Kosovo Wartime Rape Survivor Demands Justice for Victims

Vasfije Krasniqi Goodman (centre) in Babimoc/Babin Most on Sunday. Photo: BIRN.

Vasfije Krasniqi Goodman made an emotional appeal for justice on Sunday in the courtyard of an abandoned house in the village of Babimoc/Babin Most, some 20 kilometres north of Pristina, where she was raped by Serbian policemen when she was a 16-year-old in 1999.

"In this place, my childhood dreams vanished," said Krasniqi Goodman, who last year became the first woman in Kosovo to speak out about being raped during the war - a subject that remains taboo in the country.

She said she had appealed to the UN mission UNMIK and the EU's rule-of-law mission in Kosovo, EULEX, to help her achieve justice, but with no success.

"I was denied justice, but I will not stop," she said.

In 2014, Kosovo's Supreme Court acquitted two former Serb policemen who were initially indicted for raping her.

Krasniqi Goodman added that she was also speaking out on behalf of all the women who were raped by Serbian fighters during the Kosovo war.

"We need justice because our souls will not be comforted until we find justice," she said.

Feride Rushiti, director of the Kosova Rehabilitation Centre for Torture Victims, described Krasniqi Goodman as a "courageous ambassador" for her country.

"She came today to challenge herself and challenge all the institutions and call on them to not let these rape crimes remain unpunished," Rushiti said.

Kosovo's Special Prosecutor Drita Hajdari said in November that she has relaunched investigations into the rape case.

The announcement came after Krasniqi Goodman gave an interview to Kosovo's public broadcaster, RTK, saying that she was raped twice after being taken from her home by Serbian police officers in April...