Nothing prepares you to learn you are born from a War rape camp

Total shock of woman raised in Britain after being adopted

- BY AIMEE WALSH

BORN in Sarajevo in 1992, during the siege of the city and Europe's descent into a horrific conflict, Lejla Damon is grateful for the happy and privileged life she has had.

It is especially remarkable because she was a product of one of the most brutal weapons of war - rape.

Now, three decades on, it pains her that many more children like her are still being born across the world.

Lejla's birth mother, a Bosnian Muslim, was held in a Serbian rape camp and was repeatedly raped by soldiers. She was only released when six months pregnant.

She gave birth to Lejla on Christmas Day. That year was the start of the Bosnian War, when Serbia set out to "ethnically cleanse" Bosnian territory by removing all Bosnian Muslims.

When Lejla was nine days old, she was adopted by two British journalists who smuggled her to Hungary and then to London, which has remained her home ever since.

Today she works with the War Child charity, supporting others conceived through wartime sex assaults.

Lejla, 32, tells the Mirror that all conflicts involve sexual violence, adding: "There will be many children born out of sexual violence, whether it's [in] Ukraine [or] any of the conflicts that are going on [in] Sudan [and] Gaza Her birth mother was one of tens of thousands of women and girls raped by Serbian troops until they were pregnant. Lejla says victims were held captive for as long as possible so they couldn't get an abortion - the aim being "to change the genetic makeup of a society".