek calls the ‘social constructionist conceptualization.’ 57 Like
Carpenter’s definition of gender, this concept is based on the rejection of gender
relations as static. Instead, they are constructed through
transactions that are understood to be appropriate to one’s sex… [they] are
perceived as something we do… the factors defining a particular
transaction as feminine or masculine are not the sex of the actors but the
situational parameters within which the performance occurs. 58
Therefore, the differences between men are negotiated interpretations of what it
means to be a man or woman instead of natural, essential or biological characteristics. This
fluid conceptualization of gender allows for a much more comprehensive understanding of
sexual violence. It points not simply to male aggression and female victimization during
unrest, but an understanding of wartime sexual violence as a product of changing gender
expression.
1.4.1 Individual and Group Femininities and Masculinities
Norwegian sociologist and gender researcher Øystein Gullvåg Holter argues that the
gender system became galvanized in mid-industrial Europe and came to imply that every man
is a soldier and the nation is the nurturing object to protect. Holter argues that the European
sense of a ‘gendered self’ was formed in conjunction with European nationalist movements
56
The term “Other” was first coined by philosopher Emmanuel Levinas and is used to describe a group that is
fundamentally not same. This is the process of “othering” perhaps best described by Edward Said as the process
of emphasizing the marginalizing groups perceived as weak in order to stress the alleged strength of those in
positions of power. See Edward Said, Orientalism, (New York: Vintage, 1979).
57
Inger Skjelsbæk, “Sexual Violence and War: Mapping Out a Complex Relationship,” European journal of
International Relations 2, vol. 7, (2001): 224.
58
Janis Bohan, “Regarding Gender: Essentialism, Constructionalism, and Feminist Psychology,” in Mary M.
Gergen and Sara N. Davis (eds.) Toward a New Psychology of Gender, (New York: Routledge, 1997), 33, 39
cited in Skelsbaek, “Sexual Violence and War,” 224.
19
and spread in accordance with European influence. 59All men of these nationalistic
movements became protectors of their new homelands and at the same time, the homeland
became more feminine. 60 Holter points to the symbolic “beheading” of the fatherland such as
in the French Revolution when heads literally fell, and the introduction of the motherland, or
the maternal-like, feminine social body. 61 Men thus became the “universal soldier,” the
women the “universal parent mother” and the homeland the embodiment of the collective
parent-mothers. 62 With men disciplined for production (industrialization) and protection
(war) and women for reproduction and nurturing, men in the late 19th and early 20th century
transitioned from ‘fatherly’ to ‘leaderlike’ figures of power fighting over the ‘mothers’ and
‘motherland.’ 63 Thus, we can understand the historical gendering of the national male as
intrinsically tied to the masculine, dominant male. Though this transition to ‘motherland’ may
appear at first Eurocentric, it is important to consider the substantial European contact with
the rest of the world via colonialism at the time of this transition.
The ethno-nationalist ideologies that arose in the 20th century not only echo these
developments but exhibit heightened gender differentiation. On the cusp of conflicts, there is
a tangible radicalization of discourse,
…a renewal of a patriarchal familial ideology, deepening the
differentiation of men and women, masculinity and femininity...Women
are reminded that by biology and by tradition they are the keepers of
hearth and home, to nurture and teach children ‘our ways.’ Men by
physique and tradition are there to protect women and children, and the
nation, often referred to as the ‘motherland.’ 64
59
Øystein Gullvåg Holter, “A Theory of Gendercide,” in Adam Jones, Gendercide and Genocide, (Vanderbilt
University Press, 2004), 70.
60
Ibid., 71.
61
Ibid.
62
Ibid.
63
Ibid., 70.
64
Cynthia Cockburn, “The Gendered Dynamics of Armed Conflict and Political Violence,” 19 Eds. Moser,
Caroline O. N. and Fiona Clark. Victims, Perpetrators or Actors? Gender, Armed Conflict and Political
Violence, (London: Zed Books, 2001), 19.
20
When nationalist movements refurbished traditional gender roles these revived roles become
the norm, even in societies that may have experienced equalization or modernization of
gender roles.
These revived gender roles are incorporated into nationalistic rhetoric. In Serbia,
being a good Serb meant fulfilling gender specific roles fused with nationalistic, and often
ethnically exclusive ideology. Wendy Bracewell notes that in the case of Serbian society,
Linking the ideology of the nation to ideas of motherhood and female
submissiveness, of male dominance and power, and of uncompromising
heterosexuality reversed the official socialist ideology of gender equality,
reinforcing male privilege, eroding what gains women had made under
socialism, and marginalising men and women who did not conform to the
imperatives of nation and gender. And these imperatives were made
manifest in legislation (limiting abortion, taxing childless couples,
controlling women’s access to work, criminalising homosexuality, seizing
the inheritances of draft evaders and deserters), bringing the power of the
state behind newly nationalised definitions of gender roles. 65
Indeed individual and nations become fused as fulfilling one’s supposed gender
responsibilities became synonymous with belonging to the superior group.
1.4.2 Motherhood and Sexuality
The embrace of ‘traditional’ gender roles for women empowers feminine
identities. In the perpetrator groups, women’s’ roles as mothers and sexual beings are
accentuated, which requires the corresponding disempowerment of other female
identities. By disempowering certain femininities, the perpetrator group undermines
the attraction of the ‘Others’ as mothers and sexual beings. As the women are
representative of the motherland and national motherhood, by raping and violating the
65
Wendy Bracewell, “Rape in Kosovo: Masculinity and Serbian Nationalism.” Nations and Nationalism 6, no. 4
(2000): 587.
21
women of the enemy, perpetrators attacked the “symbolic representation of the
national body.” 66
According to Serbian nationalist ideology, Serb femininity became constructed
alongside the ‘woman-as-mother’ image, signifying the role of women as biological and
social reproducers. 67 “Women were supposed to fulfill the role of ‘heroic mothers’ and ‘to
accept the maternal role as the ‘natural’ outcome of their gender and ethnic–national
destiny.” 68 This emphasis on the Serb mother figure served to counter the imagined threat of
successful Bosnian Muslim motherhood. Serbian propaganda that warned against the high
Bosnian Muslim birth rates and continued stress on the possibility of Muslims “breeding out”
Serb populations in the Balkans. 69
In addition, Serb women were celebrated for their sexuality. As proper Serb women,
they were expected to “boost the men’s morale by satisfying their sexual desires.” 70 This
required the desecration of the ‘Others’ sexuality as ‘dirty’ compared to the virtue of Serbian
female sexuality. At its core, this discourse is unreservedly sexual. Rape and sexual
humiliation thus revolve around the ‘checking’ of Bosnian Muslim female motherhood and
sexuality, which accounts for the widespread use of what Beverly Allen described as ‘rapewarfare.’ Rape and sexual violence, but not necessarily murder, of Muslim women en mass
66
Ruth Seifert, “Krieg und Vergewaltigung. Ansatz zu einer Alayse” [War and rape: attempts at an analysis], in
Massenvergewaltigung. Krieg gegen die Frauen [Mass rape. War Against Women], (ed.) Alexandra Stiglmayer
(Frankfurst: Fischer, 1993) 101, quoted in Brigitte Halbmayr, “Sexualized Violence against Women during Nazi
“Racial” Persecution,” in Sonja M. Hedgepeth and Rochelle G. Saidel (eds.) Sexual Violence Against Jewish
Women During the Holocaust,(Walthan, Massachusetts: Brandeis University Press, 2010), 31.
67
Cynthia Enloe, Morning After: Sexual Politics at the End of the Cold War, (Berkeley and Los Angeles:
University of California Press 1993), 243. See Wendy Bracewell, “Women, Motherhood, and Contemporary
Serbian Nationalism,” Women’s Studies International Forum 19, no. 1-2 (1996): 25-33 cited in Alison,
“Wartime Sexual Violence,” 85.
68
Maja Korac, “Understanding Ethnic-National Identity and its Meaning: Questions from Women’s
Experience,” Women’s Studies International Forum 19, 1-2 (1996): 137, cited in Alison, “Wartime Sexual
Violence,” 85.
69
Obrad Kesic, “Women and Gender Imagery in Bosnia: Amazons, Sluts, Victims, Witches, and Wombs.” In
Ramet, Sabrina P. (ed) Gender Politics in the Western Balkans: Women and Society in Yugoslavia and
Successor States, (University Park: The Pennsylvania State University, 1999), 200-201.
70
Ibid. 102-192
22
symbolically removed them as national mothers and consequently removed the imagined
threat.
Mass rape and sexual violence was also a prominent tool against Tutsi women
in Rwanda. In this case, sexuality seems to have been the main target for annihilation
and often, sexual violence directly preceded death. 71 Alternatively, Tutsi, and some
Hutu women, were taken as sexual slaves, or ‘wives’ against their will. 72 Tutsi
women were often considered tall, slender, well-educated, attractive, and very
desirable. 73 Frequently described as “more beautiful that Hutu women” Tutsi women
were “objects of both attraction and resentment for Hutu males.” 74 One perpetrator
recounted that “people would say, ‘look at those Tutsis, how they seem too tall.
That’s why they show themselves to proud and consider us inferior people. That’s
why their daughters are to prized.’” 75
In retaliation to this imagined arrogance of Tutsi women and in an effort to
elevate Hutu women as superior Tutsi sexuality was attacked. This is especially clear
in the Hutu Ten Commandments published in the December 1990 edition of Kangura
newspaper. It read, “Every Hutu should know that our Hutu daughters are more
suitable and conscientious in their role as woman, wife, and mother of the family. Are
they not beautiful, good secretaries and more honest?”
Thus, Tutsi femininity was to be considered inferior, traitorous and most of
all, worthy of violation. One “Hutu cartoonist depicted Tutsi women as prostitutes
capable of enlisting Western support for the RPF [rebel] cause through the use of their
71
Human Rights Watch, Leave None to Tell the Story, 10.
Jean Hatzfeld, Machete Season: The Killers in Rwanda Speak, trans. Linda Coverdale, (New York: Farfar,
Straus and Giroux 2005), 97.
73
Ibid., 69.
74
Jones, “Feminism, Gender Analysis and Mass Violence,” 146.
75
Hatzfeld, Machete Season, 134.
72
23
sexual charms.” 76 Statements such as “let’s see what a Tutsi woman tastes like”
accompanied sexual assaults of Tutsi women. 77 Sexual violence therefore, acted as a
tool used to punish Tutsi women, and symbolically put them in their rightful place as
inferior to both Hutu men and women.
Many Hutu women were instrumental in supporting their male counterparts.
According to one witness, “much jealousy spilled from the mouths of our women
because of the constant talk about the Tutsi women’s slender figures, their smooth
skin thanks to drinking milk and so on.” 78 Thus, the humiliation of sexual assault
served to abate Hutu women’s fear of the superior Tutsi beauty. If just one Tutsi
woman was violated, collective Tutsi femininity was symbolically reduced to inferior
to Hutu femininity.
1.4.3 Hegemonic Masculinity
First outlined by R.W. Connell, the concept of hegemonic masculinity can be defined
as the idea of a standard-setting male to which women and all other males are to be
compared. 79 British historian John Tosh states that the term “implies that control (even
oppression) is in some way integral to masculinity, providing a framework for placing men in
relation to women and those males whose manhood is for some reason denied.” 80 Enduring
attributes of hegemonic masculinity include physical strength, practical competence, sexual
performance and protecting and supporting women. 81 Furthermore, a certain level of
76
Jones, “Feminism, Gender Analysis and Mass Violence,”146.
de Brouwer, “Supranational Criminal Prosecution of Sexual Violence,” 13.
78
Hatzfeld, Machete Season, 110.
79
John Tosh, ‘Hegemonic Masculinity and the History of Gender,” in Stefan Dudink, Karen Hagemann and
John Tosh eds., Masculinities in Politics and War: Gendering Modern History. (Manchester: Manchester
University Press, 2004), 51 also cites R.W. Connell, Which way is up?: Essays on Sex, Class and Culture/R.W.
Connell (Sydney: George Allen & Unwin, 1983), 76.
80
Tosh, ‘Hegemonic Masculinity and the History of Gender,’ 42 cited in Alison, “Wartime Sexual Violence,”
76.
81
Tosh, Hegemonic Masculinity,’ 43.
77
24
aggression is tied to expectations of physical strength and sexual performance and
conversely, non-aggression is an enduring element of femininity. 82
1.4.3.1 Physical Aggression: Militarization
In ethnic conflict, physical strength and aggression are important characteristics of the
ideal hegemonic male. These qualities are incorporated into the masculine gender ideal of
ethno-national defender and soldier. The creation of the national solider is not in and of itself
unique to these societies, yet the hyper militarization of all men as representatives and
defenders of the ethno-national group is a consistent element in both regions.
During the Balkan wars militarism was an essential ingredient in Serbian
masculinity. 83 This fusion of ethnic superiority with gendered roles is highlighted by the
ultimate fusion of soldier and civilian. The idea of a ‘warrior’ became a “central element in
the 20th century construction of Serbian ideal masculinity” while ideal Serbian femininity was
constructed as to bolster the militarization of masculinity. 84 Accordingly, militarized
nationalism “does not simply allow men to be violent, but compels them so to be… men who
resist violence are suspect. Not only is their loyalty to the state [or nation] questioned, but
also their loyalty to (heterosexual) masculinity.” 85 Part of their gender roles was to be a good
Serb soldier for Greater Serbia. As Milosovic so convincingly pronounced, “if we have to,
we’ll fight. I hope they won’t be so crazy as to fight with us. Because if we don’t know how
to work and do business, at least we know how to fight.” 86 By implying that all Serbs can
82
Ibid., 47-48.
Alison, “Wartime Sexual Violence,” 85.
84
Cynthia Enloe, “All the Men are in the Militias, All the Women are Victims: The Politics of Masculinity and
Femininity in Nationalist Wars,” in Lois Ann Lorentsen and Jennifer Turpin, eds., The Women and War Reader
(New York University Press, 1998), 54 cited in Alison, “Wartime Sexual Violence,” 85.
85
Lisa S. Price, “Finding the Man in the Soldier-Rapist: Some Reflections on Comprehension and
Accountability,” Women’s Studies International Forum 24, no. 2 (2001): 222 cited in Alison, “Wartime Sexual
Violence,” 80.
86
Quoted in Weitz, A Century of Genocide,” 211.
83
25
fight, he is stressing the apparent inherent warrior qualities of Serbs, unlike other, less
physically dependent and thus more feminine occupations such as business.
Just a few years later, Hutu extremists similarly targeted men for martial mobilization
and Hutu men were similarly ideologically militarized. Political scientist Adam Jones points
out that Hutu Power propaganda was “directed toward heightening the martial sensibilities of
young Hutu males.” 87 He cites Commandant Mike Tango’s call for communes to establish
battalions of “robust young men” to receive military training. 88 Furthermore, “Hutu Power
was to be implemented by [a] ‘popular army of strong young men.”’ 89 Hutu men were thus
militarized. Their characteristics as a gendered group of an ethnicity were associated with
dominant, hegemonic masculine characteristics of ‘strong’ and ‘robust.’ With these inherent
characteristics, they would form a superior military force to destroy their enemy. By the same
logic, men who did not exhibit suitable militarized behavior was not a proper man,
“[c]colleagues were watching us… if they saw generosity, they scolded and called us old
women.” 90
This is not to say that hegemonic masculinity and soldiering is exclusive to all men,
only that it encompasses masculine qualities also seen in politically powerful women such
Biljana Plavšić and Pauline Nyiramasuhuko. It is possible that women will break through the
initial gendering of nationalist ideology and take up the masculine role of protector and
defender, which can ultimately lead to sexual violence against both women and men. This
can be especially true of women such as Plavšić and Nyiramasuhuko who had already broken
into the male dominated arena of politics and held positions of authority. Thus hegemonic
masculinity is not relegated solely to men but is a behavior that can be applied to and
87
Adam Jones, “Gender and Genocide in Rwanda,” in Adam Jones, Gendercide and Genocide, (Vanderbilt
University Press, 2004), 102.
88
Human Rights Watch, Leave None to Tell the Story,” 139 cited in Adam Jones, “Gender and Genocide in
Rwanda,” 102.
89
Ibid.
90
Hatzfeld, Machete Season,” 226.
26
embraced by females. It is thus an explanation for the process and its associated gender
qualities that ultimately lead to sexual violence, not the specific gender that embraces it.
By the same logic, there are also men who have rejected sexual violence and violence
all together. For example, Miroslav Milenkovic, a reservist who apparently felt it unmanly to
refuse the gun issued to him, as other recruits were doing so, upon accepting it committed
suicide in front of his unit. 91 His and others who struggled with the dilemma between the
official ‘patriotic heroism’ and personal concepts of masculine honor are published in a
collection of tributes collected during anti-war vigils. 92
1.4.3.2 Sexual Aggression: Hetero-Nationality
The expression of physical and sexual aggression is interrelated as the
militarization of men is at its core, a highly sexual process. It is no coincidence that
‘battle-age’ men are in other words ‘reproductive-age’ men. 93 In addition to
militarizing men by turning every male civilian into the racial/ethnic soldier, and in
turn encouraging violence in the male population, perpetrator group hegemonic
masculinity in these societies also emphasizes the expression of violence via
sexuality.
In the second half of the nineteenth century, hetero-sexuality became “a required part
of manliness” claims Connell. 94 During this time, homosexuality became a distinct identity
and social component in western societies. 95 Alison argues that since then, ‘heteronormativity’ became an integral part of hegemonic masculinity. In essence, heterosexuality
became a key ingredient to hegemonic masculinity. Heterosexuality and he ideal male were
91
Bracewell, “Rape in Kosovo,” 579.
Ibid.
93
Adam Jones, “Straight as a Rule: Heteronormativity, Gendercide, and the Non-combatant Male,” in Adam
Jones, Gender Inclusive: Essays on Violence, Men and Feminist International Relations, (London and New
York: Routledge, 2009), 298.
94
Connell, Masculinities, cited in Alison, “Wartime Sexual Violence,” 77.
95
Ibid.
92
27
exclusive. Hetero-normativity can be transferred from relating solely from the individual to
the collective, where heterosexuality of the nation is represented in ‘hetero-nationality.’
Coined by Euan Hague in reference to the mass rapes in Bosnia-Herzegovina, heteronationality describes a perpetrator that is “a different nationality from the rape victim: By
raping and impregnating women and girls, watching men rape each other in prison camps and
assuming the power positions of “masculine” in all rapes, the Bosnian Serb military and its
allied irregulars proved themselves their own identities as powerful, manly and crucially
Serbs.” 96 “Soldierly masculinity’ is characterized by sexual aggression as part of a national
project. 97 This explanation refers specifically to rape, but can be expanded to encompass all
sexual violence.
Sexual violence in conflict zones, and in Yugoslavia and Rwanda in particular, can be
seen as occurring on an individual basis as well as in a group setting. In other words, sexual
violence occurred both with a single perpetrator and victim or multiple perpetrators and
victims. In both cases, sexual violence constituted the action of domination by the perpetrator
over the victim that served as proof of an ethnically based superior/inferior relationship. In
the psyche of the perpetrator and to his/her fellow perpetrators, the violence illustrated that
they are worthy of membership in the perpetrator groups as a specimen of a hegemonic,
heterosexual, ‘soldier-masculinity,” in the “service of a national project.” 98
According to Miranda Alison, gang rape, and we can expand that to understand all
sexual violence, may also maintain a bonding function as it binds perpetrators together
through complicity. 99 She cites as evidence, the guilt among some ‘soldier-rapists’ in the
96
Euan Hague, “Rape, Power and Masculinity: The Construction of Gender and National Identities in the War
in Bosnia-Herzegovina,” in Ronit Lentin (ed.), Gender and Catastrophe (London: Zed Books, 1997), 50-63 and
Sherene H. Razack, Dark Threats and White Knights: the Somalia Affair, Peacekeeping, and the New
Imperialism, (Toronto, Buffalo and London: University of Toronto Press Incorporated, 2004), 63.
97
Ibid.
98
Ibid.
99
Alison, “Wartime Sexual Violence,” 77.
28
Balkan wars and the provision of alcohol for perpetrators of the Rwanda genocide. 100
However, instances of Serbian soldiers in rape camps taking sedatives or stimulants to enable
themselves to commit rape, seeking alcohol and weeping suggest that such sexual violence in
these cases was a barrier of entry into a given group. It was an initiation and proof of
worthiness for entrance into this highly militarized, hetero-national hegemonic masculine
group. Similarly, the provision of alcohol to Rwandan soldiers seems to be extending a
crutch, something that enables them to commit an act that proves their superiority to their
victims. Hence, we can understand the provision of ‘assisting’ or ‘anesthetizing’ elements,
such as stimulants, alcohol etc, not as proof of collective complicity but agents to aid
fortification of the individual as a member the ‘superior’ ethnic-group
This is not to say that assertion of a militant, hetero-sexual nationalized masculinity
accounts for all examples of sexual violence. Individual grievances and hatred of women may
contribute to some case that could have just as easily been committed during peace time in
the presence of a working legal and penal system. These cases however, are the exception
and not the rule. Individual motives cannot account for instances of mass rapes or the
integration of rape into a military-political agenda, such as in the Balkan and Great Lakes
Regions.
1.5 Masculinity in Crisis: Attraction to Gender Identities
So far we have established that sexual violence is the result of a fusion of individual
and group identify that embraces highly militarized, hetero-national hegemonic masculinity
for men and traditional mothering and sexual roles for women. In order to celebrate these
equalities of a certain group, it is necessary to reject and destroy them in the ‘Other.’ Yet
what is the impetus for widespread gravitation to such gender identities?
100
Price, “Finding the Man in the Soldier-Rapist,” 216 cited in Alison, “Wartime Sexual Violence,” 77.
29
What these societies share are masculinity crises and fluctuating gender identities.
