The woman was 26 years old when she was raped in wartime Sarajevo in 1992.
She lived in the Grbavica neighbourhood, which was controlled by Serb forces. Heading to the market one day, she and a neighbour were stopped by uniformed soldiers and taken to a nearby building. The soldiers robbed the neighbour and sent her away. The 26-year-old was left alone with one of the soldiers.
“He put a gun to my temple and forced me to satisfy him orally,” she said. “I started vomiting.”
The soldier, whom the woman heard other soldiers call Dragan, took her at gunpoint to an abandoned house, where he ordered her to undress.
“I begged him,” she recalled. “I begged him the whole time. “Please, don’t; leave me alone’. I told him I was a virgin, not to do this to me, that he would ruin my life, that I would not be able to live with it. He didn’t pay any attention.”
Decades later, her rapist has never been punished; the woman gave several statements to prosecutors but the case never went any further due to a lack of evidence.
Those who have seen their abusers stand trial have invariably been left disappointed.