نابودی میراث فرهنگی بوسنی-هرزگوین

DESTRUCTION OF CULTURAL HERITAGE IN BOSNIA-HERZEGOVINA,
1992-1996:
A Post-war Survey of Selected Municipalities
Principal Investigator: András J. Riedlmayer
© 2002 András J. Riedlmayer, Cambridge, Massachusetts USA
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Table of Contents
1.0 Introduction
1.1 Background to Survey
1.2 Survey Goals and Methodology
2.0 Findings
2.1 Damage to Islamic Architectural Heritage
2.2 Damage Catholic Architectural Heritage
2.3 Damage to Archives and Libraries
3.0 Use of Database
4.0 Principal Investigator
Appendix 1: Description and Analysis of Documentation Sources
Appendix 2: List of Documents Submitted
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1.0 Introduction
1.1 Background to Survey.
During the 1992-1996 conflict in Bosnia-Herzegovina, there were reports by various
parties concerning the widespread destruction of cultural and religious heritage. In
general, these reports came from the following sources: governmental organs and
professional institutions in Bosnia-Herzegovina; the local religious communities;
interviews with refugees conducted by humanitarian relief organizations and other
non-governmental organizations; and media reports from the conflict zone.
In response, the Committee on Culture and Education of the Council of Europe's
Parliamentary Assembly sent a series of missions to Bosnia-Herzegovina and Croatia
to collect information on the destruction by war of cultural heritage. The first of the
ten information reports submitted by the Committee on this matter (Council of Europe
Parliamentary Assembly Doc. 6756. 2 February 1993), characterized the destruction
as "a cultural catastrophe in the heart of Europe."
The deliberate destruction of cultural property in the absence of overriding military
necessity is a violation of international law and those responsible for ordering and
carrying out such attacks can be prosecuted for war crimes. According to the statute
of the ICTY, such crimes include the "seizure of, destruction, or willful damage done
to institutions dedicated to religion, charity, and education, the arts and sciences,
historic monuments, and works of art and science." There is increasing awareness of
the link between the systematic persecution and expulsion of ethnic and religious
communities and the destruction of the cultural and religious heritage associated with
the targeted community.
Following the end of hostilities and the signing of the Dayton Peace Accords, it was
evident that there was an urgent need to conduct an independent assessment of the
damage inflicted on cultural heritage in Bosnia-Herzegovina during the conflict.
However, amidst the post-war challenges of restoring security and public services, the
human drama of the return of refugees, the discoveries of mass graves and other
evidence of atrocities, and the urgency of providing basic necessities such as shelter,
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the fate of cultural heritage was not foremost among the concerns of the international
organizations and governmental bodies in Bosnia-Herzegovina.
The Dayton Peace Accords recognized the importance of cultural heritage in its
Annex 8, which called for the establishment of a Commission to Preserve National
Monuments. A Commission was set up, but it remained mired in disputes about
political and procedural issues and had neither the budget nor the staff to conduct any
assessments. The state institutions that had been in charge of heritage protection in
Bosnia-Herzegovina before the war lost their former country-wide authority and their
budgetary support, as a result of the decentralized political arrangements imposed by
Dayton, and were thus in no position to carry out extensive field investigations.
Soon after the end of the war, the various religious communities in Bosnia undertook
efforts to document and publicize damage to their respective sacral monuments, in
part to help raise funds for reconstruction. In 1997-98, the Technical Cooperation and
Consultancy Programme of the Cultural Heritage Division of the Council of Europe
carried out an independent field survey of selected heritage sites, in cooperation with
local authorities in both entities of Bosnia-Herzegovina. The resulting survey report,
"Specific Action Plan for Bosnia-Herzegovina, Preliminary Phase: Final Report
(March 1999)," was designed to identify priorities for restoration, but it also provides
some independent, base-line information and photographs for a number of sites.
The losses inflicted upon the cultural heritage of Bosnia-Herzegovina's ethnic and
religious communities during the 1992-1996 war have been widely noted, but a
comprehensive, country-wide survey has yet to be carried out.
In April 2002, following the presentation in court of my expert report and testimony
concerning the destruction of cultural and religious heritage in the Kosovo conflict,
I was approached by the Office of the Prosecutor (OTP) about the possibility of also
preparing a report on the destruction of cultural and religious heritage during the war
in Bosnia-Herzegovina. On 16 May 2002, I was engaged by the OTP to prepare such
a report, to be based on a field investigation in Bosnia-Herzegovina. The assignment
was to document damage to cultural and religious sites of the Bosnian Muslim and
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Bosnian Croat (Roman Catholic) communities in at least fourteen municipalities
specified by the OTP and in up to five additional municipalities, time permitting.
The fieldwork in Bosnia-Herzegovina, which was carried out in July 2002, was
supported by the OTP, which set the terms of reference for the mission and also
provided transportation, a daily fee and per diem costs. In two and a half weeks of
travel in Bosnia-Herzegovina, the field survey documented patrimonial sites in
nineteen municipalities. The information and photographs collected in the field,
combined with documentation gathered from other sources and subsequent analysis
of the resulting database, form the basis of this report. The findings and conclusions
of this report are entirely those of the author. At no stage in the process did the OTP
seek to exert any influence or pressure on the author regarding the methodology of
this study, its findings, or its conclusions.
1.2 Survey Goals and Methodology
The goal of the survey was to document cases of the deliberate destruction of cultural
and religious heritage of the Bosnian Muslim and Bosnian Croat communities during
the 1992-1996 war in the specified municipalities. The religious and cultural sites to
be surveyed included, but were not limited to, places of worship, libraries, educational
buildings and cultural sites. According to the terms of the mission, at least six sites
were to be documented in each specified municipality. For most municipalities, the
actual number of sites visited and documented exceeded that target. In addition to a
careful inspection of each of the sites visited, an effort was made to collect pre-war
and post-war photographs and other information from the local community and from
other sources.
In all, 392 sites were documented. 60 percent of the sites (234 sites) were inspected
at first hand. For 40 percent (158 sites) the assessment is based on photographs and
information obtained from other sources judged to be reliable (e.g. the local religious
communities, photographs taken by ICTY investigators, the Council of Europe survey
teams, local Institutes for the Protection of Monuments). When using information
from external sources, only those sites were included in this survey for which there
were photographs or other corroborating documentation. Whenever possible, an
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effort was made to corroborate survey findings by using information from multiple,
independent sources. For this survey, the term "site" is used to describe a particular
building or institution devoted to religious worship (such as a mosque, church, or
shrine) of the specified communities, or related cultural or educational uses (archive,
library, religious school, monastic establishment, or dervish lodge). All sites are
identified by type and use.
MUNICIPALITIES SURVEYED number of sites
1. Banja Luka 28*
2. Bijeljina 15**
3. Bosanska Krupa 15
4. Bosanski Novi 19
5. Bosanski Samac 9***
6. Bratunac 12
7. Brcko 21
8. Doboj 31
9. Foca 34
10. Kljuc 20
11. Kotor Varos 18
12. Nevesinje 13****
13. Prijedor 43
14. Sanski Most 34
15. Sarajevo-Centar 6
16. Sarajevo-Stari Grad 6
17. Srebrenica 13
18. Visegrad 9
19. Zvornik 46
TOTAL: 392
* total for Banja Luka includes 1 Catholic church in the suburban parish of Trn, which straddles the
municipal boundary with the neighbouring municipality of Lukavac.
** total includes 4 mosques in villages, part of Ugljevik municipality before the war, that are now
administered from Bijeljina.
*** total includes 2 sites (a Catholic church and a monastery) in the parish of Cardak, which straddles
the boundary with the neighbouring municipality of Modrica.
**** total includes 2 mosques in the villages of Prijecka Strana and Zulja, which were part of Nevesinje
before the war but are now administered from Mostar.
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MUSLIM SITES
Mosques 277
Mektebs (Qur'an schools) 13
Turbes (Islamic shrines) 17
Tekkes (Dervish lodges) 4
Islamic clock towers 3
Islamic religious archives and libraries 18
ROMAN CATHOLIC SITES
Catholic churches 57
Catholic monasteries and convents 4
Catholic religious archives and libraries 2
NATIONAL LIBRARIES AND ARCHIVES
National and University Library 1
Oriental Institute in Sarajevo 1
Cemeteries and cemetery chapels, which are not used for regular communal worship,
were excluded from the scope of the survey, while mektebs (Qur'an schools) which
are often used for communal prayers, were included.
The damage assessment for each site surveyed includes a verbal description. The
damage was also graded according to a five-point scale, using the following terms:
In good condition: the building shows no sign of war damage or of recent
reconstruction.
Lightly damaged: covers any damage that does not visibly compromise
the main structure of the building; damage can range from
vandalism or small fires set in the building, to bullet holes
in the walls, shell holes in the roof, the top of a minaret or
the top of a church steeple shot off, as long the principal part
of the building appears to have survived structurally intact.
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Heavily damaged: the building has suffered significant structural damage to its
main elements; typically, this would be used to describe a
building that has been completely burnt out, often with its roof
entirely or substantially collapsed, or extensive blast damage,
or a combination of damage to several parts of the structure.
Almost destroyed: several principal parts of the building, such as perimeter walls,
are missing or severely compromised; the building appears to be
beyond repair and would require complete reconstruction, but
still has some identifiable elements standing.
Completely destroyed: the building has been razed and has no potentially salvageable
elements left standing above ground.
In addition to the principal investigator, who determined the sites to be documented
and carried out the documentation and assessments, the survey team also included an
OTP investigator who acted as our driver, as well as Prof. Dr Muhamed Hamidovic,
currently Dean of the Faculty of Architecture at the University of Sarajevo and former
director of the Institute for Protection of Cultural, Historical and Natural Heritage of
Bosnia and Herzegovina. Prof. Hamidovic assisted in arranging for local contacts and
acted as translator; he also acted as guide to a number of heritage sites with which he
was personally familiar. In all the municipalities surveyed, the local Islamic and
Roman Catholic religious communities provided information, documents (including
photographs) and assistance; in many places, local clergymen gave generously of
their time to accompany and guide us to sites of destroyed places of worship.
