Bosnia: 33 million euros in compensation for destruction of mosques

Bosnian Serb authorities were ordered Friday by the local court to pay 33 million euros in compensation to the Islamic Community (IC) for local mosques destroyed during the war, according to judicial sources.

•     This amount must be paid to the highest religious corps of Bosnian Muslims by the government of Republika Srpska (RS, Bosnian Serb entity) and the municipality of Banja Luka (north), decided a local court in this city which is the Bosnian Serb capital, according to Srna agency.
  
      The IC had demanded 42.5 million euros in compensation for destruction during the inter-war (1992-95) the total of sixteen mosques in Banja Luka by the Bosnian Serb forces.
  
      By this first sentence of this kind, the RS assumes full responsibility for the destruction of the sixteen places of Muslim worship in Banja Luka during the war. For us, it is more important than compensation, said counsel for the IC, Esad Hrvacic.
  
      The Bosnian Serb government and the municipality of Banja Luka have the right to appeal the verdict.
  
      The most famous mosques in Banja Luka, Ferhadija, inscribed on the World Heritage List of Unesco, was dynamited in 1993. So far, only some of these mosques have been rebuilt.
  
      According to the IC on the 1144 mosques in the entire Bosnia before the war, 614 were destroyed and 307 damaged.
  
      During the conflict, dozens of Catholic and Orthodox churches were also destroyed.
  
      Muslims represent about 40% of the 3.8 million Bosnian Serbs Orthodox Christians 31% and 10% Catholic Croats.
  
      Serb entity created during the war, the RS form, with the Muslim-Croat Federation, Bosnia since the end of the conflict.
  
      
  Ennaharonline/ M. O.