Bjelave children: research continues
Bjelave children: research continues
On July 18, 1992, a convoy of children left Sarajevo under siege. 46 of those taken from the Bjelave orphanage, they never returned to Bosnia: they were given up for adoption, despite living biological parents. A tragic story, re-emerged from the dark
06/09/2018 - Nicole Corritore
"I do not know anything about my mother, I know who generated me, it's all the life I want to see you, at least one person in my family". E 'Luca, in Skype Skype from Milan talking with his cousin Kenyan Kenan in Sarajevo, all taken up and then included in the service created in collaboration with OBCT by Rai journalist Andrea Oskari Rossini for the transmission "EstOvest" and with which he won the Luchetta 2018 prize .
The story of Luca starts from afar, in 1992 in Sarajevo at war, and has seen other children involved like him. A story that OBC Transeuropa has been following for years and which last summer has resurfaced again from the dark thanks to a 2006 article signed by the undersigned and subsequent and recent investigations.
One day at the end of July 2017, the editorial telephone rang and a girl asked about me. Before he gave me time to ask for his name, the girl in a high-pitched voice told me: "He's my boyfriend, what they're looking for! I mean, that Amer is my boyfriend there. ". I asked her to calm down and make me understand what she was referring to. "We have just read that comment, under his article: A Bosnian is looking for his cousins ??Amer and Alen, Luca is Amer, he was adopted here in Italy, and we are looking for traces of his parents and the Bosnian family for ten years!" .
The article to which the girl refers tells the story of Uzeir Kahvi?, who since 1996 was desperately looking for news of his daughter Sedina, welcomed in Italy during the war but then given up for adoption instead of returning to Sarajevo after the conflict. A research that, at the date of the article, had not yet been completed.
The Rai service
Image taken from the Rai EstOvest service
Image taken from the Rai EstOvest service
See the " Orphans of Peace " service "realized by Andrea Oskari Rossini of Rai in collaboration with OBCT, broadcast on Rai3 on 11 November 1997 in the" EstOvest "program
Read the article by OBCT " Italy-Bosnia: children at war ", published March 3, 2006
The girl on the phone was referring to a comment at the bottom, dated July 25, 2011 and entitled '..cerco 2 cousins ljusa Amer i alen' ' Seeking a second cousins Ljusa and Amer and Alen. A lthough I came in I taly after guera -96 in sarajevo, I have always worked and I tried two first cousins who were in the center of Monza MI Mama Rita. a ncora now I can not find them, THEY ARE ONLY MAGGIORENI and vore DARLI option to KNOW tHAT WE ARE HERE iN ITALY, if does anyone know anything about them to tell them about me then it's up to them to decide if I want to know. I or I have been living in S arajevo long, but I decided to live in I taly sarebe nice if some swe are getting to know each other. G hanks. Haris Hasanagi ? ".
I asked her if Luca - that is, Amer - was there next to her and if I could talk to him. He replied that he was very agitated but that he passed it to me. Luca, stumbling over his words and with his trembling voice, explained to me that, together with Sedina, he is one of the 46 children of Bjelave orphanage who left in 1992 with the convoy from Sarajevo, a city already under siege for three months. He and his brother Alen, respectively 4 and 6 years old on arrival in Italy, have not returned home but have been given up for adoption as many others in the group despite having relatives or parents living in Bosnia.
A tragic story: that of parents who for years have tried to get information about their children and to meet them, of children who grew up thinking they had been abandoned, of Italian and Bosnian institutions that followed an international procedure of adoption for the wrong party, thus creating an artificial and painful detachment between parents and children.
Luca, who was called Amer for up to ten years and was a Bosnian citizen, is now thirty years old and is an Italian citizen. After 10 years of his research, thanks to the survey work carried out by OBCT between August and October of last year, he was finally put in touch with the two Bosnian cousins ??Hasan and Kenan Hasanagi? and thus found his family of origin.
Uzeir Kahvi?, a year after we had told his story, managed, albeit with great difficulty, to discover at least part of the truth about his daughter Sedina's case and to meet her.
Many others then found themselves in particular thanks to the work of Jagoda Savi?, Sarajevo human rights activist.
Through surveys carried out in the past few months we have retraced lights and shadows of this case. Discovering, among other things, that there is another father who has been looking for his son since 1996. We will tell you about all this in the coming weeks through a series of interviews and articles.
Luca, who was called Amer for up to ten years and was a Bosnian citizen, is now thirty years old and is an Italian citizen. After 10 years of his research, thanks to the survey work carried out by OBCT between August and October of last year, he was finally put in touch with the two Bosnian cousins ??Hasan and Kenan Hasanagi? and thus found his family of origin.
Uzeir Kahvi?, a year after we had told his story, managed, albeit with great difficulty, to discover at least part of the truth about his daughter Sedina's case and to meet her.
Many others then found themselves in particular thanks to the work of Jagoda Savi?, Sarajevo human rights activist.
Through surveys carried out in the past few months we have retraced lights and shadows of this case. Discovering, among other things, that there is another father who has been looking for his son since 1996. We will tell you about all this in the coming weeks through a series of interviews and articles.
.