While it was not the aim of the mission to cover every site in these municipalities, in
most of the municipalities surveyed the great majority of the Islamic and Catholic
sites extant before the war were in fact documented by this survey. Coverage for the
municipalities of Banja Luka, Bijeljina, Bratunac, Sanski Most, and Zvornik is close
to complete, and is nearly so for all but a handful of the other municipalities. Among
the latter are the two Sarajevo municipalities, and Srebrenica and Visegrad, where the
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most important damaged or destroyed monuments have been documented for this
survey, but some others alleged to have been damaged could not be included due to
lack of time or difficulties of access.
2.0 Findings
2.1 Damage to Islamic Architectural Heritage
Islamic religious heritage sites in Bosnia-Herzegovina include mosques (dzamija,
mesdzid), tekkes (dervish lodges of the Sufi lay brotherhoods), turbes (shrines
marking the burial places of popular saints and martyrs), clock towers (sahat kula),
medresas (Islamic theological schools), mektebs (schools for Qur’an readers), and
Islamic libraries and religious archives. All of these appear to have been singled out
for destruction during the 1992-1996 war, in particular mosques.
The survey has documented 277 mosques in 19 municipalities, most of them located
in territory seized and held by Bosnian Serb forces during all or the greater part of the
war (Sarajevo is an exception in this regard). None of the 277 surveyed mosques
were found to be undamaged, while only 22 mosques (less than 8 percent of the total)
were assessed as lightly damaged.
Mosques found to have been lightly damaged fell into two categories. Some, located
in Sarajevo, and in parts of Brcko, Doboj, and Zvornik municipalities held by Bosnian
government forces during the war, were close to the front lines and were damaged by
projectile impacts. Almost all of the other lightly damaged mosques, located in areas
controlled by Bosnian Serb forces, were unfinished buildings still under construction
at the time the war broke out.
Unfinished houses of worship of the non-Serb communities -- both mosques and
Roman Catholic churches -- seem to have been frequent targets of vandalism and
looting of building materials during the war, but were rarely destroyed. This odd
selectivity suggests that those involved in tearing down mosques, an activity that
requires some advance organization and planning (explosives, equipment, personnel),
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may have been working from prepared lists, which would not have included religious
buildings that were under construction and not yet in active use.
In all, 255 mosques, or 92 percent of the mosques surveyed, were found to have been
heavily damaged or destroyed. Of these, 119 mosques were heavily damaged while
136 mosques were almost or entirely destroyed.
Close to 60 percent (161) of all mosques surveyed were built during the Ottoman era
(early 15th century to 1878) or under Austro-Hungarian rule (1878-1918). A total of
71 mosques were listed monuments (cultural heritage under legal protection).
Of the 161 Ottoman-era and Austro-Hungarian-era mosques, more than 96 percent
(155 mosques) were either heavily damaged or destroyed. Among the 71 mosques
that were listed monuments, 18 were heavily damaged while 48 were almost or
entirely destroyed.
Only five of the 71 listed mosques survived the war lightly damaged. Of those, four
were in Bosnian-government-held territory and were repeatedly hit but not destroyed
by shelling. The fifth listed mosque (the Cuckova dzamija in Nevesinje) had not been
used for worship since the 1930s, had lost its minaret long before the war, and was
used as a warehouse during the Communist period. It was vandalized and used as a
rubbish dump after 1992, when Nevesinje fell under the control of Serb nationalist
forces, but unlike the two other, active mosques in Nevesinje it was not destroyed.
The same pattern was evident for other types of Islamic religious monuments of
cultural or historical importance. All 17 turbes (Islamic shrines) surveyed, 11 of them
listed monuments, were either heavily damaged or destroyed. Three of the four
dervish lodges (tekke) documented were heavily damaged or destroyed; one historic
dervish lodge in Sarajevo was damaged by shelling but still stands.
Although it is often stated that all of the mosques located in territory controlled by
Bosnian Serb forces during the war were completely razed, that is not quite the case.
However, one can conclude from the findings of this survey that the overwhelming
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majority (more than 92 percent) of the mosques were either heavily damaged or
destroyed; and that mosques and other Muslim religious monuments of particular
historic and cultural importance were singled out for destruction. Minarets, which
with their tall spires are the most visible symbol of the Muslim community's presence
in a locality, appear to have been favorite targets. Virtually no minarets survived the
1992-1996 war intact in the parts of Bosnia controlled by Bosnian Serb forces.*
The damage to these monuments was clearly the result of attacks directed against
them, rather than incidental to the fighting. Evidence of this includes signs of blast
damage indicating explosives placed inside the mosques or inside the stairwells of
minarets; many mosques are burnt out. In a number of towns, including Bijeljina,
Janja (Bijeljina municipality), Foca, Banja Luka, Sanski Most, Zvornik and others,
the destruction of mosques took place while the area was under the control of Serb
forces, at times when there was no military action in the immediate vicinity.
Destruction of Islamic religious monuments occurred from the beginning of the war
in April 1992 through the final phase of the fighting in 1995. Some of the destruction
in the spring of 1992 has been linked to JNA forces. Examples of the latter include
the Mosque at Orasje (near Doboj), destroyed on the Serb holiday of St. George's Day
(6 May 1992) by uniformed JNA troops arriving in a military transporter, according
to an eyewitness interviewed by this author (see database entry); the Gornja Mahala
Mosque at Kotorsko (Doboj), destroyed on 6 May 1992 by rockets fired from a JNA
military aircraft; and the Mosque at Grapska, near Doboj, heavily damaged, allegedly
by a JNA tank firing its cannon at close range, on 12 May 1992 (see database entries).
The destruction of mosques and of other Islamic religious monuments appears to have
been widespread and systematic and in many cases is reported to have taken place
just before, or in some cases just after, a mass exodus of the local Muslim population.
Reported statements made by the people expelled and by those engaged in the
* The one, well-known exception is in Baljvine, near Mrkonjic Grad, where local Bosnian Serb
inhabitants reportedly persuaded Serb paramilitaries to leave the mosque alone, saying it was
part of the "local color." (Jolyon Naegele, “Banja Luka's Mufti Tells Of 'Four Years Of Horror',”
RFE/RL.Weekday Magazine, 6 Sept. 1996;
http://www.rferl.org/nca/features/1996/09/F.RU.96090616572638.html .)
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expulsions show an awareness of the actual and intended impact that the destruction
of their houses of worship had on the targeted community:
"They bulldozed the two mosques in the main street in Visegrad so we wouldn't
come back."
-- Bosnian Muslim refugees, interviewed on the outskirts of Visegrad by
Maggie O’Kane, 20 August 1992.*
"With their mosques, you must not just break the minarets," he said, "You've got to
shake up the foundations because that means they cannot build another. Do that,
and they'll want to go. They'll just leave by themselves."
-- Simo Drljaca, appointed by Radovan Karadzic as regional police chief
for five municipalities in the Prijedor area, interviewed by Chuck Sudetic,
21 August 1992.**
In many localities -- especially in major population centers, but at times also in
village settings -- mosques were not only destroyed by burning and explosives, but
the ruins were razed and the sites levelled with heavy equipment, and all building
materials were removed from the site. The razing of the mosques and the levelling of
the sites was generally carried out in the immediate aftermath of the destruction by
work crews of the local Bosnian Serb municipal authorities, ignoring protests and
pleas from the local Islamic communities. Particularly well-documented instances
of this practice include the destruction and razing of 5 mosques in the town of
Bijeljina***; of 2 mosques in the town of Janja (in Bijeljina municipality); of
12 mosques and 4 turbes in Banja Luka; and of 3 mosques in the city of Brcko.
The rubble of the razed mosques was generally trucked out of town and deposited in
rubbish tips. In some cases, such as that of the 18th-century Savska Mosque in Brcko,
(see survey database entry for the mosque and the ICTY investigators' reports on the
* Maggie O’Kane, “Then they set the house on fire and everyone inside was screaming … I was the
only one who got out,” The Guardian, 20 Aug. 1992
** Chuck Sudetic, "Serbs' Gains in Bosnia Create Chaotic Patchwork," New York Times, 21 Aug. 1992.
*** The destruction and bulldozing of the mosques in Bijeljina was captured on video in a report from
Bijeljina by ITN news correspondent Gaby Rado (17 March 1993) (See Appendix 2 below).
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exhumation) the rubble of the destroyed mosque was dumped on top of a mass grave
site and used to cover the remains of Muslim civilians killed by Serb forces.*
In a number of other cases, mosques were reportedly used as detention centers for
Muslims (such as the Hadzi-Pasha Mosque, next to the Health Centre in Brcko), and
as the scenes of killings of Muslim civilians and of Muslim clergymen. Examples of
the latter include the village mosque at Hanifici (Kotor Varos), where more than 30
members of the congregation were reportedly burned alive inside the mosque (see
(see statement of informant, interviewed by this author, in the database entry for the
for the mosque), and the village of Carakovo (Prijedor), where Serb forces reportedly
gathered 18 Muslim villagers in front of the mosque and killed them, wrapped the
imam (clergyman) in a prayer carpet and burned him to death, then burned down the
mosque and blew up the minaret (see database entry).
Many of the empty sites of razed mosques in territory under Bosnian Serb control
have been desecrated, most commonly by being used as dumping sites for rubbish.
