Invisibility of Men Who Die in War
M. Lafontaine
The Invisiblity of Men Who Die in War
From Sat Aug 26 13:03:59 1995
To: thr...@cs.utexas.edu (David R. Throop)
From: (Ted W.)
If most of the world's refugees are women and children, what happens to
the men?
A July 12 AP article on Tuesday's Serb attack on a 'safe area' carried
in the Daily Camera had the headline: "Serbs attack 'safe
area'", and the subHeading: "Women, children and elderly forced to
relocate".
The article was about the atrocities of forced relocation. What terrible
ordeals these refugees are going through. Ordeals
reserved for the women, children and elderly.
"The sounds of moaning, crying and simpering pervaded the field
around Tuzla airport, where more than 13,000
women, children and old men expelled by Serbs from their homes
in Srebrenica waited in misery. About 60 percent of them were children,
aid officials said."
"There were not enough blankets to go around. There were no toilets,
too few doctors and insufficient medicine."
This is the gist of the whole story. That the brunt of ethnic cleansing is
falling on the women, the children and the elderly.
The Platform for Action: 12 Critical Areas of Concern is the main document
o be adopted at the Fourth World Conference on
Women to be held in Beijing, China, September 4-15, 1995
Critical Area of Concern # Five is described in the electronic newsletter
"Women of Achievment and History" 5. EFFECTS
OF ARMED OR OTHER KINDS OF CONFLICT ON WOMEN Women and girls suffer the
consequences of armed conflict and militarism in special ways due to
their status in society and their sex. ...80% of the world's 25 million
refugees are women and children.
ACTIONS PROPOSED BY PFA INCLUDE: ... Consider ratifying international
treaties on protection of women and children
in armed conflicts. Take steps to ensure safety and physical integrity
of refugee women.
Both these sources fail miserably in their perspective. If the Serbs
are targeting women, children and the elderly for forced
relocation, and 80% of the world's 25 million refugees are women and
children, what happens to the rest of the people - the
people who aren't women, children or elderly?
When you take away the women, children and elderly, you are left with
able-bodied males. These men are not left with all the
blankets, toilets, doctors and medicine. The Serbs are not sparing these
males the awful fate of relocation out of a patriarchical
benevolence.
The truth is that the able-bodied men are slaughtered. To leave out that
fact and concentrate on the plight of the refugees and dwell on the
injustice that the refugees are disproportionately women and
children is to put forth that men don't matter, that men
are worth less.
It is an admirable goal to help these refugees. However, The Fourth World
Conference on Women would do well to put some perspective in its
Platform for Action by at minimum admitting that those
who are not women and children suffer a worse fate.