‘’I am 26 years old, and I am ready to invest three times as much time, if not more, in a fight that will provide a more positive and fair future for all children born as a result of war,’’ said Ajna Jusic, the president of the ‘’Forgotten Children of War’’ Association, at the United Nations (UN) yesterday.
The invisible children of war. War’s forgotten children. This is how the children born during the war of the 1990s in Bosnia and Herzegovina (BiH) are being called. The war had destroyed many families. Children, fathers, sons, daughters, mothers were killed… Thousands of women and girls were raped. As a consequence of these events, many children today are left without parents, many parents are without children, and also thousands of those who were born after their mothers were raped during the war in BiH were left alone.
They are being called ‘’the invisible children of war’’ because they are all around us but we are not aware of it. Many of them do not even know the true story about their origin, and those who do, rarely speak about it.
Ajna Jusic is one of those children. She was born in September 1993 in the safe house ‘’Medica’’ in Zenica. She was born as a victim of her mother’s rape during the war in BiH. Her mother was 22 at the time.
Ajna Jusic spoke at the UN yesterday on behalf of all children born as a result of the war in BiH.
She addressed at the event held on the occasion of the International Day for the Elimination of Violence Against Women and Girls on 25th November.
‘’My name is Ajna Jusic and I am 26. I come from BiH. I am currently the president of the ‘Forgotten Children of War’ Association. Unfortunately, 26 years ago my mother survived a fate I would never wish upon anyone. She survived the war rape and gave birth to me. She was, and still is, a part of society that thinks she is guilty of experiencing this herself, a society that was never ready to accept her. Sometimes, I get very angry with society wondering why my mother was rejected? Why did you leave her alone? However, in my opinion, the truth is different. If we are looking someone to blame for, in the end, we again come to the conclusion that a systematic mistake has been made by the ruling entities,’’ Jusic said at the beginning of the speech.
As she said, immediately after the war, the people, and women survivors were left to themselves.
‘’A dark cloud of trauma appeared above this country, people fought only for themselves and their loved ones. Very soon afterwards, we had information that about 50.000 girls, women and men survived the rape in BiH and that was all. There was no systematic action. It was all about the statistics and the shame which those survivors had to experience. We were left to people who were actively discriminating, but only because they have never got the opportunity to learn more and accept our differences,’’ Jusic pointed out, Vijesti.ba portal reports.
