The Serb mayor of Banja Luka has written an "open letter" in protest of plans to build a new mosque on the site of the 16th-century Ferhadija Mosque in Banja Luka, one of 16 mosques in the city that were blown up during 1993 by Serb nationalist authorities.
Although this AFP report speaks of plans to rebuild "on the foundations" of the Ferhadija, in fact there are no visible remains of the foundation or of other parts of the destroyed mosque -- there is only a leveled grassy field at the site in the city's center where the mosque had stood for 414 years.
On the morning after the blast that leveled the Ferhadija, Banja Luka's municipal authorities called in heavy machinery to level and excavate the site. The remaining stump of the minaret was blown up by Bosnian Serb Army sappers; jackhammers were used to reduce all the carved stones to gravel size, and all the rubble was trucked out of town to a secret dump site as a precaution against any possible future attempts to use the material for reconstructing the mosque.
Although five years have passed since the demolition, and almost two and a half years since the signing of the peace accords at Dayton, attitudes among local officials in Banja Luka towards the presence of mosques and Muslims in their community appear to have changed little:
In an open letter addressed to Carlos Westendorp, the top international official in Bosnia, Banja Luka mayor Djordje Umicevic said Monday the planned move to rebuild the mosque would have "serious consequences."
Umicevic said that the mosque, designated a building of historic importance by the UN cultural organisation UNESCO, was a "monument to the cruel Turkish occupation" of Bosnia and would "reawaken memories of the worst days of (Serb) slavery" under the Turkish Ottoman empire.
Banja Luka, Bosnia's second largest city, had 40,000 Muslim residents and 16 mosques in 1991. Most Muslims were expelled and expropriated during the war (there was no fighting in Banja Luka). The mosques were blown up. Although there have been a small number of returning refugees since Dayton, the city's Muslim community at present is estimated to number at most 6,000 to 7,000.
Carlos Westendorp is said to be considering his response. OHR spokeswoman Aisling Byrne told reporters at a press briefing on Tuesday: "The mayor has written to the Office of the High Representative essentially countering the arguments for which the international community believes the mosque should be rebuilt ... We are giving it very serious attention and will be responding very soon, I can assure you that it is getting a lot of attention."
Andras Riedlmayer. ______________________________________________________________________ Agence France-Presse Monday, April 13, 1998
Plans to rebuild Banja Luka mosque a "humiliation for Serbs" BANJA LUKA, Bosnia-Hercegovina, April 13 (AFP) - The planned re-building of the ancient Ferhadija mosque in Banja Luka, blown up by the Serbs in 1993, would be a "deep humiliation for the Serb people," the town's mayor said Monday. Recently-filed plans to rebuild the mosque, built in 1579 in the centre of what is today Bosnia's second largest city -- and the only city of any size held by the Serbs -- are backed by western powers as a symbol of ethnic reconciliation. Serving a Moslem community in the town that was once 40,000 strong, the mosque was dynamited by the Serbs in the early hours of a May morning in 1993, one year after the start of the Bosnian war, and the site was turned into a car park. It is now empty and has been grassed over. In an open letter addressed to Carlos Westendorp, the top international official in Bosnia, Banja Luka mayor Djordje Umicevic said Monday the planned move to rebuild the mosque would have "serious consequences." Umicevic said that the mosque, designated a building of historic importance by the UN cultural organisation UNESCO, was a "monument to the cruel Turkish occupation" of Bosnia and would "reawaken memories of the worst days of (Serb) slavery" under the Turkish Ottoman empire. Ottoman forces occupied Bosnia in the 15th century and held sway until the arrival of the forces of the Austro-Hungarian empire in the 19th century. Westendorp called earlier this month for the authorities in Banja Luka to allow a new Moslem collective to build new mosque on the Ferhadija foundations. The Islamic group had raised the money and filed plans to rebuild the mosque, he said. Some 6,000 to 7,000 Moslems still live in Banja Luka, despite the Serb takeover of the town in 1992 and western officials are hopeful more will return to their former homes. "If the international community wants to establish peace and help reconciliation in Bosnia, it should stop insulting the Serb people," Umicevic said in his letter to Westendorp. He added that his office and Banja Luka city council would not prevent the Islamic community in the town "finding another location to build a new mosque." No spokesman for the Bosnian Serb government, which is now based in Banja Luka, was available Monday to comment.
BBC Summary of World Broadcasts April 15, 1998, Wednesday
HEADLINE: Mayor opposes rebuilding of Banja Luka mosque Source: Bosnian Serb radio, Banja Luka, in Serbo-Croat 1400 gmt 13 Apr 98
Carlos Westendorp, the international community's high representative, sent a letter to [Bosnian Serb] Prime Minister Milorad Dodik and Banja Luka mayor Djordje Umicevic on 8th April, informing them that the Islamic community of Banja Luka had collected the funds for the construction of a new mosque in Ferhadija and reminding them that the Banja Luka authorities had not yet provided consent...
Banja Luka mayor Djordje Umicevic informed international representative Carlos Westendorp today that this place of worship [Ferhadija mosque in Banja Luka] was a monument to the cruel Turkish occupation and that no more than 15 per cent of the area's population had ever been Muslim.
According to Annex 8 to Article 4 of the Dayton accords, this mosque cannot be treated as a national monument of Muslims, as we believe they are not the descendants of those whose dignitaries, for 500 years, raped Serb maidens and punished the Serbs who fought for human rights by impaling them on stakes, says Umicevic, also reminding him of Nedzad Sasivarevic's excesses at the recent session of the national assembly of the Serb Republic.
The Banja Luka mayor pointed out that the international community, if it really wanted reconciliation and true peace to come to life in Bosnia-Hercegovina, had to stop insulting the Serb people and demanding of them what no-one in civilized Europe had done - the evoking of memories of the darkest days of slavery, and in a prominent part of the city. The Serb people would see the reconstruction of the Ferhadija mosque as the worst humiliation, which would reopen old wounds and have far-reaching consequences, Umicevic warned.
*****************************