The most tangible examples of the male’s decreasing ability to provide and protect are
economic and territorial threats as well as increased female independence. Much like other
genocidal societies such as Nazi Germany and Young Turk Turkey, Rwanda and the former
Yugoslavia were plagued by economic struggles in their pre-genocidal years as well as land
conflicts, whether perceived or real. With the fusion of national and individual masculinity,
the economic and territorial threats were also threats to men’s’ ability to provide for and
protect their women and by extension, the motherland.
Economic crises threaten the image of the male producer thus making nationalist
rhetoric that promises restoration of honor and prosperity attractive. In addition, competition
for scarce resources leads to enemy making in both the former Yugoslavia and Rwanda.
Beginning with Tito’s death, economic woes in Yugoslavia started to unravel the country’s
stability. Yugoslavia felt the pressure of mounting foreign debt and the rise in oil prices
which devastated its dependency on imported fuel paid for in hard currency. 101 Attempts to
deal with economic problems in the 1980s led to “stagflation” and a decline in the standard of
living. 102 In the late 1980’s, the IMF and World Bank imposed austerity measures that caused
mass unemployment, hyperinflation, sharply decreased social welfare programs and slashed
“the long-sacred defense budget.” 103 The resulting inflation and unemployment threatened the
male ‘breadwinner’ role, straining men’s ability to take women out on dates to affirm their
virility by engaging in pre-marital sex and caused them to postpone marriage due to lack of a
career. 104
101
Carole Rogel, The Breakup of Yugoslavia and the War in Bosnia. Greenwood Press, Westport , Connecticut
and London, 1998 (Greenwood Press Guide to Historic Events of the Twentieth Century), 17.
102
Ibid.
103
Weitz, A Century of Genocide, 206.
104
Bracewell, “Rape in Kosovo,” 577.
30
Similarly in Rwanda, the onset of the civil war in the early 1990s, coupled with a
prolonged drought, exacerbated a tenuous economic situation. 105 According to Human Rights
Watch, “fragile at the start, the Rwandan Economy had crumbled under the burden of costs of
war.” 106 Furthermore,
In late 1990 war-related expenses accounted for 15 percent of the budget,
but in 1993, they consumed some 70 percent of the operating expenses of
the state. In 1993, agricultural production, the mainstay of the economy,
declines 15 percent, partly because hundreds of thousands of displaced
persons were no longer able to work their fields, partly because of poor
weather conditions. Foreign assistance increased nearly 100 percent from
1989 to 1993, when it amounted to US $334 million, to which was added
some US $130 million in direct emergency aid in 1993, The additional
support notwithstanding, living conditions worsened dramatically, as per
capita income that stood at US $320 in 1989 (nineteenth poorest in the
world) fell to US $200 in 1993. 107
Added to the economic decline, was a crisis in available land. Prior to 1990 poor
young men could attempt to improve their condition by “acquiring land from the older
generation of farmers, clearing new farmland on hills, migrating to Uganda of Zaire to find
work or land, becoming a client of a wealthier or more powerful man or obtain formal
employment, usually in the civil service… By 1990, most of these options were rapidly
disappearing, or had gone altogether.” 108 Increasingly, men were out of opportunities for land
cultivation as plots were parceled out smaller and smaller and tea plantations encroached on
the agricultural frontier. 109 Structural adjustment programs imposed by the IMF and World
Bank resulted in decreasing opportunities for work for patrons and the bureaucracy. 110 This is
not to say that economic conditions affected males disproportionately, but for men this
economic strain contained the additional existential element. 111
105
Jones, “Gender and Genocide in Rwanda,” 100.
Human Rights Watch, Leave None to Tell the Story, 122 in Jones, “Gender and Genocide in Rwanda,” 100.
107
Ibid.
108
African Rights, Rwanda: Death, Despair and Defiance, rev. ed (London: African Rights, 1995), 20-22 in
Jones, “Gender and Genocide in Rwanda,” 100.
109
Ibid.
110
Ibid.
111
Jones, “Gender and Genocide in Rwanda,” 101.
106
31
Territorial conflicts also lead populations to support nationalist ideologies that
promise prosperity, honor and the restoration of the man as protector and provider. With the
dissolution of Yugoslavia, territorial conflicts were central to Serbian nationalist rhetoric. The
idea of Greater Serbia became increasingly popular in the 1980s, and advocated for the
inclusion of all Serbs and historical Serb regions within a state. 112 Troubled by the increasing
autonomy of Kosovo and the possibility of severing federal connections with Serbs in
neighboring republics, Serbian nationalism became increasingly popular. In 1991Yugoslavia
splintered into independent states. Led by Radovan Karadzic of the Serbian Democratic Party
in Bosnia, Serb nationalists hoped to create a continuous arc of Serb territory linking Serbia
with Serbs in western Bosnia and western Croatia. 113 These acquired territories were to be rid
of non-Serbian inhabitants and a policy of ethnic cleansing that began in1991 in Croatia and
spread to Bosnia-Herzegovina. 114 Foreigners would be removed from rightfully Serb land.
Furthermore, the disintegration of Yugoslavia led to a covert, then overt land grab.
Only the Slovenes weren’t expansionist.115 With the notion that “wherever a Serb is buried,
there lies Serb territory” meant that a continuous Serbian land was necessary, especially if it
was threatened to come under Muslim or Croatian domination. 116 Thus, the idea of territory
was a central theme in Serbian ideology by creating a land dominated by Serbs.
Much like in Yugoslavia, dominance of disputed land in Rwanda was central to
genocidal rhetoric. In the years leading up to the 1994 genocide, the country was engulfed in
a civil war, with opposing factions claiming rights over the country. Themes of the fusion of
men, ethnicity and national boundaries are evident in language used by Hutu Power leader
Léon Mugesera’s 1992 speech in which he states, “I know you are men… who do not let
112
Rogel, The Breakup of Yugoslavia and the War in Bosnia, 6, 18.
Ibid., 32.
114
Ibid., 33.
115
Weitz, A Century of Genocide, 209.
116
Beverly Allen, Rape Warfare: The Hidden Genocide in Bosnia-Herzgovina and Croatia, (Minneapolis and
London: University o Minnesota Press 1996), 98.
113
32
themselves be invaded, who refuse to be scorned.” 117 The remedy was to implement Hutu
Power through a ‘popular [Hutu] army of strong young men.’” 118 Dispute over the
motherland is thus a central theme to the restoration of masculinity along ethnic lines.
According to ethno-nationalist rhetoric, the remedy for economic and territorial
threats is the rehabilitation of male soldierly vitality. There is a distinct pattern of calling on
men to symbolically provide for and defend the nation. This resurgence of romanticized
masculine ideals caused frictions with changing ideas if femininity. In addition to economic
and territorial perils, both of these societies were also experiencing an increase in the
independence of women and a subsequent alteration of gender interaction. In socialist
Yugoslavia under Josip Broz Tito, gender equality was an explicit policy goal. 119 Equal rights
for women were included in the first postwar constitution in 1946 and the country
experienced a dramatic increase in literacy, education and employment among women. 120
Liberal polices in regards to abortion, divorce and maternity leave further increased women’s
independence outside the home. 121
In Rwanda, male-female relations prior to the genocide were also in a state of flux. To
many Rwandans “gender relations in the 1980s and 1990s were falling into a state of
decadence as more women attained positions of prominence in economic and public life, and
as more of them exercised their personal preferences in their private lives. 122 In both cases,
women were beginning to go beyond the bounds of their proscribed reproduction and
nurturing roles.
117
Human Rights Watch, Leave None to Tell the Story, in Adam Jones, “Gender and Genocide in Rwanda,”
102.
118
Ibid.
119
Sabrina P. Ramet, Introduction to Gender Politics in the Western Balkans: Women and Society in Yugoslavia
and Successor States (University Park: The Pennsylvania State University, 1999), 5.
120
Sabrina P. Ramet, “In Tito’s Time,” in Gender Politics in the Western Balkans: Women and Society in
Yugoslavia and Successor States (University Park: The Pennsylvania State University, 1999), 95, 96.
121
Ibid.
122
Jones, “Gender and Genocide in Rwanda,” 115.
33
The gender crises in both countries constituted a significant impetus for especially
men, but also women, to be attracted to more traditionally segregated gender roles of ethnonationalist ideologies. Men were attracted to the re-empowerment that these regimes offered
by encouraging men’s’ inherent’ ‘job’ as universal soldiers. During both genocides, killing
was described as “work.” 123 This gave men back the role as the provider and protector
threatened by economic and territorial constriction as well as the encroachment of women
into traditionally male spheres. A return to segregated gender roles may also have been
attractive for many women, as the increase in independence and mobility of women could
have seemed at once intimidating and threatening to their self-image within society. With
such tensions of gender, roles and responsibilities in these societies, the prevalence of sexual
violence is not surprising.
1.5 Conclusion
From this discussion, we can conclude that sexual violence occurs as wartime
concepts of masculinity and femininity are reconstructed. New, racial and ethnic
hegemonic masculinities emphasize the hyper militarization of all men while
exercising heterosexuality and vitality of their nation group through heteronationality. Sexual violence is an expression of these transforming masculinities.
Femininity also undergoes drastic changes. Traditional roles of motherhood and
attractiveness are celebrated and the racial/ethnic woman of the perpetrator group is
emphasized. Sexual violence then symbolically violates the motherhood and sexuality
of the victim group. Furthermore, territorial, economic and societal stresses act as the
impetus for reshaping gender roles, which serve as a perceived bulwark against
123
In a phone call between Radislav Krstic and Dragan Obrenovic, they describe killing as “working.” See
Prosecutor v. Krstic. Transcripts, IT-33 ICTY, 1 November 2001, para. 6806-07, accessed 20 May 2012
www.un.org/icty. In The Rwandan Genocide, murder was known as “job” (akazi) in Lemarchand, “The 1994
Rwanda Genocide,” 411 and Jones, “Gender and Genocide in Rwanda,” 101.
34
fluctuating masculine and feminine identities. Hence, sexual violence is due to shifts
in and reconstruction of identity that occur during genocide. Sex and killing is, in
essence, part of the same process of destruction.
35
2.0 Sexual Violence Against Men
If we understand sexual violence as the assertion of and initiation into a hegemonic
masculine, hetero-national, dominant group, then men outside the group prove appropriate
targets for this weapon. Indeed, MSV has been used in this way for centuries. Ancient Persian
murals depict triumphant warriors brandishing plates piled high with their enemy’s severed
penises. 124 In Mesoamerica, men and boys were captured as “brides” or as “body servants”
for western warriors. 125 Citing Stephan Donaldson, Sivakumarand explains that “in ancient
history, a male who was sexually penetrated was considered to have lost his manhood and
could no longer be considered a warrior or ruler.” 126 Male rape was considered an absolute
right of the victorious soldiers to demonstrate the totality of the enemy’s defeat and express
their own power. 127 Sexual violence against men was also chronicled in the Crusades, 128
Ancient Greek, Chinese, Amalekite, Egyptian and Norse armies. 129 According to Inger
Skjelsbaek, feminizing enemies was an important part of conquest for many cultures. 130
These traditions of public, triumphal spectacles were curtailed with the advent of JudeoChristian and Islamic taboos against homo-eroticism but continued “underground” as an
effective tool of war and victory. 131 More recently, it has occurred in conflicts around the
124
Augusta Del Zotto and Adam Jones, “Male-on-Male Sexual Violence in Wartime: Human Rights’ Last
Taboo?” Paper presented to the Annual Convention of the International Studies Association,’ 23-27 March
2002, accessed 24 February 2012, http://adamjones.freeservers.com/malerape.htm
125
Miguel Angel Aguilar Zapata, political anthropologist. San Jose State University, September 2001 (interview
by Augusta Del Zotto) cited in Del Zotto and Jones, “Male-on-Male Sexual Violence in Wartime.”
126
Stephen Donaldson, ‘Rape of Males,’ in W.R. Dynes (ed.), Encyclopedia of Homosexuality (New York:
Garland Publications, 1990), ii at 1094, 1094 cited in Sivamurand, “Sexual Violence Against men in Armed
Conflict, 270.
127
Zawati, “Impunity or Immunity,” 33.
128
Adam Jones, “Cultural and Historical Aspects of Male Sexual Assault,” in Gillian Mezey and Michael B.
King (eds.) Male Victims of Sexual Assault (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2000), 114, in Sivakumaran,
“Sexual Violence Against Men in Armed Conflict” 257.
129
Joshua S. Goldstein, War and Gender: How Gender Shaped the War System and Vice Versa (New York:
Cambridge University Press, 2003), 357-259 and Richard C. Trexler, Sex and Conquest: Gendered Violence,
Political Order, and the European Conquest of the Americas (Cornell University Press, 1995), 17-19 cited in
Sivamuran, “Sexual Violence Against men in Armed Conflict” 257.
130
LHM Ling, Postcolonial International Relations: Conquest and Desire Between Asia and the West (London:
Palgrave, 2001); Inger Skjelsbæk, “Sexual Violence and War: Mapping Out a Complex Relationship,”
European Journal of International Relations 2, vol. 7, (2001): 211-237 cited in Del Zotto and Jones, “Male-onMale Sexual Violence in Wartime.”
131
Del Zotto and Jones, “Male-on-Male Sexual Violence in Wartime.”
36
world including Argentina, Burundi, Chechnya, Chile, El Salvador, Guatemala, Greece, Iraq,
Kenya, Kuwait, Liberia, Northern Ireland, Rwanda, Sierra Leone, South Africa, Sri Lanka,
Sudan, Turkey, the Sino-Japanese war, the Central African Republic, the Democratic
Republic of Congo, Uganda, the former Yugoslavia and Zimbabwe. 132 The UN Office for the
Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs cites incidents of MSV in 25 conflicts in the past
decade alone. 133
This chapter will focus on wartime MSV in just a few of these countries, specifically
those that fall within the Balkan and Great Lakes regions. Firstly, we will explore how sexual
violence against men is used as a weapon to emasculate, humiliate, disempower, and
feminize and to render them homosexual and impotent. These dynamics of MSV translate
into tangible consequences psychosocially, sexually, psychologically, and physically. The
pervasiveness of wartime MSV in the focus regions is difficult to assess, but some evidence
exists indicating it is a widespread phenomenon. Though these studies are relatively recent,
contemporary authorities were aware of the use of MSV in these conflict zones.
2.1 Functions of Wartime Sexual Violence Against Men
As discussed in the previous chapter, the act of perpetrating sexual violence against
both genders is an assertion of aggression, power and dominance. Regardless of gender,
wartime male sexual violence (MSV) is the assertion of hegemonic masculinity and heteronationality. As members of the hegemonic male ethnic group, perpetrators see not only
women but men as the inferior victim groups. This is done through the joint processes of
disempowerment and submission, emasculation, feminization, homosexualization, hindering
132
Sivamuran, “Sexual Violence Against men in Armed Conflict,” 257-258.
OCHA Policy Development and Studies Branch, “The Nature, Scope and Motivation for Sexual Violence
Against Men and Boys in Armed Conflict,” Use of Sexual Violence in Armed Conflict: Identifying Gaps in
Research to Inform More Effective Interventions, UN OCHA Research Meeting, 26 June 2008, 1.
133
37
procreation and physiological impotency of male victims. These processes make it clear that
the targeted men are subservient to the dominant ethnic group.
Perhaps the most palpable function of MSV is to disempower men as protectors of
family and community. If a man is sexually violated, how can he ‘protect’ ‘his women?’134
This disempowering effect can take place at both an individual and community level.
Individually, it can “suggest disempowerment of the family and community in much the same
way as the chastity of the family and community is considered lost when female members are
sexually violated.” 135 Sexual violence against men perpetrated in public sends much of the
same message, spreading fear and vulnerability throughout the community as their
‘protectors’ prove impotent. 136 In a broader sense, MSV symbolizes the empowerment of the
group to which the perpetrator belongs while disempowering the group to which the victim
belongs. 137 Not only has the power and masculinity of the ethnic ‘other’ been annihilated but
it acts as a tool of ethnic cleansing. 138 It compels the victimized population to leave as their
‘protectors’ were unable to protect even their own bodies. 139
In addition, humiliation can often accompany disempowerment and play a key role in
submissiveness. Individuals forced to strip naked “feel exposed, vulnerable and without
dignity.” 140 These feelings are exacerbated when the forced nudity is accompanied by threats
of a sexual nature. 141 By exposing and making vulnerable the bodies of men, perpetrators
have metaphorically and physically removed the last armor of the man-soldier.
134
Ibid., 268.
Ibid.
136
Ibid., 269.
137
Sivakumaran, “Sexual Violence Against Men In Armed Conflict,” 268 and Dubravka Zarkov, “The Body of
the Other Man: Sexual Violence and the Construction of Masculinity, Sexuality and Ethnicity in Croatian
Media.” Eds. Moser, Caroline O. N. and Fiona Clark. Victims, Perpetrators or Actors? Gender, Armed Conflict
and Political Violence. (London: Zed Books, 2001), 78.
138
Zarkov, “The Body of the Other Man,” 78.
139
Sivakumaran, “Sexual Violence Against Men In Armed Conflict,” 269.
140
Ibid.
141
Ibid.
135
38
Part of making the male powerless and submissive is emasculation, or taking away his
‘manliness.’ In essence, emasculation takes away the man’s masculinity and proves he is
inferior to the ethicized hyper hegemonic male. In this case, for example, it would mean that
a sexually assaulted Bosnian Muslim is no longer a male in competition with the hegemonic
masculine Serb-soldier group. According to the UN Secretary-General, “[t]he sexual abuse,
torture and mutilation of male detainees or prisoners is often carried out to attack and destroy
their sense of masculinity or manhood.” 142 The destruction of masculinity and manhood is
also tied to ethnic identity. Zarkov explains that “sexual humiliation of a man from another
ethnicity is, thus, a proof not only that he is a lesser man, but also that his ethnicity is a lesser
ethnicity. Emasculation annihilates the power of the ethnic ‘Other’ by annihilating the power
of its men’s masculinity.” 143
Central to the process of emasculation is “gender stereotyping [that] suggests that men
cannot be victims, only perpetrators.” 144 According to legal scholar Sandesh Sivakumaran,
[M]en are not conditioned to think of themselves as potential victims of
sexual abuse or potential targets for perpetrators in the same way as
women. They see themselves as being able to resist any potential attack and
this is how others see them. For example, sexual violence may be
considered to be inconsistent with certain societies’ understandings of
masculinity. Victims are considered weak, helpless, while men strong and
powerful. Masculinity and victim-hood are thus seemingly inconsistent. On
this basis, when sexual violence occurs against men, their masculinity
attributes are considered to have been taken away from them- they have
been emasculated… there is in society the idea that male victims of sexual
violence are not ‘real men’ for ‘real men’ would not have let this happen to
them. 145
Within Sivakumaran’s explanation, we can identify several characteristics of female and male
roles. The man, as the universal soldier, should not be the victim, as victims portray
weakness, something to be protected, like the collective mothers that together constitute the
142
Women, Peace and Security: Study submitted by the Security-General Pursuant to Security Council
Resolution 1325 (2000),16, para. 59 cited in Sivakumaran, “Sexual Violence Against Men In Armed Conflict,”
270.
143
Zarkov, “The Body of the Other Man,” 78.
144
Sivakumaran, “Sexual Violence Against Men In Armed Conflict,” 270.
145
Ibid.
39
‘motherland.’ But when he is emasculated in the context of ethnic conflict, a man’s
emasculation via sexual violence not only proves that “he is a lesser man, but also that his
ethnicity is a lesser ethnicity.” 146
By making men un-manly and vulnerable, perpetrators also utilize the process of
feminization. In accordance with the explanation of the universal solider and collective
mothers and motherlands given by Øystein Gullvåg Holter above, characteristics of
femininity are attributed to the victim. 147 Often, perpetrators tell victims that they have made
them a woman. 148 By being made to adopt the sexual role customarily assigned to women as
men’s social inferiors, victims feel they have been stripped of their social status as men. 149
Instead, they are considered ‘feminized male[s].’ 150 Thus, MSV turns a man into a ‘female’
by way of sexual abuse. For example, one DRC male rape victim said, “The people in my
village say: “You’re no longer a man. Those men in the bush made you their wife.’” 151
Sexual violence against men is also intrinsically linked to questions of homo and
heterosexuality. According to R.W. Connell, homosexuality became a distinct identity in the
late nineteenth century and heterosexuality became “a required part of manliness.” 152
Miranda Alison explains, “heterosexual normativity became an integral part of hegemonic
masculinity.” 153 Sexual violence then serves as an assertion of heterosexuality, even in the
146
Zarkov, “The Body of the Other Man,” 78 cited in Sivakumaran, “Sexual Violence Against Men In Armed
Conflict,” 275.
147
Allen, Rape Warfare, 114 and Sivakumaran, “Sexual Violence Against Men In Armed Conflict,” 271.
148
Amnesty International, “Democratic Republic of Congo: Mass Rape- Time for Remedies, AI Index: AFR
62/018/2004, 19 cited in Sivakumaran, “Sexual Violence Against Men In Armed Conflict,” 271.
149
Catherine MacKinnon, Oncafe v. Sundowner Offshore Services, Inc., 96-568, Amici Curiae Brief in Support
of Petitioner, 8 UCLA Woman’s Law Journal 9, 18-19 (1997) cited in Sivamuaran, “Male/Male Rape and the
“Taint” of Homosexuality,” 1282.
150
Adam Jones, “Straight as a Rule” Heteronormativity, Gendercide, and Non-combatant Male,” Men and
Masculinities 8, (2006) cited in Sivakumaran, “Sexual Violence Against Men In Armed Conflict,” 271.
