Bosnian War’s Wicked Women Get Off Lightly

Not one woman has yet faced trial before a Bosnian court for war crimes, even though many victims of horrific crimes committed in the 1992-95 war in Bosnia have spoken in the witness box about the “ladies” who they say tortured them.Many victims say they well remember the faces and names of the women who, in some instances, appear to have been far crueler than their male abusers. Today, these victims wonder why none has been called to account for their allegedly shocking crimes.Of the various prosecutors’ offices in Bosnia and Herzegovina, four are conducting investigations into about 40 women suspected of involvement in war crimes. The remaining 13 offices are not conducting any such investigations.While prosecutors’ offices say many female war-crime suspects are just not available to the judicial authorities, BIRN – Justice Report has learned that some women associated with war crimes are, in fact, employed in major state institutions, such as the tax office.Experts say the lack of indictments against women may reflect the fact that, in general, women carried out far fewer crimes than men. But they also say there is no doubt that some women “succumbed to the general aggressive atmosphere” and the prevailing ideology.“On average, far fewer women commit crimes than men,” Ismet Dizdarevic, a social psychologist, said. “But those women who do opt for such acts sometimes commit much more drastic, severe and sadistic crimes than those committed by men,” he added.Biljana Plavsic, former president of the Bosnian Serb entity, the Republika Srpska, is the only woman to have faced trial for war crimes committed in Bosnia, though not before a Bosnian court but before the International Criminal Tribunal for Former Yugoslavia, ICTY, in the Hague.After she admitted guilt in 2003, the ICTY sentenced her to 11 years in prison for her role in persecuting and murdering thousands of people. She was released in October 2009 after serving two-thirds of her sentence.From alleged torturer to civil servant:Although the State Prosecutor’s Office claims it is working on investigations into 28 women, it has yet to raise a single indictment, nor it is known whether it will indict any women soon.Of all the prosecutors’ offices, the District Prosecutor’s Office in Doboj has gone furthest in this field. In 2007, for example, it indicted Indira Vrbanjac Kameric for crimes committed in Bosanski Brod.Kameric was named as one of the commanders of a women’s detention camp housed in the Polet sports stadium in Bosanski Brod.That year, the State Prosecutor’s Office took over the case. But, citing concerns for “professional standards and prosecutorial ethic”, it declines to say when the investigation into Kameric will be finished or whether an indictment will be raised.To the dismay of former detainees in Bosanski Brod, Kameric still works as a civil servant in Bosnia. BIRN – Justice Report learned that Kameric works for the Cantonal Tax Office in the town of Tuzla. We tried to contact her but in vain. The tax office said she was on sick leave.While the investigation is in progress, her alleged victims from the Bosanski Brod area are reluctant to talk publicly about the case. Some say they made many statements in the past, but with no effect.“If we had the rule of law here, she would have been imprisoned long ago,” said one former detainee in the camp in Brod who now belongs to an organisation of former detainees and spoke to many of the women formerly held in Polet.“She used to take women to the front line where countless soldiers raped them all night,” this anonymous source said. “Can you imagine what a woman looks like after 20 men in one night raped her?”He said he was deeply disappointed that “criminals like Indira are still walking round the town, provoking people”, adding that the prosecutors’ offices “are not doing their job”.She looked like a little girl:Among the most infamous women war criminals from the Bosnian war is Monika Simonovic, from Brcko.
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