As was noted by this observer in the course of the field survey, the presence of large,
overflowing containers of rubbish on an empty lot in the center of towns in Republika
Srpska often signals the site of a destroyed mosque; some examples include: the
Begsuja Mosque in Zvornik; the Mosque of Mehmed-Chelebi in Kozluk (Zvornik
municipality); the Mosque of Hadzi Mustafa in Foca; the Hadzi-Perviz Mosque in
Banja Luka (see database entries). The deposit of rubbish at such sites was frequently
seen piled next to an old linden tree, of the sort traditionally planted to the right of the
entrances of Bosnian Muslim mosques. Although in some cases even the foundations
of destroyed mosques have been dug up and removed (some examples of this include
the Hadzi Pasha Mosque and the Sava Mosque, both in Brcko), one can often still see
where the mosque once stood, by tracing lines of disturbed earth, stones in the ground
and a difference in the growth of vegetation (for examples of the latter, see database
entries for the Mosque of Sultan Suleiman the Magnificent in Bijeljina; the Aladza
* A similar incident is reported from Novoseoci, a village north of Sarajevo, where on 22 Sept. 1992
Serb forces reportedly took away 45 Muslim villagers, ages 14 to 85. The remains of 41 of the missing
villagers were exhumed from a mass gravesite in the nearby hamlet of Ivan Polje in Sept.-Oct. 2000 by
the Bosnian Commission for Missing Persons. The bodies had been buried beneath 15-ton chunks of
the blown-up Novoseoci village mosque. The rubble of the mosque had been trucked to the site from
Novoseoci. Mort Rosenblum, "41 Muslims Finally Buried in Bosnia," Associated Press, 5 Nov. 2000.
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Mosque and the Mosque of Sultan Bayezid II in Foca; the Mosque of Sultan Selim in
Doboj; and the mosque at Konjevic Polje in Bratunac municipality). Graffiti with
Serb nationalist or anti-Muslim messages were seen spray-painted on surrounding
buildings, or on the remaining walls of ruined mosques, where the mosque had not
been completely destroyed (for examples, see database entries for the Market Mosque
in Prijedor, and the Vrbanja Mosque in Banja Luka).
The sites of razed mosques in a number of Serb-controlled towns (such as Banja
Luka, Bijeljina, Zvornik, Foca, Nevesinje, Srebrenica, Prijedor and others) were
observed to have been turned into rubbish tips, bus stations, parking lots, automobile
repair shops, or flea markets. In some towns, new buildings have been erected on the
sites of razed mosques, with the permission of the Serb authorities, despite protests
from the local Islamic communities. Examples include but are not limited to the site
of the 200-year-old Zamlaz Mosque in Zvornik, destroyed in 1992, where a large,
four-storey block of flats and shops has been erected on the site (see database entry).
In Divic, a formerly all-Muslim village near Zvornik, a new Serbian Orthodox church
has been built on the site of the destroyed Divic Mosque (see database entry).*
2.2 Damage to Roman Catholic Architectural Heritage
Roman Catholic religious heritage sites in Bosnia-Herzegovina include churches,
convents and friaries of the religious orders, and Roman Catholic religious libraries
and archives. All of these appear to have been singled out for destruction during the
1992-1996 war, in particular churches.
The survey has documented 57 Catholic churches in 19 municipalities, most of them
located in territory seized and held by Bosnian Serb forces during all or the greater
part of the war (Sarajevo is an exception in this regard). None of the 57 surveyed
Catholic churches were found to be undamaged, while 14 churches (24.5 percent of
the total) were assessed as lightly damaged.
* The illegal appropriation and misuse of sites of razed mosques in Banja Luka, Bijeljina, Janja,
Zvornik, and Divic were the subject of decisions by the Human Rights Chamber of Bosnia and
Herzegovina (case nos. CH/96/29, CH/98/1062, and CH/99/2656). (See Appendix 2 below)
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Some of the Catholic churches assessed as lightly damaged are located in Sarajevo,
and in parts of other municipalities held by Bosnian government forces during the
war, were close to the front lines and were damaged by projectile impacts. Others,
such as the Catholic parish church at Sibovi (Kotor Varos municipality), were still
under construction at the time the war broke out and appear to have been vandalized
and looted of building materials, but not destroyed.
Unlike the situation with regard to mosques, there were also a handful of Roman
Catholic churches in Serb-controlled town centers that escaped with minor damage.
Examples of the latter include the Roman Catholic cathedral in Banja Luka and the
Catholic parish churches in Bijeljina and Brcko.
In most other municipal centers covered by the survey, however, the Catholic parish
churches met with the same fate as the town mosques and were completely destroyed.
In the towns of Bosanski Samac, Doboj, Kljuc, Nevesinje, Prijedor, and Sanski Most,
the local Catholic parish churches were completely destroyed by Serb forces and the
ruins razed to the ground (see database entries). In the towns of Bosanska Krupa and
Kotor Varos, the Roman Catholic churches were very heavily damaged. In a number
of towns, including Bosanska Krupa and Bosanski Samac, the ruined Roman Catholic
parish church stood across the street from the local Serbian Orthodox church, which
remained intact. In Bosanski Samac, the demolition of the Catholic church, using
explosive charges, reportedly took more than two months (Jan.-March 1993), carried
out slowly in order not to endanger the Serbian Orthodox church facing the site across
the street (see statement of the Catholic parish priest, interviewed by this author, in
the database entry for the Catholic church at Bosanski Samac).
As in the case of the mosques, Catholic churches of historic and cultural importance
appear to have been disproportionately targeted. All but one of the 7 Roman Catholic
churches in the survey that were under legal protection (listed monuments) were
found to have been either heavily damaged or completely destroyed.
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All told, more than 75 percent of the 57 Roman Catholic churches documented in the
survey were either heavily damaged (30) or destroyed (13). Three of the four Roman
Catholic convents and monasteries surveyed were also heavily damaged or destroyed.
The most common means of destruction included mining of the steeple and arson or
mining of the church; some examples include the Catholic churches in Sasina near
Sanski Most (mined), in Surkovac near Prijedor (mined), in Bosanska Krupa (burnt),
and in Ulice near Brcko (burnt, steeple mined) (see database entries). Close to a
dozen Roman Catholic churches, such as those at Dubrave and Boderiste (Brcko), and
at Sokoline (Kotor Varos), were badly damaged by shelling.
Destruction of Roman Catholic religious monuments occurred from the beginning of
the war in April 1992 through the final phase of the fighting in 1995. Some of the
destruction in the spring of 1992 has been linked to JNA forces. An example of the
latter is the Roman Catholic parish church in the village of Gorice (Brcko), which was
very heavily damaged on 8 May 1992 in an attack by JNA military aircraft, according
to an eyewitness interviewed by this author (see database entry for the church).
In a number of cases, the destruction of churches was associated with killings of
Bosnian Croat civilians and the abuse and killing of Roman Catholic clergy.
Examples include the Roman Catholic church at Brisevo (Prijedor municipality),
burnt out in a July 1992 attack in which all the houses in the village were also burnt
and 78 parishioners, including women and children, were reportedly killed (according
to statement by the parish priest, interviewed by this author; see database entry for the
church). In the town of Prijedor the Roman Catholic parish church was mined twice
(Sept. 1992 and Aug. 1995). After the second explosion, which levelled the remains
of the church, Bosnian Serb police detained the parish priest, Father Tomislav
Matanovic, and his aged parents, who were not seen alive again; their bodies were
discovered six years later, shot in the head and dumped into a well near Prijedor.*
When the Catholic parish church at Presnace, near Banja Luka, was burned and
* The Matanovic case has been the subject of decisions by the Human Rights Chamber of Bosnia and
Herzegovina (case no. CH/96/1). On the recovery of the bodies, see "Some Dignity at Last for Victims
of 'Disappearance' in Prijedor," Amnesty International 23 Nov. 2001 (AI Index EUR 63/014/2001).
Bosnia-Herzegovina Cultural Heritage Report -- p.17
mined in April 1995, the adjacent parsonage was also set on fire, burning to death the
parish priest and a nun.
2.3 Damage to Archives and Libraries
In addition to the damage to houses of worship and other religious buildings, archives
and libraries were also subjected to attacks during the 1992-1996 war in Bosnia and
Herzegovina.
Losses include the destruction of religious archives of the local Islamic communities.
These archives included both communal records, such as documents pertaining to the
properties of the Muslim religious endowments (vakuf) that sustain the activities of
the Islamic community, as well as personal documents and historical records of the
community, its members, and its religious leaders.
In 13 of the 19 municipalities surveyed (Bosanska Krupa, Bosanski Novi, Bosanski
Samac, Bratunac, Doboj, Foca, Kljuc, Nevesinje, Prijedor, Sanski Most, Srebrenica,
Visegrad, Zvornik), representatives of the local Islamic Communities reported that the
community's religious archives had been destroyed. In the majority of the cases, the
archive appears to have been burned along with the building that housed the chancery
of the Islamic community. However in some municipalities, such as in Doboj and
Nevesinje, the Islamic community buildings were seized by the Serb authorities and
remain intact, while the archive's contents were reportedly taken out and destroyed.
A number of important religious libraries and collections of ancient manuscripts held
by the local Islamic Communities were also burned. Among these were Islamic
libraries in Janja (Bijeljina municipality), Foca, Kljuc, Prijedor, and Sanski Most.
Losses of religious archives and libraries of the Roman Catholic community in the
municipalities surveyed include the archives and library of the Provincial House and
Convent of the Order of the Handmaids of the Child Jesus in Sarajevo, headquarters
of the only Catholic religious order founded in Bosnia. In April 1992, the convent
was occupied by JNA troops, who reportedly expelled the nuns, vandalised and looted
the building, and destroyed the religious library and archives (see database entry).
Bosnia-Herzegovina Cultural Heritage Report -- p.18
In Brcko, the Catholic parish priest stated, in an interview with the author of this
report, that in 1992 Serbs broke into the parish house and took away the parish
archives (baptismal registers, records of marriages and burials from the parish) and
the religious library. These have never been returned. The Catholic parish priest in
Doboj, in an interview with this author, reported that in August 1992 the parish house
and convent was vandalized and looted by three “red berets” in military uniforms,
speaking a dialect indicating they were from Serbia, who searched for the parish
archives. However, the archives had been hidden at the priest’s request by “good
people, local Serbs,” who took them to their houses after the first attack on the
Catholic parish church in May 1992 and who returned them after the end of the war
(see database entry for the Catholic parish church in Doboj).
