Trip to Sarajevo 9 - 13 May 2008

ACCTS

We had learnt of a centre for women (ACCTS) who have been victims of torture and rape. Consultant Vilde Mordal (who speaks Bosnian) was able to arrange an appointment with the centre’s manager on Saturday the 10th.

Alisa Muratcaus is the President of ACCTS. ACCTS is based in a 500-year old wooden building dating back to the Ottoman Empire, which houses a Muslim café and carpet shop on the first floor. Alisa met us downstairs, and ushered us up to the office and premises on the second floor.

The local authority had provided the tiny premises, but Alisa did not know how long they would be able to stay there and feared eviction at any time.

ACCTS is an organisation for torture victims in the aftermath of the war in the former Yugoslavia that lasted from 1992 to 2001. The war in Bosnia ran from 1992 to 1996.

Women’s section

Alisa told us about the organisation’s women’s section that we were visiting. Around 1,000 women are linked to the organisation. The majority (around 63%) come from Eastern Bosnia, but there are also women from a Romany (gypsy) background, and indeed from all ethnic groups in the country. All the women have spent time in concentration camps and have been subjected to torture, including rape.

Today these women have been ”forgotten” by the government: they are poor and without rights.

ACCTS works to improve the situation of these women by attempting to find them housing, a job and education. Some receive a small pension from the state (around 100 Euros per month), and a very few (around 75) also have temporary accommodation. The women are shown no respect by the authorities and they feel forgotten.

Finances

The centre receives KM 20,000 per annum in aid from the authorities, which equals approximately NOK 80,291, and is far too little to make a big difference. Nor is there any regular support. The finances are unreliable and unpredictable. Alisa believes that the government must change its attitude towards vulnerable people in the population.

DemonstrationOn Friday 9 May (the day we arrived) the centre had arranged a demonstration in support of torture victims. The prime minister as well as government members were invited, however none of them turned up. The demonstration attracted over 3,000 people.

Support

ACCTS has received support from several organisations internationally. A German organisation has supplied furniture for the premises. FOCUS from Norway has supplied PCs for IT lessons. Following completion of the IT course, participants are awarded a diploma. Two women have been able to find work as a result of this!

Focus has also provided support for a sewing school. The sewing school has places for 250 women and runs both a foundation course and an advanced course. The organisation also received UN support for a sewing project two to three years ago. The centre has set up a website with the help of an English organisation. The address is: www.accts.org.ba and contains further information about the organisation. Internet connection was installed three months ago. The women attend the centre on all weekdays, Monday to Friday. The teachers come from Alisa’s organisation and the users are aged between 18 and 65 years.

Through their needlework and socialising, the women gradually open up and begin to talk about their experiences. Many find it extremely difficult to talk about what has happened to them. Many have not told their closest friends and family anything about what they have been through. Many have also been thrown out of their homes, and out of the local community following rape. Some of these have no option but to return to their original homes, where they have lost everything, and are also forced to live in local communities with their attackers. These women have a particularly difficult time.

Powerful encounter

35,000 women who are victims of rape have no government-run reception centre for rape victims! Meeting Alisa is a powerful encounter. She herself spent time in a concentration camp and has now been president of the organisation for eight years. She works relentlessly, because, as she says: ”the women deserve so much more”. We are shown around the workrooms, which are divided into a room with PCs, a small office and two small interconnecting rooms for sewing. It is a stark contrast to Dixi’s light and stylish premises. Here it is both cramped and dingy, however there are six sewing machines and around seven PCs. We arrange to come back on the Monday, to meet the ladies who work in the sewing room.

When we returned to the centre on Monday morning, Alisa had just received a telephone call from a minister, and had to leave for a meeting with him. We were invited into the sewing

Vast quantities of coffee were served and we received many hugs from all the ladies. The great warmth that they showed towards each other and us was touching.

We listened to many moving stories, also about what the centre meant to them. Several of them explained that they would not be alive today without the centre, which offered them the support that was not available to them anywhere else. We were shown what they were working on: they had made an exhibition of the items they produced. There were many types of bags, traditional slippers with beadwork, and polar bear hand puppets. The polar bears were made for a German company that supplied the material for the production. A shoemaker supplied the soles for the slippers, and the women sewed the leather upper and embroidery. As the sewing room is quite small, the women work in shifts, some in the morning and some in the afternoon. Spirits were high amongst the women and they displayed great warmth towards each other. They recounted how they had arrived at the centre completely crushed and credited the centre with giving them back their dignity. Several of the women had taken part in the award-winning film ”Grbavica” from 2006 by Jasmila Zbanic.

Vast quantities of coffee were served and we received many hugs from all the ladies. The great warmth that they showed towards each other and us was touching.

Impressions of the trip

The impressions of the centre are indelibly stamped on our hearts.

Meeting women who have spent time in concentration camps and have suffered systematic rape taught us about unwanted pregnancy, about dangerous, induced abortions, unwanted children and endless pain and suffering. We had already read about this, but to meet the women, talk to them and hear their stories gave us a wealth of knowledge that we would not have gained just from reading about it. For example, that the rape of women is used as a strategy of war. The rape of women is used as a means of breaking down the enemy. Physically meeting these women gave us a wider perspective for Dixi.

It now feels natural to approach women from other cultures. We know more about their traumas and battle to survive in a system that is not capable or does not want to meet women who have been in war and subject to appalling injustices. As one of the women said: ”The men come out of the war with their dignity and pride. We come out of the war with shame, guilt and a bad reputation".

Visit ACCTS website here.