And despite the well-documented rape of Asian "comfort women" by Japanese soldiers during World War II, no one had been convicted before for wartime sexual enslavement, scholars say.
Thursday's judgment will help set legal precedent by outlining the criteria necessary to bring future sexual enslavement cases: women were detained under conditions in which they had to do everything they were ordered to do; they were reserved for specific men who repeatedly raped them and were given to other soldiers for sexual favors; and they denied any control over their lives.
The judgment was delivered before a packed courtroom at the tribunal, established in 1993 to punish perpetrators of atrocities in the 3 1-2-year Bosnian war.
After the verdict, the defendants filed somberly out of the chamber. Minutes earlier they had beamed with confidence as they shook hands with their counsel, kissing the hand of a female attorney.
Lead prosecutor Dirk Ryneveld praised "the bravery" of the 16 women who testified -- mothers, daughters and granddaughters.
The judges said the evidence didn't suggest the assaults were part of a military strategy. But they should be seen, the ruling said, in the context of a systematic attack on a civilian population -- in other words, a crime against humanity.
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