Diplomats trapped in Bosnia riots

Buses which brought Muslims to the ceremony were set on fire

BANJA LUKA, Bosnia Herzegovina -- Top Western diplomats have been trapped in a building by thousands of rioting Bosnian Serb nationalists.

Several top international officials were trapped in the Islamic community centre after up to 2,000 protestors ran amok during a ceremony held on Monday to mark the restoration of a mosque, destroyed in Bosnia's 1992-95 ethnic war.

A United States helicopter, sent in to evacuate the officials, was prevented from landing by the mob. The hostages include Jacques Klein, United Nations mission head, and Werner Blatter, who heads the U.N. refugee agency in Bosnia.

The applause that greeted Klein's arrival provoked a furious outburst from the crowd of Serb protestors, who stormed a police cordon to attack Muslims across the road with tear gas grenades, stones and eggs.

U.N. spokesman Alun Roberts told Reuters "Mr Klein and a number of other VIPS are in the building. They are staying there for the time being, until we see how it is going to unfold."

According to local sources in Banja Luka, Bosnian Serb Prime Minister Mladen Ivanic is due to negotiate with protestors to release the people trapped in the building.

British photographer Paul Lowe, present at the site since Monday morning, told Reuters that problems had looked likely early on, as crowds of local Serbs had been drinking alcohol in nearby bars.

Forces failed to react after protestors began throwing stones, teargas and eggs at dozens of Muslim officials and visitors arriving to mark the reconstruction of the 16th century Ferhadija mosque.

The Associated Press reported that one stone shattered the windscreen of the car belonging to Bosnia's foreign minister, Zlatko Lagundzija, moments after his arrival.

Protestors stormed the police cordon and beat visitors, snatching their prayer rugs and setting them alight. One man was left lying on his prayer rug, his face bloodied, the Associated Press said.

The mob also climbed atop the Islamic community centre, ripping down the flag. After torching it, they hoisted the Bosnian Serb flag in its place.

Witnesses told Reuters that five buses that brought Muslim visitors to the ceremony were set ablaze in the riot.

Lowe also told Reuters that the NATO-led peacekeeping SFOR troops and the U.N. policing mission had allowed the situation to spin out of control.

Vladimir Tatus, head of the city police, told the Associated Press that they had deployed 300 officers. "We thought that would be enough, but the mass overwhelmed them. The investigation will start immediately," he told reporters at the scene.

One elderly Muslims, Fahret Kocevic, described the incident as "horrific." " I did not expect such resistance," he added.

Nationalists destroyed Banja Luka's mosques after the wartime expulsion of all Muslims from the city, in an effort to remove any historical evidence that a Muslim population ever existed there.

The reconstruction of the mosques was ordered in 1999 by the Human Rights chamber, an international human rights commission. Bosnian Serb authorities then reluctantly issued a permit for the restoration of the Ferhadija mosque.

The riot of mainly Christian Orthodox Serbs against the reconstruction of mosques is the second in as many days.

On Saturday, Bosnian Serb extremists assaulted international peace officials in the southern town of Trebinje, ruining a similar ceremony for a mosque ravaged during the war.

Serbs assault U.N. staff in Bosnia
May 5, 2001
Bomb blasts Bosnian party offices
May 1, 2001
Serbs delay Sarajevo handover
April 25, 2001
Srebrenica survivors in U.N. protest
April 2, 2001

The United Nations
Bosnia
The Dayton Peace Treaty
A Brief History of War in Bosnia-Herzegovina

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