Failure to Seek Compensation in Serbia Was Used to Establish the Credibility of a Vukovar Rape Victim

When Jovan Radan received a seven-year prison sentence in mid-June for raping a woman in Vukovar, criticism focused not only on the leniency of the sentence, which barely exceeded the minimum prescribed by law.

Radan, a former member of the Serbian Territorial Defense, raped the victim three times inside a house in Vukovar where she had found temporary shelter.

However, what stands out in the reasoning behind the Belgrade High Court’s ruling is that one of the elements used to prove that the crime had indeed occurred in 1991 was the fact that the survivor had not sought any form of compensation from her rapist.

The first-instance judgment by the War Crimes Department states that her testimony was impartial and was not motivated by revenge or by the intention to obtain material or any other kind of benefit, citing the injured party’s statement that she had no property claim.

In this trial, which took place a full 34 years after the event, the victim’s statement was deemed sincere, convincing and corroborated by evidence, including the testimony of several other women.

One of them is Snjezhana Malak, who remembers 1991 in detail. She says the sentence is extremely lenient compared with what the woman endured.

Malak herself was also raped in Vukovar that same year, when she was 22. She recounts how three men confronted her and she was forced to choose which one of them would rape her. One of those three men was Jovan Radan.

The man who committed the crime against her told her that Radan was doing the same thing to another woman, whispering that she was not the only one going through that horror.

The siege of Vukovar lasted three months. The city was bombarded relentlessly by the air force, tanks and infantry of the Yugoslav People’s Army, together with volunteer paramilitary units from Serbia and Croatian Serbs, and was almost completely destroyed.

Croatian statistics indicate that around 2,700 defenders and civilians were killed during the siege, while the search continues for approximately 300 missing people.

Years later, Malak testified in support of the woman raped by Radan. The two women still meet in Vukovar today. Malak says that a few days ago, the victim informed her that she had received notice of the possibility of filing a compensation claim. However, she refuses to go to Serbia, a necessary step for submitting the claim.

The Difficult Path to Compensation for Victims

Judicial practice in Serbia directs victims to initiate civil proceedings to seek compensation after the conclusion of criminal proceedings. Jovana Kollariq, a researcher at the Humanitarian Law Center in Serbia, considers this practice troubling for several reasons.

First, victims face another legal battle. Second, once civil proceedings are initiated, they lose their protected-witness status. This makes victims of sexual violence in particular, who often testify under protective measures, reluctant to take this path because of the deep stigma attached to this crime, Kollariq explained to Radio Free Europe.

To date, only 13 criminal proceedings involving wartime sexual violence have been conducted in Serbia, and in five of them the charges related exclusively to that offense. No compensation claim filed during criminal proceedings for war crimes has ever been granted, Kollariq noted.

The case of Jovan Radan marks the first time a direct link has been made between a victim’s right to seek compensation in criminal proceedings and the assessment of the credibility of her testimony. Although seeking compensation is a constitutional right, courts often view consideration of such claims as an unnecessary delay to criminal proceedings.

According to Kollariq, there have been cases in which it was openly stated during a trial that the court traditionally did not rule on such claims. Now, she adds, the court itself is endorsing the waiver of this right by linking the victim’s credibility to whether or not she exercised it. This is particularly harmful to victims of sexual violence, who already face prejudice and questions about their long silence. The court is now reinforcing these stereotypes by suggesting that testimony is credible only if the victim waives the right to compensation.

The Belgrade High Court did not respond to Radio Free Europe’s questions seeking further clarification of this reasoning.

The right to seek compensation is enshrined in the legislation of Serbia and other Western Balkan countries and is also consistent with international standards for prosecuting cases of sexual violence.

In Bosnia and Herzegovina, the practice of awarding compensation directly in criminal proceedings has developed significantly, explained Ajna Mahmiq, legal coordinator at TRIAL International BiH. After a decade of evolving judicial practice, the rule is that victims should exercise their right to compensation within the same proceedings, sparing them a new burden and the additional trauma of separate civil proceedings.

What a Compensation Claim Represents

In Kosovo, four judgments have so far been issued for wartime sexual violence, and only one of them is final. In none of these criminal proceedings was compensation awarded to the victim.

