Unholy Coercion: The Complicity of the Serbian Orthodox Church in the Use of Rape as a War Tactic

Abstract

This project investigates the complicity of the Serbian Orthodox Church in the use of sexual violence as a war tactic and means of ethnic cleansing in the Bosnian War. The thesis explores this in three ways: examining religiously imbued incidents of rape by Serbian belligerents, analysing the relationship between Serbian Orthodox authorities to Serbian politics and war criminals, and deconstructing specific Serbian Orthodox theological discourses. A project of this nature relies on two foundational pillars: first, an in-depth exploration of rape (especially in conflict) and second, the interlocking and socially constructed nature of identities, particularly ethnicity, enemies and gender. The analysis relies on United Nations reports, transcripts of the International Criminal Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia, media reports and secondary sources, all of which illustrate the often subtle and discursive relationship between the Serbian Orthodox Church and the systematic rape of Bosniak women.