MOSTAR LEADERS DENOUNCE DESECRATION OF MOSTAR CEMETERY

MOSTAR, 3 Nov (Hina)- Mostar Mayor Ivan Prskalo and his deputy Safet Orucevic on Tuesday denounced desecration of a local Catholic cemetery, located between the areas of Kuti and Livaca in the predominantly Muslim Sjever municipality. As reported on Sunday, on All Saints' Day (1 November), unidentified perpetrators damaged several tombs, broke four windows at the cemetery chapel and scattered flowers. In his statement Prskalo warned that "the barbaric act will definitely not facilitate return and reconciliation" and added that "perpetrators should be imminently tracked down and adequately punished". Orucevic's statement stresses that "the barbarity has been perpetrated by those who want to obstruct all reconciliation efforts and positive processes in the town of Mostar". The act was clearly meant to create an atmosphere of distrust and insecurity and thus pre-empt progress in relations between Bosniaks and Croats, Orucevic added. Desecration of the Catholic cemetery in the Mostar municipality of Sjever was denounced on Tuesday by the Herzeg-Bosnia Association of Homeland War Volunteers and Veterans, whose open letter describes the incident as "a barbaric act". (Hina) mm mr/rml