The most egregious attacks on archives and libraries took place during the siege of
Sarajevo, where on 17 May 1992 the Institute for Oriental Studies was bombarded
with incendiary munitions from Serb positions and burnt with the loss of all of its
collections. Among the latter were the former Ottoman provincial archives (more
than 200,000 documents) and cadastral registers documenting land-ownership in
Bosnia-Herzegovina at the end of the Ottoman period. The losses also included the
country's richest collection of Islamic manuscripts (5,263 codices in Arabic, Ottoman
Turkish, Persian and Bosnian), many of them unique, the products of five centuries of
Bosnian Muslim cultural history. The Oriental Institute had clearly been singled out.
According to interviews with eyewitnesses, the building had been hit with a barrage
of incendiary munitions, fired from positions on the hills overlooking the town center.
No other buildings in the densely built neighborhood were hit. The Institute, which
occupied the top floors of a large, four-storey office block on the corner of Veljka
Cubrilovica Street and Marshal Tito Boulevard (Sarajevo-Centar municipality), was
completely burned out, its collections destroyed.*
* Senad Helac, commandant of the Sarajevo-Centar Fire Brigade, interviewed by András Riedlmayer
23 July 2002. Commandant Helac was among the firemen responding to the blaze on 17 May 1992.
Description of the Oriental Institute's destroyed collection from Lejla Gazic, "Destruction of the
Institute for Oriental Studies during the Aggression against Bosnia and Herzegovina 1950-2000," The
Institute for Oriental Studies in Sarajevo 1950.-2000. (Sarajevo: Oriental Institute, 2000). See also:
András Riedlmayer, "Convivencia under Fire: Genocide and Book-burning in Bosnia,” The Holocaust
and the Book: Destruction and Preservation, ed. by Jonathan Rose. Studies in Print Culture and the
History of the Book (Amherst: University of Massachusetts Press, 2001): 266-291.
Bosnia-Herzegovina Cultural Heritage Report -- p.19
Three months later, an hour after sunset on the evening of 25 August 1992, Bosnia's
National Library (Nacionalna i univerzitetska biblioteka Bosne i Hercegovine) was
bombarded and set ablaze by a tightly targeted barrage of incendiary shells, fired
from multiple Bosnian Serb army (VRS) positions on the heights overlooking the
old town. As firemen fought the blaze, the attackers swept the surroundings with
heavy machinegun and anti-aircraft cannon fire aimed at street level, in order to
keep away firemen and volunteers trying to save books from the burning building.
Shortly before the attack, the city's water supply had been cut by the besiegers,
forcing the firemen to draw water from the nearby Miljacka River while under
continuous fire from Serb positions overlooking the site. As the flames started to
die down around daybreak, the shelling resumed and the building continued to burn
for some fifteen hours; it smoldered for days thereafter. An estimated 1.5 million
volumes, comprising the bulk of the National Library's collections, were consumed
by the flames in this, the largest single incident of deliberate book-burning in
modern history. Once again, only the library was targeted with incendiary shells.
Surrounding buildings in the densely built neighborhood surrounding the burned-out
library remain intact to this day.*
3.0 Use of Database
The database was created with FileMakerPro Version 5.0. Database entries are
divided into five sections: 1) building identification; 2) building condition, including
a narrative description of damage and pre- and post-war photographs when available;
3) informant statements when available; 4) bibliography; and 5) media accounts.
To search in the database, select “mode” in the menu bar (control-F) and then select
“find” in the drop-down menu. A blank record will then appear. Keywords can be
*See: András Riedlmayer, "From the Ashes: The Past and Future of Bosnia’s Cultural Heritage,” In:
Islam and Bosnia: Conflict Resolution and Foreign Policy in Multi-Ethnic States, ed. Maya Shatzmiller
(Montreal: McGill-Queens University Press, 2002), pp. 98-135. See also the documentary film "Burning
Books," directed by Knut W. Jorfald (Engarde Film, 2002), which includes original video footage of the
destruction of the National Library and interviews with eyewitnesses; and reports filed from the scene of
the burning library by Kurt Schork (Reuters) and John Pomfret (Associated Press) (see Appendix 2 below).
Bosnia-Herzegovina Cultural Heritage Report -- p.20
entered in one or more fields on the blank record. After selecting all keyword
parameters, press the “find” button, which is located on the left margin of the record.
All records fulfilling the search terms will then appear as numbered rolodex cards in
the upper left corner of the margin. Records can be searched by clicking on these
cards or by entering card numbers below the rolodex.
Keyword searching can be done in any field, including: district name (municipality);
town name; building name, in BCS or English; building use; building type; and
building condition. For example, in order to find all damaged Catholic Churches
in the database, specify “Catholic Church” as a keyword in “building type” and
specify “damaged” as a keyword in “building condition.”
To find keywords in fields with different options, select the field and a drop-down
menu will display all keyword options.
Truncated searching is allowed in all fields. For example, to find “Mosque of Sultan
Suleiman the Magnificent,” it is possible to enter only “Magnificent” in the “building
name” field. Or, if the correct spelling of a building name is unknown, a portion of
the name can be used as a search parameter. For example, to find “Ferhadija Mosque”
it is possible to enter only “Ferhad” in the “building name” field. The search terms
are not case-sensitive.
4.0 Principal Investigator
András J. Riedlmayer, B.A., M.A., M.S., Cand. Phil., directs the Documentation
Center of the Aga Khan Program for Islamic Architecture at the Fine Arts Library,
Harvard University, and is a recognized expert on the cultural heritage of the
Ottoman-era Balkans. A curriculum vitae has been submitted to the court.
Appendix 1: Description and Assessment of Documentation Sources
A1.1 Field Investigations by the Author (07/2002), including site visits and
collection/consolidation of photographs and other documentation from published and
Bosnia-Herzegovina Cultural Heritage Report -- p.21
unpublished sources. The survey database, with 392 entries (in a simple FileMaker
database format, including more than 1,000 photographs and other documentation)
is attached The survey’s archive of documentation on damage to cultural heritage
in Bosnia-Herzegovina, including additional photographs, architectural plans, and
other data, has been deposited at the Fine Arts Library, Harvard University.
Remarks: In the course of the field survey, 234 sites were documented at first hand.
In addition to providing information for the majority of the entries in the database,
this also allowed the author to check the evidence of first-hand findings against the
documentation obtained from other sources for some of the same sites in order to
control its accuracy. While the survey covers most of the important heritage sites in
the 19 municipalities, there were some sites that could not be visited due to the bad
state of the roads, or time constraints. The passage of time since the end of the war
and the alteration of some sites by recent reconstruction efforts made assessment
difficult in some cases; in such cases, photographs and other documentation were
used to cross-check information from other sources and as a basis for assessment.
A1.2 Council of Europe (1997-1998). After the end of the war, the Technical
Cooperation and Consultancy Programme of the Cultural Heritage Division of the
Council of Europe carried out an independent field study of selected heritage sites,
in cooperation with local authorities in both entities of Bosnia-Herzegovina. The
resulting report, "Specific Action Plan for Bosnia-Herzegovina, Preliminary Phase:
Final Report (March 1999)," was designed to identify priorities for restoration, but it
also provides some independent, base-line information and photographs for a number
of sites. All photographs and other information taken from the Council of Europe
report for this survey are identified as such.
Remarks: The Council of Europe study was designed to cover listed monuments and
sites throughout Bosnia-Herzegovina. However, in practice this did not prove to be
possible. For a number of municipalities, coverage is spotty at best (e.g. only four
sites are included for Sarajevo); entries are often incomplete, sometimes no more
than an uncaptioned photograph, damage descriptions are missing in some cases,
and a number of sites are either unidentified or misidentified by the CoE teams (e.g.
Bosnia-Herzegovina Cultural Heritage Report -- p.22
the entries for mosques in Srebrenica, Bijeljina, and Foca). Nevertheless, the Council
of Europe's report contains a great deal of information, covers a lot of territory and
includes some useful photographs, taken in the immediate aftermath of the war.
A1.3 Islamic Community (07/2002). The Islamic Community of Bosnia and
Herzegovina (Rijaset Islamske zajednice u Bosni i Hercegovini) is the central
governing body for the organized Islamic congregations in the various municipalities.
The Rijaset has made efforts to document the wartime losses to Islamic religious
heritage in Bosnia-Herzegovina. Some of this documentation has been published
since the war, most notably in Muharem Omerdic's book, Prilozi izucavanju genocida
nad Bosnjacima (1992.-1995.) (Sarajevo: El Kalem, 1999), which has a section listing
damage to mosques and other religious buildings, arranged by municipality. Other
information, primarily photographs of war-damaged mosques now in Federation
territory, appear in three other volumes: Izlozba dokumentarne fotografije o
porusenim i ostecenim dzamijama: Sarajevo, april 1995 [exhibition catalogue]
(Sarajevo: Drzavna komisija za prikupljanje cinjenica o ratnim zlocinima na podrucju
Republike Bosne i Hercegovine, 1995); Kemal Zukic, Slike zlocina: rusenje islamskih
vjerskih objekata u BiH = The Evidence of Crime: The Destruction of Islamic
buildings in B&H (Sarajevo: Centar za islamsku arhitekturu, 1999); and Kemal Zukic,
Islamic Architecture in the Balkans and Bosnia and Herzegovina (Sarajevo: ISESCO,
2000). The destruction of 16 mosques in Banja Luka in May-December 1993 is also
documented in an illustrated volume by the Banja Luka journalist and local historian,
Aleksandar Aco Ravlic, Banjalucka Ferhadija: ljepotica koji su ubili (Rijeka:
AARiS, 1996). Mr. Omerdic provided us with a copy of his book and also arranged
contacts with the local Islamic communities in the municipalities to be surveyed and
with the mufti's offices (regional governing bodies of the Islamic community) in
Banja Luka, Bihac, Gorazde, Mostar, and Tuzla. The local Islamic communities in
municipalities visited in the course of the survey provided us with guides, usually
clergymen (local imams) who were personally familiar with the sites of the war
damaged mosques, as well as providing copies of unpublished photographs, extracts
from cadastral records and other documents.
