Bosnia Herzegovina, Children of rape; Women in hell
December 2005
Suzanna is 12 years old. In the eyes of the law she does not exist. She has no family, no bank account and no birth certificate. The place that she calls home is the state-run orphanage in Zenica in Bosnia, a rundown building with peeling paint flaking off the walls and broken windows. The orphanage is home to just over 150 children. Some of them have lost their families to war and sickness, others, like Suzanna, were abandoned as ‘rape babies’, children born during the Yugoslavian war and left unacknowledged by families and state alike.
Ten years since the war in Bosnia ended. little has been done to help the thousands of women who suffered extreme sexual violence and torture or the children born as a consequence of this abuse.
Left: Children play outside of a bombed apartment block in Sarajevo.
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Bosnia Herzegovina, Children of rape; Women in hell
December 2005
A young child at an orphanage in Bosnia Herzegovina receives a hug from a care worker. Abandoned by her parents, she is like thousands of other children in Bosnia whose parents are still suffering severe war trauma, and have not received adequate psycho -social care to be able to cope.
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Bosnia Herzegovina, Children of rape; Women in hell
December 2005
A young child at an orphanage in Bosnia Herzegovina. Abandoned by her parents she is like thousands of other children whose parents are still suffering severe war trauma and have not received adequate psycho social care to be able to cope.
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Bosnia Herzegovina, Children of rape; Women in hell
December 2005
A boy looks out of his bedroom window at an orphanage in Bosnia Herzegovina. Like thousands of other children he has been abandoned here because his parents are unable to afford to keep him at home. Many parents are still deeply traumatised by their wartime experiences - torture, rape and loss of family members.
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Bosnia Herzegovina, Children of rape; Women in hell
December 2005
A boy, abandoned by his mother during the war, is seen here building a model house with his teacher at an orphanage for children with special needs in Sarajevo.
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Bosnia Herzegovina, Children of rape; Women in hell
December 2005
A young girl hides behind her doll at an orphanage in Tuzla for abandoned children. Her mother was forced to put her in an institution as she did not have enough money to keep her at home. Her father is dead as a result of injuries he got during the war.
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Bosnia Herzegovina, Children of rape; Women in hell
December 2005
A girl pieces together a necklace in an orphanage for children with special needs in Sarajevo. Born in a Prisoner of War Camp in 1992 ,she was forced to watch her grandfather executed in front of her , and in 1995 her mother was also killed. She suffers from deep trauma and has learning difficulties.
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Bosnia Herzegovina, Children of rape; Women in hell
December 2005
A woman who was interned in a "rape camp" for six months during the war is photographed here, anonymously, in her apartment in Sarajevo.
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Bosnia Herzegovina, Children of rape; Women in hell
December 2005
This woman was forced to have two abortions after becoming pregnant after being raped by Serb soldiers repeatedly in her own home over the course of two years. She was expected to return to this war time home under the terms of the Dayton Peace Accord but some of the perpetrators are still living in the same community. She now lives in someone else’s apartment in Sarajevo and does not know when she will be evicted. She suffers from frequent nightmares and keeps herself going by taking a cocktail of medication as pictured here.
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Bosnia Herzegovina, Children of rape; Women in hell
December 2005
Forced to watch as her daughter was repeatedly raped in their house in 1993 this woman was severely beaten and watched her husband and son being killed. Her daughter, who is also still seriously traumatised, looks after her. They live in temporary accommodation and in daily fear that they will be evicted if the owners of the apartment return.
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Bosnia Herzegovina, Children of rape; Women in hell
December 2005
This woman was repeatedly raped by Serb soldiers in her home town, often in front of her three children. Her husband was killed during the war and she now lives with her children in temporary accommodation.
With no compensation, and little hope of redress, she crochets furiously each day "This is my only therapy...the only thing that stops me thinking and remembering what happened to me. Life will never be OK again but I have to get through it one day at a time"
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Bosnia Herzegovina, Children of rape; Women in hell
December 2005
This woman was interned in one of the notorious rape houses, run by Serb Soldiers during the five year war. Taken from her house by soldiers when her village was overrun, her husband was also arrested and she never saw him again. She was raped repeatedly for nearly 18 months she was only released when she discovered that she was pregnant. She fled to Sarajevo and was given an abortion. She still suffers from horrific injuries sustained during this time and has not been able to have any relationships since.
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Bosnia Herzegovina, Children of rape; Women in hell
December 2005
A woman shows the x - rays of her womb and other genital organs that are still horrifically scarred by the injuries sustained when she was repeatedly raped by soldiers during the war. She became pregnant as result of being raped and had to self-abort her baby. She still has problems walking and has not lives alone, too frightened to communicate with people. She receives 40 Euros a month from the Bosnian government in compensation and lives in a collective center.
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Bosnia Herzegovina, Children of rape; Women in hell
December 2005
Two women return to what remains of their apartment building ten years since the war ended in Bosnia
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Bosnia Herzegovina, Children of rape; Women in hell
December 2005
Ten years since the war in Bosnia ended with the signing of the Dayton peace agreement in November 1995 thousands of people are still deeply traumatised by the war. Here a woman cries for her sons and husband who were killed in the massacre at Srebrenica.
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Bosnia Herzegovina, Children of rape; Women in hell
December 2005
The remains of a Serbian Church in Brcko Northern Bosnia. The war in Bosnia lasted ten years and claimed nearly 200,000 lives.
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