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Kosovo War Rape Survivor Comes Forward, Demands Justice

Edlira Bllaca

   PRISTINA - A woman alleging she was raped by Serbian forces during the
   Kosovo War filed a criminal complaint Monday with the country's Special
   Prosecution's Office, asking that her attacker be prosecuted.

   Shyhrete Tahiri-Sylejmani became only the second among an estimated
   20,000 raped during the 1998-1999 war to publicly recount her
   experience.

   "I am here with you to share with you the pain I have in my soul," she
   said in front of reporters and TV cameras in Kosovo's capital,
   Pristina. "I represent all mothers, brothers, sisters, daughters that
   suffer the same pain. I want to give them courage. It is never easy.
   Think of the kind of pain that shatters your heart and it can never be
   healed again. I am here to demand justice."

   Feride Rushiti of the Kosovo Rehabilitation Center for Torture Victims,
   who stood beside Tahiri-Sylejmani, expressed dismay that justice still
   eludes the victims and that those who committed rape and other war
   crimes are still at large.

   "These crimes remain unpunished. That is why we are here today to
   demand justice for the 20,000 women, men, girls and boys who have
   experienced this crime, horror, torture and mistreatment during the
   war," she said.

   Public faces of survivors

   In October 2018, Vasfije Krasniqi Goodman became Kosovo's first
   survivor of wartime rape to publicly accuse her alleged attackers and
   tell her story.

   In April of this year, she recounted her harrowing experiences in
   testimony before the [1]U.S. House Foreign Affairs Committee, urging
   that justice be served.

   "I remember everything," she said. "He [the attacker] held me at
   gunpoint, abused and raped me repeatedly. I was so shocked and
   exhausted that I lost consciousness. I would regain consciousness and
   cry with no control begging him to kill me. He said, 'No. I won't
   because you will suffer more this way.' In all honesty, I did suffer a
   lot."

   Krasniqi Goodman offered her support for Tahiri-Sylejmani on Monday,
   saying she "could always count on her and her family's support."

   Since telling her story, Krasniqi Goodman has become an advocate for
   justice for survivors of sexual violence in war.

References

   1. https://foreignaffairs.house.gov/2019/4/kosovo-s-wartime-victims-the-quest-for-justice

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