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Nation & World Woman says she was raped in Serb camps II Y JEROME SOCOLOVSKY The Associated Press The Hague, Netherlands—She was only in seventh grade and a virgin. A Bosn ian Serb soldier Uxik her into a room and ordered her to strip. When the Muslim schoolgirl refused, he tore off her clothes ;md raped her. Moments later, the witness told a U.N. tribunal Tuesday, she was taken to another room ;uid raped by four other soldiers. Over the next eight months, un der threat of death, she was raped count less times ;U Serb rape camps—and then sold as a sex slave, she said. “I think that for the whole of my life, all my life, I will feel the pain that I felt then,” said the woman, now 23. “That will never go away.” The witness was the third woman to testify in the trial of three Serb men accused of raping women and girls and procuring them for other fighters in the town of Foca, southeast of Sarajevo, at the start of the 1992-95 Bosnian war. Dragoljub Kunarac, Radomir Kovac ;uid Zoran Vukovic have pleaded inno cent to chaiges of war crimes and crimes Ugainst humanity. If convicted, they could be sentenced to life in prison. The trial before the U.N. war crimes tribunal for the former Yugoslavia is the first international prosecution of rape as a crime against humanity. Court offi cials said as many as 20 women would present similar stories before the prose cution rests its case. In a separate c;tse Tuesday, a Dutch peacekeeping .commander testified in the genocide trial of Bosnian Serb Gen. Radislav Krstic, accused of ordering the 1995 massacre of more than 7,000 men and boys in the Muslim enclave of Sre brenica in eastern Bosnia. Maj. Robert Frankcn told the court why he didn’t order his forces to resist Serb troops when they separated male Muslims from other refugees in the town, then a U.N. demilitarized zone. “It would have been a massacre among civilians,” he said. “The Serbs could have just withdrawn to their ar tillery positions and shot us to pieces.” The Yugoslav tribunal, set up in 1993, has convicted 14 Serbs, Muslims and Croats of atrocities. ‘I think that for the whole of my life, all my life, I will feel the pain that I felt then. That will never go away.’ Bosnian Muslim War crimes tribunal witness Elian from page 5 have iilways complied with the law, and will continue to do,” he said in a state ment. “What we are not prcp;ircd to do is to participate in any action that will cause harm to the boy.” The talks between the Miami rela tives and government officials were suspended to allow lawyers for both the relatives and Elian’s father to consult with their clients over two unresolved is sues. The relatives’ lawyers requested extra time to consult with the family be fore the next session because the great uncle is exhausted ;uid overwhelmed and his daughter, Marislcysis, is in the hospi tal, according to a government official, who spoke on condition of anonymity. The official said there were two out sliutding issues: the role of a te;im of psy chologists and whether the hither would stay in the United States until the feder al court appeal of the case is complet ed. The U.S. government was willing to have psychologists help design the trans fer of Elian to his father’s care, but the relatives were insisting that such a pan el decide whether the boy should be turned over. Elian has been kept out of school and taught at home recently because his rel atives fear he might be taken away. The boy spent most of the day indoors but emerged before noon and played with a small orange football. In Havana, U.S. diplomats delivered visits for Juan Miguel Gonzalez, his wife and their infant son, as well its a cousin, a kindergarten teacher and a pediatrician. Liist month, a federal judge affirmed an Immigration and Naturalization Ser vice rulirig that Elirui belongs with his fa ther in Cuba. The Miami relatives have taken their ease to a federal appeals court in Atlanta. Arguments ;rre set for the week of May 8. If arrangements can be worked out for a transfer of custody while the case plays out, Juan Miguel Gonzalez will stay iit the home of the head of the Cuban diplomatic mission in Washington, Fer nando Remirez. However, Remirez said die elder Gon zalez’s U.S. travel depends on “the as suranee he will get temporary custody.” U.S. officials arc reviewing 22 addi tional visit requests, including 12 from Elian’s classmates. Rentirez said the 22 compatriots will help with Elian’s “re covery” iiftcr four months away front home. 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