Three Bosnian Serbs guilty of rape

Dragoljub Kunarac - sentenced to 28 years in prison

The International War Crimes Tribunal in The Hague has found three Bosnian Serbs guilty of forcing Muslim women into sexual slavery in the town of Foca during the first months of the conflict in Bosnia Hercegovina.

In the first verdict, Dragoljub Kunarac was found guilty on several counts of rape and torture and was sentenced to 28 years imprisonment.

The presiding judge said he had raped the women because they were Muslims and had shown the most glaring abuse of their dignity and human rights.

In the second verdict, Radomir Kovac was found guilty of rape and enslavement and given a 20 year sentence.

The third defendant, Zoran Vukovic, was found guilty of rape and torture and sentenced to 12 years in prison.

Crime against humanity

The case marks the first time that the tribunal has considered rape as a crime against humanity.

In 1992 and 1993, when the events occured, human rights groups named Foca, in the south-east of the country, as the heart of darkness, where the women and girls, some as young as 12, were kept at a school, a sports hall, a motel and private homes.

The indictment said that they were subjected to a pattern of sexual assault by Bosnian Serb soldiers, and the prosecution argued that the Bosnian Serb army used systematic rape as a weapon of war in a state policy of ethnic cleansing.

But the defence said there was no evidence to prove this. The accused denied the charges against them.

During the trial, Muslim women testified behind screens against the three men.

Some of the women allegedly suffered gynaecological damage or had to give birth after being raped at Foca.

In 1993, there were reports of rape from all sides in the Bosnian conflict.

A European commission estimated there had been 20,000 rape victims.

Four other men indicted for rape crimes at Foca are still at large.