Part 2 of 3 (Part
1 and Part 3)
Feminist
Resistance
to War
Women were the majority of the organizers and participants of
the peace movement
in Belgrade. Prior to the outbreak of war in the Yugoslav republics
women formed
organizations against mobilizations for war. In March 1991, several
women’s groups
from Slovenia, Croatia and Serbia collectively called Women for Peace
issued a statement
calling for "a peaceful and negotiated solution to all
controversial issues,"
and a "demobil[ization] of all reserve police units in all
republics and
provinces" (Lokar et al. March 1991, 1). Throughout the spring and
summer of 1991,
the Belgrade Women’s Lobby took part in peace demonstrations,
issued weekly calls for
an end to bloodshed, and criticized media programs that promoted
nationalism and violence
against women. After the start of the war in Slovenia the Belgrade
Women’s Lobby
appealed to the federal government.
"We ask that the units of the Federal Army
unconditionally withdraw to their
barracks. The youth did not go to serve in the military in order to
impede the separation
of any ethnic group from Yugoslavia. A Yugoslavia maintained by
force is useless to
everyone" (Belgrade Women’s Lobby July 1991,
3).
The Mother’s
Protest-1991
During the summer of 1991, women concerned about their sons in
the Federal
Yugoslav Army organized protests against the war. At the beginning of
the war all regular
soldiers belonged to the Yugoslav National Army, whose responsibility
was to stop moves
for independence by Slovenia, Croatia and Bosnia. Croat mothers did not
want their sons
fighting with Serbs to prevent Croatia’s move for
independence-which would put their
sons on the "wrong" side of the war. Serb mothers did not
want their sons
fighting in Croatia, a land that they didn’t perceive belonged to
them anymore. The
women used their role as mothers to express concern for their sons and
call for peace. The
women stated their opposition to the war,
"We refuse that our sons become the victims of
senseless militarists. It is
not clear what are the goals for which we should sacrifice our
sons. Our sons have been
deceived: they have to participate in a war for which they are not
the least bit
responsible, in a war that has not even been declared. That they
should give their lives
for imperialist purposes is the project of politicians. It is a
disgrace to win a
fratricidal war" (Mothers of the Soldiers of Belgrade 20 July
1991, 8).
The first large protest against the war was held by several
hundred parents,
mostly mothers of conscripted men, in the Serbian National Assembly in
Belgrade on 2 July
1991. In their statement they said, "The protests of mothers is a
feminine
spontaneous reaction to the disgrace of the civil war"
(Mother’s Movement July
1991, 7). Repeatedly, throughout the summer, in letters to officials
and public
statements, the mothers called for an end to the war and a return of
their sons.
At the end of August 1991, approximately a thousand parents,
mostly mothers, from
Croatia and a few from Bosnia-Herzegovina attempted to protest in front
of the General
Headquarters of the Yugoslav National Army. They were forced to move to
the soldier’s
barracks. To enable such a large gathering 40 buses were used to bring
the women from
Croatia to Belgrade. The leaders of the group, Mothers for Peace, from
Zagreb, had the
Croatian flag as a sign of their organization. Lepa
Mladjenovic attended the protest and participated with mixed feelings.
"I was very excited. The first night the
auditorium of the
soldier’s barracks in Belgrade was packed with women. It was
amazing. Never before in
this male space had there been such a scene. At the front of the
auditorium, on the
podium, were the "fathers"-the army officers. The women
were sitting everywhere,
talking and eating. At one point women from the villages in Croatia
stopped listening to
the men and started to softly sing a tender old Croat song. In
contrast to the fathers in
uniform with their hard strict military culture, the women’s
voices were from another
world. On the other hand, at that time if more than 20 women got
together, I had to wonder
how did it happen. It usually meant that some larger political
thought or organization
stood behind the event."
While Mladjenovic was excited and moved by large numbers of
women coming together
to protest the war, she recognized that some women acted with the
support of men whose
goal was their own nationalism and interest in preventing the Federal
Yugoslav Army from
intervening in their move for independence.
The Mother’s Protests were the first public resistance to
the wars. Since the
political tradition of fifty years of communism had suppressed
people’s rebellious
motivations, the Mother’s Protest was important in breaking that
tradition. Also, the
Mother’s Protest contained a general peace message. It was a good
use of the
patriarchal role of mothers to save men and stand against authority.
Unfortunately, the
nationalist ideology was much stronger than their peace protests. Later
the statements of
the mothers implied that their sons should be fighting for their own
"blood and
soil" if necessary. These sentiments slowly grew into pro-Serb and
pro-Croat
nationalist ideologies and peace was forgotten.