151
Jeffrey Gettleman, “Symbol of Unhealed Congo: Male Rape Victims,” in The New York Times, 5 August
2009, accessed 20 April 2012, http://www.nytimes.com/2009/08/05/world/africa/05congo.html cited in Sandesh
Sivakumaran, “Lost in Translation: UN Responses to Sexual Violence Against Men and Boys in Situations of
Armed Conflict,” International Review of the Red Cross 92, no. 877 (2010): 266.
152
Connell, Masculinities, 196 cited in Alison, “Wartime Sexual Violence,” 77.
153
Ibid.
40
case of rape of men by men. 154 In the context of emasculating and feminizing the victim,
MSV implies that the male victim is homosexual, by demonstrating qualities associated with
the homosexual male, namely being less masculine (or not at all), more effeminate and
assuming, though unwillingly, homosexual roles during sex. 155 This is what Sivakumaran
dubs the ‘taint’ of homosexuality. 156 The term refers to the perceived inferiority of a
masculinity based in his ‘homosexuality’ (as a victim of sexual assault). 157 The assumption of
homosexuality of the victims is intended by perpetrators and perpetrator states and is based
on the underlying presumptions of societal homophobia. 158
This ‘taint’ of homosexuality is exacerbated by the individual victims’ fears of
homosexuality and alterations to their sexuality. 159 It is not uncommon for men to experience
erections of ejaculate during rape and the above mentioned fears may be even more
pronounced in victims that are forced to rape another man, as has been the case in conflict. 160
Perhaps what is most intriguing is the interpretation that while victims are feminized,
“rapists are confirmed in their heterosexual, hegemonic masculinity.” 161 According to Jones,
highly patriarchal societies, masculine status is assigned to the “active” partner in anal
intercourse. 162 The active partner “finds his masculinity and his heterosexual identity actually
reinforced: in Lynne Segal’s Pungent phrasing: “A male who [exploitive] another male is a
double male.” 163 Thus, male rapists maintain their heterosexuality, as this particular form of
violence is about dominance of the perpetrator, not sexual desire. This is not the case if men
154
Alison, “Wartime Sexual Violence,” 77.
Ruth Seifert, “War Rape: A Preliminary Analysis,” in Alexandra Stiglmayer. ed.. Mass Rape: The War
Against Women in Bosnia-Herzegovina (1994), 60 cited in Sivakumaran, “Sexual Violence Against Men In
Armed Conflict,” 272.
156
Sivamuaran, “Male/Male Rape and the “Taint” of Homosexuality,” 1275.
157
Ibid.
158
Ibid., 1285.
159
Ibid., 1298.
160
Groth and Birnbaum, Men who Rape, 138-139 cited in Sivakumaran, “Sexual Violence Against Men In
Armed Conflict,” 272.
161
Jones, “Straight as a Rule,” 300.
162
Ibid.
163
Quoted in Charlotte Hooper, Manly States: Masculinity, International relations, and Gender Politics (New
York: Columbia University Press, 2001): 78 cited Jones, “Straight as a Rule,” 300
155
41
are forced to rape each other, in which case the perpetrator maintains dominance and both
parties are ‘tainted’ by homosexuality. 164
Homosexuality was also used as a threat. Both Serbian and Hutu radical ideologies
question the heterosexuality of their opponent. During the crisis in the former Yugoslavia,
Serbian men who chose not to participate in the new Serbian identity, such as pacifists and
members of the opposition, were seen as traitors to their nation and gender by nationalist
intelligentsia and politicians. They were considered “cowardly, weak, effeminate and
probably homosexual” and writers such as Momo Kapor lumped “lesbians, homosexual,
philatelists, what have you” with members of smaller opposition parties. 165 Kapor is engaging
in a process of identifying opposition members as ‘improper males,’ or, those who do not
belong to the Serbian hegemonic masculine group, as exemplified by the quote, “a Serb is a
man who is not a man unless he is also a Serb.” 166 This was part of the process of identifying
‘proper men’ in Serbian society. 167 Those who did not fit the heterosexual, Serbian warriorhero ideal were not true Serbian men and victimized by those considered ‘proper men.’
The ‘taint’ of homosexuality is only exacerbated by threats of preventing procreation
by attacking men. Virility and procreativity are central aspects of hegemonic masculinity, and
they thus become a target for ideologies that seek to prove one ethnicity’s dominance over
another. 168 Sexual torture survivors “often relate anxiety about the possibility of conceiving
due to injury to the sexual organs. Fears of no longer being considered fully a man, or of not
being able to function as a man, were often mentioned.” 169 This might be particularly
pertinent to men who have suffered blunt trauma to the genitals, genital mutilation and
castration. Perpetrators have aggravated such fears of losing procreative capability by stating
164
Sivakumaran, “Sexual Violence Against Men In Armed Conflict,” 272.
Vreme 11 May 1992: 51 cited in Bracewell, “Rape in Kosovo,” 580.
166
Cosic 1992:109 cited in Bracewell, “Rape in Kosovo,” 577.
167
Zarkov, “The Body of the Other Man,” 77.
168
Sivakumaran, “Sexual Violence Against Men In Armed Conflict,” 273.
169
Harry van Tienhoven, ‘Sexual Torture of Male Victims,” Torture, 3/4 (1993): 134.
165
42
that “you’ll never make Muslim children again,” while inflicting blunt trauma to the
genitals. 170 Even if reproductive organs remain intact, psychological difficulties could lead to
sexual and relationship problems. 171
Sexual violence against women in conflict zones also functions as sexual violence
against men. It is used as a physical vehicle, or mode of communication for psychological
sexual violence. Cynthia Cockburn argues that sexual violence against women communicates
to the male community members that the perpetrator group was so superior that they
dominated and sexually violated female community members. The males in that community
have “failed in their duty to protect ‘their’ women” making them impotent men. 172 However,
this understanding of sexual violence is one that excludes women from their own
victimization. It ignores the fact that many women were targeted specifically because of their
gender, not their men folk. In addition, it conforms to ideas of women ‘belonging’ to their
male counterparts. For this reason, it is important to understand the different effects sexual
violence has on each of the genders in the community.
2.2 Consequences of Wartime Sexual Violence Against Men
The functions of MSV described above result in tangible long-term consequences. By
disempowerment and submission, emasculation, feminization, homosexualization, hindering
procreation and physiological impotency, perpetrators leave very real human damage in their
wake. Many male survivors of MSV report psychosocial, sexual, psychological and physical
injuries that threaten survivor wellbeing.
170
Dustin A. Lewis, “Unrecognized Victims: Sexual Violence Against Men in Conflict Settings Under
International Law.” Wisconsin International Law Journal. (2009): 13.
171
World Health Organization, Guidelines for Medico-Legal care for Victims of Sexual Violence, (Geneva:
World Health Organization, 2003), 16 cited in Sivakumaran, “Sexual Violence Against Men In Armed
Conflict,” 273.
172
Cockburn, “The Gendered Dynamics of Armed Conflict and Political Violence,” 22 and Sivakumaran,
“Sexual Violence Against Men In Armed Conflict,” 268.
43
Psychosocially, men who have survived sexual violence, especially rape also struggle
to maintain sexual relationships. 173 Often, they claim to be incapable of or uninterested in
intercourse, or experience pre-mature ejaculation or pain during intercourse while no physical
cause can be found. 174 Intrusive thoughts about sexual abuse during intercourse can further
inhibit healthy sexual relationships. 175 The struggle for men to tell their spouses about their
trauma can manifest itself in the inability of unwillingness to partake in sexual intercourse. 176
In addition to putting strain on sexual relationships, MSV can also rupture the societal
bonds of marriage. According to Makerere University’s Kampala, Uganda based Refugee
Law Project’s gender officer Salome Atime, wives who find out that their husbands have
been raped in the DRC often leave their spouses. Concerns regarding protection, gender roles
and discomfort abound. Atime claims that when wives discover their husbands have been
raped they often ask “so now how am I going to lie with him? As what? Is this still a
husband? Is it a wife?... If he can be raped, who is protecting me?” 177 These reactions echo
the functions of sexual violence explained in the previous section. According to the African
Centre for the Treatment and Rehabilitation of Torture Victims (ACTV) in Uganda, 5% of
women leave their husbands after learning they have been sexually violated. 178
Beyond marital problems, MSV survivors may also struggle with other psychosocial
problem such as social withdrawal, loss of interest in work, sudden outbursts of anger and
drug and alcohol abuse. 179 Friends of the survivor may suspect problems and avoid the topic,
173
Lewis, “Unrecognized Victims,” 16.
J. Ortmans and I. Lunde, “Prevalence and Sequelae of Sexual Torture.” Lancet 8710, no. 336 (1990): 289-91
cited in Pauline Oosterhoff, Prisca Zwanikken, and Evert Ketting. “Sexual Torture of Men in Croatia and Other
Conflict Situations: An Open Secret.” Reproductive Health Matters 12, no. 23 (2004).
71, 74 cites and Will Storr, “The Rape of Men,” The Observer, 17 Sunday 2011, accessed 12 March 2012,
http://www.guardian.co.uk/society/2011/jul/17/the-rape-of-men
175
Oosterhoff et al, “Sexual Torture of Men in Croatia and Other Conflict Situations,” 71.
176
Storr, “The Rape of Men.”
177
Ibid.
178
Integrated Regional Information Networks (IRIN), Democratic Republic of the Congo - Uganda: Male
Sexual Abuse Survivors Living on the Margins (2011), accessed 19 April
2012http://www.unhcr.org/refworld/docid/4e3f7dcb2.html
179
Oosterhoff et al, “Sexual Torture of Men in Croatia and Other Conflict Situations,” 71.
174
44
thereby contributing to the victims’ sense of isolation. 180 Trust issues and trouble establishing
relationships have also been reported. 181 Male victims of rape can be especially vulnerable
and rejected by society. In the Democratic Republic of Congo, raped men are often referred
to as ‘bush wives’ and socially isolated by their communities. 182 Raped men also experience
exclusion from organizations and health care systems organized to aid raped women, where
caring for male survivors is neither the norm nor the intent. 183
Male survivors may question their sexuality. As men may experience sexual response
during the abuse, such as an erection or ejaculation. According to researcher Dustin Lewis,
“If the victim equates a sexual response with pleasure, he may experience sexual-orientation
confusion, and perceive himself to be homosexual, thereby aggravating the effects of the
abuse…” 184 Male survivors have expressed concern over whether having been raped makes
them homosexual or attracted to homosexuals. 185
This stigma that follows the trauma may also affect the psyche of the survivor. MSV
victims exhibit long-term psychological trauma such as feelings of shame, anger,
vulnerability, guilt, anxiety, hopelessness, depression, emotional desensitization, nightmares,
flashbacks loss of self image, self-blame, and exhibit self-harming behaviors. 186 Fear of their
own anger and inability to handle conflict are pervasive. 187 Post-traumatic stress disorder
(PTSD), major depressive disorder (MDD), substance abuse, suicidal ideation and suicide
180
SW Turner. “Surviving Sexual Assault and Sexual Torture,” In Gillian Mezey and Michael B. King (eds).
Male Victims of Sexual Assault, (New York: Oxford University Press, 1992), 75-86 cited in Oosterhoff et al.,
“Sexual Torture of Men in Croatia and Other Conflict Situations,” 71.
181
Oserhoff et al., “Sexual Torture of Men in Croatia and Other Conflict Situations,” 71.
182
Gettleman, “Symbol of Unhealed Congo.”
183
Ibid.
184
Lewis, “Unrecognized Victims,” 9.
185
Inger Agger. “Sexual torture of political prisoners: an overview.” Journal of Traumatic Stress 2, (1989) and
Lira E Weinstein, “La Tortura Sexual: Ponencia para el Seminario,” Consecuencias de la repression en el cono
Sur: sus efectos medicos, psicologicos sociales. (Montevideo, Uruguay, 1986) cited in Oosterhoff 71.
186
Lewis, “Unrecognized Victims,” 16 and Mladen Loncar, Neven Henigsberg and Pero Hrabac, “Mental
Health Consequences in Men Exposed to Sexual Abuse During the War in Croatia and Bosnia,” Journal of
Interpersonal Violence, (2009) 1 and Oosterhoff et al, “Sexual Torture of Men in Croatia and Other Conflict
Situations,” 71.
187
Oosterhoff et al, “Sexual Torture of Men in Croatia and Other Conflict Situations,” 74.
45
attempts are common. 188 According to Dr. Mladen Loncar, rape trauma syndrome, which
includes a variety of phobias, anxiety, depression, irritability, changes in behavior and
physical changes, are more pronounced in men. 189 Psychosomatic problems may also occur
such as palpitations, headaches, profuse sweating, loss of appetite and weight, dizziness,
sleeplessness, and exhaustion. 190
In addition to mental health concerns, MSV survivors suffer from short and long term
physical injuries as well. The World Health Organization has stated that “[m]ale victims of
sexual assault are more likely to suffer significant physical trauma that [are] female
victims.” 191 Though the validity of this claim is disputable, it illuminates the tremendous
physical trauma men may suffer. Rape and gang-rape survivors sustain injuries that cause
them to bleed when walking or sitting in certain positions and restricts them to financially
unsustainable diets. One survivor at RLP related how he is “supposed to restrict his diet to
soft foods such as bananas, which are expensive, and [he] can only afford maize and
millet.” 192 In general, male survivors may experience an array of symptoms including sever
pain, physical impotence, damage to their reproductive capacity, swollen testicles, abscesses,
blood on their stools, ruptures of the rectum, sexually transmitted diseases including
HIV/AIDS and other genital infections 193 “Men who have been sexually violated also suffer
more general health consequences, such as ongoing aches and general malaise. 194
188
Johnson et al. “Association of Sexual Violence and Human Rights Violations with Physical and Mental
Health,” 559 and Oosterhoff et al, “Sexual Torture of Men in Croatia and Other Conflict Situations,” 71.
189
Loncar, et al., “Mental Health Consequences in Men,” 3.
190
Oosterhoff et al, “Sexual Torture of Men in Croatia and Other Conflict Situations,” 71 cited in Lewis,
“Unrecognized Victims,” 15.
191
American Medical Association, Strategies for the Treatment and Prevention of Sexual Assault (Chicago:
American Medical Association, 1995) 12 cited in World Health Organization. Reproductive Health During
Conflict and Displacement, (Geneva: World Health Organization, 2000) 109-111 accessed 28 April 2012 at
http://who.int.reproductivehealth/publications/concflict_and_displacement/RH_conflict_chapter17.en.html cited
in Lewis, “Unrecognized Victims,” 15.
192
Storr, “The Rape of Men.”
193
Harry can Tienhovem “Sexual Violence: A Method of Torture Also Used Against Male Victims.” Nordisk
Sexology 10, no. 4 (1992): 243-249 cited Oosterhoof et al. “Sexual Torture of Men in Croatia and Other Conflict
Situations,” 71.
194
de Brouwer, “Supranational Criminal Prosecution of Sexual Violence,” 55 cited in Lewis, “Unrecognized
Victims,” 15.
46
This exploration of the consequences of wartime MSV is far from exhaustive. Slowly,
more medical professionals are beginning to address the needs of these men and the depth of
the psychosocial, sexual, psychological and physical injuries is being discovered. Part of the
challenge of meeting the needs of MSV survivors is lack of standardized data, an issue that
we shall explore below.
2.3 Prevalence of MSV in The Balkan and Great Lakes Regions
Due to the relatively diminutive state of research on the subject, and a conspicuous
absence of prominent recognition concerning pervasiveness of MSV, it is difficult to
calculate or estimate the prevalence of sexual violence against men in either the Balkan or
Great Lakes regions. Only a small proportion of survivors likely admit to having been
sexually assaulted and an even smaller proportion might be interested in speaking publicly
about their abuse. 195 Many men that do seek help do so under the guise of aiding friends or
family members. 196 For many victims, MSV preceded death and even if their remains were
recovered, the evidence of MSV may no longer be visible. 197 Therefore, academic analysis is
relegated to utilizing a small handful of studies and a slowly expanding collection of media
reports from organizations that are attempting to address the issue. From this collection, we
can begin to understand the patterns and types of sexual violence that were present in the two
focus regions. Within each region there is some limited information discussed below.
Fortunately, studies have been done in both Croatia and the Democratic Republic of Congo
that include detailed information concerning MSV and can give us a formidable clue as to the
prevalence of sexual violence against men during the respective conflicts.
195
Oosterhoff et al, “Sexual Torture of Men in Croatia and Other Conflict Situations,” 73.
Oosterhoff et al. states that the MCHR therapy group specifically advertised for a group of male survivors of
sexual torture. None of the men that attended initially admitted that they themselves were victims, instead they
claimed to have come on behalf of friends. Only after some time that group members acknowledged that they
had been sexually tortured. Oosterhoff et al, “Sexual Torture of Men in Croatia and Other Conflict Situations,”
74.
197
Oosterhoff et al, “Sexual Torture of Men in Croatia and Other Conflict Situations,” 73.
196
47
As with any study, it is important to understand the limitations of the available
information. Data is based on population samples and thus the results are neither generic
statistics for MSV in conflict zones in general, nor representative of each region uniformly.
The data can however, suggest prevalence and the wide-spread nature of wartime MSV in
these regions. Participants may have exaggerated or underestimated responses to questions
they judged to be in their best interest, while others may have curtailed truth-telling due to the
unfamiliarity, sex, ethnicity or other characteristics of the interviewer. In addition, some of
the statistics found below, especially the information from the Medical Center for Human
Rights in Zagreb, was gathered from men who had already come forward to deal with trauma
and MSV. Thus, it is difficult to judge the pervasiveness of MSV. Nevertheless, the statistics
collected offer a glimpse of the type and level of MSV that occurred in these regions. Clearly,
more information and comprehensive studies are necessary for further analysis.
2.3.1 Balkan Region
Despite the fact that violence spread throughout the Balkan region in the 1990s,
reaching into many of the corners of the former Yugoslavia, most of the information
regarding conflict-related MSV comes from Croatia. This does not mean that sexual violence
against men only took place in Croatia or against Croatian men, but points instead to more
readily available information and a need to conduct further research in the other areas.
However, some statistics concerning Bosnia are available. In one assessment, 80% of 5,000
male inmates at a concentration camp in Sarajevo Canton reported being raped. 198 According
to Dustin Lewis, blunt trauma, forced fellatio, forced incest and forced rape of men (and
between men) at the command of Serb forces was a common form of torture in Bosnia and
198
Zeljka Mudrovcic, “Sexual and Gender-Based Violence in Post-Conflict regions: The Bosnia-Herzegovina
Case,” in The Impact of Armed Conflict on Women and Girls: A Consultative Meeting on Mainstreaming
Gender in Areas of Conflict and Reconstruction, UNFPA 2001, 64, accessed 25 April 2012
www.unfpa.org/ypload/lib_pub_file/46_filename_armedconflict_women.pdf cited in Lewis, “Unrecognized
Victims,” 11.
48
Herzegovina. 199 A “study of 55 civilians subjected to sexual torture who received help from
the Bosnian Women and Families project showed that 5.5% were male.” 200 The Association
Women-Victims of War, a Sarajevo-based NGO, has reportedly collected 220 statements
from sexually abused men from 18 different cities. 201 According to Edin Ramulic, president
of and NGO providing help for men subjected to sexual abuse Izvor NGO from Prijedor,
“Most abuses took place in room number three at the Keraterm camp. Ninety per cent of the
detainees who were held in this room were killed, and those who survived were exposed to
sexual abuse.” 202 There are also claims of sexual abuse in Omarska, one of the most notorious
detention centers set up during the war. 203 According to Dr. Alma Mehmedbasic-Braco, a
psychiatrict at the Sarjevo Clinical Centre, most of her MSV patients were detained
throughout Bosna and Herzegvina, as well as detention camps in Serbian territory, including
Misovo polje, Siljivovice. 204 The Association of Camp Inmates of Bosnia and Herzegovina
(ACIBiH) president Murat Tahirovic states that “forcing close family members to carry out
sex acts on one another was especially common in eastern Bosnia, in the Bijeljina and
Zvornik regions.” 205 Though sparse, this information hints at a far wider phenomenon that
begs further exploration.
Information for Croatia has been more forthcoming. One study conducted by Pauline
Oosterhoff, Prisca Zwanikken and Evert Ketting compared data collected from three different
organizations in Croatia, the International Rehabilitation Council for Torture Victims (IRCT),
199
Lewis, “Unrecognized Victims,” 13.
Libby T. Arcel and Gorana Tocilij-Simunkovic, War Violence, Trauma and the Coping Process: Armed
Conflict in Europe and Survivor Responses. (Zagreb: Nakladnistvo Lumin, 1998): cited in Osterhoff et al,
“Sexual Torture of Men in Croatia and Other Conflict Situations,” 69.
201
The Association of Women-Victims of War furnished the following list of cities where mass and systematic
sexual abuse of men occurred: Capljina, Foca, Gorazde, Hadzici, Ilijas, Ilidza, Kresevo, Kiseljak, Mostar,
Prozor, Pale, Ragatica, Sokolac, Srebrenica, Vlasenica, Vogosca, Visegrad, Zvornik.
202
Dzenana Karabegovic, “Bosnia: Struggle to Overcome Male Rape Taboo.” Institute for War & Peace
Reporting, (17 April 2010) accessed 10 February 2012
http://iwpr.net/report-news/bosnia-struggle-overcome-male-rape-taboo
203
Nidzara Ahmetasevic, “The Last Taboo,” Balkan Investigative Reporting Network, accessed 10 February
2012, http://www.bim.ba/en/8/10/852/?tpl=30
204
Ibid.
205
Ibid.
