Is rape inevitable during wartime?

Wartime rape and sexual violence has been a part and parcel of conflict since war itself, yet it never received the much needed attention until the early 1990s when massive widespread violation of sexual abuse and rapes were carried out by the Bosnian Serbs against the Bosniak Muslim women and girls in Bosnia-Herzegovina war during the 1992-1995 conflict. The mass rape and sexual violence carried out in that conflict brought the media, academia and human rights organisations together to look for immediate solutions. Following the Rwanda Genocide in 1994, the International Criminal Tribunal for Rwanda (ICTR) has accepted that rape during wartime is a form of genocide and crime against humanity. Many scholars and academia thereafter have voiced their concern on sexual violations and rape that happens invariable in conflicts. Scholars argue that rape is used as a deliberate ‘line of attack’ or strategy to demoralize and dehumanise the “enemy”. (Allen, Beverly (1996) Rape warfare : the hidden genocide in Bosnia-Herzegovina and Croatia, University of Minnesota Press) It is used as a deliberate attempt to destroy the community’s social fabric, and terrorize the community into flight. For example, the rampant and unyielding violence of sexual abuse and rape has labelled Congo as the rape capital of the world. Rape has been viewed as an unfortunate but inevitable part of every war.¹ (Becoming Abject: Rape as a weapon of war: BÜLENT DIKEN AND CARSTEN BAGGE LAUSTSEN). However, taking an exception to this rule, there were scholars like Elisabeth J. Wood and Dara Kay Cohen who have directed our attention to various conflicts where rape and sexual violence is almost negligible during war. E.J. Woods in her articles, Armed Groups and Sexual Violence: When Is Wartime Rape Rare?  cities various examples of conflicts where many armed groups refrained from sexual violence and rape. For example, Woods  leftist insurgent groups, and secessionist ethnic groups who do not engage in mass rape in spite of frequent interaction with civilians. (When war time rape) Woods cited these conflicts as examples where the armed group resorted to other forms of violence against the civilians but rarely engaged in rape and sexual violence. Confirming the same views stated by Woods, this essay will go on to prove that there is variation in sexual violence during different conflicts. This essay will prove this by citing various examples of conflicts where rape and sexual violence was predominately absent. In the first part of the essay, it will draw examples of various conflicts and armed groups around the around.  Instances like the 26 year old civil war fought between the Sri Lanka Army (SLA) and Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam LTTE, the on-going conflict between Israel and Palestine or the El Salvador Civil War fought between 1979-1992. In all these war, despite of the orthodox believe that rape is an unfortunate part of conflicts, we have instances of one or both the parties refraining from rape and sexual violence. The second part of the essay challenges the existing theories and believes of rape and deconstructs some myth associated with rape and sexual violence during wartime. Seeking further explanation and causation for variation of rape in various conflicts by certain groups, this essay in the third part argues that factors like leadership qualities, cultural norm, future constituency, fear of loss of support from civilians and distraction are the main reason why we see the absence of sexual violence in some conflicts. In the last and the concluding part, the essay concludes that though rape and sexual violence has been rampant in certain conflicts, is not always used as a means to dehumanise the enemy. We also take a look at the possible ways how policy makers and academicians can take a leaf out of this example and can look forward in drafting some policies which might help to prevent such atrocities during war. This essay would also like to state that though rape of men during war is also an issue gaining much attention of late, yet owing to constrain of space, this essay deals with rape as a whole and does not dissect between men and women rape.