Mosque or Culture Hall

In early December a letter arrived in Bocinja from the Maglaj local authorities demanding that after Bayram at the latest, the mesdzid, the building that before the war was the village culture hall, be emptied so that it can be converted into a temporary accommodation center for Serbs who are repairing their houses. All that while the nearby school is empty and while thousands of Bosniaks all over the Republic of Srpska are spending the winter under tents

by Elrija HADZIAHMETOVIC

Ljiljan, Sarajevo, Federation Bosnia-Hercegovina, B-H, December 25, 2000

Bocinja has for the last few years been a quiet and for most Bosnians and Hercegovinians anonymous village. Until recently, when the new authorities in Maglaj decided, with wholehearted assistance from the local and international political factors, to evict from Serb homes their temporary occupants, the "mujahedeen". All with the justification (or excuse) that Maglaj won't do better until Serbs, including those who had been destroying this city for four years, return to their homes in this wealthy village. The Muslim community in Bocinja - some refer to it as the community of foreigners, although all of them are Bosnian citizens - respecting the right to private property did not deny the right of everyone to return to his or her home and therefore, with the first days of autumn, they started to leave.

Tekbirs and Demolition of Sawmill

By the beginning of winter several tens of families have left the village, without any forced evictions. As the leader of the community, Abu Hamza, told us last week, the remaining members of the community in Bocinja include seven families that own their homes, ten that rent and 19 families of refugees.

Last Tuesday, officers from the Nordic battalion came and told Abu Hamza that they wanted to build their base at the location of the sawmill. A day later, the men with their bare hands, machines and trucks pulled away from that spot everything that made up a sawmill. With individual tekbirs [exclaiming "Allahu Ekber", Allah is great], while the trucks pulled pillars, and very loud, collective ones from all fifty throats, when numerous patrols of the Danish and Norwegian battalions very conspicuously passed near the spot.

But, Bocinja, or better said the authorities in Maglaj, as if cannot do without additional trouble. This time the proverbial apple of discord is the former culture hall and current mesdzid [small communal mosque]. In early December, Abu Hamza received a letter from the Maglaj municipal authorities, which demanded that the mesdzid in Bocinja be emptied.

The letter states the following: "Based on the request of the international community, OHR and OSCE, that a center for accommodation of displaced persons and refugees who intend to repair their houses be temporarily set up in the culture hall, we request that you, by Bayram at the latest, empty the hall and remove all the objects used for religious ceremonies." The letter was signed by Adem Mehinagic, department head.

All that even though right next to the mesdzid there is an empty school. That was the last straw, and the remaining inhabitants of Bocinja offer a series of arguments proving that their human rights and above all religious rights are endangered. Those who before the war lived in the Republic of Srpska demanded that the international community return them to their homes. However, the UNHCR unofficially responded that they cannot (meaning do not want to) return them to their real estate in Srpska and that instead they will pay them compensation. Thus the intentions of the international community became clear. The former culture hall, currently a mesdzid, has a place in those plans.

Who Will Compensate for Investments?

"When we arrived in Bocinja, the culture hall was a disaster. We had to replace the roof and that cost $10,000. Of course, we requested permission from the municipal authorities. We had a verbal agreement and a promise that in the meantime proper documentation would be provided. We never received the documentation. In the meantime we invested $75,000 in the reconstruction and adaptation of the hall. We even installed floor heating. We kept bills for all that. And now they demand that we return everything," says Abu Hamza and adds: "We'll demand our rights in court." He asserts that the municipal authorities are in cooperation with the international community trying to provoke an incident, and thereby provide an excuse for bringing Serbs back to Bocinja.

To the question whether they received any assistance from the current mayor of Maglaj, Abu Hamza adamantly responds:

"He said that he had found accommodation for 100 families and that that was enough. That is not true. He helped us the way Ibis helped Adam to leave paradise. May Allah take the loved ones of the one of two of us who is a liar!"

It is obvious that the international community has double standards, one for Serb returnees to Bocinja and other for the current Muslim community in Bocinja, as well as Bosniaks in general, as for example in Janja, Banja Luka, Brcko, Bratunac, Visegrad... However, there are exceptions. Abu Hamza emphasizes positive engagement of an Austrian national working in the Zenica OSCE office, certain Harald, who intervened with the local authorities in Maglaj on behalf of Muslims in Bocinja saying "these people have the same rights as anyone else".

International Community Wanted to Buy Houses!

Ramadan in Bocinja goes on and those seven families who bought houses from Serbs in Bocinja do not intend to abandon their homes, although Serbs keep warning that they will not return to Bocinja "as long as a single mujahedeen lives there". A moderate faction of the international community is trying to remove that last Serb argument by buying disputed houses. However, they gave up once they found out that the owners were asking $500,000 for each home. It is certain that many Serbs from Bocinja, perhaps most of them, do not intend to return to "Alija's state". A clear indication of that are constant phone calls from Doboj and Teslic, in which Serbs, trying to curry favor by greeting "eselam aleykum", are begging Hamza to buy another home or two. Some of them come to the windows of the mesdzid to beg. Thus, it was found out that the reconstruction of the house owned by Bosko Jovanovic, the president of the association "Povratak" [Return], was abruptly stopped because his compatriots threatened to kill him if he returned to Bocinja.

At the end of our conversation Abu Hamza warned: "We shall defend our human rights, especially religious rights, with all means!"

Translated on October 22, 2001