Feride Rushiti: We are very open to further opportunities for cooperation with Ukrainian organizations

A presentation of the Ukrainian translation of the book “Through Pain – Towards Courage”, which contains the stories of victims of sexual violence during the Kosovo War, was recently held in Pristina. This project was created in cooperation with the Kosovo Rehabilitation Center for Victims of Torture (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 Feride Rushiti, Executive Director of KRCT, who has led the non-governmental organization 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 contributions to promoting human rights, the dignity of survivors, and the healing of communities affected by war.

The full interview can be found here:

The Geopost: Dear Feride, I would like to express my respect for your work and your long-standing commitment to the protection of human rights. When did you realize that you had to protect survivors?

Rushit: My journey in this work began in 1998-1999. At that time, I was a young doctor completing my specialization in Albania. I started working in refugee camps with people from Kosovo who had fled because of the atrocities in Kosovo, human losses and torture. Then I met children without parents, people who were injured, parents without children.

People who didn't know what had happened to their loved ones, but the most painful thing was when I met survivors of sexual violence. And why? These women were silent. They were so ashamed that they were unable to speak. They simply asked me for support because some of them were bleeding. The torture was not only psychological, but also physical. They had scars on their bodies.

So, as a young doctor, I tried to support them, to send a kind of ambulance to the camps, to support them in some way. Of course, I was not prepared to deal with the collective trauma of my people. But as a young doctor, I tried my best. But I quickly realized that my role as a doctor was not enough in setting up the camps… I mean, I can't really play the role of a gastroenterologist. So I started supporting them with medical help, healing them by listening to them, sending them to these polyclinics and trying to find family members, because some of them had no one close by.

And so I realized that every time I come to Kosovo, I have to establish a center where these women and girls feel safe, where they receive treatment, where they are listened to carefully and where they are not judged, but are given unconditional love, because they lack that support from family, community and society in general after the war.

The Geopost: The war in Kosovo ended in 1999. But the survivors received state status and support only in 2014. Why did this process take so long?

Rushit: Yes, indeed, we achieved legal recognition in 2014, but the implementation of this law began in 2018. In post-war Kosovo, and in other post-war societies as well, there was a lot of glorification of wartime values.

The fallen, the fighters, the missing, the disabled, the veterans – they all had their names and surnames. Society was proud of their contribution. While this part of society, which was truly terrified during the war, was the most invisible pain in our society. The crime of rape in wartime is committed in a way that silences the survivors.

It takes away their autonomy of body and mind. It is not so easy to move on with your life later, especially when one is also subjected to stigma and prejudice in society. It is much better to face it in silence and isolate within the family than to seek support or come out publicly. This is why I believe that as a society we failed to adequately support and encourage them after the war.

As an NGO, we tried to operate completely undercover because other wartime torture groups also benefited from our program. They had the opportunity to come to us, but we were not allowed to report on it in the media. We were not allowed to make this story public because the stigma surrounding this crime was so strong that they did not turn to our organization or seek other rights.

So, we had to fight with our institution for 15 years to give survivors the opportunity to be legally recognized. In 2014, survivors of sexual violence were finally legally recognized, and four years later, we started implementing this law. But during this time, we also had to work closely with institutions to establish certain principles and guidelines and to recognize this crime and survivors after 15 years, which was not an easy process. But finally, in 2018, we had the first survivors recognized by a state institution and receiving a monthly pension.

This amount of money will not change their lives, but it is an acknowledgement of their suffering, and this is very important for the lives of survivors. It is an affirmation of the past, because in a society where everyone questions the past, where people are ashamed and blamed for their crimes, it is important to receive support and to acknowledge their suffering.

When this system was introduced into our society, it was a form of social justice for survivors and their families, and it empowered them to participate in other processes, such as seeking justice.

The Geopost: How did you feel when you were nominated for the Nobel Prize?

Rushit: I think this nomination was not just for me and my team, with whom I have worked for these 25 years, but it was showing gratitude for the resilience of the 1,100 survivors who worked with us, who trusted us, who healed and cried alongside us.

Therefore, for me, this nomination is the greatest honor that an institution can give to a person or organization. But for me, it was important that we put Kosovo on the map because the crime happened because those crimes were denied by a neighboring country. And it was very important that these crimes are now recognized through this nomination.

