THE WORK OF THE COMMISSION TO PRESERVE NATIONAL MONUMENTS

It is not possible to speak of the reconstruction of Bosnia’s cultural heritage without mentioning the Commission to Preserve National Monuments. The Dayton Peace Agreement (DPA), which ended the war against Bosnia, envisaged a very weak central government. Many viewed this as a fig leaf for the de facto division of the country, giving the nationalist forces more or less what they wanted. In the absence of strong institutions of central government, the DPA’s Annex 8 must have been viewed as a joke: it envisaged establishing a Commission to Preserve National Monuments in Bosnia. Its mandate is defined as receiving and deciding petitions for designating properties with cultural, historical, religious, or ethnic importance as national monuments. The Commission’s decisions are deemed final and enforceable in accordance with domestic law. Thus the local authorities are bound by its decisions, even though the Commission itself lacks power to enforce such decisions. Nonetheless it has still been able to perform a remarkable service in enabling the restoration and preservation of Bosnian cultural heritage. In the end, the Annex 8 has proven to be—apart from the Annex 7 that guarantees the right of refugees to return to their prewar homes—a most significant provision of the DPA.16

References

1 Noel Malcolm. Bosnia: a Short History (London: Macmillan, 1994) p. xxiv.

2 Hadzimuhamedovic, Amra. Transnational Meaning of the Bosnia-Herzegovinian Architectural Heritage and Its Post-War Reconstruction. Online. University of Trieste. Internet. 29 October 2005.

3 Michael Sells. The Bridge Betrayed: Religion and Genocide in Bosnia (University of California Press: Berkeley, 1996) p. xiv.

4 Petar P. Njegos. Gorski Vijenac (A Mountain Wreath), (Belgrade,1884), p.122, quoted in Rusmir Mahmutcahajic. Bosnia the Good: Tolerance and Tradition (Budapest: Central European University Press, 2000), p.183.

5 Norman Cigar. Uloga srpskih orijentalista u opravdanju genocida nad muslimanima Balkana ( The Role of Serbian Orientalists in Justification of Genocide Against Muslims ofthe Balkans) (Institute for the Research Against Humanity and International Law and Bosnian Cultural Centre: Sarajevo, 2000).

6 Miroljub Jevtic. Savremeni dzihad kao rat (Contemporary Jihad as War), (Belgrade, 1989), pp.316-317, quoted in Mahmutcahajic, p.183.

7 Sells, ibid., p.93. For the destruction of Bosnian cities see Mehmed Bublin. Gradovi Bosnei Hercegovine: milenijum razvoja i godine urbicida (The Cities of Bosnia Herzegovina: a Millennium of Development and the Years of Urbicide) (Sarajevo Publishing: Sarajevo, 1999).

8 Zeljko Cvijanovic, “Srbi i Ferhadija: evolucija koje nije bilo,” BH Dani. 11 May 2001:205. Online. BH Dani archive. Internet. 1 November 2005.

9 A major contribution toward reconstructing Ferhadija has been made by a UK based organization, Soul of Europe, a unique Christian-Muslim collaboration project that has campaigned and raised funds for the mosque. See the Soul of Europe website www.soulofeurope.org

10 The current Serbian president Vojislav Kostunica, during whose rule the EU agreed to initiate the Stabilization and Association Agreement, recently went on record as saying that some “churches and mosques should not be rebuilt since that could provoke incidents.” For images of the events visit www. ferhadija. com/bL07052001.php

11 For the history of Ferhadija and its destruction see Aleksandar Ravlic. Banjalucka Ferhadija: ljepotica koju su ubili (AARis: Rijeka, 1996).

12 The Careva Mosque also housed many manuscripts in Arabic and other languages. For the letter to the Pope see Amra Hadzimuhamedovic, ed. Ljudska prava i razaranje kulturnog pamcenja: slucaj Stoca (Human Rights and Destruction of Cultural Memory: the Stolac Case). (Sarajevo, the Helsinki Committee for Human Rights in Bosnia-Herzegovina, 2005), pp.228-233

13 Schwartz, Stephen. “Islamic Fundamentalism in the Balkans,” Partisan Review. 2000: vol.lxii, 3. Online. 27 October 2005.

14 Agnes Heller. “Tentative answer to the question: has civil society cultural memory?”, Social Research, Winter, 2001. Quoted in Human Rights and Destruction of Cultural Memory, p. 210.

15 Amer Obradovic, interview with Amra Hadzimuhamedovic, BH Dani, 4 February 2005: 399.

16 For the Commission’s work visit its website on www.aneks8komisija.com.ba.

Asim Zubcevic is a scholar based at the Faculty of Islamic Studies, University of Sarajevo.