Weapon of war: Sexual violence against men | DW Documentary
Oct 25, 2025
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Sexual violence is a well-known weapon of war. One that is deployed against men, as well as women. The enemy is not killed, but destroyed nonetheless. In this documentary, men from Ukraine, Congo and Bosnia break their silence.
Most male survivors of sexual violence remain silent. So the perpetrators get away with it. Often, the perpetrators do not even have a sense of wrongdoing when they commit these war crimes.
The first men to seek justice at the International Criminal Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia (ICTY) in The Hague were survivors of the Bosnian War (1992-1995). This marked a turning point.
Zihnija Bašić from Bosnia tells how he had to fight for a long time to be recognized as a war victim after his rapes. He still suffers from the abuse to this day. Oleksiy Sivak from Ukraine has since founded a self-help group. Like his friend Roman Shapovalenko, he was sexually abused by Russian occupying forces.
Masokolo Lemba from the Congo is also a member of a self-help group. Lemba fled from the war in his home country to Uganda - where survivors of sexual violence are often accused of homosexuality, which is a punishable offense in Uganda. This stigmatization and criminalization make it difficult to cope with the trauma.
Historian Regina Mühlhäuser is a member of an international research group that investigates sexual violence against men. She says: "If you want to prevent sexual violence against men in war-time, you have to fight it in peace-time. After all, prisons and the military are often breeding grounds for this violence."
Despite their fear of stigmatization and discrimination, the survivors in this film have chosen to tell their stories in order to bring this taboo topic to light.
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