The Geopost: Tell us about your relationships with Ukrainian survivors and civil society organizations, as well as with journalists reporting on the issue of sexual violence during the war in Kosovo.

Rushit: I worked with Ukrainian survivors in 2019. At that time, a group of survivors from Ukraine visited Kosovo to exchange ideas and establish a working relationship. Neither Ukraine nor we knew that the war would start again there in a year or two. So, we had a big plan. We had a big plan to support and transfer knowledge to the city of Kiev in Ukraine. Of course, this kind of cooperation intensified after the war started and we started working with journalists, state institutions, civil society and survivors. My first contact with journalists was when the Kosovo Journalists Association brought journalists from Ukraine to Kosovo.

And since I know the perspective and I have worked in refugee camps, I know that these journalists are human beings affected by the war. They left behind family members and nobody knows what happened to their families. So their psychological connection must be very strong with their family and we try to support them, to provide them with help, but we realized that these journalists lacked the ability to write on paper. They had artistic skills, they had painting skills and we tried to work with them in different dimensions, but our role as civil society was also to train them and prepare them for their skills. Whenever they are in Ukraine, they will be the most important allies of the survivors because it is so important for the media to accompany this group. In Kosovo, we worked with the media after the war, but of course, we lacked experience.

So, the experiences from Kosovo need to be transferred to Ukraine because the survivors need you as a journalist, they need your support, even if the stigma appears in a different form, because it has to do with your integrity. It is a self-stigmatization for what happened to you. So, these women need to speak out, they need to be supported.

Then we started with NGOs. We had another dimension. We exchanged ideas in different forums. I was invited to Ukraine several times, but due to circumstances and the war, I could only be present in Ukraine, although there were many forums.

We also met with different people from ministries, institutions and the field of gender equality to bring the perspective of Kosovo and to avoid repeating the same mistakes here. In addition to the experiences we have had, it is also very important to get acquainted with the mistakes we made here, such as the documentation in Kosovo, which we failed to do after the war. This is why I have been very committed to addressing the importance of documentation in real time. And thank God that you have a state that supports you internationally. So, with proper documentation, psychosocial support should also be integrated. It is so important for any initiative you take, whether it is for rehabilitation, treatment, reparations, access to justice and finding the truth. I think that if you have good documentation, the next generation can also learn about what happened in the current situation in Ukraine.

The Geopost: I believe that the experiences from Kosovo are very useful for Ukraine. One of the most clear examples of this cooperation is the presentation of a joint book in the Ukrainian language that took place in Kosovo. How did this project come about?

Rushit: Before we brought the stories of survivors to the public because of stigma and prejudice, we tried to publish these stories in books, which was another way to bring the truth to light. The first book was dedicated to the women's story. I want to be heard. The second book was dedicated to the men's story, but also to the mention of family. And the third book was dedicated to male survivors.

When I discussed with the organization there, UA Experts, we decided what format the book should take to spread it to your community. And I think it was a brave choice and decision, because they chose the second book, Beyond Pain Toward Courage. Why is it so important? Because this book deals with the dynamics of trauma in a family.

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

So, it was the right decision to raise awareness in Ukraine and also to draw attention to the families, because they are completely in the shadows. Nobody talks about them. So, for me, it was a good decision, but we are very open to other opportunities for cooperation with Ukrainian organizations.

The Geopost: Russian propaganda denies wartime sex crimes. Why do they do this?

Rushit: This is not just Russian propaganda. All perpetrators, all these enemies, use sexual violence as a weapon, the dirtiest and cheapest weapon, as an arsenal built into the war. This is how they silence survivors so they don't speak out.

And if we don't spread these stories and fight for justice, in a way we are playing into the hands of the perpetrators. And we know the strategy: They deny the crime. They don't want to admit the crime. But we as activists have a duty, a duty, to bring the story to the polls, to encourage survivors to seek justice, to shame and blame those responsible for this crime, not the survivors.

And we have to do this together, because Serbia is also in the same denial these days. They don't want to accept the fact. If you don't accept the truth and the past, you can never build your future.

And I believe that Ukraine is doing a great job right now supporting survivors to go to court and document these kinds of stories, and history will expose and shame Russia for all the atrocities it inflicts on innocent people, innocent women and children who are defenseless. And we have to fight for this, because we know that the enemy always denies.

/The Geopost