Feride Rushiti: We are very open to other opportunities to cooperate with Ukrainian organizations

Recently, a presentation of the Ukrainian translation of the book “Through Pain — to Courage” was held in Pristina, which includes the stories of victims of sexual violence during the war in Kosovo. This project was born in cooperation with the Kosovo Rehabilitation Center for Torture Victims (KRCT), as well as the Pro Peace – Kosovo and UA Experts platforms. The presentation took place during the international forum Women.Peace.Security, which was held under the patronage of President Vjosa Osmani.

The Ukrainian version of the book was edited by the Executive Director of KRCT Feride Rushiti, who has been leading the non-governmental institution supporting victims for 25 years. This year, Dr. Rushiti and the team she leads were nominated for the Nobel Peace Prize, in recognition of their extraordinary contribution to the promotion of human rights, the dignity of survivors, and the healing of war-affected communities.

Full interview here:

The Geopost: Dear Feride, I would like to express my respect for you, for your job and many years of service to the protection of human rights. When you realized that you should protect survivors?

Rushiti: My journey in this work started already in 1998-1999. I was a young doctor at that time finishing my specialization in Albania. And I started to work in refugee camps with people of Kosovo who had escaped due to the atrocity in Kosovo, human losses, and torture. And then I met children who were without parents, people who were wounded, parents without children.

People who didn’t know what had happened to their dearest ones, but the most painful one it was when I met survivors of sexual violence. Why? Those women were silent. They were so ashamed, they were unable to speak. They just asked me to provide some support because some of them were bleeding. Torture was not only psychological, it was also physical. They had scars in their body.

So as a young doctor, I was trying to support them, send in some kind of ambulance in the camps just to support them in a way. Of course, I was not prepared to deal with that collective trauma of my nation. But as a young doctor, I was trying to do my best. But soon I understood that my role as a doctor in the setup of camps it’s out… I mean I cannot really play the role of gastroenterologist. So I started to support them with medical help, healing through listening to them, sending them to those polyclinics, trying to find family members because some of them didn’t have any family members around.

And in this way I realize that whenever I will come in Kosovo, I have to establish a center where those women and girls will feel safe to have some treatment, to be listened carefully, and to not be prejudiced, but to give unconditional love because they miss that support from family, from community, and society at all after the war time.

The Geopost: The war in Kosovo ended in 1999. But the survivors received their status and assistance from the state only in 2014. Why was this path so long?

Rushiti: Yes, indeed in 2014 we reached to recognize them by laws, but implementation of this law started in 2018. In Kosovo after the war and also in other societies after the war time, we had a lot of glorification of war values.

While people who died, people who fought, missing people, invalids, veterans, they had it name and surname. Society was proud of their contribution. While this part of society who was really terrified during the war time was the most invisible pain in our society. The crime of rape in wartime circumstances is committed in such a way as to silence the survivors.

They take away the autonomy of body and mind. It’s not so easy to continue your life later, especially if you are also stigmatized and prejudiced in your society. It’s much better to cope in silence and be isolated in the family rather than to seek support or be public. Therefore, after the war time, I think as a society we fail to support and provide them adequate support.

As a NGO we were trying to work completely in hiding way because we had it also other war torture categories benefiting from our program. They had an open door to come to us, but we were not allowed to share in the media. We were not allowed to bring this story to the public because stigmas around this crime were so strong, which prevented them from coming to our organization but also to seek for other rights.

So for 15 years we had to fight with our institution in order to create the space for those survivors to be recognized by law. In 2014 finally, survivors of sexual violence were recognized by law, and four years later we started to implement that law. But we had it in this period of time we also had to work closely with institutions in order to establish certain principles, certain guidelines, and have to recognize this crime and those survivors after 15 years, which was not an easy procedure. But finally in 2018 we start to have the first survivors who become recognized from a state institution and they started to get a monthly pension.

This amount of money is not that is changing their life, but it is recognition of their suffering and this is so important for survivors’ lives. It is validation of the past because in society when everybody questions your past and you are ashamed and blamed for the crime, it is so important to be there to show support and to recognize your pain.

Therefore, when this scheme was introduced in our society, it was a kind of social justice for survivors, for their family, and it empowered them further to enter in other processes such as asking for justice.

The Geopost: How do you feel when your personality was nominated for the Nobel Prize?

Rushiti: I think this nomination for me was not just for myself and my team, who are working in tires during those 25 years, but it was showing the recognition and acknowledgement of resilience of 1,100 survivors who worked with us, who trust us, who were healed and cried together with us.

So, for me this nomination is the biggest honor that an institution could do to one individual or to an organization. But for me, it was important that we brought Kosovo on the map because crime happened because from a neighbor’s country those crimes were denied. And it was so important that those crimes now are recognized also through this nomination.

