|
Bosnian Serbs Riot at Mosque Rebuilding Ceremony
BANJA LUKA, Bosnia-Herzegovina, June 18 (IslamOnline & News Agencies) - Hundreds of Bosnian Serbs clashed Monday with police who were trying to protect Muslims laying a foundation stone for the rebuilding of an historic mosque that was razed in Banja Luka during the 1992-1995 Bosnian war.
Held back by a heavy police force, 600 to 700 Serbs whistled and shouted "Turks, Turks," as well as "Serbia, Serbia" and "We don't want mosques" at 200 Bosnian Muslims and a number of foreign dignitaries who arrived to mark the rebuilding of the 16th century Ferhadija mosque in the center of the Bosnian-Serb capital.
As Bosnia's top Muslim cleric, Mustafa Ceric, and Bosnian Serb President Mirko Sarovic laid the foundation stone together - in a show of reconciliation, Serbian protestors began throwing chairs, metal bars, sticks, bricks and stones at police, who retaliated with tear gas and bursts from water cannons.
The protestors, who later began to disperse from the site, reassembled in front of the Parliament building and were circulating through the capital.
At least 12 policemen and several protestors were wounded, and a dozen rioters were detained.
Serbian rioters forced the cancellation of last month's attempt to hold the ceremony, sparking widespread condemnation and drawing broad international interest in Monday's event.
The riots in early May left one Muslim dead and more than 30 injured. In addition, protestors trapped several high-level international officials and some 300 Muslims for several hours in a building near the mosque site.
The Serbs dynamited the Ferhadija mosque during Bosnia's three-year war, when widespread ethnic cleansing by Serbs forced Muslims and Croats out of ethnically mixed Banja Luka.
The Dayton Peace Accords, which ended the war, left Bosnia divided into two entities -- the Serbian Republika Srpska (RS) and the Muslim-Croat Federation.
Ceric said he nonetheless hoped that, "all citizens of Banja Luka, regardless their religion or nationality (will) consider the Ferhadija's reconstruction as their joint project for a better future and not a step back into the dark past."
"I want to believe that today's laying of the foundation stone will be a contribution to the future of building and not destroying the houses of God," Ceric said on Monday.
Several international envoys, including the U.S. Ambassador to Bosnia Thomas Miller, and British Ambassador Graham Hand, as well as a number of top Bosnian-Serb officials, attended the ceremony, which ended shortly after noon (1000 GMT). Bosnia's Foreign Minister, Zlatko Lagumdzija, was also present.
Bosnian-Serb Prime Minister Mladen Ivanic stressed the importance of the event saying that, "a page of history has been closed." Miller congratulated Bosnian Serbian authorities for enabling it to happen.
The international community strongly criticized Serbian authorities' handling of the May riots.
Security personnel turned out in full force to guard Monday's ceremony, blocking access to the area where the foundation stone was to be laid and allowing only local residents - whom were searched for weapons - to pass.
Several hundred policemen were on the streets in the area, backed up by a dozen buses carrying extra officers and an armored vehicle, as helicopters from the NATO-led peacekeeping force hovered overhead.
Meanwhile, the city hall was evacuated after an anonymous phone call issued a bomb threat.
The Bosnian-Serb authorities urged their citizens to show tolerance over the rebuilding of the mosque, warning that renewed anti-Muslim riots would have grave consequences for democracy in the Serbian-run part of Bosnia.
Banja Luka, the capital of the Bosnian-Serb entity, was the center of the massive ethnic cleansing of minority Muslims and Croats during the 1992-95 Bosnian war.
Efforts to rebuild the historic mosque are part of an initiative seeking to allow thousands of Muslim refugees to return to the area.
|