Women in Black,
Belgrade
By the fall of 1991, feminists dissatisfied with the character
of the anti-war
protests decided to found another organization. The Israeli group Women
in Black, that
wore black and protested in silence their country’s treatment of
the Palestinians,
inspired the women.
Women in Black made its first appearance in Belgrade on 9
October 1991. In their
first public statement the activists defined themselves as an
anti-nationalist,
anti-militarist, feminist, pacifist group who rejected the reduction of
women to the role
of mothers.
"The work of women in peace groups is presupposed, it
is invisible, trying,
women’s work; it’s a part of ‘our’ role; to
care for others, to
comfort, aid, tend wounds, and feed. The painful realization that
the peace movement would
to some extent also follow a patriarchal model caused a serious
dilemma for
feminist-pacifists. We wanted our presence to be VISIBLE, not to be
seen as something
‘natural,’ as part of a woman’s role. We wanted it
to be clearly understood
that what we were doing was our political choice, a radical
criticism of the patriarchal,
militarist regime and a non-violent act of resistance to policies
that destroy cities,
kill people, and annihilate human relations" (Women In Black
1993, 23a).
Another political aim of Women in Black is to strengthen the
solidarity among
women who have been separated by guns and borders.
"We are the group of women who believe that solidarity
is one of the deepest
values of our existence, that active solidarity between women is
the force and the
tenderness by which we can overcome isolation, loneliness, traumas
and other consequences
of hatred. We are the ones who come out in the public with our
bodies and our visions of
the world without war, rape, violence and militarism" (Women
in Black 10 June 1992,
50).
Every week Women in Black protested the wars by putting on
black
clothes and
standing silently in the Republic Square in Belgrade.
"We are the group of women who stand in silence and
black every week to
express our disapproval against war. We have decided to see what is
the women’s side
of this war. Women wear black in our countries to show the grief
for death of the loved
ones. We wear black for the death of all the victims of war. We
wear black because the
people have been thrown out of their homes, because women have been
raped, because cities
and villages have been burned and destroyed" (Women In Black
10 June 1992, 50).
The feminists also shifted the philosophy and approach to
protesting the war. The
statements and writings became more overtly political and analytically
feminist.
"The militarization of former Yugoslavia has meant the
imposition of military
values, and militaristic language; a
cult of necrophilia
(expressed in slogans as ‘the frontiers of Serbia are where
Serbs are buried’);
and acceptance of political and moral totalitarianism”
(Zajovic December 1991).
With the establishment of the more radical Women in Black, a
political shift in
analysis and naming occurred—Serbian nationalism is seen as a
motivating force and
the Serbian government is named as the aggressor.
"We say that the Serbian regime and its repressive
structures (Federal Army
and paramilitary formations) are responsible for all three wars, in
Slovenia, Croatia and
Bosnia-Herzegovina. The Serbian regime leads wars in the name of
all citizens of Serbia.
This way all the citizens become the hostages of their
imperialistic politics" (Women
In Black 10 June 1992, 50).
Long before the atrocities of the Serbs came to international
attention Women in
Black issued a statement calling for an end to war crimes. In October
1991, the
Women’s Parliament and the Belgrade Women’s Lobby issued a
statement
"Against War Crime" in which they listed acts which are war
crimes, including:
inhuman treatment of civilians, inflicting bodily harm, torture,
prostitution, rape,
stealing or destroying the property of others, including historical and
cultural
monuments, and the destruction of cities, towns and villages. They
reminded people that
Yugoslavia had signed all United Nations conventions and agreements,
including the Geneva
Convention on war (Women’s Parliament and Belgrade Women’s
Lobby 9 October 1991,
21). In 1992 Women in Black called for the naming of war crimes and the
prosecution of
perpetrators (Women in Black September 1992, 83).
The feminists in Belgrade have maintained the position that all
survivors of rape
be recognized, but stated that many more rapes have been committed by
Serbian forces.
“The Feminists of
Belgrade
and Serbia do not
support the position about symmetrical suffering. They are
conscious that the more
powerful and better armed military-political forces of
Karadžic in Bosnia (the army
of the Serb’s Rep
ublic) have the largest number of
rapes
on their consciences.
How many exactly, it will be difficult to know, even after the war.
The high percentage of
Muslim women raped in the war in Bosnia is not a reason to forget
the suffering of women
of other nationalities and religions, atheists, or those claiming
no particular
nationality" (Women in Black, 28 October 1992, 92a).