Bosnia-Herzegovina Cultural Heritage Report -- p.23
Remarks: The documentation collected by the Rijaset and published in Mr. Omerdic's
book appears to be comprehensive at first glance, but as it was compiled not long
after the end of the war it has some shortcomings. This is especially so for sites in the
Bosnian Serb entity (RS) where in the first years after the war there had yet to be any
substantial returns of expelled Muslim residents and access was limited. Thus, for
some municipalities the information in the volume is somewhat incomplete and ends
up understating the actual number of mosques damaged in the war. Coverage for
Islamic heritage other than mosques, especially buildings not under the institutional
control of the Rijaset (such as dervish lodges and turbes) is also incomplete. The
damage descriptions for individual sites are at times inexact or stated in very broad,
general terms and the volume is sparsely illustrated. The information obtained from
the local Islamic Communities was usually more complete and up-to-date, was often
supported by photographs and documents, and its accuracy could be checked against
observations on site. The survey found no sites for which damage had been claimed
when none existed.
A1.4 Mr. Bekir Besic, a member of the council of the Islamic Community of Banja
Luka during the war who is now living as a refugee in Linköping, Sweden, kindly
provided a copy of a large and detailed map of Bosnia-Herzegovina, on which he has
plotted sites of mosques damaged and destroyed during the 1992-1996 war, based
primarily on the catalogue of monuments in Muharem Omerdic's book. Mr. Besic's
map provides a good visual representation of the overall pattern of damage to Islamic
religious sites in Bosnia and it is included as a supplement to this report.
Remarks: The plotting of the sites entered on Mr. Besic's map and its consistency with
the sources of documentation used has been checked and found to be reliable.
A1.5 Roman Catholic Church (07/2003). The Roman Catholic Church authorities
in Bosnia-Herzegovina have made efforts to document the wartime losses to Catholic
religious heritage in Bosnia-Herzegovina. Some of this documentation has been
published since the war, most notably in a volume entitled, Raspeta crkva u Bosni i
Hercegovini: unistavanje katolickih sakralnih objekata u Bosni i Herceogvini (1991.-
1996.) (Banja Luka – Mostar – Sarajevo: Hrvatska matica iseljenika Bosne i
Bosnia-Herzegovina Cultural Heritage Report -- p.24
Hercegovine; Zagreb: Hrvatski informativni centar, 1997). Fr. Ilija Zivkovic, of the
Ordinariate of Vrhbosna (Sarajevo), who served as the editor of that volume, kindly
provided a copy of the book as well as contact information for the local parish priests
in the municipalities to be surveyed. The Roman Catholic Bishops of Banja Luka and
Mostar also provided photographs, documents and other information. Local parish
priests in a number of the communities visited on the survey volunteered to act as
guides to sites of destroyed and damaged Catholic churches in the vicinity.
Remarks: The documentation collected by the Roman Catholic Church authorities
and published in the book edited by Fr. Zivkovic appears to be generally accurate
and reliable. While damage descriptions at times seem vague or overstated, the
majority of entries are illustrated with photographs, showing churches before and
after they were damaged. These and additional unpublished photographs provided by
local parish priests and the bishops' offices, as well as the observations of sites visited
on the survey, provided additional means of cross-checking information. The survey
found no sites for which damage had been claimed when none existed.
A1.6 Institute for the Protection of Cultural, Historical and Natural Heritage of
Bosnia and Herzegovina / Heritage Centre of Bosnia and Herzegovina (07/2003).
Before the war, this Institute was charged with documenting and protecting heritage
sites throughout Bosnia-Herzegovina. During the siege of Sarajevo, it lost both staff
members and parts of its archive of documentation. After the war, it lost its former
country-wide authority and budgetary support, as a result of the decentralized political
arrangements imposed by Dayton, and was thus in no position to carry out extensive
field investigations. Nevertheless, the Institute was able to publish an inventory of
war damage to cultural and religious monuments in Bosnia-Herzegovina, based in
part on its own work and in large part on information obtained from the files of the
Bosnian State War Crimes Commission and the religious communities. The
inventory appeared in two editions; one in English translation: A Report on the
Devastation of Cultural, Historical and Natural Heritage of the Republic/Federation
of Bosnia and Herzegovina (from April 5, 1992 until September 5, 1995), ed.
Muhamed Hamidovic (Sarajevo: The Institute, 1995), and a revised edition, only in
Bosnian, entitled: Izvjestaj o devastaciji kulturno-historijskog i prirodnog naslijedja
Bosnia-Herzegovina Cultural Heritage Report -- p.25
Bosne i Hercegovine (1992-1995) (Sarajevo: Zavod za zastitu kulturno-historijskog i
prirodnog naslijedja BiH, Centar za naslijedje BiH, 1997). The Institute also located
in its archive a number of photographs documenting the state of cultural heritage sites
before the war and generously made them available for this survey.
Remarks: Due to the limitations described above, the information published by the
Institute concerning damage to cultural heritage is based in part on documentation
collected by other sources, and thus reproduces some of their shortcomings. In a
small number of instances the same site is entered more than once, under different
names, and sometimes the number assigned as damage category for a given site
exaggerates (or in some cases understates) the actual damage. Despite such
limitations, the Institute's published inventory represents a unique effort to catalogue
the damage to the cultural heritage of all of Bosnia-Herzegovina's ethnic and
religious communities. The pre-destruction photographs of listed monuments from
the Institute's archive proved invaluable in providing positive identifications of some
sites and base-lines for damage assessments.
A1.7 Cantonal Institute for the Protection of Cultural, Historical and Natural
Heritage - Sarajevo (07/2003). The Cantonal Institute has also published a volume
documenting war damage to heritage sites in the Sarajevo area and the Institute's
restoration work since the war: Katalog obnove kulturno-historijskog i prirodnog
naslijedja Kantona Sarajevo, 1996-2000, ed. Valida Celic-Cemerlic (Sarajevo:
Kantonalni zavod za zastitu kulturno-historijskog i prirodnog naslijedja Sarajevo,
2000). The volume catalogues war damage to 68 Islamic and 13 Roman Catholic
religious monuments in the Canton of Sarajevo. However, only selected sites are
illustrated. The Institute staff also kindly furnished photographs and other
documentation for this survey.
Remarks: The Cantonal Institute for the Protection of Heritage, unlike the national
institute, survived the war without damage and has not had to struggle with problems
of access to sites or institutional support. The documentation and information the
Cantonal Institute provided for heritage sites in Sarajevo was confirmed in all cases
on our site visits.
Bosnia-Herzegovina Cultural Heritage Report -- p.26
A.1.8 Regional Museum in Bihac (07/2003). The Museum of the Una Region
(Regionalni muzej "Pounja") in Bihac held an exhibition in 1997 on cultural heritage
in Una-Sana Canton destroyed in the war. Among the exhibits were about 90
mounted photographs showing war-damaged mosques, some dozens of them located
in municipalities covered in this survey (Bosanska Krupa, Kljuc, Sanski Most).
The director of the museum kindly arranged to have the exhibit panels brought
out of storage early on a Sunday morning and allowed me to photograph them. The
photographs had been taken in 1996 and 1997 (most bore automatic date stamps)
and provided valuable base-line documentation for a number of sites that had since
been altered by reconstruction.
Remarks: The mounted photographs on the exhibition panels were in the form of
enlarged color photocopies of the original shots, glued onto cardboard. In the five
years since the exhibition, some of them had bubbled up from their backings, which
made it difficult to photograph them for this survey without encountering problems of
glare and distortion. The quality of some of the resulting copy images is impaired as
a result; however, the mounted images at the museum were all inspected at first hand,
and provided information that may not be easily visible on the copy photos.
A.1.9 ICTY Investigators . Photographs documenting damage to cultural and
religious heritage, taken by Tribunal investigators during field investigations in
several of the municipalities included in this survey (Bijeljina, Bratunac, Brcko,
Doboj, Foca, Prijedor, Zvornik) were made available by the OTP for this study.
A number of these have been used in the survey database. All photo sources are
clearly indicated in the survey entries.
Remarks: Most of the ICTY photographs were taken relatively recently (2000-2002),
which means that in those areas that have seen returns of expelled populations, who
have started to rebuild their destroyed villages and mosques or churches, the photos
will sometimes show a site under construction, or a newly finished building, rather
than the ruined building that presumably preceded it. This is true for at least some
villages in most of these municipalities, except for Bratunac, where there have been
few returns and no rebuilding of mosques as of the summer of 2002. The photo
Bosnia-Herzegovina Cultural Heritage Report -- p.27
captions provided are slightly muddled in some cases, as the ICTY investigators who
took the photographs were not always familiar with the specialized terminology—for
example, sometimes a photo of a mesdzid (small mosque, often without a minaret) is
mislabeled as a "school" (mekteb = Qur'an reader's school). However, in most cases
this was not hard to sort out, using other documentation in hand.
A.1.10 Private Individuals
A number of photographs of damaged cultural and religious heritage sites were
obtained from private individuals, including colleagues and friends who have worked
in Bosnia-Herzegovina since the end of the war as OSCE election observers or for
other NGOs and humanitarian aid organizations. Among those represented by more
than one photograph are: Bernard Béné, Richard Carlton, David Harbin, Thomas
Keenan, Lucas Kello, Joann Kingsley, Jonathan Morgenstein, Donald Reeves, and
Helen Walasek. All sources of photographs and the dates they were taken are clearly
identified in the captions in the database entries.
Remarks: A number of these photographs date from the early years after the war and
show wartime damage that may no longer be evident on later photos of the same site.
A1.10 Media Accounts
An effort was made to collect any specific, first-hand accounts and published
photographs by news reporters on the destruction of cultural heritage in media reports
filed from Bosnia-Herzegovina during and after the war. Reports that were of a
general nature or that merely recycled second-hand information were discounted.
While some details such as the names and age of monuments are often garbled in
news reports, the first-hand descriptions of damage can serve to corroborate and
supplement information from other sources Excerpts from first-hand media accounts
are included in a separate field in the database entry for each site for which such
accounts were available.
