JEWISH CEMETERY IN SARAJEVO DESECRATED

SARAJEVO, Nov 11 (Hina) - Unknown perpetrators damaged a great number of tombstones at the Jewish cemetery in the Bosnian capital in the night between Friday and Saturday, a spokesman for the UN mission in Sarajevo told Hina corespondent on Saturday. The spokesman Douglas Coffman said the head of the Jewish community in Bosnia-Herzegovina, Jakob Finci, had notified the UN mission's head Jacques Klein of the incident. The Jewish cemetery in Sarajevo is several hundred years old and is a listed national cultural monument. 30 tombstones have either been damaged or overturned, Coffman said adding that U.S. diplomat Klein had toured the graveyard today. Ambassador Klein harshly condemns this act of vandalism, the UN spokesman said. Sarajevo police have carried out an on-the-spot investigation and launched a probe. They will be supported by the International Police Task Force (IPTF) in their efforts to establish the perpetrators. During the siege of Sarajevo in the early 1990s the Jewish cemetery was at the very front-line and was badly damaged in fighting. Its reconstruction, including the removal of planted land mines from the area, started after the war. (hina) ms