Bosnian mom agrees to meet son she bore from wartime rape

SARAJEVO: A Bosnian woman has agreed to meet the son she bore as the result of wartime rape after having read of a film made about the now 22-year-old and his search for his biological parents, the film director said yesterday.

Director Semsudin Gegic said the woman, a Muslim Bosnian who lives in the US, had called him after she saw an article published on Tuesday about the premiere of Gegic’s film in Bosnia.

“This has taken me by such surprise,” Gegic said. “She called me from the US and said she was ready to meet Alen and agreed that I can film their encounter.”

Gegic quoted her as having told him: “I don’t want any sin on my soul.”

Alen Muhic’s mother was repeatedly raped by a Bosnian Serb soldier in Bosnia’s 1992-95 war, and gave birth to a boy she abandoned. She testified as a protected witness at a trial and her name cannot be published.

Gegic’s second documentary film about Muhic,

documents his painful bid to track down and meet his parents, a quest that had proved fruitless.

The film confronts the stigma still surrounding Bosnians born of wartime rape, a war crime that up to 30 000 women are believed to have been subjected to during the Bosnian war.

The film was premiered on Monday in Muhic’s hometown of Gorazde in eastern Bosnia.

It shows Muhic, who was adopted, visiting his mother’s sister, who tells him how his mother suffered because of the rape and that she was unable to see him.

According to a Bosnian association for women raped in wartime called Women – The Victims of War, 62 Bosnians are recorded by the authorities as having been born of wartime rape. – Reuters