War rape

The former Bosnian Serb prime minister Vladimir Lukic told Ratko Mladic’s trial in The Hague that outsiders were responsible for wartime rapes and robberies and Serb forces weren’t involved in looting.

Four former Croatian Defence Council fighters pleaded not guilty to the multiple rapes, torture and sexual abuse of Serb women in Odzak in northern Bosnia in 1992.

Former Bosnian Serb servicemen Bosiljko and Ostoja Markovic went on trial in Sarajevo, charged with the wartime rape of a 14-year-old girl in Kotor Varos in June 1992.

Kosovo’s outgoing deputy prime minister Edita Tahiri said on Thursday that the petition will be filed to the UN in September, with the aim of finally establishing the facts about rapes by Serbian fighters during the 1998-99 war.

Foreign minister Vesna Pusic told a high-profile summit that Zagreb is dedicated to supporting wartime rape and sexual assault victims – despite the fact there have been few convictions in Croatia.

A woman told the war crimes trial of Dragan Sekaric that she was raped at her home near the town of Visegrad by a Bosnian Serb fighter who also shot her neighbour dead.

President Atifete Jahjaga said that Kosovo will join a global initiative on wartime sexual violence in a bid to address the problems of women raped during the late 1990s conflict.

The female Kosovo politicians announced at their first meeting on Thursday that their planned petition will urge the UN to produce a thorough report on war rape cases in Kosovo during the 1998-99 conflict with Serbian forces.

A witness told the war crimes trial of Bosnian Serb ex-soldier Vitomir Rackovic that the defendant took her to the village of Crnca, where she was raped.

The Hollywood star addressed a conference in Sarajevo on wartime sexual violence, saying that peacekeeping troops needed better training to help prevent rape in conflict zones.