"WOMEN-VICTIMS OF WAR": ATTEMPT TO LAY MEMORIAL-PLAQUE IN FOCA

FOCA and SARAJEVO, Oct 1 (FENA) - Representatives of the Association
"Women-Victims of War" from Sarajevo on Thursday attempted, "without
the consent of municipal authorities", to lay a memorial-plaque
at the building of the former sport society "Partizan" in Foca, but
the citizens have prevented their attempt, was reported by RS Radio.

This plaque was supposed to be a symbol of remembering the crimes of rape
against Bosniak women committed in the said facility in 1992.

According to the RS Radio, a great number of citizens gathered at
the plateau in front of the "Partizan" building, and a police cordon
was formed in front of them.

"The attempts by representatives of the RS Association of Detention Camp
Inmates to persuade the members of Association 'Women-victims of War'
to give up on their intent were not fruitful", was reported by the
said radio.

Representatives of the Association left the memorial-plaque on the
grass near the plateau, and the representatives of RS Association of
Detention Camp Inmates afterwards "packed the plaque and returned it
to the sender", was reported by the Radio.

President of the Association "Women-victims of War" from Sarajevo
Bakira Hasecic confirmed this event for Fena upon the return to
Sarajevo from Foca.

Hasecic does not know anything about the return of the plaque,
which was reported by the Radio. The plaque was set near an area
the present High Representative, Paddy Ashdown, had visited in 1992,
not knowing what was going on several steps away, said Hasecic,
referring to a conversation between the Association's representatives
and the High Representative in February this year.

Hasecic stated that between 500 and 600 women had been raped at the
"Partizan" sports hall, according to the information at disposal of
the Association.
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Reuters
October 1, 2004

Serbs forbid Muslim rape victims to place plaque

SARAJEVO, Oct 1 (Reuters) - Hundreds of Bosnian Serbs on Thursday
prevented Muslim women from placing a memorial plaque at the building
where they were tortured and raped in an eastern town early in Bosnia's
1992-5 war, television reported.

A dozen women, members of the Women Victims of War association, arrived
in the eastern town of Foca to place a plaque in memory of all the women
who had been tortured, raped and killed in a detention camp in Foca
in 1992.

State television showed pictures of special police forces in full gear
who cordoned off some 300 angry Serbs, protecting the women who tried
in vain to approach the building.

They put flowers and the plaque at the site close to the building
and left the town. There were no reports of injuries.

Authorities in Foca, known as a Bosnian Serb hardline town, said
the women did not have permission to place the plaque.

More than 70 civilian Muslim women, children and elderly people
from the Foca area were held in the Partizan Sports Hall in the
summer of 1992. Many women were reportedly raped there. There were
other such detention camps in the town.

Bosnian Serb wartime leader Radovan Karadzic, who is alongside his
military chief Ratko Mladic the most wanted war crimes fugitive from the
Bosnian war, has in the past been reported as hiding in the Foca area.

Out of over 20,000 Muslims who lived in Foca before the conflict, about
a third have returned to their homes in and around the eastern town,
infamous for ethnic cleansing of non-Serbs.
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http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/europe/3706554.stm
BBC News | Europe Friday, 1 October, 2004, 11:45 GMT 12:45 UK

Bosnian Serbs reject rape plaque

[PHOTO]: Foca was devastated during the war

Hundreds of Bosnian Serb protesters have prevented Muslim women
from placing a memorial plaque on a building used as a rape camp
during the war.

The crowds stopped members of the Women Victims of War Association
from getting to the sports centre used by Bosnian Serb soldiers in Foca
in 1992.

Many of the women held at the site say they were raped and tortured
by troops.

Riot police, keeping the groups apart on Thursday, let the women
leave the plaque and flowers at a site nearby.

The engraved sign described the building as the scene of war crimes
targeting Muslim women.

Authorities in Foca, now known as a hardline Bosnian Serb town,
said the women did not have permission to install the plaque.

Pelted

Members of the Serb Republic's Association of Wartime Camp Inmates
were among the crowd of around 200 people protesting at plans to
erect the plaque.

They told Bosnia's independent TV Hayat that they objected because they
were not allowed to erect similar memorial signs in Sarajevo or Tuzla.

Slavko Jovicic, vice-president of the inmates association, told
the station he did not deny the offences were committed in Foca, but
urged the council of ministers to regulate the laws so such incidents
could be avoided.

A reporter for TV Hayat said the Muslim women were "seen off out of Foca
with insults and pelted with eggs and stones".

Foca, about 70km (45 miles) southeast of Sarajevo, was one of the
first Bosnian towns to fall into the hands of the Bosnian Serbs in 1992.

During the 1992-1995 war, most Muslims were expelled from Foca,
but others were abused or killed in camps like the sports hall.

A mass grave, containing up to around 350 bodies, thought to be
Muslim detainees killed during the war, was found near Foca in August.
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