Appendix 2: List of Documents Submitted
A.2.1 Survey Database, including 392 entries documenting damaged or destroyed
cultural and religious sites in Bosnia, compiled by András Riedlmayer (see par. 1.2
Bosnia-Herzegovina Cultural Heritage Report -- p.28
and 3.0 above). [1 data file]
A.2.2 Article: András Riedlmayer, “From the Ashes: The Past and Future of Bosnia’s
Cultural Heritage,” In: Islam and Bosnia: Conflict Resolution and Foreign Policy in
Multi-Ethnic States. Ed. Maya Shatzmiller (Montreal: McGill-Queens University Press,
2002), pp. 98-135. [38 pages]
A.2.3 Map of Bosnia, with sites of destroyed mosques marked in red, by Mr. Bekir
Besic, Linköping, Sweden (see par. A1.4. above). [2 sheets]
A.2.4 Report by Jolyon Naegele, on the sparing of the mosque in Baljvine, "Bosnia:
Banja Luka's Mufti Tell Of 'Four Years Of Horror'," RFE/RL.Weekday Magazine
6 September 1996. [3 pages]
A.2.5 Video clip of ITN news footage, reported by Gaby Rado from Bijeljina, showing
the destruction of the town's 5 mosques in progress (17 March 1993). [1 video cassette]
A.2.6 Report by Mort Rosenblum, on the exhumation of 41 residents of the Muslim
village of Novoseoci buried in a mass gravesite at Ivan Polje, beneath the rubble of
the destroyed Novoseoci mosque. "41 Muslims Finally Buried in Bosnia," Associated
Press, 5 November 2000. [3 pages]
A.2.7 Report from Visegrad by Maggie O’Kane, “Then they set the house on fire
and everyone inside was screaming … I was the only one who got out,” The
Guardian (London), 20 August 1992. [5 pages]
A.2.8 Report, including interview with Simo Drljaca by Chuck Sudetic, "Serbs'
Gains in Bosnia Create Chaotic Patchwork," New York Times, 21 August 1992.
[6 pages]
A.2.9 Decisions on the Admissibility and Merits of the Human Rights Chamber
of Bosnia-Herzegovina in cases brought by the Islamic Community of Bosnia and
Bosnia-Herzegovina Cultural Heritage Report -- p.29
Herzegovina against the Republika Srpska, concerning the sites of mosques destroyed
during the war in the towns of Banja Luka, Bijeljina, Janja, Zvornik, and Divic:
case no. CH/96/29 (11 June 1999) [38 pages];
case no. CH/98/1062 (9 November 2000) [24 pages];
case no CH/99/2656 (6 December 2000) [25 pages].
and in the case of Father Tomislav Matanovic, Catholic parish priest in Prijedor
case no.CH96/1 (11 July 1997) [9 pages]
A.2.10 Documentation on the Destruction of the National Library.
A.2.10.1 Documentary "Burning Books: The Destruction of a National Library"
directed by Knut W. Jorfald (Engarde Film, 2002), including original video footage
of the destruction of the National Library in August 1992 and interviews with
eyewitnesses [1 video cassette]
A.2.10.2 Report filed from the scene of the burning library by Kurt Schork (Reuters),
"Jewel of the city destroyed by fire," The Times (London), 27 August 1992. [1 page]
A.2.10.3 Report filed from the scene of the burning library by John Pomfret,
"Battles for Sarajevo intensify as Bosnian peace conference opens," Associated
Press, 26 August 1992 [2 pages]
A.2.10.4 Questions sent to Dr Fahrudin Kalender by András Riedlmayer and
Matej Vipotnik, (11 September 1996) concerning the 25-26 August 1992 attack
on the National and University Library in Sarajevo. [2 pages]
A.2.10.5 Eyewitness statement of Dr Fahrudin Kalender concerning the attack
on the National and University Library, Sarajevo; Dr Kalender's signed statement
(in BCS) received by fax from Sarajevo 5 October 1996. [4 pages]
A.2.10.6 English translation of statement by Dr Fahrudin Kalender (translated
by András Riedlmayer and Ellen Elias-Bursac). [4 pages]
Bosnia-Herzegovina Cultural Heritage Report -- p.30
A.2.10.7 Summaries of eyewitness statements by residents of the Sarajevo
neighborhood overlooking the National Library and Sarajevo firemen who were
present at the fire, interviewed by Matej Vipotnik (July 1996) [English] [5 pages]
A.2.10.7.1 Audiotape of eyewitness statements by residents of the Sarajevo
neighborhood overlooking the National Library and Sarajevo firemen who were
present at the fire, interviewed by Matej Vipotnik (July 1996) [BCS] [1 cassette]
A.2.10.7.2 Photographs showing vantage points of eyewitnesses to the destruction
of the National Library, interviewed by Matej Vipotnik (July 1996) [11 digital
photos]
A.2.10.8 Article by Dr Fahrudin Kalender, "Stanje fondova Nacionalna i
univerzitetske biblioteke prije i poslije katastrofalnog pozara," (Conditions of the
collections of the National and University Library before and after the catastrophic
fire)Bibliotekarstvo (Sarajevo), 1992-1996, vol 37-41, (1997) pp. 26-29. [6 pages]
A.2.11 Documentation on the Destruction of the Oriental Institute in Sarajevo.
A.2.11.1 Article by Lejla Gazic, "Stradanje Orijentalnog instituta u agresiji na Bosnu i
Hercegovinu 1992.-1995." Orijentalni institut u Sarajevu: 1950.-2000. = The Institute for
Oriental Studies in Sarajevo: 1950-2000 (Sarajevo: The Institute, 2000): 24-29. [6 pages]
A.2.11.2 English translation of above article by Lejla Gazic, "Destruction of the Institute
for Oriental Studies during the Aggression against Bosnia and Herzegovina, 1992-1995."
Orijentalni institut u Sarajevu: 1950.-2000. = The Institute for Oriental Studies in
Sarajevo: 1950-2000 (Sarajevo: The Institute, 2000): 30-35 [6 pages]
A.2.11.3 Article by András Riedlmayer, "Convivencia under Fire: Genocide and
Book-burning in Bosnia,” The Holocaust and the Book: Destruction and
Preservation, ed. by Jonathan Rose. Studies in Print Culture and the History of the
Book (Amherst: University of Massachusetts Press, 2001): 266-291. [26 pages]
Bosnia-Herzegovina Cultural Heritage Report -- p.31
A.2.12 Information reports on the Destruction by War of the Cultural Heritage
in Croatia and Bosnia-Herzegovina, presented by the Committee on Culture and
Education (Strasbourg: Council of Europe, Parliamentary Assembly, 1993-
-1997): [First] information report... 2 February 1993. Doc. 6756 -- 2nd information
report... 17 June 1993. Doc. 6869 – 3rd information report… 20 September 1993.
Doc. 6904 -- 4th information report... 19 January 1994. Doc. 6999 -- 5th information
report... 12 April 1994. Doc. 7070 -- 6th information report... 31 August 1994. Doc.
7133 -- 7th information report... 15 May 1995. Doc. 7308 -- 8th information report...
28 June 1995. Doc. 7341 -- 9th information report ... 19 January 1996. Doc. 7464 --
10th information report... 24 January 1997. Doc. 7740

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UNITED NATIONS EDUCATIONAL, SCIENTIFIC
AND CULTURAL ORGANISATION
CONVENTION CONCERNING THE
PROTECTION OF THE WORLD CULTURAL
AND NATURAL HERITAGE
Adopted by the General Conference at its seventeenth session
Paris, 16 november 1972
English Text
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CONVENTION CONCERNING THE PROTECTION
OF THE WORLD CULTURAL AND NATURAL HERITAGE
The General Conference of the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization meeting in Paris from 17 October to 21 November 1972, at its seventeenth session,
Noting that the cultural heritage and the natural heritage are increasingly threatened with destruction not only by the traditional causes of decay, but also by changing social and economic conditions which aggravate the situation with even more formidable phenomena of damage or destruction,
Considering that deterioration or disappearance of any item of the cultural or natural heritage constitutes a harmful impoverishment of the heritage of all the nations of the world,
Considering that protection of this heritage at the national level often remains incomplete because of the scale of the resources which it requires and of the insufficient economic, scientific, and technological resources of the country where the property to be protected is situated,
Recalling that the Constitution of the Organization provides that it will maintain, increase, and diffuse knowledge by assuring the conservation and protection of the world's heritage, and recommending to the nations concerned the necessary international conventions,
Considering that the existing international conventions, recommendations and resolutions concerning cultural and natural property demonstrate the importance, for all the peoples of the world, of safeguarding this unique and irreplaceable property, to whatever people it may belong,
Considering that parts of the cultural or natural heritage are of outstanding interest and therefore need to be preserved as part of the world heritage of mankind as a whole,
Considering that, in view of the magnitude and gravity of the new dangers threatening them, it is incumbent on the international community as a whole to participate in the protection of the cultural and natural heritage of outstanding universal value, by the granting of collective assistance which, although not taking the place of action by the State concerned, will serve as an efficient complement thereto,
Considering that it is essential for this purpose to adopt new provisions in the form of a convention establishing an effective system of collective protection of the cultural and natural heritage of outstanding universal value, organized on a permanent basis and in accordance with modern scientific methods,
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Having decided, at its sixteenth session, that this question should be made the subject of an international convention,
Adopts this sixteenth day of November 1972 this Convention.
I. DEFINITION OF THE CULTURAL AND NATURAL HERITAGE
Article 1
For the purpose of this Convention, the following shall be considered as "cultural heritage":
monuments: architectural works, works of monumental sculpture and painting, elements or structures of an archaeological nature, inscriptions, cave dwellings and combinations of features, which are of outstanding universal value from the point of view of history, art or science;
groups of buildings: groups of separate or connected buildings which, because of their architecture, their homogeneity or their place in the landscape, are of outstanding universal value from the point of view of history, art or science;
sites: works of man or the combined works of nature and man, and areas including archaeological sites which are of outstanding universal value from the historical, aesthetic, ethnological or anthropological point of view.
Article 2
For the purposes of this Convention, the following shall be considered as "natural heritage":
natural features consisting of physical and biological formations or groups of such formations, which are of outstanding universal value from the aesthetic or scientific point of view;
geological and physiographical formations and precisely delineated areas which constitute the habitat of threatened species of animals and plants of outstanding universal value from the point of view of science or conservation;
natural sites or precisely delineated natural areas of outstanding universal value from the point of view of science, conservation or natural beauty.
