SARAJEVO/BANJA LUKA, May 7 (Hina) - At least 14 people were injured, seven buses and vehicles were set on fire and the Islamic Community building was damaged during riots which broke out in Banja Luka Monday. Shortly after 18.00
hours, all invitees and Moslems, who arrived in the town today to attend the ceremony of laying the foundation stone for the reconstruction of a mosque demolished in 1993, were evacuated from Banja Luka. The incidents started around 10AM when a large group of protesters surrounded the site of what was once Banja Luka's biggest mosque and blocked access to representatives of the Islamic community, numerous diplomats and staff with the international community active in Bosnia who wanted to attend. The mosque had been razed to the ground by local Serb authorities in May 1993, and it took three years after the end of the war to get permission for its reconstruction. The crowd hurled ins
SARAJEVO/BANJA LUKA, May 7 (Hina) - At least 14 people were injured,
seven buses and vehicles were set on fire and the Islamic Community
building was damaged during riots which broke out in Banja Luka
Monday.
Shortly after 18.00 hours, all invitees and Moslems, who arrived in
the town today to attend the ceremony of laying the foundation stone
for the reconstruction of a mosque demolished in 1993, were
evacuated from Banja Luka.
The incidents started around 10AM when a large group of protesters
surrounded the site of what was once Banja Luka's biggest mosque and
blocked access to representatives of the Islamic community,
numerous diplomats and staff with the international community
active in Bosnia who wanted to attend.
The mosque had been razed to the ground by local Serb authorities in
May 1993, and it took three years after the end of the war to get
permission for its reconstruction.
The crowd hurled insults at members of the Bosnian Muslim community
and set several religious flags on fire. The Bosnian Serb police
were unable to prevent the stoning of the few who managed to reach
the place where the foundation stone was to be laid.
The invitees, among whom was the head of the United Nations Mission
to Bosnia, Jacques Klein, were forced to seek shelter on the
premises of the Islamic Community, where they were blocked.
About 300 Banja Luka police officers reacted half-heartedly to
violence and allowed a small group to get to the building in which
the invitees sought shelter.
Several hundred guests and invitees were trapped in the building
for hours before the Serb police came and evacuate them to the
nearest Stabilisation Forces (SFOR) base.
Bosnia-Herzegovina Foreign Minister Zlatko Lagumdjija and
Ambassador Klein, who were the last to leave the building, said the
Republika Srpska authorities were responsible for the Banja Luka
incidents.
High Representative for Bosnia-Herzegovina Wolgang Petritsch said
he held Republika Srpska Prime Minister Mladen Ivanic and President
Mirko Sarovic responsible for violence.
Both Ivanic and Sarovic told Banja Luka reporters the entity
authorities would discover and punish not only the perpetrators of
the crime but the organisers as well.
Head of the Islamic community in Bosnia-Herzegovina Mustafa Ceric
harshly condemned the violent behaviour, adding that the latest
incidents show that "fascism is still present in Bosnia-
Herzegovina".
"Until the Serb people identify the individual extremists, we are
entitled to believe the entire Serb people and government
authorities are involved in this general Serb fascism," Ceric
said.
(hina) it sb