In 2017, Vasfije Krasniqi-Goodman wrote an open letter to the men who sexually assaulted her and posted it on her Facebook page.
Her rapists, two Serbian policemen, were abducted and raped when she was 16 during the Kosovo War. They were convicted of the crime but then acquitted by the Kosovo High Court in 2014.
She had lived in Texas, United States since the end of the war, but in 2015 she traveled back to Kosovo as the first survivor of wartime rape to tell her story. shared publicly, on national television, without concealing her identity.
Since then, she has been on a mission, pleading for survivors in Kosovo and around the world, demanding justice for the crimes committed during the war in her country. .
To date, no perpetrator in Serbia or Kosovo has been jailed for rape.
Earlier this year, she decided to run for chair in the Kosovo parliament during the February 14 election.
“I have never seen myself as someone who would run the profession. I was happy to be an activist. I was happy to tell my story, spreading the word about what happened in Kosovo during the war, ”said Krasniqi-Goodman, a former insurance representative.
She and the party came together, Vetevendosje Party against Left (Self-Determination Movement), which won a landslide with 48 percent of the vote.
Krasniqi was in the top 10 with the most votes, receiving 61,885 votes.
During the Kosovo War of 1998-99, various sources estimate that 20,000 women and men were raped and tortured by Serbian police and the Yugoslav army.
Shame and stigma surrounding wartime coercion prevent survivors from speaking publicly about their experiences 22 years ago.
Rape as a weapon ‘not discussed at all’
Last year, Krasniqi-Goodman delivered a speech in the Kosovo parliament, chastising BP.
“You have to change because we’ve had enough.” We do not forgive you for what you have done for us for the last 20 years, ”she told Kosovo’s lawyers on March 9, 2020.
After gaining a seat in parliament, Krasniqi-Goodman, now 38, left her home in Texas and moved back to Kosovo.
She hopes to be able to introduce some necessary changes in her four-year term when it comes to wartime enforcement officers.
“I think the first and most important thing is to fight for justice. We still don’t have a single manufacturer behind bars when it comes to rape crimes. So we need to see how the government and Serbian institutions can push to turn the criminals. “
She also wants further changes to the government’s monthly pension of 230 euros (around $ 270) that became in 2018 for survivors to claim.
“I want to change that, where survivors have more benefits than just their own pension. I want medical coverage to be just for survivors, because for most of us, we need medical attention very often. Some of those who survived cannot even go directly to the chief physician. “
It has been difficult to bring about change and raise awareness to break the shame and stigma in post – war Kosovo.
Nazlie Bala, 53, a women’s rights activist, who is also a political activist with Vetevendosje, understands this very well.
During the war, she collected thousands of testimonials from survivors of rape in the refugee camps in Macedonia. After the war ended in 1999 and Kosovo began to rebuild, she said that Kosovo society was not ready to accept the truth about wartime rape.
“The UNMIK” [United Nations Mission in Kosovo] The administration and also the local politicians tried some way not to hide but bury it so that this issue would not come up in talks and debates in Kosovo, ”she said, adding that he more than 12 years to deal with a last rape case. “And the issue of rape was not used as a weapon of war – used by Serbia during the war in Kosovo – or discussed at all.”
In 2013, she began raising the issue of wartime rape and gave public support and debate on national television that the current law recognizing and compensating civilian and civilian victims should altering war veterans to bring in sexual violence rapists from the war.
Bala received death threats for his support of survivors and once found a note on the door of her apartment that read: “Do not defend the shame, otherwise we will kill you.”
A week later, she was brutally assaulted by two unidentified assailants outside her home in Pristina.
“I did not take it as a personal attack on myself, but through me, it was a message for these women and girls to stop calling for the law and for their voices. [not to be heard], and not to talk further about the rape in Kosovo, ”said Bala.
The amendment was last agreed in 2014.
Since Krasniqi-Goodman came out with her story, many have survived her communication to share their stories – some of which no one but her told.
“And that taxs me too.” Because not only do I have the pain of my own, but I carry the pain of others around me as well. I just want to get through the head of their family that they need to support them, they need to give them free space to be able to share their stories. “
She recognizes that her survivors believe her as a strong voice in parliament for Serbian war crimes.
“While I am in parliament, if at least one maker goes behind the bars, to be able to just celebrate their happiness with the victims, for me it will be good enough. , for I do not want to die without justice. “Even if it’s too late for my case, I just want to be able to see a survivor get justice,” Krasniqi-Goodman said.
“Our soul is not going to be healed without justice. With justice, we will at least heal some, for justice is what helps others to become acquainted with the truth. “