BOSNIA NEWS

USTIKOLINA,Bosnia – The oldest mosque in Bosnia,the Turhan Emin-Begova Mosque was officially reopened on Saturday in Ustikolina, at a ceremony attended by several thousand people from all over the country and the Bosnian Islamic Community and government officials.

”Today is a special day for all Muslims in Bosnia, for the oldest mosque in Bosnia is now open again. I hereby call the authorities to participate more actively in reconstructing the devastated sacral objects”, Leader Of the Bosnian Islamic Community Reisu-l-ulema Mustafa ef. Ceric said at the opening.

The mosque was built in 1448 and was completely devastated in 1992 bu the Serbian aggressor. It was reconstructed through various donations made by companies and citizens of Sarajevo,Bosna Podrinje Canton and others.

About 550.000 Bosnian Marks (383.000 USD) was invested in reconstruction of the mosque.Besides being the oldest mosque in Bosnia (it is 559 years old),the Turhan Emin-Begova Mosque in Ustikolina also has the highest minaret in Bosnia.The minaret of the Turhan Emin-Begova Mosque is 65 meters high.

SARAJEVO,Bosnia – Slow but evident progress has been registered in the field of public administration reform in Bosnia, Head of the Unit for Bosia in the European Commission’s Directorate-General for Enlargement Dirk Lange said.

Speaking at a meeting on public administration reform organised by the EU Info-Centre in Sarajevo, Lange said that this reform is one of the key reforms for moving Bosnia closer to the EU.

This is a long-term process which will last several years and will ultimately create motivated state officials and an efficient and transparent public administration, Lange said.

He stressed that this is a “difficult task” and added that there is no legal legacy of the EU for public administration reform, but that in implementing this process every country needs to rely on its best practices.

This means that Bosnia needs to do this job by itself and that if cannot copy the public administration structure of some other country, he added.

He stressed that the European Commission will continue to monitor activities on public administration reform in Bosnia, which will represent a platform for other important reforms in the country. The EC will provide an assessment of progress in this field in its regular annual report due out this autumn.

State Coordinator for Public Administration Reform Nevenka Savic said that Bosnia has a Strategy for Public Administration Reform, which has been adopted by government at all levels in Bosnia. This document is consisted of two action plans, and the implementation of the first, which covers structural reforms, is only beginning.

A memorandum of understanding, which will establish a fund for financing projects in the field of public administration reform, is expected to be signed next week. 1.5 million euros are planned for these purposes.

SARAJEVO,Bosnia – The new international community's High Representative and EU Special Representative in Bosnia, Miroslav Lajčák, met with leaders of Bosnia's religious communities at his home in Sarajevo yesterday to discuss how religion and religious leaders could help build trust between communities and assist the reconciliation process in Bosnia.

Ambassador Lajčák met with Reis-ul-Ulema Mustafa ef. Ceriċ of the Islamic Community, Metropolitan Nikolaj of the Orthodox Church, Monsignor Mato Zovkic of the Catholic Church, and Mr Jakob Finci of the Jewish Community.

In other news,the new international community's High Representative and EU Special Representative in Bosnia Miroslav Lajcak will travel to Brussels today and meet with Javier Solana, the EU HR for Joint and Foreign Policy and participate at a conference of the EU special representatives.

Meeting with Solana will be an opportunity to discuss the issues necessary for Bosnia to progress in order to be able to sign the SAA with the EU.

Promotion of the European integrations is one of the key priorities of Ambassador Lajcak in Bosnia, OHR announced yesterday.He will also inform Mr. Solana on his first impressions after meetings he had with Bosnia's political representatives.

The new international community's High Representative and EU Special Representative in Bosnia will also participate at the EU SR Conference which will be held in Brussels.All the nine EU SRs will gather to informally exchange experience.

ILIDZA,Bosnia – The International Association of Genocide Scholars (IAGS) will open its 7th meeting in Ilidza on July 9.The conference will discuss early warning signs of genocide, research of genocide and the prevention of genocide. The meeting is hosted by the University of Sarajevo's Institute for Research into Crimes against Humanity and International Law.

The conference will gather more than 400 leading academic authorities from Bosnia and the rest of the world working on research of holocaust, genocide and other forms of crimes against humanity and international law. Students will also actively participate, which is the first such case in the history of such events.

On Wednesday, 11 July, there will be an excursion to the Srebrenica Genocide Memorial Site at Potocari to attend the annual commemoration of the Srebrenica massacre. Conference participants will also have the opportunity to observe the ongoing exhumation of a mass grave in the vicinity of the Memorial Site.

This meeting will represent the most authoritative scientific verification of the genocide committed by the Serbian aggressor in Bosnia, and it will also serve as the strongest final word on the character of the “conflict” between 1991 and 1995, as IAGS represents the roof institution of world science in this field, the University of Sarajevo's Institute for Research into Crimes against Humanity and International Law stated.

The conference will be held in Ilidza starting at 14:30. It will end on July 14.