Get email notification for articles from Hamza Karcic Follow Jul. 9, 2021 1:29 AM In October 1943, a young man named Hamed Karčic fled the eastern Bosnian town of Višegrad. Serbian royalist guerilla forces known as Chetniks had closed in, and many Bosniaks saw the writing on the wall. Fleeing in a hurry, Hamed was lightly dressed and did not have the time to pack his winter clothes. As he made his way with other Bosniaks through the woods and mountains to a Muslim-majority area in central Bosnia, Hamed suffered a severe cold that left him with a rheumatism which plagued him for years to come.