The survey was conducted by the Psychiatric Clinic of the Zagreb Hospital Centre and covered 68 Croatian and Bosnian Muslim women who sought assistance at the Medical Centre for Human Rights in Zagreb between 1992 and 1995. The women received assistance for an average duration of one year after being raped or released from detention.
Forty-four women were raped several times, 21 were raped every day during detention, while 18 were forced to watch while other women were being raped. Most of the rapes were accompanied by verbal threats or physical abuse.
Based on the victims' recollections, researchers found that 58 women suffered from depression immediately after being raped, 40 tried not to think about it or refused to talk about the trauma, while 25 considered committing suicide.
Although they previously had no mental problems, a year after rape 52 women suffered from depression, 51 from social phobia, 21 from post-traumatic stress disorder and 17 from sexual functions disorder. These disorders were frequently experienced concurrently.
Of the 29 women who got pregnant as a result of being raped, 17 decided to have an abortion.
Most of the women covered by the survey were raped by Serb soldiers or civilians, or by Bosnian Muslim soldiers, while a third of the victims said they personally knew their attackers, which were very often their neighbours. Nearly half of the perpetrators were drunk at the time of rape.
Victims said that rape was committed all the time during the Serb occupation of Croatia and Bosnia-Herzegovina from 1991 to 1994. In 32 cases rape was committed during the first ten days of Serb occupation.