200
49
the Centre for Pyschotrauma and the Medical Center for Human Rights (MCHR). The study
found that out of 22 civilian male victims of torture enrolled in a therapy group at the IRCT
program, 14 reported having suffered some sort of sexual torture while 10 suffered genital
beatings or electroshock and 4 had been raped. 206 At the second organization, the, data has
been collected for over 5,751 war veterans treated at the center between 1994-2000. 207 Only 9
reported having suffered genital beatings or electroshock and 5 reported rape. Among an
unknown number of male civilians, 3 reported genital beatings and 1 reported having been
raped. 208 The third organization, the MCHR, has collected in depth data from 55 MSV
survivors. 209 Among the 55 men, 24 were subject to genital beatings or electroshock, 11 were
raped, 7 were forced to engage in sexual acts and 13 were fully or partially castrated. 210 The
staff at the MCHR also claims to have found 6 post-mortem cases of total castration.
Though not exact matches, the percentages of the IRCT and MCHR suggest a distinct
trend in the types of sexual abuse experienced by the survivor. Both report that 44%-45% of
participants suffered genital beatings or electroshock and 18%-20% reported rape. The Centre
for Psychotrauma reported significantly low numbers, with 0.2% and 0.1% respectively.
According to Oosterhoff, the statistics for the Centre for Psychotrauma represent a wider
swath of war veterans, who unlike those at the IRCT and MCHR, did not necessarily
constitute a self-selected group of individuals who were willing to discuss their traumatic
experiences. 211 This may account for the significant differences in reported instances of
MSV.
In a related article, the MCHR analyzed patterns of MSV through interviews with 60
men exposed to sexual abuse during the war in Croatia. This study illustrated the breakdown
206
Oosterhoff et al, “Sexual Torture of Men in Croatia and Other Conflict Situations,” 73.
Ibid.
208
Ibid.
209
Ibid.
210
Ibid.
211
Ibid.,73, 74.
207
50
of the types of MSV experienced by interviewees, as shown in Table 1. According to this
table, 68.3% survived sever beating of testes or genitals while just over half the interviewees
experienced threats aimed at losing the person’s fertility. A significantly high 31.6% were
threatened with castration and 11.6% experienced semi-castration. In all 60 cases, men were
abused during the early stages of the war in 1991-1992 and ethnic Serbs perpetrated the
assaults. 212 Most of the abuses seem to have taken place as a form of sexual torture. A
striking 47 of the 60 men reported that the sexual abuse or torture most frequently took place
in the prisoner’s camps and 43 cases proved that most of the victims were imprisoned for a
period longer than two months. 213 In 46 cases, a majority, abuses were perpetrated in front of
witnesses. 214
Table 1: Frequency of Type of MSV in Croatia
Type of Sexual Abuse
Number (n out of 60)
Physical Torture of genitals
Severe beating of testes or genitals
41
Semicastration
7
Forced sexual Actions
Placing of objects in person’s
15
rectum by force
Performing Fellatio
13
Rape
2
Other
3
Psychosexual torture
Threats aimed at losing the
34
person’s fertility
Threats of direct castration
19
Other threats
13
Table 1: Loncar et al. “Mental Health Consequences in Men,” 6.
%
68.3
11.6
25.0
21.6
3.3
5.0
56.6
31.6
21.6
Oosterhoff et al. also found that MSV was often carried out in full and deliberate view
of bystanders and concludes that sexual violence against men was performed in public as a
demonstration of power by the perpetrators. 215 In prison camps sexual violence usually took
212
Loncar, et al., “Mental Health Consequences in Men,” 4.
Ibid., 5.
214
Ibid.
215
Oosterhoff et al, “Sexual Torture of Men in Croatia and Other Conflict Situations,” 74.
213
51
place during the first week of captivity and most often at night and when guards are drunk. 216
This violence followed the arrests and round-ups of local populations after which MSV might
take place in a field, prison, school, victim’s own home or alternative custodial
circumstance. 217
The exercise of power is evident throughout accounts of MSV in these studies. Often,
multiple forms of MSV were often employed at once 218 and “sexual mistreatment was often
accompanied by physical and psychological torture of various kinds, ranging from mutilation
to threats aimed at humiliating and demoralizing the victims, mostly on the basis of the
victim’s nationality. 219 Victims were told that they would “never make Muslim children
again.” 220 Accounts of castration were common in prison camp survivor testimony, though
“all castration victims died from the consequences of this torture method. Semi-castrations
were performed either by cutting the victims scrotum or penis using a knife or anther sharp
object or by tying the penis up with rope or wire, followed by pulling the rope by hand,
pliers, or other suitable objects” 221 Hurting of the testes with blunt objects was commonly
used at the moment of the victims’ capture as well as during prison camp stays which
probably led to sterility in a certain percentage of victims. 222 Removal of clothing was
routinely employed in “disciplining” victims. Forced mutual masturbation or oral sex was
also prevalent along with “’elaborate’ torture methods” and sexual torture combinations
aimed at injuring the reproductive organs. 223
The myriad of sexual abuse techniques documented by researchers illustrates that
MSV constituted a significant aspect of the physical mistreatment of men during the conflict
216
Amnesty International. A Glimpse of Hell: Reports on Torture Worldwide. Duncan Forrest (ed) (New York:
New York University Press, 2002) cited in Osterhoff et al, “Sexual Torture of Men in Croatia and Other
Conflict Situations,” 69.
217
Oosterhoff et al, “Sexual Torture of Men in Croatia and Other Conflict Situations,” 69.
218
Loncar, et al., “Mental Health Consequences in Men,” 8.
219
Ibid., 8, 10.
220
Lewis, “Unrecognized Victims,” 13.
221
Loncar, et al., “Mental Health Consequences in Men,” 7.
222
Ibid. 8.
223
Ibid., 8.
52
in this region. Though these numbers may vary and the studies are far from uniform, the
results indicate MSV was widespread during the war in Bosnia and Herzegovina and Croatia.
Explorations into wartime sexual abuse of men in Serbia and other countries in the former
Yugoslavia are wanting.
2.3.2 Great Lakes Region
As is the case in the Balkan region, there has been no comprehensive study of
wartime MSV in the Great Lakes Region of Africa. What limited information that is
accessible often does not allow for a broad analysis. In countries, such as Rwanda, MSV
during the civil war and genocide is relatively undocumented. But the use of sexual violence
can be gleaned from victim statements and eyewitness reports.
According to one perpetrator, and thus eyewitness, victims were sometimes forced to
undress in public. 224 Victims who had previously posed as Hutus, been more prosperous or
whom the perpetrators disliked were often stripped in the marketplace before they were
hacked to death by machete. 225 Tusti boys were also at risk. One 13 year-old was kidnapped
by a Hutu woman, kept in her house and raped three times a day for three days until he
escaped. 226 According to reporter Scott Peterson, MSV was also used as a weapon
immediately preceding death against the Belgian UNAMIR troops. Ten UN Belgian troops
were deployed to protect moderate Hutu Prime Minister Agathe Uwilingyamana against the
Rwandan Presidential Guard a day after President Habyarimana’s plane was shot down.
Eventually, all ten soldiers were castrated, gagged with their own genitalia and killed. 227
224
Hatzfeld, Machete Season, 132.
Ibid.
226
Anne-Marie de Brouwer and Sandra Ka Hon Chu (eds). The Men Who Killed Me: Rwandan Survivors of
Sexual Violence (Vancouver, B.C.: Douglas & McIntyre, 2009), 93.
227
Scott Peterson, Me Against my Brother: At War in Somalia, Sudan and Rwanda (London and New York:
Routledge 2000) 292.
225
53
There were also reports of mutilation and subsequent public display of male genitalia. 228 In
the Bagosora trial judgment of the ICTR the Trial Chamber recalled testimony of witnesses,
“The bodies of the dead were frequently piled near the roadblocks and at times were collected
by local officials… Dallaire saw objects crushed or implanted in vaginas, breasts cut off,
stomachs opened and the mutilated genitals of men.” 229 Witnesses in the Muhimana case at
the ICTR have also recalled the severance of a certain Kabana’s ‘private parts’ and
subsequent display of his genitals on a spike. 230 Though nearly undocumented, sexual
violence against men clearly occurred during the genocide.
There is also a limited information concerning MSV in Uganda. 231 Dr. Joy Nayiga of
Makerere University found in her study that 11% of men in Uganda had experienced sexual
violence. Wartime sexual violence has also figured prominently in the Uganda landscape
through the activities of the Lord’s Resistance Army (LRA). In central Uganda, Acholi
soldiers were largely blamed for sexual violence against men while fighting against the rebel
insurgency of Yoweri Museveni and his National Resistance Army (NRA). 232 After
Museveni took power in 1986, some NRA soldiers took revenge by perpetrating sexual
violence against Acholi men. 233 MSV was so widespread that new vocabulary developed do
describe this new tactic. Sexual assault and rape of men became known as ‘tek gungu,’ or
‘the way which is hard to bend.’ 234 Battalion 118, based in Olwal camp, was particularly
notorious for deliberately “going out and raping men.” 235 However, the majority of the
accessible material is relevant to the large Congolese refugee community in Uganda.
228
de Brouwer, “Supranational Criminal Prosecution of Sexual Violence,” 13.
Prosecutor v. Bagosora et al., Judgment, Case No. ICTR-98-41-T, 18 December 2008, para. 1908 cited in
Sivakumaran, “Lost in Translation,” 274.
230
Prosecutor v. Muhimana, Judgment, Case No. ICTR-95-1-T, 28 April 2005, paras. 441–4, cited in
Sivakumaran, “Lost in Translation,” 274.
231
Joy Nayiga. Prevalence and Determinants of Sexual Violence in Uganda (Makerere University Population
Secretariat 2006) accessed 27 April 2012, http://svriforum2009.svri.org.
232
Refugee Law Project, Gender Against Men.
233
Ibid.
234
Ibid.
235
Ibid.
229
54
Officially declared a weapon of war by the UN in 2008, rape was perpetrated at an
extraordinarily high rate from the beginning of the Second Congo War in 1996. 236 The
eastern provinces of the DRC, North and South Kivu, are claimant to the unhappy title of
having the most “prevalent and intense occurrence of rape in the world.” 237 The extent of
MSV however, has received less attention and what estimates do exist vary. The RLP has
done significant work with Congolese refuges concerning MSV and has become increasingly
involved with MSV issues. Men have reported to the RLP that, in addition to being gang
raped, they were “forced to penetrate holes in banana trees that run with acidic sap, to sit with
their genitals over a fire, to drag rocks tied to their penis, to give oral sex to queues of
soldiers” and “to be penetrated with screwdrivers and sticks.” 238 The RLP claims that one out
of ten men who seek their sevices report being victims of MSV. 239 According to a doctor who
treats referrals from the RLP, all of the men referred to her are victims of MSV. 240 The
American Bar Association reported that 10% of its cases in June 2009 at its sexual violence
clinic in Goma, DRC were men. 241
A 2010 study of North and South Kivu provinces, and the Ituri district of the DRC
found that 22 % of men reported conflict-related sexual violence. 242 According to the study’s
findings shown below in Table 2, abduction constituted the most common form of sexual
violence, followed by rape, sexual slavery and the stripping of clothing. Forced nakedness
and molestation occurred in roughly 1 in 7 cases. 243 In light of this study’s findings and
236
Nicholas D. Kristof and Sheryl WuDunn. Half the Sky: Turning Oppression Into Opportunity for Women
Worldwide. (New York: Alfred A. Knopf, 2009).
237
Stephanie McCrummen, “The prevalence of rape in East Congo described as the worst in the world,” The
Washington Post, 9 September 2007, accessed 2 May 2012 http://www.washingtonpost.com.
238
Storr, “The Rape of Men.”
239
Refugee Law Project, Gender Against Men.
240
Ibid.
241
Gettleman, “Symbol of Unhealed Congo.”
242
Johnson et al. “Association of Sexual Violence and Human Rights Violations with Physical and Mental
Health,” 557.
243
Ibid.
55
current population estimates in the sample area, the authors estimate that 0.76 million men
are survivors of sexual violence. 244
Table 2: Frequency by Type of Sexual Abuse in the DRC
Type of Sexual Abuse
Number (n out of 88)
%
Molestation
14
15.2
Forced to undress
15
15.3
Stripped of clothing
17
18.1
Rape
18
20.8
Gang rape
6
7.5
Abduction
22
32.0
Sexual slavery
24
19.6
Forced to perform act with another
6
5.0
civilian
Table 2: Johnson et al. “Association of Sexual Violence and Human Rights Violations with Physical and Mental
Health,” 557.
The majority of MSV was reportedly committed by men (91.4% of perpetrators),
though female perpetrators constituted 10% of all MSV. 245 A low 1.1% of MSV violations
were carried out by both men and women. 246 This low number tells us that though men were
the majority of perpetrators in this region, women certainly acted as perpetrators. Yet the two
genres were not likely to perpetrate MSV together. It seems that in these regions of the DRC,
wartime MSV was a gender segregated activity. Male and female perpetrators that committed
MSV did so in groups of the same sex. Respondents reported that the majority of perpetrators
of MSV whether male or female were identified as combatants, 85.9% and 79.3%
respectively. 247 The most frequent perpetrators of MSV were the Nationalist and
Integrationist Front (FNI), the Union of Congolese Patriots (UPC), whose leader Thomas
Lubanga was the first individual to be convicted by the International Criminal Court, the
Mai-Mai, the Democratic forces for the Liberation of Rwanda (FDLR), Interhamwe, and the
Movement for the Liberation of Congo (MLC) in descending order. 248
Though data is wanting, especially from Rwanda and Uganda, the information that
does exist points to a widespread use of sexual violence against men during wartime. The
244
Ibid., 561.
Ibid.,, 557.
246
Ibid.
247
Ibid.
248
Ibid.
245
56
study conducted in the DRC points to trends both in terms of types of sexual violence used
and patterns of perpetration group. This study, as well as the more forthcoming information
from the Balkan region begs a more broad and comprehensive study be undertaken to better
gage the prevalence of MSV.
2.4 Contemporary Recognition
Though studies on wartime MSV are lacking, contemporary information regarding the
plight of men in warzones is not. Despite little interest, evidence of wartime MSV was
readily available to the international community at the beginning of these conflicts. The 1994
report to the secretary-general of the UN from the UN Commission of Expert’s Final Report
(hereafter referred to as the Bassiouni Report) included several references to men as sexual
violence victims. The Commission of Experts had been appointed in October 1992 by
Boutros Boutros-Ghali to “examine and analyze information gathered with a view to
providing the Secretary-General with its conclusions on the evidence of grave breaches of the
Geneva Conventions and other violations of international humanitarian law committed in the
territory of the former Yugoslavia.” 249 Chaired by Professor Cherif Bassiouni, the
Commission of Experts reported a myriad of MSV cases, including the beating of men across
the genitals, rape with foreign objects, forced nakedness as well as semi or full castration. 250
The Bassiouni Report even accounted instances of both direct prison guard perpetration and
cases of male prisoners forced to perpetrate sexual violence against each other. 251 The report
concluded that crimes were committed mainly in detention and elaborated on the abundance
of and militant nature of the camps. It reported that Serb run camps in Bosnia and
Herzegovina were “the ones where the largest numbers of detainees have been held and
249
Allen, Rape Warfare, 43.
Zarkov, “The Body of the Other Man,” 71.
251
Ibid.
250
57
where the cruelest and largest number of violations occurred.” 252 The Experts report
explicitly stated that “[m]en are also subject to sexual assault. They are forced to rape and
sexually assault women, they are forced to perform fellatio on guards and on each other, they
are forced to perform other sex acts on each other and they suffer castrations, circumcisions,
and other sexual mutilations.” 253 A reading of this report makes it clear that men were subject
to widespread wartime sexual violence. By extension, the nature of the report and its
widespread dissemination to the academic and political communities, it is startling that the
plight of wartime MSV survivors in the Balkan regions did not garner more attention.
Moreover, the Bassiouni Report was not the first nor the last report to report cases of
conflict-related MSV. Periodic reports on the human rights situation in the former Yugoslavia
by the UN Commission for Human Rights Special Rapporteur Mr. Tadeusz Mazowiecki
include accounts of MSV as early as 1992. 254 Leading human rights NGOs, Amnesty
International and Human Rights Watch/Helsinki Watch, “also published detailed treatments
of abuses and atrocities committed during the Balkans wars which allowed a careful reader to
discern evidence of the systematic sexual victimization of males.” 255 However, “no specific
reports on the subject were ever issued, despite the fact that both organizations published
special reports on female victims of rape and sexual assault.” 256 With such information
readily available to the international community in the early 1990’s, the possibility, and
indeed the reality of MSV both within the Balkan region and beyond would seem clear.
Unfortunately, awareness to the vulnerability of men to MSV would not rise to the forefront
252
Cherif Bassiouni Final Report of the United Nations Commission of Experts Established Pursuant to Security
Council Resolution 780, S/1994/674 (New York: United Nations 1994) Section IV. E: 3 cited by Zarkov, “The
Body of the Other Man,” 71.
253
Final Report of the United Nations Commission of Experts Established Pursuant to Security Council
resolution 780 (1992) UN Doc S/1994/674/Add. 2 (Vol. V) 28 Dec. 1994, Annex IX, Rape and Sexual Assault,
at 11 Para 20.
254
Tadeusz Mazowiecki. Periodic reports on the human rights situation on the territories of the former
Yugoslavia by the UN Commission for Human Rights Special Rapporteur, Mr. Tadeusz Mazowiecki.
E/CN.4/1992/S-1/9, (Geneva: United Nations, 1992).
255
Del Zotto and Jones, “Male-on-Male Sexual Violence in Wartime.”
256
Ibid.
58
of political awareness to the same extent that female vulnerability in conflict zones did. The
causes of this phenomenon will be discussed in chapter 3.
2.5 Conclusion
Sexual violence is a vicious and effective weapon of war used in both the Balkan and
Great Lakes regions. When used against men, wartime MSV functions to make the victim
and his ethno-national group inferior by means of emasculation, humiliation,
disempowerment, feminization, homosexuality and impotency. These prove to be powerful
tools and leave an aftermath wrought with long-term consequence. In the aftermath, victims
struggle with psychosocial, sexual, psychological and physical challenges. Though we are far
from understanding the aggregate number of men that may be MSV survivors, we can begin
to piece together the larger picture of wartime sexual violence against men. Shockingly,
information regarding wartime MSV has been available since the early 1990s. The lack of
attention paid to it points to a distinct lack of interest on the part of the contemporary
international community to address the needs to MSV victims.
59
3.0 The ‘Gendering’ of Sexual Violence
As the collected data described above and the widely circulated Bassiouni Report
show, MSV was both widespread in the Balkan and Great Lakes Regions and identified by
influential international bodies soon therafter. Yet despite this knowledge, men have not been
recognized as victims of wartime sexual violence to the extent that female victims have.
Indeed ‘gender’ has come to describe only women/females in regards to wartime sexual
violence. 257 If MSV was recognized as an issue in both regions, how was it subsumed by
sexual violence against women and women as the only ‘gendered’ beings? According to Eric
Carlson’s words, initial interest decreased, as “the novelty of the subject seemed to wane.” 258
This does not however, explain why interest waned or why in the past decade, negligible
attention has been paid to MSV victims.
Several factors have led to victim silence and international and local ignorance on the
subject. Viewed as a collective, they illustrate a systematic and focused rejection of MSV
victims in favor of the concept of the “feminization of victimization,’ namely the
understanding of females as victims. Socially, community-based stigma and taboos
surrounding homosexuality and homosexual stereotypes prohibit many men from seeking aid.
Similarly, constructs of ‘maleness’ and ‘masculinity’ hinder many men’s ability to
conceptualize and verbalize what happened. These victims suffer from the notion of
‘feminization of victimization’ and ‘masculinization of oppression,’ a pattern that manifests
itself in nearly all NGO, health, legal and media organizations. Accordingly, physical and
mental health aid agencies suffer from a lack of preparedness and willingness to handle MSV
survivors. International IGOs and NGOs as well as individual service providers that might
have provided alternatives for men seeking aid have similarly abandoned male victims,
focusing on women as the only ‘gendered beings.’ This translates into the exclusion of men
257
Lara Stemple, “Male Rape and Human Rights,” Hastings Law Journal 60, no. 650 (2009): 619.
Eric Stener Carlson, “The Hidden Prevalence of Male Sexual Assault During War: Observations on Blunt
Trauma to the Male Genitals,” British Journal of Criminology 46 (2006): 17
258
60
from definitions of ‘gender-based violence.’ Male survivors also lack legal platforms,
through which they might have been able to address this imbalance. Both national courts and
international tribunals provide a clear female-oriented sexual violence focus and have failed
to adequately acknowledge MSV victims. Media has done little to remedy this inequality, and
in fact has only encouraged it. Many of these institutions and mediums suffer from a limited
understanding of exclusive female victims, a trend consistently portrayed in feminist
academia.
3.1 Societal Rebuke: Stigma, Taboo, Homophobia and Stereotypes
The fact that victims have been slow to come forward is unavoidable. In Oosterhoff et
al’s study, most men who initially presented themselves at the MCHR group did not admit to
having been victimized, but rather spoke “on behalf of” friends even though the group had
been specifically advertised as a group for male survivors of sexual violence. 259 In the
Bassiouni Report, all testimonies about MSV came from witnesses, not victims. 260 Even an
expert witness at the ICTY pointed out that they had had very few first hand encounters with
male victims, rather relying on witnesses who recounted the abuse of others. 261 In the ICRT
group, none of the survivors mentioned sexual torture during intake interviews and their
victimization was not revealed until later in therapy. 262 This often occurred during all-male
therapy group sessions and usually after one of their co-prisoners of detention camps
mentioned it first. 263 In a similar case, when RLP director Chris Dolan organized a workshop
on wartime MSV in Uganda in 2009, 150 men arrived. 264 The Guardian’s Will Storr reported
that “in a burst of candour, one attendee admitted: "It's happened to all of us here." It soon
259
Oosterhoff et al, “Sexual Torture of Men in Croatia and Other Conflict Situations,” 73-74.
Zarkov, “The Body of the Other Man,” 73.
