The Bells and the Muezzin

Hans Koschnik, Administrator

Thank God I Have Low Blood Pressure

Hotel "Ero" is located among the ruins of Mostar. The atmosphere is relaxed and reminiscent of Western European capitals. Everything seems so unreal. Waiters hurry to bring the best espresso coffee in town to the representatives of the divided city who are trying to find a solution to the disaster which has hit them. Journalists from both sides who follow events in the European Union Administration, various European adventurers, and all those who have decided to stay briefly in this dangerous war zone in Bosnia, are to be found here. This is where EU Administrator and former Bremen Mayor Hans Koschnik's office is located.

"In spite of the destruction Mostar has a charm that is hard to resist. I'm not the only one who says this, but many of my associates feel this way. We all have "Mostar fever" - we're happy when we get out, but we can't wait to get back. The job I am doing here oscillates - things go up and then down - like a wave, and it requires strong and healthy people. People with low blood pressure won't have a bad time in Mostar. Thank God, I have low blood pressure.

You want me to list the difficulties? It would be easier to say where there aren't any. There is very good cooperation with the regard to the building of the infrastructure which is useful to the whole city. Some things have take longer than we anticipated, because there was planned lateness. We have resolved a good deal of the problems linked to water and electricity supplies, traffic problems. With the agreement of all sides we will now put the Ploce-Sarajevo railway into order. Schools on both sides of the city have been renewed, the question of nationality cannot be raised in this area - children have an elementary right to education. In the same way we are trying to get the kindergartens going. We wish to ensure hospital treatment for all those who need it, and enable people to see their relatives without police approval.

Public transport will be established soon. The building of the Carinski Most bridge is under way and we have engaged workers from both sides, and we hope that both mayors look on the bridges as their bridges, and not the EU Administration's bridges.

I believe that I will win over both sides, and that it is in the interest of the third side - the Serbian side, for a solution to be found for other important things concerning the city, and that joint solutions are found. I spoke of this recently with Croatian Democratic Union (HDZ) and Party of Democratic Action (SDA) representatives.

In matters concerning security there is still, however, great mutual mistrust, which hinders the setting up of a joint police, but this depends on the wish to combat widespread crime jointly."

Mijo Brajkovic, Mayor of the Western part of the city

They Build For Themselves and We Build for Ourselves

"Today Mostar is a very complicated and difficult city. There many problems: the homeless, the unemployed. All seek help from the municipality. The competent departments are still not working properly, we are burdened with the problems that war brings. But life is returning somehow. Schools are opening, and all the children go to primary and secondary schools. The university is working, culture is on the rise and the economy is slowly starting to function again, even though much enthusiasm, energy, time and means are needed.

Our Municipality authorities have been chosen by legal, higher bodies and they have been appointed from Sarajevo. The people didn't choose them and this is a continuation of military authority. Before the war, in 1990, we had democratic elections here and the HDZ won. This is why the HDZ is the official representative of authority in the city of Mostar, and its legitimate representative.

I do not deny the authorities of the Eastern part of the city. I think that they must have some sort of authority, otherwise there would be anarchy, disorder... I recognize that authority, but from the formal-legal point of view, the HDZ won at democratic elections here. Since then there haven't been any democratic elections.

The fact that B-H Prime Minister Haris Silajdzic did not come to visit us during his recent tour of the city should not surprise you: the matter with the federation is still something that's on paper, and this is a reflection of the situation. Many support the federation in name only, and there's still much to be done. I think it's wrong that the inhabitants of the Eastern part of the city don't view Mostar as the capital of Herzeg-Bosnia. Look at Bosnia-Herzegovina, the Serbs have Banja Luka, the Muslims have Tuzla and Zenica, and partly Sarajevo. What is it that the Croats have? In what city will the Croats be able to rally and express their national, cultural and religious feelings, their identity? It's natural that this should be Mostar, since 250,000 Croats gravitate towards it.

If a Bosnjak wishes to study, then he has Zenica and Tuzla, but where is a Croat going to go? He has to go to Zagreb. Why should he have to go there? Why shouldn't we have a university here in Mostar?

Our model is very simple - to create two municipalities and to annul the demarcation line. These municipalities would determine the cultural, national and religious identity. Then it is necessary to elect the city's administration which would be in charge of the airport, because we're not going to make another airport, it would be stupid. We can't make another railway station, another Neretva River..."

Safet Orucevic, mayor of the Eastern part of the city

Two Classes of People

"The most important thing is for peace to be established, to put an end to the killing. What has happened in Mostar is a great tragedy, and the result is that the Croatian Defence Council (HVO) and the Croatian Army are taking the project to an end - to make Mostar the capital of Herzeg-Bosnia. This has resulted in great suffering for the city and the people, concentration camps in which Muslims were incarcerated, and their expulsion into third countries...

We did have the strength to fight for two things - not to allow a military defeat in the part of the city held by the B-H Army, regardless of the sacrifices and the suffering. We are proud that we have preserved the spirit of Mostar and that our idea of a single city has found its way to the EU. We will fight to the end so that the people in this city can live in harmony and love, just as we lived before, and that the muezzin's song and church bells can be heard together. This idea of ours has found support in the civilized world...

Our struggle for democratic principles has been accepted by the EU Administration, while the Croatian side believes that Koschnik will help them implement their project, forgetting that Hans Koschnik is a democrat, a man of unusual broadness of mind, who will not depart from the principles to which he has devoted his life. There is no talk of brotherhood and unity, but there are many elements in favor of cohabitation between Serbs, Croats and Muslims, such as have existed for centuries in these regions. This option is now being destroyed, not here, but in Bonn. I suggested that a 20 metres high wall be erected on the demarcation line which would serve as a defence from fascism, and we would then have the greater and real part of Mostar, all that which is the old part of Mostar - we hold all the bridges, we have the Neretva River, on the Croatian side there are just high rises which no tourist will ever wish to see.

Mr. Brajkovic, the mayor of the Western part of the city is a man who is trying to find a solution for Mostar, but as far as we're concerned he does not exist as the President of the Municipal Council of the parastate of Herzeg-Bosnia, i.e. not from the formal point of view, but we do accept him as a man we can negotiate with."

VREME: You're calling on the citizens of Mostar to return. Does this include the Serbs, too?

ORUCEVIC: "Yes, and to prove that this is not just a declarative statement, we're going to restore the old Orthodox Church. A lot of money is needed for the big one, which, in fact, has to be built all over again, and the Patriarch's permission is needed, and that is a matter for the Serbian representatives to come and decide here.

I have talked to Bishop Atanasije and tried to explain to him that there wasn't a Serbian part of Mostar, that Mostar was one... I showed him that he could walk through Mostar, regardless of the crimes in Bosnia, and that the Church must think of how much it has helped bring about this war. The monument to poet Aleksa Santic will be restored soon.

Mostar was one place, the only place in Bosnia during the biggest HVO and Croatian army attacks on Bosnia where the Serbian army, in the vicinity of Mostar, helped us when they saw that we were weak, so that Mostar should not fall.

Had they started against us jointly, one and the other side, I mean, had the Serbian army helped the HVO, Mostar would have fallen. On the global plane, concerning other borders, there are agreements between Bosnian Serb leader Radovan Karadzic and former Bosnian Croat Mate Boban. They traded, exchanged territories, they even signed an agreement for Mostar to be a Croatian city, they sold Ravno, Jajce... but they didn't succeed with Mostar.