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30 Hum. Rts. Q. 561 (2008)
The Politics of Identity and Sexual Violence: A Review of Bosnia and Rwanda

handle is hein.journals/hurq30 and id is 569 raw text is: HUMAN RIGHTS QUARTERLY The Politics of Identity and Sexual Violence: A Review of Bosnia and Rwanda Patricia A. Weitsman* ABSTRACT This article argues that particular assumptions about biology, ethnic- ity, genetics, and gender create a permissive environment for policies of sexual violence during war. It further asserts that the children born as a consequence of these policies become a prism for identity politics. The arguments regarding identity and war and the consequences on policies of sexual violence during wartime are illustrated through analyses of the Serbian militia's rape campaigns in Bosnia in the early 1 990s and the mass rape and killing of Tutsis in Rwanda in 1994. I. INTRODUCTION Being born with an identity formed in a wartime political environment often handicaps children for life. This is especially true if these children are born as a consequence of government-orchestrated rape campaigns, thus represent- ing the legacy of violence a country has experienced. Although wars always Patricia A, Weitsman is Professor of Political Science at Ohio University. She received her Ph.D. from Columbia University and has been a fellow at the Graduate Institute of Inter- national Studies in Geneva, Switzerland and the Hoover Institution at Stanford University. She is co-author of The Politics of Policy Making in Defense and Foreign Affairs (1993), and co-editor of Towards a New Europe (1995) and Enforcing Cooperation (1997). Her most recent book, Dangerous Alliances: Proponents of Peace, Weapons of War, was published by Stanford University Press in 2004. She is also the author of numerous articles and book chapters published in prominent books and journals in the field of international relations. Her work has been published in newspapers such as The New York imes and the Interna- tional Herald Tribune. She is currently working on a short monograph on coalition warfare, as well as a larger project on war and identity. Human Rights Quarterly 30 (2008) 561-578 0 2008 by The Johns Hopkins University Press

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