261
Ibid.
262
Oosterhoff et al, “Sexual Torture of Men in Croatia and Other Conflict Situations,” 73-74.
263
Ibid.
264
Storr, “The Rape of Men.”
260
61
became known among Uganda's 200,000-strong refugee population that the RLP were
helping men who had been raped during conflict. Slowly, more victims began to come
forward.” 265
Like women, male victims of rape suffer from rape trauma syndrome. 266 Short and
long-term consequences, such as not reporting or delaying the report of a crime is often due
to feelings of shame, confusion and guilt. 267 Yet this does not entirely explain the lack of
reporting in all MSV cases and account for neither the fact that many cases do not necessarily
include rape, nor most does it explain the widespread lack of awareness of the national and
international community.
Perhaps the most cited reason for the lack of acknowledgement of MSV is the
unwillingness and reluctance of individual MSV survivors to come forward. Many cite fears
of stigma, taboo and homophobia from the wider community. Nearly all academic writings
concerning wartime MSV claim that there is so much stigma and taboo surrounding male
victims, that survivors are unwilling to come forward to seek help. It is this taboo and stigma
that perpetrators depend on. Agger and Jensen note “it is an integral part of the torturer’s
choice of methods, that, if the story be told, no one is going to believe it… sexual torture is
deeply traumatic, but at the same time often leaves no evident traces.” 268 Dustin A. Lewis
argues that “destructive concepts of gender, sex and (homo)sexuality” can provide motivation
for perpetrators and further aggravate stigma attached to male victims. 269 Indeed, stigma and
taboo stem from the functions of sexual violence discussed above, namely the process of
265
Ibid.
G.W. Joseph, “The Male Rape Victim: Evaluation and Treatment,” Journal of the American College of
Emergency Physicians 8, no. 1 (1979) and Donald Cotton and A. Nicholas Groth, “Sexual Assault in
Correctional Institutions: Prevalence and Intervention,” in Irving R. Stuart and Joanne G. Greer (eds.) Victims of
Sexual Aggression: treatment of Children Women and Men (New York: Van Nostrand Reinhold, 1984), 127,
131-132 cited in Sivakumaran, “Male/Male Rape,” 1288.
267
Sivakumaran, “Male/Male Rape,” 1288.
268
Inger Agger and S. Jensen, “Sexuality as a Tool of Political Repression,” in H. Riquelme (ed) Era in
Twilight: Psychocultural Situation Under State terrorism in Latin America, (Bilbao: Instituto Horionte 1994):
42 cited in Carlson, “The Hidden Prevalence of Male Sexual Assault During War, 22.
269
Lewis, “Unrecognized Victims,” 2.
266
62
emasculation, feminization, humiliation and homosexualization. These processes make it
difficult to admit that that one has been a MSV victim. However, stigma and taboos also
derive from deep-seated societal constructions of homosexuality and hence the inability to
see masculinity and maleness as compatible with victimhood. This process is one that occurs
both socially and among individual survivors.
According to Michael Scarce, in patriarchal societies male/male rape
is perhaps the most underreported and unaddressed violent crime…It
feeds into our collective denial, a refusal to recognize that men are not the
ultimate providers and protectors of themselves and others…[T]he sexual
violation of a man may come as sort of a shock, for men have
traditionally been expected to defend their own boundaries and limits
while maintaining control, especially sexual control of their own bodies.
When this does not occur, when men are raped by other men, society
tends to silence and erase them rather than acknowledge the vulnerability
of masculinity and manhood. 270
Therefore, on a societal level, the silence surrounding sexual violence against men is a direct
result of assumptions regarding the role of men in society.
Part of the ‘man’s’ role in society is his heterosexual function and thus fear of
homophobia in society is a strong resisting factor in discussing victim trauma. This fear of
homophobia in communities plays a dual role in that it restrains victims from coming forward
in a process Sivakumaran dubs the ‘“taint” of homosexuality.” 271 Homosexual victims fear
being blamed while heterosexual victims fear being considered homosexual. As described in
the beginning of the previous chapter, taboos against homo-eroticism spread along with the
advent of Judeo-Christian and Islamic traditions. In “homophobic environments, homosexual
survivors of rape may be seen as inviting rape by their very nature.” 272 Furthermore,
heterosexual MSV survivors suffer from the misconception that “only homosexual men can
270
Scarce, Male On Male Rape, 9.
Sivakumaran, “Male/Male Rape,” 1275. See entire article for a comprehensive discussion of the ‘taint’ of
homosexuality and male/male rape.
272
L. Shanks, N. Ford, M. Schull, K. de Jong, “Responding to Rape.” Lancet 357, no. 9252 (2001): 304 and
Timothy K. Daugherty and Jody A. Esper, “Victim Characteristics and Attributes of Blame in Male Rape,”
Traumatology 4, no. 2 (1998): 342-48 cited in Oosterhoff et al, “Sexual Torture of Men in Croatia and Other
Conflict Situations,” 68.
271
63
be raped.” 273 Thus victims fear of being blamed for their own sexual abuse. Heterosexual
men may also fear being seen as homosexual, either due to or as shown by their
victimization.
Male victims may also suffer from an inability to reconcile their masculinity and
manliness with victimhood. Recall that Sivakumaran argued that “[m]en are not conditioned
to think of themselves as potential victims of sexual abuse or potential targets for perpetrators
in the same was as women.” 274 Predominant cultural constructs identify the perpetrator as
male and victim as female. 275According to this logic, men are not victims or subordinate and
thus victims are not men. 276 This phenomenon, called the ‘feminization of victimization’ or
‘masculnization of oppression’ expresses itself not only in therapeutic treatment, legal
platforms and international approach, but in male victims themselves. 277
The feminization of victimization means that many “male rape survivors, equally
affected by gender stereotypes, may have difficulty conceptualizing and verbalizing what
happened.” 278 The inability to articulate this particular trauma was recognized by Torbjorn
Herlof Anderson, who found that sexually abused men “appear to have difficulties finding
words to describe the experience of being sexually abused.” 279 Instead, MSV victims search
for formulations in which the men could describe their trauma. Furthermore, “[i]n many
societies “men are discouraged from talking about their emotions and may find it very
difficult to acknowledge and describe what has happened to them.”’ 280 Often, men fear they
273
Sivakumaran, “Sexual Violence Against Men In Armed Conflict,” 273.
Ibid. 270.
275
Torbørn Herlof Andersen, “Speaking About the Unspeakable: Sexually Abused Men Striving Toward
Language.” American Journal of Mens Health 2, no. 25 (2008): 25.
276
Ibid.
277
Matthew Parynik Mendel, The Male Survivor: the Impact of Sexual Abuse (Thousand Oaks, CA: Sage,
1995), 92 cited in Andersen, “Speaking About the Unspeakable,” 25.
278
M Peel, A. Mahtanis, G. Hinshelwood, et al. The Sexual Abuse of men in detention in Sri Lanka. Lancet
9220, no. 355 (2000): 2069-70 cited in Oosterhoff et al, “Sexual Torture of Men in Croatia and Other Conflict
Situations,” 68.
279
Andersen, “Speaking About the Unspeakable,” 27.
280
United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees, Sexual violence Against Refugees: Guidelines on
Prevention and Responses. (Geneva: UNHCR, 1995) pt. 14 cited in Sivakumaran, “Male/Male Rape,” 1289.
274
64
will not be taken seriously if they tell someone. 281 Thus men seem conditioned not to think of
themselves as victims and are ill-equipped to deal with victimhood should it occur.
3.2 Aid Providers
Much like individuals, aid providers also struggle with the narrowed construct of
masculinity and maleness perpetuated by the feminization of victimization. Because of this
phenomenon, aid providers have systematically ignored the needs of MSV survivors and
made ‘gender’ synonymous with ‘women’ or ‘female.’ The exclusion of men from aid occurs
at three levels namely international neglect, national disinterest and individual care provider’s
inability to deal with MSV.
3.2.1 United Nations
The UN and its many branches has functioned according the belief that women are the
sole victims of sexual violence and has consistently referred to sexual violence as a
specifically ‘women’s’ matter. This framework is entirely inadequate to address the issue that
has proven to be not only widespread but largely in need of recognition. The UN has
consistently neglected to view men as victims and human rights discourse regarding sexual
violence have focused on women since the 1970s. The 1974 UN Declaration on the
Protection of Women and Children in Emergencies and Armed Conflicts and in 1994 the UN
Human Rights Commission established the post of Special Rapporteur on violence against
women were both gender specific bodies. 282 In its 2000 Action Report, "When War Hits
Home," UNICEF wrote, "[w]hen war hits women and girls nothing is held sacred or
protected. The world is suddenly thrown into a desolate moral vacuum." 283 The explicit focus
281
Andersen, “Speaking About the Unspeakable,” 32.
Alison, “Wartime Sexual Violence,” 83.
283
UNICEF, "When War Hits Home," Action Report 2000 cited in Del Zotto and Jones, “Male-on-Male Sexual
Violence in Wartime.”
282
65
on women and girls implies that the violence, including sexual violence, against men
constitutes acceptable behavior. Perhaps unsurprisingly, the World Health Organization did
not admit that homosexuality wasn’t a ‘disorder’ until 1992. 284
In UN resolutions, treaties, general comments and consensus documents there are
over 100 uses of the term “violence against women,” the definitions of which include sexual
violence. 285 Yet there are no UN instruments that explicitly address sexual violence against
men. 286 Even the UN Special Rapporteur on Systematic Rape, Sexual Slavery and Slave-like
Practices During Armed Conflict’s definition of sexual violence is female oriented. It reads,
“Sexual violence covers both physical and psychological attacks directed at a person’s sexual
characteristics, such as forcing a person to strip naked in public, mutilating a person’s
genitals, or slicing off a woman’s breasts.” Though initially gender neutral, the explicit
mention of female anatomy suggests that women are sexual violence victims.
During her tenure as the Special Representative on Sexual Violence in Conflict
Margot Wallstrom contributed to the Security Council resolution 1960 that was adopted in
2010. In a 16 April 2012 article, the UN describes this resolution as “putting in place tools for
more systematic monitoring and reporting of sexual violence.” 287 This inaccurate description
fails to recognize that this resolution addresses sexual violence towards women only,
implying that women alone are sexual violence victims. While men, either as victims or
perpetrators, are not mentioned, women and women’s groups are mentioned a total of nine
times in the Resolution. The second paragraph reads that the Security Council remains
“deeply concerned over the slow progress on the issue of sexual violence in armed conflict in
284
D.J. West, “Homophobia: Covert and Overt” in West, D.J. “Homophobia: Covert and Overt,” in Gillian
Mezey and Michael B. King (eds). Male Victims of Sexual Assault (New York: Oxford University Press, 1992),
190 cited in Sivakumaran, “Male/Male Rape,” 1292.
285
Stemple, “Male Rape and Human Rights,” 619.
286
Ibid.
287
UN News Services, “UN Envoy for Sexual Violence in Conflict to Step Down Next Month,” UN News
Centre accessed 2 May 2012
http://www.un.org/apps/news/story.asp?NewsID=41788&Cr=sexual+violence&Cr1=
66
particular against women and children.” 288 It continues to condemn sexual violence against
women and children in situations of armed conflict, recalling that “international humanitarian
law affords general protection to women and children as part of the civilian population during
armed conflicts” and encourages the Secretary-General to engage with women’s groups
(among other entities) to “enhance data collection and analysis of incidents, trends and patters
of rape and other forms of sexual violence to assist the Council’s consideration of appropriate
actions, including targeted and graduated measures.” 289 Nowhere are men mentioned as
victims of sexual violence or are special provisions made for remedying the extreme lack of
data collection and analysis of “incidents, trends and patterns” of MSV. In February of 2012,
the Security Council held an open meeting on “Women, Peace and Security: Conflict Related
Sexual Violence.” There has yet to be a meeting titled “Men, Peace and Security: Conflict
Related Sexual Violence.
Furthermore, the UN Action Against Sexual Violence in Conflict (UN Action) is
extraordinarily female oriented. This body claims to unite “the work of 13 UN entities with
the goal of ending sexual violence in conflict. It is a concerted effort by the UN system to
improve coordination and accountability, amplify programming and advocacy, and support
national efforts to prevent sexual violence and respond effectively to the needs of
survivors.” 290 Member entities include the UN department of Political Affairs, UN
department of Peacekeeping Operations, UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian
Affairs, UN office on Drugs and Crime, UN world Health Organization, Joint UN
Programme on HIV/AIDS, UN Development Programme, UN Population Fund, UN
Peacebuilding Support Office, UN Children’s Fund, United Nations Entity for Gender
288
United Nations Security Council, Security Council Resolution 1960 (2010) on Women and Peace and
Security, S/RES/1960(2010), 16 December 2010 accessed 12 May 2012,
http://www.unhcr.org/refworld/docid/4d2708a02.html
289
Ibid.
290
UN Actions Against Sexual Violence in Conflict, “About,” Stop Rape Now: UN Action, accessed 12 May
2012, http://www.stoprapenow.org/about/
67
Equality and the Empowerment of Women, UN Office of the High Commissioner for Human
Rights and UN High Commissioner for Refugees. 291 The website and brochure are replete
with images of women. The introduction of the brochure exhibits statistics of rape of women
in four different countries in large red boxes. No statistics of male rape or any form of MSV
are mentioned. As the efforts of 13 major UN entities are now funneled through UN Action,
it is safe to assume that at least a significant portion of their work will also be focused on
sexual violence against women. Much like the UN Action brochure, Guidance for Mediators
on Addressing Conflict-Related Sexual Violence begins by recounting only the conflictrelated sexual violence against women. 292
UN branches not only ignore male victims, but view ‘gender’ as synonymous with
‘female’ or ‘women,’ thus exclude men from definitions of ‘gender-based violence.’ Though
an ‘official’ definition for gender-based violence does not exist, many definitions are worded
along the lines of the Human Rights Watch definition that reads, Gender-based violence is
violence directed at an individual, male or female based on his or her specific gender role in
society.” 293 Though this definition seems to imply a gender-neutral definition, in practice,
‘gender’ refers to female victimization, “thereby leaving no room for much-needed gender
analysis” of MSV. 294
Often overlooked by UN entities, gender–based violence pertains to men as well as
women. In many of the cases, men were targeted specifically the male representatives of their
‘group.’ In the same way that mass rape in the Balkans and Great Lakes regions were
perpetrated against women because they were women, the array of sexual violence previously
described targeted men because they were men. In order to symbolically disempower the
291
Ibid.
Ibid., 3.
293
Human Rights Watch, The War Within the War: Sexual Violence Against women and Girls in the Congo.
(New York: Human Rights Watch, 2002) cited in R. Charli Carpenter, “Recognizing Gender-Based Violence
Against Civilian Men and Boys in Conflict Situations,” Security Dialogue 37, no. 1, (2006): 86.
294
Stemple, “Male Rape and Human Rights,” 619.
292
68
group, men were targeted in ways that undermined their masculinity and role as national
soldier. Sexual violence was thus employed in ways that targeted a specific gender and thus is
a form of gender-based violence. However, many of the entities discussed below confuse the
meaning of gender based and sexual violence, either using them interchangeably or to define
one another.
For example, the Committee on the Elimination of Discrimination Against Women
(CEDAW) defines gender-based violence as “a form of discrimination that seriously inhibits
women’s ability to enjoy rights and freedoms on a basis of equality with men.” 295 The
committee continues to say that “[t]he definition of discrimination… includes gender-based
violence, that is, violence that is directed against a women because she is a women or that
effects women disproportionately.” 296Similarly, in the proceedings of the UNHCR’s 2001
Inter-Agency Lessons Learned Conference, it is asserted that “the bottom line… is that
gender-based violence is predominantly men’s violence towards women and children.” 297 In
the UN’s Department of Political Affairs publication Guidance for Mediators on Addressing
Conflict-Related Sexual Violence, Principle 5 of “Ongoing Hostilities and Ceasefire
Agreements” suggests the “inclusion of and consultation with women and gender
experts…women with knowledge of the conflict, influential national and local female
leaders, female monitors and gender experts can help mediators and their teams in gaining
information and knowledge on conflict-related sexual violence.” 298 This explicit focus on
women clearly discourages dialogue concerning wartime MSV victims. By focusing on
putting female experts in the field it implies that ‘gender’ is a specifically female issue.
295
Commission on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination Against Women, General Recommendation
19: Violence against Women, UN Doc. A/47/38 (29 January 1992) para. 1 cited in Stemple, “Male Rape and
Human Rights,” 620.
296
Ibid.
297
United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR), Prevention and Response to Sexual and
Gender-Based Violence in Refugee Situations (Geneva: UNHCR 2001): 6 cited Carpenter, “Recognizing
Gender-Based Violence,” 86.
298
United Nations Department of Political Affairs, Guidance for Mediators: Addressing Conflict-Related Sexual
Violence in Ceasefire and Peace Agreements (New York: United Nations, 2012), 15.
69
Nowhere does it mention the need to have male experts in the field to deal with sexual
violence insinuating that females are needed to deal with an explicitly female issue.
Furthermore, gender-based violence has not only become confused with violence
against women, but as become a subset of the latter. The Beijing Declaration and Platform for
Action states that “[t]he term ‘violence against women’ means any act of gender-based
violence that results in, or is likely to result in physical, sexual or psychological harm or
suffering to women.” 299 Lara Stemple suggests that while this is “not conceptually
problematic (violence directed at women because of their roles as women is a subset of
gender-based violence), this tendency to use gender-based violence and violence against
women to define one another perpetuates their mistaken use as interchangeable terms.” 300
The fusion of ‘gender’ and ‘women’ has been so pervasive that there is even a body named
the United Nations Entity for Gender Equity and the Empowerment of Women (also known
as UN Women).
These are just a few of the examples of the rampant neglect of male victims of sexual
violence and female ‘gendering’ of ‘gender’ throughout the Untied Nations system. The
systematic negligence on the part of UN entities manifests itself on the ground, as few
individuals attempt to seek aid. RLP leader Chris Dolan recalled a "particularly bad" case that
was referred to the UN's refugee agency, the UNHCR. "They told him: 'We have a
programme for vulnerable women, but not men.'"’ 301
299
Fourth World Conference on Women, Beijing Declaration and the Platform for Action para. 113. UN Doc
A/CONF.177/20 (4-15 September 1995) cited in Stemple, “Male Rape and Human Rights,” 620.
300
Stemple, “Male Rape and Human Rights,” 620.
301
Storr, “The Rape of Men.”
70
3.2.2 Non-Governmental Organizations
This is hardly a pattern restricted to the UN. In fact, many NGOs have engage in the
concept of feminization of victimization by neglecting male victims especially in
programming that claims to address ‘gender-based violence.’ According to Sivakumaran,
“one reason why male/male rape has not attracted any significant attention, especially at the
international level, is that there are very few organizations that advocate or lobby on the issue
at any level.” 302
In a 2002 study of 4,076 NGOs that have addressed wartime sexual violence, only 3%
of them mention the experience of men in their programs and literature. 303 In a sampling of
60 NGO reports that address wartime sexual violence, almost 31.7% used the phrase “war
against women” in their literature, nearly 96.7% framed sexual assault victims as “women
and/or “girls while the remaining to used the word “person.” 304 Only 11.7% mentioned
sexual exploitation of male children, “though never in the context of war and ethnic
conflict.” 305 According to del Zotto and Jones, “No international organization or NGO has
established a research program or policy initiative specifically focused on male victims of
sexual violence in wartime; and not a single international NGO mentions wartime sexual
violence against males in its annual report. 306
Some NGOs consciously focus only on women-only service users. According to RLP
Director Chris Dolan “Dutch Oxfam refused to provide any more funding unless he’d
promise that 70% of his client base was female.” 307 Some may fear that by focusing on male
victims of sexual violence, the gains made toward aiding women might be threatened, or that
302
Sivakumaran, “Male/Male Rape,” 1280.
Del Zotto and Jones, “Male-on-Male Sexual Violence in Wartime.”
304
Ibid.
305
Ibid.
306
Ibid.
307
Storr, “The Rape of Men.”
303
71
the financial support for women’s organizations and aid would be compromised. 308 Indeed,
assisting male victims of wartime sexual violence could undermine future funding,
diplomatic ties etc. 309 If organizations expand their operations to accommodate men, they
may risk losing funding from patrons with specific interest in female empowerment and
development.
Others however, reject male victimization outright. About 25% of 4,076 NGOs
explicitly deny that male-on-male violence is a problem. 310 For example, the Equality Project,
a small NGO that involves itself in a variety of issue-related lobbying campaigns, including
war-related sexual violence claimed that "while systematic rape as a war tactic is certainly an
attack on a certain country [sic], more accurately, it is a specific attack against women. If that
were not true, rape camps would also have men and male children them and not only women
and girls.” 311 Del Zotto and Jones responded that
The claim, and its dismissive phrasing, ignores the fact that "rape camps"
is a highly-politicized term that has been deployed only when and to the
extent that females are targeted for sexual assault. The Bosnian-Serb camp
of Omarska, for example, has been designated as a "rape camp" solely by
virtue of the sexual assaults inflicted on the tiny minority of women who
were held there, and not because of the apparently severe sexual violence
inflicted upon males, who constituted a vast majority of inmates. 312
Furthermore, data collected and analyzed in chapter 2 confirms that men were indeed sexual
violence victims within camps and that most MSV victims who came forward in Croatia
reported that MSV took place in detention. Moreover, rape of men was a major sexual
violence weapon used in both the Balkan and great Lakes Region.
This is not intended to downplay the need for aid to female victims of sexual violence.
Indeed the plight of women during conflict is a topic in need to international support. The
308
Refugee Law Project, Gender Against Men.
Del Zotto and Jones, “Male-on-Male Sexual Violence in Wartime.”
310
Ibid.
