The End of Silencing? Dealing with Sexualized Violence in the Context of the Kosovo Conflict (1998/99–2019)

Abstract This study deals with sexual violence in the Kosovo conflict. Adopting a broad timeframe from 1998/99 to 2019 it analyses the discourse about sexual violence and considers the actors involved, focussing on practices of silencing and “un-silencing”. In 1998/99 international actors, particularly NATO member states, brought sexual violence into their narrative to justify military intervention. It was not until 2012, after more than a decade of silence, that conflict-related sexual violence began to be integrated into the narrative of heroism and victory in Kosovo itself. The author highlights particular turning points of the breaking of silence about wartime sexual violence when for the sake of certain political interests it came to be presented as a threat to the nation. Finally, she shows that aspects of gender hierarchization were hidden, which contributed once again to the reimposition of silence on individual survivors of sexual violence.