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Article 3
It is for each State Party to this Convention to identify and delineate the different properties situated on its territory mentioned in Articles 1 and 2 above.
II. NATIONAL PROTECTION AND INTERNATIONAL PROTECTION OF THE CULTURAL AND NATURAL HERITAGE
Article 4
Each State Party to this Convention recognizes that the duty of ensuring the identification, protection, conservation, presentation and transmission to future generations of the cultural and natural heritage referred to in Articles 1 and 2 and situated on its territory, belongs primarily to that State. It will do all it can to this end, to the utmost of its own resources and, where appropriate, with any international assistance and co-operation, in particular, financial, artistic, scientific and technical, which it may be able to obtain.
Article 5
To ensure that effective and active measures are taken for the protection, conservation and presentation of the cultural and natural heritage situated on its territory, each State Party to this Convention shall endeavor, in so far as possible, and as appropriate for each country:
(a) to adopt a general policy which aims to give the cultural and natural heritage a function in the life of the community and to integrate the protection of that heritage into comprehensive planning programmes;
(b) to set up within its territories, where such services do not exist, one or more services for the protection, conservation and presentation of the cultural and natural heritage with an appropriate staff and possessing the means to discharge their functions;
(c) to develop scientific and technical studies and research and to work out such operating methods as will make the State capable of counteracting the dangers that threaten its cultural or natural heritage;
(d) to take the appropriate legal, scientific, technical, administrative and financial measures necessary for the identification, protection, conservation, presentation and rehabilitation of this heritage; and
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(e) to foster the establishment or development of national or regional centres for training in the protection, conservation and presentation of the cultural and natural heritage and to encourage scientific research in this field.
Article 6
1. Whilst fully respecting the sovereignty of the States on whose territory the cultural and natural heritage mentioned in Articles 1 and 2 is situated, and without prejudice to property right provided by national legislation, the States Parties to this Convention recognize that such heritage constitutes a world heritage for whose protection it is the duty of the international community as a whole to co-operate.
2. The States Parties undertake, in accordance with the provisions of this Convention, to give their help in the identification, protection, conservation and presentation of the cultural and natural heritage referred to in paragraphs 2 and 4 of Article 11 if the States on whose territory it is situated so request.
3. Each State Party to this Convention undertakes not to take any deliberate measures which might damage directly or indirectly the cultural and natural heritage referred to in Articles 1 and 2 situated on the territory of other States Parties to this Convention.
Article 7
For the purpose of this Convention, international protection of the world cultural and natural heritage shall be understood to mean the establishment of a system of international co-operation and assistance designed to support States Parties to the Convention in their efforts to conserve and identify that heritage.
III INTERGOVERNMENTAL COMMITTEE FOR THE PROTECTION OF THE WORLD CULTURAL AND NATURAL HERITAGE
Article 8
1. An Intergovernmental Committee for the Protection of the Cultural and Natural Heritage of Outstanding Universal Value, called "the World Heritage Committee", is hereby established within the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization. It shall be composed of 15 States Parties to the Convention, elected by States Parties to the Convention meeting in general assembly during the ordinary session of the General Conference of the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization. The number of States members of the Committee shall be increased to 21 as from the date of the ordinary session of the General Conference following the entry into force of this Convention for at least 40 States.
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2. Election of members of the Committee shall ensure an equitable representation of the different regions and cultures of the world.
3. A representative of the International Centre for the Study of the Preservation and Restoration of Cultural Property (Rome Centre), a representative of the International Council of Monuments and Sites (ICOMOS) and a representative of the International Union for Conservation of Nature and Natural Resources (IUCN), to whom may be added, at the request of States Parties to the Convention meeting in general assembly during the ordinary sessions of the General Conference of the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization, representatives of other intergovernmental or non-governmental organizations, with similar objectives, may attend the meetings of the Committee in an advisory capacity.
Article 9
1. The term of office of States members of the World Heritage Committee shall extend from the end of the ordinary session of the General Conference during which they are elected until the end of its third subsequent ordinary session.
2. The term of office of one-third of the members designated at the time of the first election shall, however, cease at the end of the first ordinary session of the General Conference following that at which they were elected; and the term of office of a further third of the members designated at the same time shall cease at the end of the second ordinary session of the General Conference following that at which they were elected. The names of these members shall be chosen by lot by the President of the General Conference of the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization after the first election.
3. States members of the Committee shall choose as their representatives persons qualified in the field of the cultural or natural heritage.
Article 10
1. The World Heritage Committee shall adopt its Rules of Procedure.
2. The Committee may at any time invite public or private organizations or individuals to participate in its meetings for consultation on particular problems.
3. The Committee may create such consultative bodies as it deems necessary for the performance of its functions.
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Article 11
1. Every State Party to this Convention shall, in so far as possible, submit to the World Heritage Committee an inventory of property forming part of the cultural and natural heritage, situated in its territory and suitable for inclusion in the list provided for in paragraph 2 of this Article. This inventory, which shall not be considered exhaustive, shall include documentation about the location of the property in question and its significance.
2. On the basis of the inventories submitted by States in accordance with paragraph 1, the Committee shall establish, keep up to date and publish, under the title of "World Heritage List," a list of properties forming part of the cultural heritage and natural heritage, as defined in Articles 1 and 2 of this Convention, which it considers as having outstanding universal value in terms of such criteria as it shall have established. An updated list shall be distributed at least every two years.
3. The inclusion of a property in the World Heritage List requires the consent of the State concerned. The inclusion of a property situated in a territory, sovereignty or jurisdiction over which is claimed by more than one State shall in no way prejudice the rights of the parties to the dispute.
4. The Committee shall establish, keep up to date and publish, whenever circumstances shall so require, under the title of "list of World Heritage in Danger", a list of the property appearing in the World Heritage List for the conservation of which major operations are necessary and for which assistance has been requested under this Convention. This list shall contain an estimate of the cost of such operations. The list may include only such property forming part of the cultural and natural heritage as is threatened by serious and specific dangers, such as the threat of disappearance caused by accelerated deterioration, large-scale public or private projects or rapid urban or tourist development projects; destruction caused by changes in the use or ownership of the land; major alterations due to unknown causes; abandonment for any reason whatsoever; the outbreak or the threat of an armed conflict; calamities and cataclysms; serious fires, earthquakes, landslides; volcanic eruptions; changes in water level, floods and tidal waves. The Committee may at any time, in case of urgent need, make a new entry in the List of World Heritage in Danger and publicize such entry immediately.
5. The Committee shall define the criteria on the basis of which a property belonging to the cultural or natural heritage may be included in either of the lists mentioned in paragraphs 2 and 4 of this article.
6. Before refusing a request for inclusion in one of the two lists mentioned in paragraphs 2 and 4 of this article, the Committee shall consult the State Party in whose territory the cultural or natural property in question is situated.
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7. The Committee shall, with the agreement of the States concerned, co-ordinate and encourage the studies and research needed for the drawing up of the lists referred to in paragraphs 2 and 4 of this article.
Article 12
The fact that a property belonging to the cultural or natural heritage has not been included in either of the two lists mentioned in paragraphs 2 and 4 of Article 11 shall in no way be construed to mean that it does not have an outstanding universal value for purposes other than those resulting from inclusion in these lists.
Article 13
1. The World Heritage Committee shall receive and study requests for international assistance formulated by States Parties to this Convention with respect to property forming part of the cultural or natural heritage, situated in their territories, and included or potentially suitable for inclusion in the lists mentioned referred to in paragraphs 2 and 4 of Article 11. The purpose of such requests may be to secure the protection, conservation, presentation or rehabilitation of such property.
2. Requests for international assistance under paragraph 1 of this article may also be concerned with identification of cultural or natural property defined in Articles 1 and 2, when preliminary investigations have shown that further inquiries would be justified.
3. The Committee shall decide on the action to be taken with regard to these requests, determine where appropriate, the nature and extent of its assistance, and authorize the conclusion, on its behalf, of the necessary arrangements with the government concerned.
4. The Committee shall determine an order of priorities for its operations. It shall in so doing bear in mind the respective importance for the world cultural and natural heritage of the property requiring protection, the need to give international assistance to the property most representative of a natural environment or of the genius and the history of the peoples of the world, the urgency of the work to be done, the resources available to the States on whose territory the threatened property is situated and in particular the extent to which they are able to safeguard such property by their own means.
5. The Committee shall draw up, keep up to date and publicize a list of property for which international assistance has been granted.
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6. The Committee shall decide on the use of the resources of the Fund established under Article 15 of this Convention. It shall seek ways of increasing these resources and shall take all useful steps to this end.
7. The Committee shall co-operate with international and national governmental and non-governmental organizations having objectives similar to those of this Convention. For the implementation of its programmes and projects, the Committee may call on such organizations, particularly the International Centre for the Study of the Preservation and Restoration of Cultural Property (the Rome Centre), the International Council of Monuments and Sites (ICOMOS) and the International Union for Conservation of Nature and Natural Resources (IUCN), as well as on public and private bodies and individuals.
8. Decisions of the Committee shall be taken by a majority of two-thirds of its members present and voting. A majority of the members of the Committee shall constitute a quorum.
Article 14
1. The World Heritage Committee shall be assisted by a Secretariat appointed by the Director-General of the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization.
2. The Director-General of the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization, utilizing to the fullest extent possible the services of the International Centre for the Study of the Preservation and the Restoration of Cultural Property (the Rome Centre), the International Council of Monuments and Sites (ICOMOS) and the International Union for Conservation of Nature and Natural Resources (IUCN) in their respective areas of competence and capability, shall prepare the Committee's documentation and the agenda of its meetings and shall have the responsibility for the implementation of its decisions.
IV FUND FOR THE PROTECTION OF THE WORLD CULTURAL AND NATURAL HERITAGE
Article 15
1. A Fund for the Protection of the World Cultural and Natural Heritage of Outstanding Universal Value, called "the World Heritage Fund", is hereby established.