311
Equality Project Annual Report, 2001 cited in Del Zotto and Jones, “Male-on-Male Sexual Violence in
Wartime.”
312
Del Zotto and Jones, “Male-on-Male Sexual Violence in Wartime.”
309
72
intent is merely to point to the clear imbalance of aid provider focus. International, national
and individual providers often conceptualize women as victims and men as perpetrators. This
concept manifests itself in the consistent neglect of men as victims of wartime sexual
violence and using ‘gender’ as specifically feminine.
Some NGOs, such as the International Committee of the Red Cross, have begun to
recognize wartime MSV. In a 2001 report titled, "The Impact of Armed Conflict on
Women,"” the organization acknowledged the sexual victimization of men and boys, though
within the context of female victimization and only in passing. 313 Burgeoning interested in
male victimization will be further explored in the following chapter.
3.2.3 Individual Service Providers
The neglect of male victims and the fusion of gender/woman that is prominent in IGO
and NGO policies and actions can also been seen at the individual aid provider level. Many
health care providers also struggle with the concept of the feminization of victimization. Even
if wartime MSV victims do have the strength to come forward, they may be faced with yet
another hurdle to receiving care.
Denise Donnelly and Stacy Kenyon’s work on peacetime MSV aid service providers
demonstrates that health care workers have internalized stereotypical gender roles to the
extent that they are unable to recognize male victims of sexual violence who seek help. 314
Many have conceptualized men as aggressors, women as victims so dramatically that they
may even dismiss MSV victims who come forward.” 315 In the former Yugoslavia, female
victims were largely identifies as the only victims in need of medical and psycho-social aid
313
Emphasis added. Charlotte Lindsey, The Impact of Armed Conflict on Women: ICRC Study on the Impact of
Armed Conflict on Women (Geneva: International Committee of the Red Cross, 2001) cited in Del Zotto and
Jones, “Male-on-Male Sexual Violence in Wartime.”
314
Oosterhoff et al, “Sexual Torture of Men in Croatia and Other Conflict Situations,” 68 cites Denise A.
Donnelly and Stacy Kenyon. “Honey, We Don’t Do Men.” Gender Stereotypes and the Provision of Services to
Sexually Assaulted Males.” Journal of Interpersonal Violence 11, (1996): 441-48.
315
Ibid.
73
post-conflict. 316 Oosterhoff et al. recognized such events during their research in the Balkans
Region and noted that
Therapists at the Center for Psychotrauma found it difficult to discuss the
topic of sexual torture of men. One therapist said that she had not believed
that men could be raped until one night a man was brought in naked and
bleeding from the anus. Such an attitude probably discouraged her from
looking for sexual torture of men and may have discouraged men from
reporting it. 317
The unwillingness to recognize wartime MSV survivors illustrated above is exacerbated by
the unpreparedness of local aid providers to offer assistance. Reporter Will Storr, recalled an
incident, “[b]efore receiving help from the RLP, one man went to see his local doctor. He
told him he had been raped four times, that he was injured and depressed and his wife had
threatened to leave him. The doctor gave him a Panadol” (equivalent to a Tylenol). 318
Individual service providers also lack a uniform understanding of what constitutes
sexual assault of men. After a workshop in Zagreb, Croatia, concerning male sexual assault,
one physician exclaimed, “Until I heard the presentation I thought that the only form of male
sexual assault possible was male-rape. I must have a lot more patients who were sexual
assault victims that I thought.” 319 Dr. Harry van Tienhoven describes how social workers,
physicians and nurses “had become familiar with sexual violence against women, and
because this usually implies rape, they assumed that sexual violence against men would take
the same form, namely anal rape.” 320 Furthermore, a study of staff members at 17 refugee
centers in Holland responded that the definition of ‘sexual violence’ was too broad. “The
reason was that physical violence (such as hitting with sticks or gun butts) during torture is
very common. When such beatings also include the sexual organs and results in injury, this is
316
Carpenter, “Recognizing Gender-Based Violence Against Civilian Men and Boys in Conflict Situations,” 95.
Oosterhoff et al, “Sexual Torture of Men in Croatia and Other Conflict Situations,” 74.
318
Storr, “The Rape of Men.”
319
Carlson, “The Hidden Prevalence of Male Sexual Assault During War,” 18.
320
van Tienhoven, “Sexual Torture of Male Victims,”133 cited in Carlson, “The Hidden Prevalence of Male
Sexual Assault During War,” 18.
317
74
not necessarily interpreted as sexual violence by either care providers of victims.” 321 Such
inability to recognize sexual violence victims and limited notions of what constitutes sexual
violence against men, must discourage survivors from seeking aid and serves to reinforce the
notion that women were and are the only victims of wartime MSV.
3.3 Print Media
Unfortunately, the missteps of aid providers and international law have been
compounded by an extreme neglect by print media of wartime MSV victims. Much like the
institutions discussed above, media organizations have understood wartime sexual violence
victims to mean female and subsequently, gender to also refer to women. Unfortunately, this
is not the medium in which to explore this issue in depth, but a few instances can be
highlighted in order to give a glimpse of the wider historical negligence on the part of media.
Dubravka Zarkov studied Croatian and Serbian print media published between
November 1991 and December 1993. 322 She found only 6 articles in the Croatian press about
sexual torture of men. 323 Within the same time period, she found over 100 articles about other
forms of torture experienced by Croat men in Serb and Muslim run camps and over 60
articles about the rape of women. Neither the Serbian daily or weekly published a single
article about sexual assault of men. 324
Zarkov also highlights the disparity between news media coverage of female and male
sexual violence victims during the Balkan conflicts. She notes that
the international media, so fervent in reporting rapes of women, shied
away from the topic of sexually assaulted men. Pictures of the starved
bodies of Muslim men from the camps run by Bosnian Serb forces were
on the front pages of international magazines, as were photos of tearful,
rape women. But nobody published a photo of a raped man. The national
321
van Tienhoven, “Sexual Torture of Male Victims,” 133.
Zarkov, “The Body of the Other Man,” 71.
323
Ibid., cited in Oosterhoff et al, “Sexual Torture of Men in Croatia and Other Conflict Situations,” 69.
324
Ibid.
324
Zarkov, “The Body of the Other Man,” 72.
322
75
press within the former Yugoslavia offered a similar picture. Rapes of
women were newsworthy; rapes of men were not. 325
This is not a phenomenon unique to the Balkans. For example, in one article from the New
York Times describing wartime sexual violence the author depicts a scene where
They strike without warning, bringing terror to an apartment in Algeria, a
Chinese shop in Indonesia, a squalid refugee encampment in Africa of a
Balkan farming village under siege. They are shadowy men with causes so
blinding and hatreds so deep that they have transformed modern warfare
into orgies of primordial savagery- - raping, brutalizing, humiliating,
slashing and hacking women and girls to death… it is becoming
increasingly apparent that the new style of warfare is often aimed
specifically at women and is defined by a view or premeditated, organized
sexual assault as a tactic… 326
The article goes on to describe mass rapes and sexual violence in the former Yugoslavia, the
Rwandan genocide, Algeria, Indonesia, Afghanistan and Myanmar. The rape or sexual
assault of men in these regions is not mentioned. No one can deny the horrors of sexual
violence against women described in this article, but it is unmistakable that this article, and
others like it, paint a distinct picture of female victimization by brutish men. Nowhere is there
room for victimized males in this picture. Men have been portrayed as strong, savage
warriors and women as helpless victims. A male victim fits in neither category.
Media coverage of the plight of MSV victims in the Great Lakes Region was similarly
lacking. What is surprising however, are the articles that focus overwhelmingly on female
sexual violence victims that, at the same time include a diminutive reference to MSV
survivors. Despite some acknowledgement of MSV, it does not alter the way in which the
authors describe wartime sexual violence. For example, articles such as “Clinton Presents
Plan to Fight Sexual Violence in Congo,” “Congo Study Sets Estimate for Rapes Much
Higher” and “A Woman’s Work” about Pauline Nyiramasuhuko and rape during the
325
Ibid.
Barbara Crossette, “Violation; An Old Scourge of War Becomes Its Latest Crime,” The New York Times, 14
June 1998, accessed 3 May 2012, http://www.nytimes.com/1998/06/14/weekinreview/the-world-violation-anold-scourge-of-war-becomes-its-latest-crime.html?src=pm
326
76
Rwandan genocide, mention men in once sentence each. 327 Yet all the victims interviewed
are women and all statistics mentioned regarding the prevalence of wartime sexual violence
pertain to women only. When describing sexual violence or interviewing experts, female
sexual violence survivors are the only ones mentioned. It is clear then, that MSV is not
portrayed as a phenomenon in its own right, but an aberration of female sexual violence.
Sexual violence is thus a women’s’ issue. By doing so these articles continue to ‘feminize’
MSV survivors, much like their initial assailants.
Media certainly does not dictate behavior but it can, to varying degrees, inform and
influence both contemporary and future populations. It also provides readers a glimpse of
cultural standards, in accordance with which these articles are written. Thus, the absence of
in-depth MSV reporting shows an absence of wartime MSV cultural acceptance and provides
yet another cause for survivor silence and widespread ignorance of wartime MSV.
3.4 Legal Platforms
The belief in the feminization of victimization and the masculinization of oppression
also prohibits wartime MSV victims from receiving legal recourse. Neither local law or
international law provide legal platforms for male sexual violence survivors. Without legal
recognition and assistance, MSV survivors are once again forgotten.
3.4.1 Local
Lack of local legal recognition of men as victims is a primary barrier to recognition of
MSV. Not only does it prohibit victims from pursuing legal recourse against their abuser but
327
Jeffrey Gettleman, “Clinton Presents Plan to Fight Sexual Violence in Congo,” The New York Times, 11
August 2009, accessed 2 May 2012, http://www.nytimes.com/2009/08/12/world/africa/12diplo.html?_r=1,
Jeffrey Gettleman, “Congo Study Sets Estimate for Rapes Much Higher,” The New York Times, 11 May 2011,
accessed 2 May 2012, http://www.nytimes.com/2011/05/12/world/africa/12congo.html and Peter Landesman,
“A Woman’s Work,” The New York Times, 15 September 2002, accessed 4 May 2012,
http://www.nytimes.com/2002/09/15/magazine/a-woman-s-work.html?pagewanted=all&src=pm,
77
laws against homosexuality may place blame on the victim. This makes him even more
vulnerable and less likely to share his account.
As Oosterhoff et al explains, “same-sex relations are criminalized and the taboo on
homosexuality probably discourages all men who experience sexual torture form reporting
it.” 328 According to Lewis, eighty six “countries and six provinces or territorial units have
criminalized consensual adult same-sex sex.” 329 Seven of these entities have a death penalty
provision as a potential punishment. 330 Furthermore, numerous countries have criminalized
sodomy, or specifically sodomy between males. 331 Still others have a higher age for consent
for homosexual relationships than for hetero-sexual relationships. 332 In many of these
countries, “non-consent on the part of the male rape victim does not vitiate the illegality of
having engaged, however against his will, in male-male sex or sexual violence.” 333
In Uganda, where many refugees form the DRC seek asylum, homosexuality is
illegal. 334 Not only is homosexuality highly stigmatized and MSV victims ostracized by their
community, but suspicion therefore can result in prosecution by the law. 335 Furthermore,
there is no possibility for legal recourse in Uganda as the Ugandan penal code defines rape
and indecent assault as something that can only be perpetrated against women. 336
Similarly, in the DRC where government posters line the streets encouraging victims
of rape and sexual violence to report their abusers, sexual violence victims are consistently
328
Oosterhoff et al, “Sexual Torture of Men in Croatia and Other Conflict Situations,” 68.
Lewis, “Unrecognized Victims,” 18.
330
Ibid.
331
Sylvia A. Law, “Homosexuality and the Social Meaning of Gender.” Wisconsin Law Review 187, no. 221
(1988): 190 cited in Sivakumaran, “Male/Male Rape,” 1292.
332
Sivakumaran, “Male/Male Rape,” 1292.
333
Lewis, “Unrecognized Victims,” 25.
334
Aiden Prinsloo, “Male Sexual violence Part II: the Story of Rape as a Weapon of War in the DRC,”
Consultancy Africa Intelligence, 2 September 2011, accessed 12 May 2012,
http://www.consultancyafrica.com/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=839:male-sexualviolence-part-ii-the-story-of-rape-as-a-weapon-of-war-in-the-drc&catid=59:gender-issues-discussionpapers&Itemid=267
335
Ibid.
336
Refugee Law Project, Gender Against Men.
329
78
portrayed as women. 337 In the graphic images shown on the posters, men are shown as the
aggressive perpetrator. Such images leave little room for social acceptance of male
victimization, especially when posters intend to alter societal behavior. Although they may
raise awareness about the prosecution of sexual violence, they reinforce gender stereotypes
that discourage men from attempting to seek justice.
3.4.2 International
It is the lack of national legal willingness or ability that international law attempts to
amend. In addition, during situations of armed conflict, international humanitarian law
applies and thus displaces municipal laws. 338 In theory, this can provide male victims of
sexual violence with more protection. Despite gender-neutral language and the potential to
protect MSV victims, international law has failed to implement gender inclusive policies and
continues to uphold the feminization of victimization.
This is not to say that international law has completely ignored sexual violence
against men. In fact, the UN Committee of Experts stated that
Violence crimes of a homosexual nature are not explicitly mentioned in
international humanitarian law… The international humanitarian law,
insofar as it provides protection against rape and other sexual assaults, is
applicable to men as well as beyond any doubt as the international human
right not to be discriminated against (in this case on the basis of sex) does
not allow derogation. 339
The ICTY has also offered MSV victims a potential legal platform. Significantly, the
first international war crime trial since the Nuremburg and Tokyo tribunals addressed sexual
violence perpetrated against men. 340 In 1997, Dusko Tadic was found guilty of inhumane acts
337
Refugee Law Project, Gender Against Men.
Lewis, “Unrecognized Victims,” 18.
339
United Nations Commission of Experts, Annex II: Rape and Sexual Assault: A Legal Study, Final Report of
the United Nations Commission of Experts Established Pursuant to Security Council Resolution 780 (1992) n. 4,
UN Doc. S/1994/674/Add. 2 (Vol.I) (Dec. 28, 1994)
340
“Landmark Cases,” ICTY Outreach, accessed 24 December 2011 http://www.icty.org/sid/10314.
338
79
under crimes against humanity for sexual crimes committed during the Balkan wars. 341 He
was sentenced to 20 years’ imprisonment. 342
In addition, Radosav Brdjanin, Dragoljub Prcac, Milojica Kos, Zoran Zigic, Miroslav
Kvocka, Mladen Radic, Zeljko Meakic, Stevan Todorovic, Predrag Banovic and Dusko
Knezevic were all indicted by the ICTY in connection with the sexual abuse of men. 343 In a
few groundbreaking cases, MSV has been found to constitute crimes against humanity and
war crimes. For example, in Prosecutor v. Todorovic, Todorovic pled guilty to the crime of
persecution, including sexual violence and thus a crime against humanity. In his plea
agreement, Tadorovic assented that forcing six men to perform fellatio on each other
constituted a factual basis for his guilty plea and that allegation of sexual assault were
factual. 344 Consequently, forced fellatio amounts to rape. 345 This was found to constitute a
form of persecution and Todorovic’s conviction for rape as persecution provided a
mechanism to convict sexual crimes as crimes against humanity. 346 The precedent to judging
sexual crimes as war crimes was established in the Mucic et al. case, when it was held that
forced fellatio ‘constituted, at least, a fundamental attack on their human dignity’ and thus an
act of inhuman treatment which merited prosecution under Article 2(b) and Article 3 of the
ICTY statute. 347
From the inception of the ICTY, the Sexual Assault Investigation Team pursued
investigations into the rape of men during the Balkan conflict. 348 It reported castration, sexual
341
International Criminal Tribunal for the Former Yugoslavia, “Dusko Tadic Sentenced to 20 Years’
Imprisonment,” ICTY Press Release, 14 July 1997, accessed 5 May 2012, http://www.icty.org/sid/7492
342
Ibid.
343
Ahmetasevic, “The Last Taboo.”
344
Prosecutor v. Todorovic. Sentencing Judgment, IT-95-9/1-S, ICTY, 31 July 2001, para. 9, 12, cited in de
Brouwer, “Supranational Criminal Prosecution of Sexual Violence,” 157.
345
de Brouwer, “Supranational Criminal Prosecution of Sexual Violence,” 158.
346
Ibid.
347
Prosecutor v. Mucic et al. Trial Judgment, Case No. IT-96-21, 9 October 2001, paras. 543, 544 cited in de
Brouwer, “Supranational Criminal Prosecution of Sexual Violence,” 194.
348
Carlson, “The Hidden Prevalence of Male Sexual Assault During War,” 86.
80
mutilation and forced intercourse and forced sexual acts on guards and on other prisoners. 349
The ICTY has stated that “[o]n a similar scale [to that suffered by women] many men were
also victims of rape and sexual assault by the Serbian Forces.” 350
These immense strides towards the inclusion of MSV victims in the international law
discourse are marred by the overwhelming focus on female victims and the subsequent lapse
in support for men. International law and human rights law continue to utilize female specific
language. 351 Stemple notes that
Advocacy work for men and boys that operates within a human rights
framework must solely rely on sex-neutral documents such as the
Convention Against Torture and Other Cruel Inhuman or Degrading
Treatment of Punishment, 352 and the International Convention on Civil
and Political Rights, 353 stretching these legal tools to fit a problem for
which they were not explicitly created. These instruments are more
general in nature and leave out the sexual component of this abuse, in
contrast to many of the instruments focused on women and girls. 354
Indeed, international law and legal instruments have developed in a way that excludes men as
victims. 355 Many cases of sexual violence against men are buried under the guise of “abuse”
or “torture” or “mutilation” in international courts. 356 According to Sivakumaran, “the danger
of characterizing sexual violence against men and boys only under the rubric of torture is that
men and boys will continue to be seen as unsusceptible to sexual violence, reinforcing the
view that sexual violence is a problem for women and girls alone.” 357
349
Ibid.
Prosecutor v. Karadzic and Mladic, Trial Chamber, Review of the Indictments pursuant to Rule 61 of the
Rules of Procedure and Evidence, Case No. IT-95-5-R61; IT-95-18-R61, 11 July 1996 at 7 para. 13 cited in
Sivakumaran, “Male/Male Rape,” 1293.
351
Stemple, “Male Rape and Human Rights,” 619.
352
United Nations General Assembly, Convention Against Torture and Other Cruel, Inhuman or Degrading
Treatment or Punishment, United Nations, Treaty Series, vol. 1465, (10 December 1984) 85, cited in Stemple,
“Male Rape and Human Rights,” 637.
353
United Nations General Assembly, International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights, United Nations,
Treaty Series, vol. 999 (16 December 1966) 171 cited in Stemple, “Male Rape and Human Rights,” 637.
354
Stemple, “Male Rape and Human Rights,” 637.
355
Lewis, “Unrecognized Victims,” 2.
356
Sivakumaran, “Male/Male Rape,” 256.
357
Sivakumaran, “Male/Male Rape,” 273.
350
81
Dustin A. Lewis argues that despite gains in recent years, international instruments
continue to conceptualize sexual violence as something perpetrated against women and
children and that field workers are ill prepared to identify and adequately support the needs of
male victims. 358 This is especially true for investigation units of international legal bodies.
Carlson explains that the ICTY’s Sexual Assault Investigation team suffered from many of
the same conceptual issues as service providers. He explains that
[i]investigators tend to have limited time and resources, and they must
screen potential witnesses quickly and efficiently, sometimes over the
telephone. Often, these investigators have to rely on their ‘gut reaction’ to
a victim’s initial claims and descriptions of the alleged crime. If the
investigator’s decision to not pursue a case is based upon a flawed or a
partial understanding of sexual assault—such as the belief that the only
form of male sexual assault is anal rape—then he or she may disregard
crucial testimony, passing over entire camps, villages and regions where
other forms of male sexual assault are the principal crimes.
Thus a contracted understanding of male sexual assault further prohibits MSV from coming
to light in investigations. This is only exacerbated when individual investigators are not
aware of MSV at all. Unlike the experience of the ICTY, international legal bodies cannot
“assume that their investigators, from varied backgrounds in law enforcement, medicine and
human rights, share the same conception of sexual assault.” 359
Some of the reticence exhibited by investigators in accepting assaults as sexual is due
to the fact that they may be considered a ‘normal’ occurrence in peacetime such as in sports
activities. 360 For example, in peacetime, individuals hit in the groin are expected to “take it
like a man.” 361 Additionally, many MSV cases do not produce physically observable
consequences, and many investigators have not been trained to look for symptoms beyond
visible permanent damage. 362 Investigators are also prone to minimize the severity and sexual
358
Lewis, “Unrecognized Victims,” 2.
Carlson, “The Hidden Prevalence of Male Sexual Assault During War,” 18.
360
Ibid., 20.
361
Ibid.
362
Ibid., 21.
359
82
nature of abuse and “reduce it, in their own minds, to a minor form of assault.” 363 Without
recognition of MSV by investigators, international bodies cannot adequately prosecute MSV
perpetrators.
In addition to maintaining a gender-bias in investigation, the ICTY has also
maintained gender-biased implementation and has encouraged a female victim focus in
sexual violence cases. For example in November of 1995, the ICTY met numerous times to
discuss how to handle the issue of rape and rape witnesses. 364 When Dr. Sophie Clarin was
asked to testify she explicitly stated that "men and women were victims of rape." 365 While the
judges asked in detail for Dr. Clarin's views on the treatment of female witnesses in trial, not
once did they ask about the male victims she had mentioned. 366 When the ICTY produced its
mandate outlining a protocol for rape witnesses, it explicitly stated that the "ICTY will
provide safety and confidentiality for all women. 367" As Del Zotto and Jones conclude, “Male
victims were thus omitted, conceptually and de facto, from the trial process.” 368
When these original judges of the tribunal adopted the rules and procedures,
established a Victims and Witnesses Unit, and decided upon counseling and support “cases of
rape and sexual assault,” they also made a point of appointing “qualified women” to the
staff. 369 The emphasis on the inclusion of qualified women shows a remarkable gain for
understanding the needs of female victims, but once again exemplifies the extent to which the
tribunal is focused on female witnesses and victims. The innovative Outreach program also
focuses on female victims. The ‘stories’ highlighted on the ICTY website include both male
and female victims but mention only female survivors of sexual violence. Male narratives
363
Ibid.
