More Than Hatred

Military strategists will never be able to justify the bombing of Iraqi archaeological sites before the rest of the normal world; not that they think themselves accountable to anyone.

Those fighting in Bosnia-Herzegovina are no different, and the same held true in Croatia. They simply destroy all that reminds of the enemy, notwithstanding the historical value of certain cultural monuments. French archaeologist Jean Josy is perfectly right when he says, "Never has war been waged so efficiently against human civilization as lately." He adds that it is one of today's incomprehensible absurdities that even highly educated people are mercilessly destroying the cultures of other peoples, and doing so with great pleasure.

Experts say that according to off hand assessments, practically 70 percent of the historical monuments in Bosnia-Herzegovina have been destroyed in the current war. This includes buildings, places of worship, bridges, libraries, archives... These estimates say that about 80 percent of the old part of Sarajevo has been destroyed, including the old centers of Mostar, Jajce, Foca and many other towns. The old centers represented a specific cultural entity.

After several months of non-stop shelling, Sarajevo can be taken as a drastic example to point.

Mortars fired from Trebevic hit one of Sarajevo's landmarks - its Town Hall which also housed the University Library. When it burned down in August this year, Library director Borivoje Pistalo said: "The destruction of the Sarajevo's Town Hall is a crime against culture, intelligence and humanity. The scope of destruction is greater than that inflicted by the German bombing of Belgrade in 1941 when the Belgrade Library burned down. The Town Hall contained close to a million books, old sets of daily newspapers and periodicals, a large number of foreign publications from all fields of science and the arts. This was another sign that monuments in Sarajevo would not be spared, regardless of their historical importance. The Town Hall was opened in 1896 and symbolized pre-World War Two Sarajevo. Without it, Sarajevo will never be the same.

Another war casualty is Sarajevo's Oriental Institute. Its entire inventory also burned down. The Oriental Institute was the repository of 7,500 manuscripts including a large number of 11th century ones, 7,000 inventory numbers, some of which contained over 90 linked documents and the municipal archive with its 200,000 documents.

The Institute was hit by shells very soon after the Bosnian government set up office on its ground floor. This was done for security reasons. With the destruction of the Oriental Institute documents vital to Bosnia-Herzegovina's history have been lost forever, including those pertaining to the Ottoman period and others.

After this, many cultural workers asked why a part of the invaluable documents had not been stored in a safe place. Oriental Institute director Ahmed Alicic could only reply in desperation that he had begged and pleaded with various institutions to place the documents in special vaults, but that all had turned a deaf ear. Who in authority gave much thought to cultural heritage during the pre-war and war psychosis? It remains an open question if the greatest responsibility for the destruction of the Oriental Institute will be borne primarily by the Bosnian government, who, without asking anyone, moved into the Institute. In this way, politics desecrated in the worst possible way the sacrosanctity of cultural heritage.

Of course, a very large percentage of the monuments could not have been protected at all. Such is the case of Mostar's famous Old Bridge built in 1566, whose external damages are not too visible. However, the bridge has been internally greatly shaken by detonations so that its future is not too bright. The same holds true for a great number of old buildings in Mostar, and not only in this town. The percentage of such damages will never be precisely determined.

All the warring sides invoke God's name and all go on to destroy more places of worship. Therein lies the paradox of the entire situation.

According to data received from the Serbian Orthodox Church, the war in Bosnia-Herzegovina and earlier in Croatia resulted in the destruction of 79 churches, 88 were damaged or demolished, two monasteries were demolished and two damaged, as were a large number of archives, libraries, museums and residential buildings. Twenty one churches were destroyed in the Zvornik-Tuzla Eparchy alone, while six were damaged. Churches were destroyed indiscriminately - those from the 18th century along with others which had yet to be consecrated.

The war has wiped off the face of the earth over 50 Catholic churches, some of which were bulldozered to the ground. Some Orthodox churches and mosques met the same fate. This can be summed up as being more than just hatred. The Bishop's palace in Mostar was burned to the ground and with it the library containing 50,000 books.

The Islamic community in Sarajevo claims that over 300 mosques have been razed to the ground, of which 40 in Sarajevo alone.

It is characteristic that a great number of the destroyed places of worship were not within the range of war actions. In some towns, in places where sacral buildings had once stood, foundations have been laid for other purpose facilities. Sufficient cement, labor and hatred were found.