By the end of 1993 Women in Black had been protesting in the
streets for two
years. In that time they acquired a jaded view of peace plans and
international
interventions. As this point the Dayton Peace Accord which would bring
peace in Bosnia was
still two years away. In their New Year’s Message of 1994 they had
only universal
condemnation for all parties.
"The sanctions imposed by the [United Nations]
Security
Council do not affect
only those who have caused them: the militarist Serbian regime and
its partners, the new
elite of war-profiteers, whose world-wide bank accounts are safe
and sound. The so-called
international community has moreover given political support to
this regime by legalizing
the results of its conquests and ethnic cleansing in Bosnia and
elsewhere.... We mistrust
a ‘peace’ based on ‘deals’ made by the
nationalist-militaristic elites
who have caused this war. We mistrust the so-called mediators who
use peace slogans to fan
war and ethnic hatred; they are part of the same old patriarchal
militaristic machinery.
We no longer harbor the illusion that the international community
will not apply the logic
of violence and the right of the stronger" (Women in Black 27
December 1993, 15).
Women in Black continued to wear black and stand in the street
until after an
enforced peace was brought to Bosnia. During 1997, they supported and
participated in the
grassroots democracy movement in Serbia.
The situation looked
more hopeful for the first time in many years. But Slobodan
Miloševic was not about
to be maneuvered out of power by democracy. He refused to accept the
results of the
election and soon had control of the government again. When
Serbia renewed the
violence in Kosovo, Women in Black working with other pro-democracy,
human rights and
anti-violence groups organized protest rallies.
On 19 September 1998, the government banned the antiwar rally
Against War. Women
in Black issued a statement:
"…by banning this protest, the regime in Serbia
proves its policy of
isolation, xenophoby [sic] and confrontation with the world. With
this repressive act the
regime also shows its determination for war, hatred, destruction
and violence against all
who think they opposite, even against a indeed small group of
citizens, who from 1991
until today raise their voice against all kinds of violence"
(Women Black, et al, 19
September 1998).
Nine days later, threats to
Women in Black and
other groups that spoke out against the Serbian regime were issued in
the Serbian
Parliament. At this time, NATO had threatened to bomb Belgrade in order
to force the
Serbian regime to stop the police and military aggression in Kosovo.
Vojislav
Šešelj, previously a war criminal in Croatia and Bosnia and
now the Deputy Prime
Minister, responded with self-annihilating nationalism and threats to
retaliate against
peace activists, who he referred to as "Serbia’s inner
enemies."
"We should take the US threats very seriously
but we must not be
frightened. We will have an enormous number of victims and great
material damages, but we
don’t have a spare fatherland. We must fight at all costs; no
matter by whom we are
attacked. Our determination to defend ourselves by all means should
prove that if they
want to attack us they should withdraw their supporters. …[the
US should] withdraw
their quislings, like members of the Helsinki Committee for Human
Rights, Belgrade
(Intellectual) Circle and Women in Black, and not leave them as
hostages. Maybe we can not
reach every airplane, but we will grab those who are close to
us" (Women in Black, 30
September 1998).
In response to these threats, the Women in Black issued their
annual statement
"Seven Years of Women in Black Against War: 9 October 1991 to 9
October 1998."
This time the annual report was in the form of a confession of their
guilt for seven years
of activism for peace, freedom and democracy for all people in former
Yugoslavia.
"I confess
to my longtime anti-war activity;
that I did not agree with the severe beating of people of
other ethnicities and
nationalities, faiths, race, sexual orientation;
that I was not present at the ceremonial act of throwing
flowers on the tanks
headed for Vukovar, 1991 and Prishtina, 1998;
that I fed women and children in the refugee camps,
schools, churches, and
mosques;
that I sent packages for women and men in the basements
of occupied Sarajevo in
1993, 1994, and 1995;
that for the entire year I crossed the walls of Balkan
ethno-states, because
solidarity is the politics which interests me;
that I understand democracy as support to anti-war
activists/friends/sisters -
Albanian women, Croat women, Roma women, stateless
women;
that I first challenged the murderers from the state
where I live and then those
from other states, because I consider this to be responsible
political behavior of a
citizen;
that throughout all the seasons of the year I insisted
that there be an end to the
slaughter, destruction, ethnic cleansing, forced evacuation of
people and rape;
that I took care of others while the patriots took care
of themselves"
(Women in Black, 9 October 1998)