According to many survivors of wartime sexual violence, the fundamental problem with this reasoning is that justice means much more than a criminal sentence. Feride Rushiti, director of the Kosovo Rehabilitation Centre for Torture Victims, stresses that justice also includes access to reintegration, fair compensation, rehabilitation and recognition of the harm suffered.

Rehabilitation support, compensation and guarantees that the crime will not be repeated are the cornerstones of reintegration programs. However, victims often spend years navigating the labyrinth of the courts before securing some measure of justice and support.

Many organizations consider it wrong for a court ruling to make the credibility of a victim’s testimony conditional on the exercise of a legal right. The Rosa Center says this does not send victims a positive or fair message.

Similarly, the Humanitarian Law Center argues that the credibility of a victim’s statement cannot depend on her decision whether or not to seek compensation. Meanwhile, the Association of Women Victims of War in Sarajevo, which has spent decades collecting testimonies from women raped during the war in Bosnia and Herzegovina, warns that every ruling and the reasoning behind it sends a powerful message.

According to the association, using this fundamental right as a criterion for credibility creates the impression that victims must give up their rights in order to be believed. Such an approach risks further discouraging people who are considering reporting crimes and pursuing justice. International estimates indicate that between 20,000 and 50,000 women were raped during the war in Bosnia and Herzegovina from 1992 to 1995, including members of this association.

The Case of Ms. A and the Regional Experience

The Association of Women Victims of War in Sarajevo regularly cooperates with judicial authorities in Bosnia and Herzegovina. In a previous interview with Radio Free Europe, its president, Bakira Haseçiq, described how the association had served as the right hand of the Hague Tribunal from its earliest days, providing statements or witnesses as needed.

The International Criminal Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia, or ICTY, was the first international court to hand down convictions for rape as a form of torture and for sexual slavery as a crime against humanity. Fewer than 40 people were convicted by the court of wartime sexual violence. Since the Hague Tribunal closed, domestic courts in the region have issued around 96 judgments for such offenses.

In Kosovo, around one hundred cases of wartime sexual violence are under investigation, but only four have resulted in judgments, just one of which is final, while those convicted have received a combined total of 72 years in prison, according to data from the Kosovo Rehabilitation Centre for Torture Victims. Rushiti adds that in every case that went to court, the victims simultaneously received psychological and legal support, because the path to justice is often as challenging as the crime itself and, without support, trauma prevents many survivors from coming forward.

The Association of Women Victims of War in Sarajevo stresses that speaking about sexual violence remains extremely difficult. Many women remain silent for years or decades because of trauma, fear, stigma and distrust of institutions. When they finally decide to testify, they do so primarily to establish the truth about the crimes and to see the perpetrators brought to justice. It is therefore essential that the justice system, through its rulings, inspire trust and respect victims’ rights, including the right to compensation.

In the final judgment against Jovan Radan, the War Crimes Department of the Belgrade High Court emphasized that the decision was based primarily on the victim’s statement, which was the most significant piece of evidence in the case, and that the sentence was imposed in line with judicial practice.

However, Veselinka Kastratoviq, a researcher at the Documenta organization in Croatia, believes that these lenient sentences are precisely one of the reasons victims are unable to feel that justice has been served and many of them give up on reporting crimes. Every testimony hearing takes them back to the place and moment of the crime, making the reliving of such a traumatic experience extremely difficult and stressful.

All five cases tried in Belgrade for wartime sexual violence have resulted in convictions, but, as Kollariq points out, the sentences imposed have always been very close to the statutory minimum of five years in prison.

How Much Compensation Victims Receive and How It Is Awarded

A decade after she was raped in Vukovar, Snjezhana Malak reported the crime. But the perpetrators were never brought to justice. They were sentenced in absentia to six years in prison and, apart from the time they spent in pretrial detention, never served their sentences because they died while remaining free pending trial.

Despite this, Malak urges women not to be afraid to speak about their experiences, because the truth kept inside eats away at the soul, causes illness and destroys families.

Estimates indicate that for every reported rape, another 10 to 20 remain unreported. Fear, social stigma and a lack of trust in institutions lead the vast majority of victims of sexual violence not to report the crime. Even decades after the conflicts in the region, many are still waiting for justice, while the perpetrators remain free.