The Geopost: Tell about your relationship with Ukrainian survivors and civil society organizations, as well as journalists covering the topic of sexual violence during the Kosovo war.

Rushiti: With Ukrainian survivors, I already started my cooperation in 2019. It was a group of survivors of Ukraine already visiting Kosovo in that period of time, with ideas to exchange, to establish cooperation. Both of us, neither Ukraine, nor us, we didn’t know that after one or two years the war will start again there. So, we had a big plan. We had a big plan to establish support and to transfer non-how to Kyiv City in Ukraine. Of course, after the war started, that kind of cooperation intensified and we started to work both with journalists, with state institutions, with the civil society, as well as survivors. My first contact with journalists was when the Kosovo Journalists Association brought journalists from Ukraine to Kosovo.

And for me, knowing the perspective and working in the refugee camps, I know that those journalists, they are human beings, they are affected by the war. They left family members behind, and no one knows what happened to their families. So, the psychology must be very heavily related with their family and we try to support them, to offer them some support, but we identified that those journalists didn’t have the capacity to write on paper. They had artistic capacities, they had painting capacities, and we tried to work with them in different dimensions, but as well as our role as a civil society was to train them and prepare them with the capacity. So, whenever they are in Ukraine, they will be the main allies of survivors because it is so important for the media to be surrounding this group. In Kosovo, we worked with the media after the war time, but of course experience was not present.

So therefore, the experience building Kosovo has to go in Ukraine because survivors need you as a journalist there, needs your support, no matter if stigma is present in a different format, it is that because it has to do with your integrity. It’s self-stigma about what’s happened to you. So those women need to speak up, need to be supported.

Then we started with NGOs. We had a different dimension. We had it exchanged in different forums. I was invited physically to go many times in Ukraine but due to the circumstances and the war I was only able to be present in Ukraine, but there were many forums.

We also met different people from ministries, from institutions, from gender equality, just to bring the perspective of Kosovo and to not repeat the same mistake with it here. Beside lessons learned, it is also very important to notice any mistakes we made here, such as the documentation in Kosovo that we missed after the war. So I strongly advocated to address the importance of documentation in real time. And thank God that you have a state present that you have international support. So, with proper documentation, the psychosocial support must be integrated. It is so important for any initiative you might take from a rehabilitation, from a treatment, from reparation, from access to justice and establishing the truth. I think if you have good documentation it will serve also for a next generation to learn what’s happened during the current situation now that Ukraine is going on.

The Geopost: I believe that the experience of Kosovo is very useful for Ukraine. One of the clear examples of this cooperation is the presentation of a joint book in Ukrainian, held in Kosovo. How did this project come about?

Rushiti: Indeed, in our history before we brought its survivors into the public due to the stigma and prejudice, we tried to bring those histories through the books and it was another way to bring the truth to the surface. The first book was dedicated to the women’s story. I want to be heard. Second book was dedicated to the male story, but also the mention of the family. And the third book, it was dedicated to male survivors.

When I was discussing with the UA Experts organization there, we decided which would be the format of the book that you would like to share in your society. And to me, I think it was a brave selection and decision because they chose the second book, Beyond the Pain Towards the Courage. Why is it so important? Because this book brings in the dynamics of trauma in a family.

Not only survivors’ consequences, but also the dynamic of the family. I have to say that in Kosovo we saw it that not only survivors is suffer from PTSD, depression and other psychological and mental issues, but also family are part of this suffering because they were present during the time when the victims were raped.

So it was such a right choice to raise awareness in Ukraine and to bring some attention, also to the family, because they are completely in shadow. Nobody is discussing them. So, for me, it was a great choice, but we are very open to other opportunities to cooperate with Ukraine organizations.

The Geopost: Russian propaganda denies sexual crimes during the war. Why do they do this?

Rushiti: It’s not only Russian propaganda. All perpetrators side, all those enemies, they use sexual violence as a weapon, the most dirty and cheap weapon as an integrated arsenal in the war. In the way they do, they fors survivors silent just to not speak up.

And if we are not promoting these stories and fighting for justice, we somehow implement the strategy of perpetrators. And we know the strategy: they deny the crime. They don’t want to admit the crime. But we as activists, it’s our mission, our obligation to bring the story in the surveys, to empower survivors to seek justice in order to shame and blame those who are accountable for this crime, not survivors.

And we have to do that together because also these days Serbia is denying in the same way. They don’t want to recognize the fact. If you do not recognize the truth and the past, you never ever could build your future.

And I believe that Ukraine now is doing a great job through supporting survivors to go to justice, documenting those kinds of stories, and the story will expose and shame Russia with all those kinds of atrocities that they are doing on innocent people, on innocent women and children who are unprotected. And we have to fight for that because we know that the enemy always denies.

/The Geopost