Ethnic belonging of the children born out of rape in post-conflict Bosnia-Herzegovina and Rwanda

Sexual violence has been used as a weapon of war in ethnic conflicts, and forced impregnations have been central to this strategy. Scholars however disagree on whether the cultural assimilation to the maternal group influence these children’s identities, or whether they are perceived as belonging to the enemy group (Carpenter, 2010; Nikolic-Ristanovic, 1996). Drawing on preliminary qualitative findings collected in 2013 in Rwanda and Bosnia-Herzegovina, this paper analyses the ethnic identification imposed by the enemy group, the mothers and their community on the children born out of rape. It first explores how the mothers’ ethnic identities are often erased, imposing on their children the fathers’ ethnic background, and how this then justifies their social exclusion from their maternal ethnic group. This paper suggests that sexual violence is extremely effective in ensuring the continuation of the ethnic conflict in the aftermath of the violence by attacking the children’s senses of belonging.