I propose to take Questions Nos. 44, 46, 56 and 85 together.
I said in my statement on 18 January that the treatment of women in Bosnia is a shameful episode in the Yugoslav conflict and a gross affront to the personal dignity and fundamental human rights of the women concerned. It demands a concerted and sustained response from the international community.
Both the European Community and the United Nations have been active and have sent investigation missions to the area. Copies of the Final Report of the Community's mission led by Dame Anne Warburton have been deposited in the Dáil Library. The report is extensive and its findings are clear and damning. The rape of Muslim women is perpetrated on a wide scale and in such a way as to be part of a clearly recognisable pattern sufficient to form an important element of war strategy. The most reasoned estimates available place the number of victims at around 20,000, and suggest that there may be as many as 1,000 resulting pregnancies. The evidence indicates that such abuse occurs mainly in small centres, for example schools, hotels, police stations; but there may be larger concentations of women held in detention centres in areas currently inaccessible to international investigation.
The Special Rapporteur appointed by the UN Commission on Human Rights has also visited the region and reported on the large-scale violations of human rights there. A further report by him will be available shortly and is expected to highlight the crimes against women. It will be taken up at the current session of the UN Commission on Human Rights in Geneva where Ireland and its partners in the Community will be pressing for strong international action.
The report of the Warburton Mission contains over 20 recommendations for action grouped under four headings: