Angelina Jolie in Tears While Campaigning Against War Rape in Bosnia (VIDEO)
Angelina Jolie was reduced to tears in Bosnia recently while promoting a campaign to end sexual violence against women in war.
The Hollywood actress, who is a goodwill ambassador for the UN's refugee agency, spoke to rape victims and paid tribute to the thousands raped during the Bosnian War on Friday. She was accompanied by British Foreign Secretary William Hague and both applauded Bosnia's decision to include rape prevention in military training.
"The use of rape as a weapon of war is one of the most harrowing and savage of these crimes against civilians," an emotional Jolie told a conference in Sarajevo reporrted independent.co.uk.
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"This is rape so brutal, with such extreme violence, that it is even hard to talk about it," she continued.
According to reports an estimated 20,000 women, predominantly Muslim, were raped during Bosnia's interethnic war during 1990s, however, only 33 people have been convicted for the crimes.
Jolie, 38, and Hague launched a global initiative in recent years that was partly inspired by the actress' film "In the Land of Blood and Honey," which explores sexual violence inflicted on a woman during Bosnia's 1992-95 war. The campaign was designed to fight sexual violence in war, end impunity for the perpetrators and provide support for rape victims.
Jolie said the military training was important for peacekeepers as their patrols "can mean that women no longer have to face a choice between going out for firewood and water and being raped or seeing their children go hungry."
"There can be no peace while women in conflict or post-conflict zones are raped with impunity," she said.
In June, Jolie and Hague will co-host a global conference in London about preventing rape from being used as a tactic in war.
Munira Subasic, the head of the association of Srebrenica mothers, applauded Jolie and Hague's visit.
"Our tradition is not to talk about the rape," Subasic said.
"Many women have been through it but don't talk about it," she explained. "That is why this visit is important, to show them they don't have to cope with it alone."
In February Jolie visited orphaned Syrian refugee children in Lebanon and called for an end to Syria's three-year conflict.