Del Zotto and Jones, “Male-on-Male Sexual Violence in Wartime.”
365
Ibid.
366
Ibid.
367
Ibid.
368
Ibid.
369
International Criminal Tribunal for the Former Yugoslavia Rules of Procedure and Evidence, Rule (B), UN
Doc. IT/32 (1994), 33 ILM 484 (1994), 5 May 2012, http://www.icty.org/
364
83
relate only to non-sexual instances of torture, murder and other crimes. This omission, the
provision of female counseling and the hiring of female support staff illustrate the focus of
the tribunal on female victims. The lack of prominent outreach to male victims can only
discourage further participation and may contribute to the reinforcement of certain
stereotypes and norms that cause underreporting.
In addition to lacking sufficient emphasis on male victims in Outreach, the ICTY has
struggled with the differences in gender violence. Unlike women who were often tormented
by their captors directly, men were usually forced to perform sexual acts or assaults on codetainees by their captors. 370 Significant infrastructure to handle the different nature and
execution of these crimes has yet to emerge.
The ICTY’s inability to maintain gender-neutral implementation and its consistent
encouragement of female victim orientation is especially evident in its treatment of MSV
cases. For example, take the case in which five Bosnian Serbs were convicted for atrocities
committed at the notorious Omarska camp in Northwestern Bosnia between April and August
1992. In the words of president judge Almiro Rodrigues, they were found guilty of having
inflicted a "hellish orgy of persecution" on their Muslim and Croat victims. 371 Atrocities
committed were "the sexual assault and rape of Bosnian Muslims, Bosnian Croats and other
non-Serbs in Prijedor municipality, including prisoners in the Omarska, Keraterm and
Trnopolje camps ..." yet all of the rape and sexual assault charges pertained to assaults against
five female prisoners at the Omarska camp. No male victims were cited. 372
370
United Nations Department of Peacekeeping Operations, Review of the Sexual Violence Elements of the
Judgments of the International Criminal tribunal for the Former Yugoslavia, the International Criminal
Tribunal for Rwanda and the Special Court for Sierra Leone in the Light of Security Council Resolution 1820,
(New York: United Nations, 2010): 33, accessed 12 December 2012,
http://www.unrol.org/files/32914_Review%20of%20the%20Sexual%20Violence%20Elements%20in%20the%2
0Light%20of%20the%20Security-Council%20resolution%201820.pdf
371
Del Zotto and Jones, “Male-on-Male Sexual Violence in Wartime.”
372
International Criminal Tribunal for the Former Yugoslavia, Submission of Amended Indictment Pursuant to
Trial Chamber Order of 12 April 1999, accessed 20 March 2012 http://www.un.org/icty/indictment/english/kvo2ai990531e.pdf cited in Del Zotto and Jones, “Male-on-Male Sexual Violence in Wartime.”
84
This case is problematic for many reasons. The first pertains to reports from Helsinki
Watch investigators, which indicated that the overwhelming majority of detainees at Omarska
were male. The organization found that the camps held 2,000 men and between 33-38
women. 373 Furthermore, “abuses that could and should be considered rape and sexual assault
were almost certainly rife against those men interned at Omarska - and very likely occurred
on a far greater scale than rapes and sexual assaults against women.” 374 Unconfirmed
accounts of castrations, semi-castrations, forced sexual intercourse with other inmates and
animals and sexual mutilation were rife. 375 One rumor told that “two men died from their
wounds when they were hanged from a crane and beaten, having previously been forced to
have sexual intercourse with each other and then castrated. Six men have testified
independently to this episode at Omarska." 376 Such accounts may have been exaggerated, but
were completely omitted from the charges in the case.
The ICTY itself had stated that “both female and male prisoners were beaten,
tortured, raped, sexually assaulted, and humiliated” at Omarska in its indictment of Dusko
Tadic and Goran Borovnica. 377 According to Del Zotto and Jones, “[s]uch assaults frequently
caused, or were followed by, death in the case of Omarska's male detainees, though no
woman is known to have died as a result, or in the aftermath, of sexual assault.” 378 Yet, these
MSV cases, including the infamous case of an inmate forced to lick the buttocks and bite off
a testicle of another, who eventually died, were charged as great suffering or serious injury to
373
Helsinki Watch, War Crimes in Bosnia-Herzegovina, Vol. II. (New York: Human Rights Watch 1993), 87,
89 cited in del Zotto and Jones
374
Del Zotto and Jones, “Male-on-Male Sexual Violence in Wartime.”
375
Ibid.
376
Ibid.
377
Ibid.
378
Helsinki Watch, War Crimes in Bosnia-Herzegovina, 113, 154, cited in Del Zotto and Jones, “Male-on-Male
Sexual Violence in Wartime.”
85
body or health, cruel treatment, and inhumane acts, not rape and/or sexual assault. 379 Only in
the case of female detainees were rape and forcible sexual intercourse specifically charged. 380
The ICTR has yet to charge any individual for the rape or sexual assault of men. 381
This is particularly troubling is the ICTR has repeatedly referred to knowledge of MSV
during the genocide. The Trial Chamber I of the Akayesu case at the ICTR recognized that
“rape and sexual violence constitute one of the worst ways of harming the victim as he or she
suffers both bodily and mental harm.” 382 The Bagosora trial judgment even mentioned that
Dellaire had seen “the mutilated genitals of men.” 383 Furthermore, the Prosecution’s Pre-Trial
Brief explicitly states that anticipated relevant witness’ testimony would include evidence
that “[s]ome of the victims were naked, men and women.” 384 Despite this however, the Trial
Chamber found Bagosora guilty of other inhumane acts such as “the stripping of female
refugees.” 385 Similarly, in the Muhumana case, the Trial Chamber of the ICTR recalled that
several witnesses reported that Kabanda’s “private parts had been severed” and his genitals
hung on a spike. 386 In its findings however, the Trial Chamber referred only to Kabanda’s
murder and no more. 387 Ironically, the Niyitegeka trial chamber found the accused guilty of
an inhuman act for encouraging “the killing, decapitation and castration of Kabanda.” 388
Though not recognized as sexual violence in its own right, this is certainly a step in the right
direction.
Unfortunately, the ICTR clearly maintains a female oriented understanding of
victimization. In regards to female judges, former ICTY Judge Navanethyeym Pilley stated,
379
Del Zotto and Jones, “Male-on-Male Sexual Violence in Wartime.”
Ibid.
381
Zawati, “Impunity or Immunity,” 34.
382
Prosecutor v. Akayesu,,Judgment, Case No. ICTR-96-4-T. 2 September 1998, para. 731 cited in Zawati,
“Impunity or Immunity,” 34.
383
Prosecutor v. Bagosora et al, Judgment, para. 1908 cited in Sivakumaran, “Lost in Translation,” 274.
384
Ibid.
385
Ibid.
386
Prosecutor v. Muhimana, Judgment, paras. 448-450 cited in Sivakumaran, “Lost in Translation,” 274.
387
Ibid.
388
Prosecutor v. Niyitegeka, Case No. ICTR-96-14-T, 16 May 2003, paras 462–466, 467 cited in Sivakumaran,
“Lost in Translation,” 275.
380
86
“I do think women come with particular sensitivity and understanding about what happens to
people who get raped.” 389 Once again, employing gender-neutral language by using ‘people’
while clearly implying that rape is a women’s issue.
The Tribunal further emphasizes women during the genocide related findings in the
Akayesu ruling
Indeed, rape and sexual violence certainly constitute infliction of serious
bodily and mental harm on the victims and are even, according to the
Chamber, one of the worst ways to inflict harm on the victim as he or she
suffers both bodily and mental harm. In light of all the evidence before it,
the Chamber I satisfied that the acts of rape and sexual violence described
above, were committed solely against Tutsi women, many of whom were
subjected to the worst public humiliation, mutilated, and raped several
times, often in public…often by more than one assailant. These rapes
resulted in physical and psychological destruction of Tutsi women, their
families and their communities. Sexual violence was an integral part of the
process of destruction, specifically targeting Tutsi women and specifically
contributing to their destruction and to the destruction of the Tutsi group
as a whole…The rape of Tutsi women was systematic and was perpetrated
against all Tutsi women and solely against them. Sexual violence was a
step in the process of destruction of the Tutsi [sic] group- destruction of
the spirit, of the will to live, and of life itself. 390
Again, this passage begins with a gender –neutral understanding of sexual violence but
proceeds to ‘gender’ the term to consider women only. In addition, the court equates sexual
violence with the rape of women. This not only genders the term, but narrows sexual violence
to pertain to rape only, not the many manifestations of sexual violence. We know that sexual
violence was perpetrated against men to some extent in the Rwandan genocide, and that
forced nakedness became a ritual of humiliation prior to killing. There is little recognition
that the destruction of spirit, the will to live, and of life itself could have been inflicted on
male Tutsi victims, as well as female, either through the rape of women or direct sexual
assault of men. This limited understanding of sexual violence further restricts how the court
thinks of victims and potential victims.
389
quoted in Sara Sharratt, Gender, Shame and Sexual Violence: The Voices of Witnesses and Court Members at
War Crimes Tribunals,(Farnham and Burlington: Ashgate Publishing Limited, 2011) 39.
390
Emphasis added. Prosecutor v. Akayesu. Judgment, paras. 731-732 cited in United Nations Department of
Peacekeeping Operations, Review of the Sexual Violence Elements, 48.
87
3.5 Feminist Scholarship
The female oriented function of the abovementioned institutions have been supported
by feminist scholarship that has by and large bought into the feminization of victimization.
Indeed, the Balkan wars in the 1990’s gave the modern feminist movement its first
opportunity to draw extensive attention to the victimization of women in conflict zones. 391
Buoyed by the largely successful movement to confront sexual assault of women in western
societies, feminist attention to the suffering of Balkan women resulted in an extraordinary
surge of scholarly investigation and activism. 392 Feminist efforts to document the causes,
consequences and frequency of violence against women gave the issue saliency and allowed
for governments the UN and NGOs to highlight sexual violence against women as one of the
foremost harms in need of redress. 393
According to Del Zoto and Jones
The results were impressive. Rape was probably the crime that figured
most prominently in international media accounts of the conflict. It
became the subject of numerous fact-finding expeditions, and a principal
focus of NGO organizing and publicizing. It resulted in the decision by the
United Nations Security Council to "recogniz[e] rape as a punishable
offense under international humanitarian law" in drafting the charter for
the International Criminal Tribunal for the Former Yugoslavia
(ICTY) 394… In February 2001, three Bosnian Serb soldiers were
convicted for acts of rape and torture inflicted on Muslim women and girls
by paramilitary forces in the city of Foca in April 1992. The trial saw
"rape ... clearly established as a war crime when used as an instrument of
war and a crime against humanity when it was widespread and
systematic." 395
A clear overtone of the academic work that followed was the general agreement that
the rape of women in highly patriarchal cultures such as the Balkans, functioned as
391
Del Zotto and Jones, “Male-on-Male Sexual Violence in Wartime.”
Ibid.
393
Stemple, “Male Rape and Human Rights,” 626.
394
Theodor Meron, “Rape as a Crime Under International Law,” American Journal of International Law 87, no.
3 (1996) 428 cited in Del Zotto and Jones, “Male-on-Male Sexual Violence in Wartime.”
395
“Historic Trial Makes Rape War Crime,” CNN (22 February 2001) cited in Del Zotto and Jones, “Male-onMale Sexual Violence in Wartime.”
392
88
communications between males. 396 As discussed earlier, this emasculated the community of
males charged with protecting women’s’ “physical and moral integrity.” 397 These analyses
also agreed upon a definition of sexual violence that embodies the concept of the
feminization of victimization. Neglect of MSV victims is evidence in works such as
Alexandra Stiglemayer and Beverly Allen, the two foremost works on wartime rape in the
Balkans written in 1994 and 1996 respectively, where men were always the perpetrators and
women always the victims. In these works, male victims are given a cursory mention, though
strictly in passing and devoid of any serious analysis. 398
By 1994, leading authors such as Rhonda Copelon and Catherine MacKinnon chose
not to ignore male victims, but define sexual violence in a way that is intrinsically male
perpetrated. According to Copelon, “Every rape is an expression of male domination and
misogyny, a vehicle of terrorizing and subordinating women." 399 Similarly, MacKinnon
claims that “rape is a daily act by men against women; it is always an act of domination by
men over women." 400
Yet this female oriented approach certainly served a purpose for the women’s
movement in the 1990s. 401 The violence united women’s groups around an urgent
international cause and drew attention to the subordinate position of women around the
globe. 402 It provided the vehicle to force international recognition that “women’s rights are
396
Del Zotto and Jones, “Male-on-Male Sexual Violence in Wartime.”
Ibid.
398
See Mass Rape: The War against Women in Bosnia-Herzegovina where the only reference to men is in the
Preface by Roy Gutman. It states that “sexual humiliation was not restricted to females; in repeated instances,
men held in detention camps report being forced to commit sexual acts on each other and to witness public
castrations that prisoners had to carry out against each other." Roy Gutman, Preface of Alexandra Stiglmayer
(ed.), Mass Rape: The War Against Women in Bosnia-Herzegovina, (Lincoln: University of Nebraska Press,
1994). Also See Beverly Allen, Rape Warfare, 116-117.
399
Rhonda Copelon, “Surfacing Gender: Reconceptualizing Crimes against Women in time of War,” in
Stiglmayer, Mass Rape, 213; emphasis added cited in Del Zotto and Jones, “Male-on-Male Sexual Violence in
Wartime.”
400
Catharine A. MacKinnon, “Rape, Genocide, and Women's Human Rights,” in Stiglmayer, Mass Rape, 18889; second emphasis added, cited in Del Zotto and Jones, “Male-on-Male Sexual Violence in Wartime.”
401
Stemple, “Male Rape and Human Rights,” 627.
402
Ibid.
397
89
human rights.” 403 The belated response of the UN and international community was to frame
sexual violence as a women’s issue. 404
Perhaps if women’s concerns had been addressed at the onset of the human rights
movement, sexual violence may have taken a more comprehensive form. 405 Such an
overcorrection may be natural, but should not overshadow the affects it has had on the male
gender. By offering no criticism of the abovementioned institutions concerning their lack of
attention to MSV and by systematically ignoring and excluding male victims from their
analyses, scholars only encouraged the isolation of male victims.
3.6 Conclusion
Despite the widespread nature of wartime sexual violence against men, survivors
struggle to find visibility and aid in the female oriented arena of ‘sexual’ and ‘gender-based
violence.’ Wartime MSV has been systematically ignored and rejected in favor of the concept
of feminization of victimization. This concept is shockingly pervasive in the very institutions
that could provide much needed attention to male victims. Perhaps the largest organization
that claims to uphold human rights is the United Nations, and yet it has continuously ignored
male victims in favor of highlighting the plight of women in war zones. NGOs have also
upheld this ‘gendered’ view of gender-based violence’ by neglecting men as a victim group,
and have actively ignored or refused to help male survivors. Many individual service
providers struggle to recognize men as possible victims and further inhibit assistance to MSV
survivors. Journalists, the eternal watchdogs, has failed to highlight the issue. Moreover, both
national and international legal entities have failed to provide male victims with legal
platforms and frameworks for legal recourse. Scholars largely overlooked the fact that men
403
Arvonne S. Fraser, “Becoming Human: The Origins and Development of Women’s Human Rights,” in Bert
B. Lockwood (ed.), Women’s Rights: A Human Rights Quarterly Reader 3, (Johns Hopkins University Press,
2006) 52 cited in Stemple, “Male Rape and Human Rights,” 627.
404
Stemple, “Male Rape and Human Rights,” 627.
405
Ibid.
90
were not included in the circle of victims and exacerbated their exclusion by defining sexual
violence as exclusively male on female. With all of these avenues for support barred, it is no
wonder that wartime MSV has been overlooked in favor of female oriented sexual violence
services.
91
4.0 Changing Tides and ‘Ungendering’ Sexual Violence.
Despite longtime ignorance, there appears to be an increasing interested in the plight
of male victims in time of armed conflict. 406 Aid providers, media, law and academics have,
in the past decade begun to explore sexual victimization of men, which has translated to a
recognized need for more information. Besides data collection, increased visibility, support
services and legal platforms are necessary as well as a reconstruction of masculinity that
allows for male victimization and homosexuality.
4.1 Changing Tides
There is no mistaking that MSV in wartime as well as in peacetime is gaining
increased recognition. The infamous Abu Ghraib photos and Catholic Priest scandal in the
US are evidence of this growing interest. 407 Only in the past decade have significant scholarly
works focused on the subject. 408 Undeniably, the UN, media and international law all exhibit
growing awareness of this issue.
Though they have been slow to address it, the UN has recently begun to acknowledge
wartime sexual violence against men. The mere fact that the sentence “men and boys are also
subject to sexual violence” has appeared in UN reports reflects a growing consciousness in
406
Sivakumaran, “Lost in translation,” 260.
Ibid.
408
Some references may be found in earlier works but detailed analyses only began to emerge in the 2000s. See
R. Charli Carpenter, “Recognizing Gender-Based Violence Against Civilian Men and Boys in Conflict
Situations,” 2006; Del Zotto and Jones, “Male-on-Male Sexual Violence in Wartime,” 2002; Adam Jones (ed.),
Gendercide and Genocide, (Vanderbilt University Press, 2004); Adam Jones, Gender Inclusive: Essays on
Violence, Men and Feminist International Relations (London and New York: Routledge, 2009); Lewis,
“Unrecognized Victims.” 2001; Wynne Russell, “Sexual Violence Against Men and Boys,” in Forced
Migration Review, no. 27 (2007): 22–23; Sivakumaran, “Lost in Translation: UN Responses to Sexual Violence
Against Men and Boys in Situations of Armed Conflict,” 2010; Sivakumaran, “Male/Male Rape and the ‘Taint’
of Homosexuality,” 2005; Sivakumaran “Sexual Violence Against Men In Armed Conflict,” 2007;
Sivakumaran, “Sexual Violence against Men in Armed Conflict,” 2007; Zarkov, “The Body of the Other Man”,
2001. For work done in the 1990’s see Adam Jones, “Gender and Ethnic Conflict in ex- Yugoslavia,” Ethnic
and Racial Studies 17, no. 1 (1994) 115–134.
407
92
the international community. 409 The UN also shows sings of thinking critically about male
victimization. For example, in 2008 the Secretary-General noted in his report on children and
armed conflict in Afghanistan that, “[t]here are a number of substantive reports of children,
especially boys, being sexually abused and exploited by members of the armed forces and
armed groups.” 410 In the same year? Context. a groundbreaking step, the World Health
Organization recognized that
While some legal and social networks, however rudimentary, may exist for
women and girls who have been sexually attacked, there is rarely anything
comparable for male victims. In some countries, the legally defined crime
of rape may only apply to women. Like women, men may experience
profound humiliation, and they may also experience a sense of confusion
about their sexuality. In addition, in societies where men are discouraged
from talking about their emotions, they may find it even more difficult than
women to acknowledge what has happened to them. For these reasons, it is
suspected that the reported cases of sexual violence against males are a
fraction of the true number of cases. ... There may be an underlying
incidence of sexual violence against adult males, adolescents and young
boys, which continues or escalates during conflict or displacement. In
addition, rape of men and boys may occur during armed conflict as an act
of domination by an opposing military group, and sexual violence against
men and boys may occur in prison or detention. Adolescent boys may be at
greatest risk in all of these circumstances. 411
This statement shows profound understanding of MSV, the resulting consequences and the
barriers to assistance. Louise Aubin, a UN Refugee Agency (UNHCR) manager in charge of
protection, exhibited similar understanding when she admitted that “segments of the
population [such as men], who may be victims of sexual violence, have been neglected,” on
27 July 2011 in relation to the non-inclusion of raped men in programmes.” 412 Similar
409
United Nations Secretary-General, Women, Peace and Security: Study Submitted by the Secretary-General
pursuant to Security Council Resolution 1325, (United Nations, 2002) 16, para. 59., 28 April 2012,
www.un.org/womenwatch/daw/public/eWPS.pdf cited in Sivakumaran, “Lost in Translation,” 260.
410
Sivakumaran, “Lost in Translation,” 260.
411
World Health Organization, Reproductive Health During Conflict and Displacement, cited in Del Zotto and
Jones, “Male-on-Male Sexual Violence in Wartime.”
412
Integrated Regional Information Networks, Democratic Republic of the Congo – Uganda.
93
statements have been made by various UN entities and is evidence of a shift beginning in UN
policies. 413
Recently, NGOs have also showed signs of incorporating MSV into their activities.
For example, in 2006, the three-year old Association "Women-Victims of War," began to
include male victims of harassment and rape. Since then, they have been collecting testimony
and evidence concerning MSV during the Balkan conflict. Similarly, the Association of
Camp Inmates of Bosnia and Herzegovina, (ACIBiH) has launched an initiative to expand
legislation governing civilians who suffered during the war, in order to encompass male
victims of sexual abuse. 414
Perhaps even more encouraging is the growing interest of individual service providers to
address sexual violence against men in conflict. Beginning “in the 1980s, pioneering research
was done on sexual torture of political prisoners in Greece, 415 Chile 416 and El Salvador 417 by
doctors and psychologists who had personal contact with male survivors.” 418 Work cited in
this thesis by Loncar et al and Oosterhoff et al in Croatia, and Johnson et al, in the DRC were
also completed in 2010, 419 2004 and 2010 respectively.