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2. The Fund shall constitute a trust fund, in conformity with the provisions of the Financial Regulations of the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization.
3. The resources of the Fund shall consist of:
(a) compulsory and voluntary contributions made by States Parties to this Convention,
(b) Contributions, gifts or bequests which may be made by:
(i) other States;
(ii) the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization, other organizations of the United Nations system, particularly the United Nations Development Programme or other intergovernmental organizations;
(iii) public or private bodies or individuals;
(c) any interest due on the resources of the Fund;
(d) funds raised by collections and receipts from events organized for the benefit of the fund; and
(e) all other resources authorized by the Fund's regulations, as drawn up by the World Heritage Committee.
4. Contributions to the Fund and other forms of assistance made available to the Committee may be used only for such purposes as the Committee shall define. The Committee may accept contributions to be used only for a certain programme or project, provided that the Committee shall have decided on the implementation of such programme or project. No political conditions may be attached to contributions made to the Fund.
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Article 16
1. Without prejudice to any supplementary voluntary contribution, the States Parties to this Convention undertake to pay regularly, every two years, to the World Heritage Fund, contributions, the amount of which, in the form of a uniform percentage applicable to all States, shall be determined by the General Assembly of States Parties to the Convention, meeting during the sessions of the General Conference of the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization. This decision of the General Assembly requires the majority of the States Parties present and voting, which have not made the declaration referred to in paragraph 2 of this Article. In no case shall the compulsory contribution of States Parties to the Convention exceed 1% of the contribution to the regular budget of the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization.
2. However, each State referred to in Article 31 or in Article 32 of this Convention may declare, at the time of the deposit of its instrument of ratification, acceptance or accession, that it shall not be bound by the provisions of paragraph 1 of this Article.
3. A State Party to the Convention which has made the declaration referred to in paragraph 2 of this Article may at any time withdraw the said declaration by notifying the Director-General of the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization. However, the withdrawal of the declaration shall not take effect in regard to the compulsory contribution due by the State until the date of the subsequent General Assembly of States parties to the Convention.
4. In order that the Committee may be able to plan its operations effectively, the contributions of States Parties to this Convention which have made the declaration referred to in paragraph 2 of this Article, shall be paid on a regular basis, at least every two years, and should not be less than the contributions which they should have paid if they had been bound by the provisions of paragraph 1 of this Article.
5. Any State Party to the Convention which is in arrears with the payment of its compulsory or voluntary contribution for the current year and the calendar year immediately preceding it shall not be eligible as a Member of the World Heritage Committee, although this provision shall not apply to the first election.
The terms of office of any such State which is already a member of the Committee shall terminate at the time of the elections provided for in Article 8, paragraph 1 of this Convention.
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Article 17
The States Parties to this Convention shall consider or encourage the establishment of national public and private foundations or associations whose purpose is to invite donations for the protection of the cultural and natural heritage as defined in Articles 1 and 2 of this Convention.
Article 18
The States Parties to this Convention shall give their assistance to international fund-raising campaigns organized for the World Heritage Fund under the auspices of the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization. They shall facilitate collections made by the bodies mentioned in paragraph 3 of Article 15 for this purpose.
V. CONDITIONS AND ARRANGEMENTS FOR INTERNATIONAL ASSISTANCE
Article 19
Any State Party to this Convention may request international assistance for property forming part of the cultural or natural heritage of outstanding universal value situated within its territory. It shall submit with its request such information and documentation provided for in Article 21 as it has in its possession and as will enable the Committee to come to a decision.
Article 20
Subject to the provisions of paragraph 2 of Article 13, sub-paragraph (c) of Article 22 and Article 23, international assistance provided for by this Convention may be granted only to property forming part of the cultural and natural heritage which the World Heritage Committee has decided, or may decide, to enter in one of the lists mentioned in paragraphs 2 and 4 of Article 11.
Article 21
1. The World Heritage Committee shall define the procedure by which requests to it for international assistance shall be considered and shall specify the content of the request, which should define the operation contemplated, the work that is necessary, the expected cost thereof, the degree of urgency and the reasons why the resources of the State requesting assistance do not allow it to meet all the expenses. Such requests must be supported by experts' reports whenever possible.
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2. Requests based upon disasters or natural calamities should, by reasons of the urgent work which they may involve, be given immediate, priority consideration by the Committee, which should have a reserve fund at its disposal against such contingencies.
3. Before coming to a decision, the Committee shall carry out such studies and consultations as it deems necessary.
Article 22
Assistance granted by the World Heritage Fund may take the following forms:
(a) studies concerning the artistic, scientific and technical problems raised by the protection, conservation, presentation and rehabilitation of the cultural and natural heritage, as defined in paragraphs 2 and 4 of Article 11 of this Convention;
(b) provisions of experts, technicians and skilled labour to ensure that the approved work is correctly carried out;
(c) training of staff and specialists at all levels in the field of identification, protection, conservation, presentation and rehabilitation of the cultural and natural heritage;
(d) supply of equipment which the State concerned does not possess or is not in a position to acquire;
(e) low-interest or interest-free loans which might be repayable on a long-term basis;
(f) the granting, in exceptional cases and for special reasons, of non-repayable subsidies.
Article 23
The World Heritage Committee may also provide international assistance to national or regional centres for the training of staff and specialists at all levels in the field of identification, protection, conservation, presentation and rehabilitation of the cultural and natural heritage.
Article 24
International assistance on a large scale shall be preceded by detailed scientific, economic and technical studies. These studies shall draw upon the most advanced techniques for the protection, conservation, presentation and rehabilitation of the natural and cultural heritage and shall be consistent with the objectives of this Convention. The studies shall also seek means of making rational use of the resources available in the State concerned.
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Article 25
As a general rule, only part of the cost of work necessary shall be borne by the international community. The contribution of the State benefiting from international assistance shall constitute a substantial share of the resources devoted to each programme or project, unless its resources do not permit this.
Article 26
The World Heritage Committee and the recipient State shall define in the agreement they conclude the conditions in which a programme or project for which international assistance under the terms of this Convention is provided, shall be carried out. It shall be the responsibility of the State receiving such international assistance to continue to protect, conserve and present the property so safeguarded, in observance of the conditions laid down by the agreement.
VI. EDUCATIONAL PROGRAMMES
Article 27
1. The States Parties to this Convention shall endeavor by all appropriate means, and in particular by educational and information programmes, to strengthen appreciation and respect by their peoples of the cultural and natural heritage defined in Articles 1 and 2 of the Convention.
2. They shall undertake to keep the public broadly informed of the dangers threatening this heritage and of the activities carried on in pursuance of this Convention.
Article 28
States Parties to this Convention which receive international assistance under the Convention shall take appropriate measures to make known the importance of the property for which assistance has been received and the role played by such assistance.
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VII. REPORTS
Article 29
1. The States Parties to this Convention shall, in the reports which they submit to the General Conference of the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization on dates and in a manner to be determined by it, give information on the legislative and administrative provisions which they have adopted and other action which they have taken for the application of this Convention, together with details of the experience acquired in this field.
2. These reports shall be brought to the attention of the World Heritage Committee.
3. The Committee shall submit a report on its activities at each of the ordinary sessions of the General Conference of the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization.
VIII FINAL CLAUSES
Article 30
This Convention is drawn up in Arabic, English, French, Russian and Spanish, the five texts being equally authoritative.
Article 31
1. This Convention shall be subject to ratification or acceptance by States members of the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization in accordance with their respective constitutional procedures.
2. The instruments of ratification or acceptance shall be deposited with the Director-General of the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization.
Article 32
1. This Convention shall be open to accession by all States not members of the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization which are invited by the General Conference of the Organization to accede to it.
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2. Accession shall be effected by the deposit of an instrument of accession with the Director-General of the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization.
Article 33
This Convention shall enter into force three months after the date of the deposit of the twentieth instrument of ratification, acceptance or accession, but only with respect to those States which have deposited their respective instruments of ratification, acceptance or accession on or before that date. It shall enter into force with respect to any other State three months after the deposit of its instrument of ratification, acceptance or accession.
Article 34
The following provisions shall apply to those States Parties to this Convention which have a federal or non-unitary constitutional system:
(a) with regard to the provisions of this Convention, the implementation of which comes under the legal jurisdiction of the federal or central legislative power, the obligations of the federal or central government shall be the same as for those States parties which are not federal States;
(b) with regard to the provisions of this Convention, the implementation of which comes under the legal jurisdiction of individual constituent States, countries, provinces or cantons that are not obliged by the constitutional system of the federation to take legislative measures, the federal government shall inform the competent authorities of such States, countries, provinces or cantons of the said provisions, with its recommendation for their adoption.
Article 35
1. Each State Party to this Convention may denounce the Convention.
2. The denunciation shall be notified by an instrument in writing, deposited with the Director-General of the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization.
3. The denunciation shall take effect twelve months after the receipt of the instrument of denunciation. It shall not affect the financial obligations of the denouncing State until the date on which the withdrawal takes effect.
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Article 36
The Director-General of the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization shall inform the States members of the Organization, the States not members of the Organization which are referred to in Article 32, as well as the United Nations, of the deposit of all the instruments of ratification, acceptance, or accession provided for in Articles 31 and 32, and of the denunciations provided for in Article 35.
Article 37
1. This Convention may be revised by the General Conference of the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization. Any such revision shall, however, bind only the States which shall become Parties to the revising convention.
2. If the General Conference should adopt a new convention revising this Convention in whole or in part, then, unless the new convention otherwise provides, this Convention shall cease to be open to ratification, acceptance or accession, as from the date on which the new revising convention enters into force.
Article 38
In conformity with Article 102 of the Charter of the United Nations, this Convention shall be registered with the Secretariat of the United Nations at the request of the Director-General of the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization.
Done in Paris, this twenty-third day of November 1972, in two authentic copies bearing the signature of the President of the seventeenth session of the General Conference and of the Director-General of the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization, which shall be deposited in the archives of the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization, and certified true copies of which shall be delivered to all the States referred to in Articles 31 and 32 as well as to the United Nations