Media have also begun to investigate rumors of male sexual violence victims.
According to Sivakumaran in
the period 2007–9 alone, there have been reports of male sexual violence,
primarily rape and sexual mutilation, in the armed conflicts in the Central
African Republic, Chechnya, Democratic Republic of the Congo, Iraq, and
413
See Sivakumaran, “Lost in Translation,” 262 for more examples.
Ahmetasevic, “The Last Taboo.”
415
G. Daugaard, et al. “Sequelae to Genital Trauma in Torture Victims,” Systems Biology in Reproductive
Medicine 10, no. 3 (1983): 245-48 cited in Oosterhoff et al, “Sexual Torture of Men in Croatia and Other
Conflict Situations,” 68.
416
Anna Julia Cienfuegos and Cristina Monelli, “The Testimony of Political Repression as a Therapeutic
Instrument.” American Journal of Orthopsychiatry 54, no. 1 (1983): 43-51 and R. Domingues and E. Weinstein,
“Aiding victims of Political Repression in Chile: a Psychotherapeutic Approach.” Tidsskrift for Norsk
Psychologforening 24, no. 2 (1987) 75-81 cited in Oosterhoff et al, “Sexual Torture of Men in Croatia and Other
Conflict Situations,” 68.
417
Inger Agger, “Sexual Torture of Political Prisoners: An Overview.” Journal of Traumatic Stress 2 (1989):
305-18 cited in Oosterhoff et al, “Sexual Torture of Men in Croatia and Other Conflict Situations,” 68.
418
Oosterhoff et al, “Sexual Torture of Men in Croatia and Other Conflict Situations,” 68-69.
419
Some of this research was initially done in 1992. However the project was not completed until 2010.
414
94
Sri Lanka, in events relating to the ‘war on terror,’ and in post-election
violence in Iran and Kenya. 420
Not only are MSV victims mentioned briefly in articles pertaining to sexual violence against
women, such as the New York Times articles mentioned in chapter 3, but they are becoming
topics of articles in their own right. The New York Times published an op-ed by Lara
Stemple on 1 March 2011 titled, “The Hidden Victims of Wartime Rape.” 421 This followed
an in-depth article in 2009 titled “Symbol of Unhealed Congo: Male Rape Victims,” in which
Geffrey Gettlmen wrote in depth about the plight of male rape victim in the DRC. 422 Al
Jazeera also published an article on 28 June 2011 called “The Silent Male Victims of
Rape.” 423 Will Storr published a powerful article in the Guardian called “The Rape of Men,”
that focused on the work of the RLP in Uganda and their work with Congolese refugees in
July of 2011. 424
Beyond the broad interest in MSV, media have also shown increased interest in male
rape specifically in the DRC. Nearly all the articles mentioned above include references to
male rape in DRC, if not focusing solely on it. Similar interest has arisen in smaller news
media such as the Voice of American, AFP as well as social media. 425 If we use media as a
social barometer, it is clear that interest is slowly increasing worldwide.
Perhaps the most encouraging sign of turning tides is the growing recognition of MSV
victims by legal entities. The DRC’s recent extension of the crime of rape to include male
420
Sivakumaran, “Lost in Translation,” 264-265.
Lara Stemple, “The Hidden Victim of Wartime Rape,” The New York Times, 1 March 2011, accessed 26
April 2012
http://www.nytimes.com/2011/03/02/opinion/02stemple.html?scp=7&sq=sexual+violence+congo&st=nyt.
422
Gettleman, “Symbol of Unhealed Congo.”
423
“The Silent Male Victims of Rape,” Al Jazeera, 28 July 2011, accessed 26 April 2012
http://www.aljazeera.com/programmes/insidestory/2011/07/2011728101626315380.html
424
Storr, “The Rape of Men.”
425
“Congo’s Male Rape Victims Speak Out,” AFP, 30 April 2009, accessed 26 April 2012,
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OGz3VkcLgkk, Heather Murdock, “Rape in Congo Devastates Male
Victims,” Voice of America, 17 November 2011, accessed 26 April 2012
http://www.voanews.com/content/rape-in-congo-devastates-male-victims-134117048/148375.html
421
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victims is just one example of this hopeful trend. 426 On the international scale, the ICC
provides the most encouragement for large-scale change. The Rome Statute of the
International Criminal Court (ICC Statute) contains one of the few legal definitions of the
term “gender,” as it states that “[f]or the purposes of this Statute, it is understood that the
term ‘gender’ refers to the two sexes, male and female, within the context of society. The
term ‘gender’ does not indicate any meaning different from the above.” 427
In addition to treating some sexual violence crimes as war crimes and crimes against
humanity, the definition of rape includes gender inclusive language, defining this particular
crime against humanity as “the perpetrator invaded the body of a person by conduct resulting
in penetration, however slight, of any part of the body of the victim or of the perpetrator with
a sexual organ, or of the anal or genital opening of the victim with any object or any other
part of the body.” 428
As Sivakumarn states, “it is to be hoped that the… (ICC) will take an altogether more
inclusive approach to the question of sexual violence, with the Office of the Prosecutor
(OTP) bringing charges against in individuals and Chambers adjudicating the matters using
appropriate language.” 429
There are certainly positive developments in this respect. The OTP observed that,
‘”[c]redible reports indicate that rape has been committed against civilians, including
instances of rape of elderly women, young girls and men” in its background note on the
Situation in the Central African Republic. 430 In addition, the OTP alleged that Jean-Pierre
Bemba committed crimes against humanity and war crimes “through acts of rape upon
426
Russell, “Sexual Violence Against Men and Boys,” 23.
United Nations General Assembly, Rome Statute of the International Criminal Court, last amended January
2002, (17 July 1998) A/CONF. 183/9, Article 7(3) accessed 2 May 2012,
http://www.unhcr.org/refworld/docid/3ae6b3a84.htm
428
International Criminal Court, Elements of Crimes for the International Criminal Court, UN Doc. ICCASP/1/3 (2 November 2000), Article 7(1)(g)-1 cited in Stemple, “Male Rape and Human Rights,” 643.
429
Sivakumaran, “Lost in Translation,” 275.
430
Office of the Prosecutor, “Background: Situation in the Central African Republic,” International Criminal
Court, ICC-OTP-BN-20070522-220-A_EN, (22 May 2007) cited in Sivakumaran, “Lost in Translation,” 275-6.
427
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civilian men, women and children” and “by inflicting severe physical or mental pain or
suffering through acts of rape or other forms of sexual violence, upon civilian men, women
and children.” 431 In the statement of facts in support of the charges the OTP claims that
‘[m]en, women and children were raped by multiple MLC perpetrators in their homes, raped
in front of family members, forced to watch rapes of family members, and raped in public
locations including streets, fields and farms” and that “[m]en were also raped as a deliberate
tactic to humiliate civilian men, and demonstrate their powerlessness to protect their
families.” 432
The innovative Trust Fund for Victims, has also shown considerable growth in MV
recognition. In its Donor Appeal to assist victims of sexual violence, the Trust Fund for
Victims purposefully drew attention to sexual violence against men and boys. The Donor
Appeal specifically stated that although “it is well known that armed conflict and sexual
violence against women and girls often go hand in hand,” “[w]hat is less widely recognised is
that armed conflict and its aftermath also bring sexual danger for men and boys.” 433 The
dangers faced by men and boys in armed conflict, as well as the functions of sexual abuse
have also been highlighted by the Trust Fund. 434 Moreover, “women’s rights advocates can
be credited with pushing for progress toward a gender-inclusive understanding of sexual
violence at the ICC.” 435
431
Prosecutor v. Jean-Pierre Bemba Gombo, Pre-Trial Chamber III, Case No. ICC-01/05-01/08, (30 March
2009) counts 1-4, cited in Sivakumaran, “Lost in Translation,” 275-6.
432
Ibid., “Charges”, para. 39; Ibid., para. 41 cited in Sivakumaran, “Lost in Translation,” 275-6.
433
The Trust Fund for Victims Board of Directors Donor Appeal, “Rehabilitating and Supporting Survivors of
Sexual Violence,” International Criminal Court (10 September 2008) cited in Sivakumaran, “Lost in
Translation,” 276.
434
Statement by Yakin Ertürk at the SIDA Conference on Gender-Based Violence, (Stockholm, 12 September
2008), cited in Sivakumaran, “Lost in Translation,” 276.
435
Stemple, “Male Rape and Human Rights” 643.
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4.2 ‘Ungendering’ Sexual Violence
It is clear that this burgeoning recognition of wartime MSV exhibited above must be
supported and nurtured in order to redress the significant lapse in recognition of this human
rights violation. There are several approaches that may hold the key to the ‘ungendering’ of
sexual and gender-based violence and the inclusion of men into this victim group. Without a
doubt, systematic collection of data is vital. Much like the early feminists who called for
research into the mass and systematic rape in the Balkans, we must undertake to comprehend
the pervasiveness of wartime MSV. Of course, a general consensus cannot be expected, but
there should nevertheless be a basis of understanding from which further research and
scholarship can be done. This is based on the assumption that broader academic and public
recognition of wartime MSV will also result in the increased ability of male survivors to
come forward, seek help and make public their trauma, thus allowing for physical and
emotional healing.
Ultimately, more attention paid to MSV and broad recognition of the problem as well
as increased funding and services to victims is crucial. This means increased pressure on the
UN, NGO’s and individual services providers to become familiar with work already
conducted on the subject, increase outreach to potential victims and avail themselves to
survivors. Educational programs both to aid providers and service populations regarding sex,
gender and sexuality would also be beneficial. Additional programs must be created to
support this heretofore neglected victim group. Furthermore, programs claiming to address
wartime sexual violence must be expanded and altered to include male victims. National and
international media should also be included and encouraged increase coverage on the issue.
Perhaps the most important change that must be made is to make sexual violence a
‘man’s’ issue. This takes several forms but serves to remove the most crucial barrier to
inclusive definitions of sexual and gender based violence. Once sexual violence is understood
98
as something that can and does happen to men, the concept of feminization of victimization is
shattered. Men must be thought of as potential victims, both by at-risk groups and by the
larger society.
The need to make MSV a ‘man’s’ issue is abundantly clear, as in the current climate,
male victims seek women as individuals who will understand their victimization. In
Anderson’s study, he found that many MSV victims identified with women “in a common
experience of suppression.” 436 One survivor stated, “I feel like I have much more in common
with women’s way of thinking, maybe particularly in relation to other people. I simply define
myself as a woman” though he did not share women’s interest in men. 437 Thus victims
identify with women not in sexual terms, but as co-potential victims.
Furthermore, Oosterhoff et al suggests that the female therapist in the study may have
attracted survivors. They argue that rather than “bring[ing] more survivors out of the closet”
she “gather[ed] more survivors into her group,” meaning that MSV survivors gravitated to the
female therapist more so than the male therapists. 438 This evidences a deep-seated
understanding of women as victims and a sense that “interlocutors who are unaware of or
uncomfortable with the possibility of” sexual violence “may fail to discover… and
inadvertently deter survivors from seeking medical... remedies.” 439 Reaching out to females
illustrates the complete lack of confidence MSV victims have towards men to recognize and
understand their trauma. By identifying sexual violence as affecting men and allowing for a
boarder interpretation of manliness, MSV victims would be free to approach service
providers regardless of gender.
In order to incorporate men into victim groups, it is crucial that sexual violence be
understood within a new framework and be extricated from the constricting women’s rights
436
Andersen, “Speaking About the Unspeakable,” 31.
Ibid.
438
Oosterhoff et al, “Sexual Torture of Men in Croatia and Other Conflict Situations,” 74.
439
Ibid.
437
99
construction. In essence, survivors must be viewed as victims in their own right, not as a
subcategory of feminized sexual violence. Part of identifying MSV is recognizing that it is a
parallel, yet different phenomenon than that perpetrated against women. Matthew Parynik
Mendel argues that “principles appropriate to female victimization are inappropriate when
working with males and may do more harm than good. Treated as some kind of female
subcategory, sexually abused men become invisible.” 440 Perceiving sexual violence under the
rubric of ‘health rights’ or ‘sexual rights’ would allow for “new theoretical linkages to be
made, as well as an important broadening of the response to the problem.” 441 However,
‘sexual rights’ as a concept does not exist in any UN instrument and are drastically
underdeveloped in international human rights philosophy. 442
Men must also be included in the sexual violence arena. Male figures should be
included in positions such as staff for the Victims and Witnesses Unit at the ICTY and the
UN Special Representative on Sexual Violence in Conflict as well as within the larger human
rights community. In order to deconstruct the feminization of victimization, male figures
must be included in the sexual violence discussion. Making it a ‘man’s issue’ requires not
only input from men, but male leadership and visibility.
A shift must also occur at the individual level and thus changes in how wartime MSV
is perceived and treated is essential. Men must not only be seen as potential victims, but they
must also understand themselves as victims. This change that affects the survivors must occur
on the individual level. In attempting to find alternative methods of understanding, it may be
helpful to draw on solutions identified for peacetime MSV. In his article about sexually
abused males, Torbjorn Herlof Anderson calls for alternative discourses of ‘manliness,’
which ultimately includes the reshaping of language. He argues that
440
Matthew Parynik Mendel, The male survivor: The Impact of Sexual Abuse. (Thousand Oaks, CA: Sage
Publications 1995) 92 cited in Andersen, “Speaking About the Unspeakable,” 25.
441
Stemple, “Male Rape and Human Rights,” 641.
442
Ibid.
100
normative discourse suggests silence to maintain manly honor.
Conversely, openness is the very basis for developing a new sense of self
and reclaiming self-worth… Unmasking the deceptive evaluation based on
normative manliness is difficult but essential. Granting oneself the victim
position removed the reason for shame and relocates the responsibility and
blame. 443
Once survivors admitted that they were victims, they offered a variety of gender-blind
constructions of ‘manliness.’ This gave rise to discourses that challenged the “normative
frame of reference,” or the idea that sexual victimization was incompatible with manliness. 444
Furthermore, “sexually abused males tend to feel marginalized and different. However, when
given the opportunity, they offer alternative discourses of manliness with the potential for
bringing sexually abused males out of the shadows.” 445 The shift in language and ultimately
the concept of ‘manliness’ will thus allow for male victims to reshape their own ideas of
victimization, for personal and societal recognition of trauma and aid in the personal and
communal healing process.
Part of reshaping concepts of ‘manliness’ is acceptance of homophobia. Because
“underreporting results from the shame, confusion, guilt, fear, and stigma that flow from
imputing a homosexual and/or feminine identity,” prevailing homophobia in societies must
be addressed. This is crucial due to the ways in which male rape in particular, is largely
viewed and constructed as homosexual. As previously discusses, hetero-sexuality became an
essential part of hegemonic masculinity while at the same time, a male-rape victim is
implicitly and at times, legally considered homosexual. Thus by altering the negative
connotations of homosexuality, feelings of stigma, fear and inferiority can be reduced.
Perhaps part of reshaping concepts of manliness is further exploring the nuanced
relationship between militarism/hetero-nationality/masculinity and variables of gender, sex,
443
Andersen, “Speaking About the Unspeakable,” 34.
Ibid., 31.
445
Ibid., 25.
444
101
ethnicity, race and social class. 446 According to Adam Jones, “We need to understand better
the fluid, shifting, and contingent character of hegemonic masculinity through history.” 447
Further exploration should also include use of gendered language and propaganda prior to
outbreaks of war and genocide. 448 They may provide insights as to how masculine identities
of perpetrators and victims are utilized and feminized “as a prelude to victimization or
extermination.” 449
Men should also be provided with legal platforms via gender-neutral sexual violence
definitions and execution. This should begin with recognition that existing international law
may enforce certain stereotypes that lead to underreporting of wartime MSV. Not only must
the legal code be made to recognize the victimization of men, but law enforcement officials
and courts must come to protect and defend male victims. This process is two fold. Firstly
criminalizing attacks targeting an individual’s “perceived, imputed, or actual” sexuality will
weaken the destructive stereotypes regarding hetero and homo-sexuality in wartime. 450 This
signifies that sexual violence against men is just as serious, and will be prosecuted as such, as
sexual violence against women. 451 Secondly, sexual violence against men must be recognized
as sexual violence in its own right, not subsumed by other categories such as ‘abuse’ or
‘torture.’ Legal norms regarding rape should be applied to MSV in order to reflect the
seriousness and scope of sexual violence against men. 452 This is true for both local and
international legal systems.
446
There are certainly significant works on this theme including those by R.W. Connell, Michael Kimmel,
Lynne Segal, Terrell Carver and Charlotte Hooper. But further research as to the relationship between
hegemonic masculinity and genocide will allow for the maturity of this theme.
447
Adam Jones, “Straight as a Rule: Heteronormativity, Gendercide, and Non-combatant Male,” in Adam Jones,
Gender Inclusive: Essays on Violence, Men and Feminist International Relations (London and New York:
Routledge, 2009), 303. Originially published in Men and Masculinities 8, (2006).
448
Ibid.
449
Ibid.
450
Lewis, “Unrecognized Victims,” 48-9.
451
Ibid.
452
Ibid.
102
4.3 Conclusion
In spite of the consistent disregard for wartime MSV by local and international
players, change is slowly occurring. What is most striking is the growing acknowledgement
of men as victims of sexual violence in conflict zones. To support these developments steps
must be taken both by local and international communities to nurture this interest. The key
component is ‘ungendering’ sexual violence by increasing the visibility of survivors, research
and data collection, aid service programming and education. Recognizing sexual violence as
a ‘man’s’ issue is vital. In order to do so, masculinity must be reconstructed to recognize
victimization, homosexuality and dialogue.
103
5.0 Conclusion
In the chapters above, we have discussed not only sexual violence in wartime, but
sexual violence against men. As they have outlined, MSV distinctly tied changing gender
identities and the fusion of individual gender identity and national identities. As gender roles
fluctuate, masculine and feminine identities polarize. For women, motherhood and sexuality
are celebrated feminine identities while hyper militarized, hetero-national hegemonic
masculinity is championed. In consequence, the corresponding feminine and masculine
identities of the ‘Other’ are undermined via sexual violence.
Specifically, sexual violence against men functions in specific ways as perpetrators
seek to emasculate, humiliate, disempower, feminize, make impotent, and homosexualize
their ‘enemies.’ Not only does sexual violence often result in feelings of powerlessness, but
it can lead to serious psychosocial, sexual, psychological and physical challenges.
Though comprehensive data collection is lacking, the information available points to
widespread MSV throughout both the Balkan and Great Lakes regions. Sexual violence has
taken many forms in these regions and patterns of perpetration are vaguely discernable,
including frequency in detention camps in the Balkans and perpetrator groups in the DRC.
Types and frequency are also identifiable. However, this knowledge is not new as
authoritative accounts such as the Bassiouni report included many references to MSV.
Despite the prevalence and knowledge of wartime MSV in these regions and the
international recognition of MSV, the plight of male victims has not been championed by the
systems in place meant to provide, guard and defend human rights and justice. In fact, the
opposite has occurred. The concept of feminization of victimizations, or the belief that
females are the targets of male sexual violence perpetrators, pervades the possible conduits
for aid for and accounts of abuse. Social and communal stigma, taboos and homophobia serve
as perhaps the largest barrier for MSV survivors. Societal rejection and fears about the ‘taint’
104
of homosexuality combined with an inability to conceive of men as victims of MSV hamper
reports. The UN, non-governmental Organizations (NGOs) and aid providers also struggle
with identifying men as possible and real victims of MSV. Most programs are directed to
women and some entities even fear and reject the inclusion of males into their programs.
Instead of identifying this trend, media have for the most part reported on female victims.
Similarly, local and international law and scholars have largely abandoned wartime MSV
survivors. In addition to enduring local legal systems that outlaw homosexual relationships,
international mechanisms failed to adequately handle MSV and continuously advocate for
further feminization of the concept of sexual violence. Many feminist scholars have
supported such developments and continue to do so. The combined efforts of these entities in
favor of female sexual violence victims has systematically disenfranchised male victims and
results in the exclusion of men from programs that might provide aid and assistance. In
addition, men are excluded from gendered discussions, which see women as the only
‘gendered’ beings. Men are thus ungendered, and subsequently excluded from various efforts
such as UN activities against gender-based violence.
The final chapter illuminated that, however belated and protracted, attention is slowly
increasing as to wartime MSV. The UN, NGOs, individual aid providers, media and legal
platforms are finally starting to address this widespread problem. There are many steps that
must be taken to encourage this interest. Data collection is vital, as is increased aid outreach,
services, education and programs for men. Increased visibility and coverage by media will
only increase recognition of this issue by the international community, at-risk men and
survivors. These steps seek to allow male victims to come forward, seek help and begin the
process of dialogue and healing. Perhaps the most crucial and difficult step in this process of
change is reconstructing masculinity to allow for homosexuality and male victimization.
Sexual violence must be understood as ‘mans’ problem, by recognizing sexual violence
105
against men and creating a new sphere in which MSV survivors can operate. This sphere
must be distinctly different than that of the female sexual violence framework. Part of this
process is endeavoring to better understand how hegemonic masculinity is related to gender
and genocide. Finally, legal frameworks must be reconstructed to provide legal platforms for
survivors and potential victims.
These changes will not bring an end to wartime MSV. The presence of wartime
sexual violence against men has been documented in various cultures from the ancient world
to the present. Unfortunately, such practices may not be eradicated by the efforts of
international humanitarian law advocates, academics, aid providers, politicians or leaders on
the ground. What can be changed is the preparation for, responses to and care of survivors as
well as attempts to curtail perpetration and impunity for these crimes. Perhaps then, we may
count progress on our inventory of achievements.
106
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