Three years have passed since the beginning of the war in Bosnia. Amidst the
reports of human suffering and atrocities, another tragic loss has gone largely
unnoted - the destruction of the written record of Bosnia's past. On 25 August
1992, Bosnia's National and University Library, housed in a handsome
Moorish-revival building built in the 1890s on the Sarajevo riverfront, was
shelled and burned. Before the fire, the library held 1.5 million volumes,
including over 155,000 rare books and manuscripts; the country's national
archives; deposit copies of newspapers, periodicals and books published in
Bosnia; and the collections of the University of Sarajevo. Bombarded with
incendiary grenades from Serbian nationalist positions across the river, the
library burned for three days; it was reduced to ashes with most of its
contents. Braving a hail of sniper fire, librarians and citizen volunteers
formed a human chain to pass books out of the burning building. Interviewed by
ABC News, one of them said: "We managed to save just a few very precious
books. Everything else burned down. And a lot of our heritage, national
heritage, lay down there in ashes." Among the human casualties was Aida
Buturovic, a librarian in the National Library's exchanges section, shot to
death by a sniper. Three months earlier Sarajevo's Oriental Institute, home to
the largest collection of Islamic and Jewish manuscript texts and Ottoman
documents in Southeastern Europe, was shelled with phosphorus grenades and
burned. Losses included 5,263 bound manuscripts in Arabic, Persian, Hebrew, and
Adzamijski (Bosnian Slavic written in Arabic script); 7,000 Ottoman documents,
primary source material for five centuries of Bosnia's history; a collection of
19th-century cadastral registers; and 200,000 other documents of the Ottoman
era, including microfilm copies of originals in private hands or obtained on
exchange from foreign institutions. The Institute's collection of printed books,
the most comprehensive library on its subject in the region, was also destroyed
as was its catalog and all work in progress. In each case, the library alone was
targeted; adjacent buildings stand intact to this day. Serb nationalist leader
Radovan Karadzic has denied his forces were responsible for the attacks,
claiming the National Library had been set ablaze by the Muslims themselves
"because they didn't like its ... architecture." (New York Newsday, 30
November 1992) The 200,000-volume library of Bosnia's National Museum (est.
1888) was successfully evacuated under shelling and sniper fire during the
summer of 1992. Among the books rescued from the Museum was one of Bosnia's
greatest cultural treasures, the 14th-century Sarajevo Haggadah. The work of
Jewish calligraphers and illuminators in Islamic Spain, the manuscript was
brought to Bosnia 500 years ago by Jews fleeing the Spanish Inquisition.
Successfully concealed from the Nazis by a courageous museum curator during
World War II, the Sarajevo Haggadah has now once again been hidden in a secret
location. The National Museum, meanwhile, has been badly hit. Shells have
crashed through the roof and the skylights and all of its 300 windows have been
shot out, as have the walls of several galleries. Parts of the Museum's
collection that could not be moved to safe stores remain in the building,
exposed to further artillery attacks and to decay from exposure to the elements.
Dr. Rizo Sijaric, the Museum's director, was killed by a grenade blast on 10
December 1993 while trying to arrange for plastic sheeting from UN relief
agencies to cover some of the holes in the building. In April 1992, Serbian
forces began bombarding the historic city of Mostar, the center of the country's
southwestern region, Herzegovina. The Archives of Herzegovina, housing
manuscripts and records documenting the region's past since the medieval period,
was repeatedly hit and suffered severe damage. Over 50,000 books were destroyed
when the library of Mostar's Roman Catholic archbishopric was struck by shells
fired from artillery positions on the heights overlooking the city. Further tens
of thousands of books and documents were exposed to fire and damp when shells
smashed through the roof and windows of the Museum of Herzegovina. The
University of Mostar Library was also hit and burned, along with a score of
other libraries and archives at various locations in the city. Throughout
Bosnia, libraries, archives, museums and cultural institutions have been
targeted for destruction, in an attempt to eliminate the material evidence -
books, documents and works of art - that could remind future generations that
people of different ethnic and religious traditions once shared a common
heritage in Bosnia. In the towns and villages of occupied Bosnia, communal
records (cadastral registers, waqf documents, parish records) of more than 800
Muslim and Bosnian Croat (Catholic) communities have been torched by Serb
nationalist forces as part of "ethnic cleansing" campaigns. While the
destruction of a community's institutions and records is, in the first instance,
part of a strategy of intimidation aimed at driving out members of the targeted
group, it also serves a long-term goal. These records were proof that non-Serbs
once resided and owned property in that place, that they had historical roots
there. By burning the documents, by razing mosques and Catholic churches and
bulldozing the graveyards, the nationalist forces who have now taken over these
towns and villages are trying to insure themselves against any future claims by
the people they have driven out and dispossessed. Other Bosnians, however,
remain determined to preserve their country's historic ideal of a multicultural,
tolerant society and the institutions that enshrine its collective memory.
Surviving staff members of the National and University Library - Serbs and
Croats as well as Muslims - are still at work in Sarajevo. An estimated 10% of
the Library's collection was saved, as were computer tapes containing catalogue
records for some of the items that perished in the fire. In temporary quarters,
42 librarians (out of a pre-war staff of 108) are preparing inventories,
undertaking what conservation measures are possible under current conditions,
keeping track of titles published in Sarajevo since April 1992, and planning for
the post-war reconstruction of their institution. They are also trying to serve
the needs of 850 faculty members and the 4,500 students still studying at the
University of Sarajevo; 70 students have completed work for doctoral degrees
since the beginning of the siege. The librarians and research staff of
Sarajevo's Oriental Institute have also decided to carry on, despite the nearly
total loss of their Institute's collections. In temporary quarters, they have
been holding seminars and symposia to share their research, reconstructed from
notes kept at home, and making plans for the Institute's future. They have
issued a call for moral and material support from their colleagues throughout
the world. Response thus far by international agencies, institutions and
professional organizations has been only modestly encouraging. UNESCO has given
its endorsement to the rebuilding of the National Library and has sponsored
several meetings to discuss the project, but has provided little tangible
support thus far. The Helsinki Citizens' Assembly, a human rights group based in
Prague, has called on its affiliates to assist Bosnia's National Library and has
established collection sites for donated materials in Europe (contact: Tony
Bloomfield, HCA-UK, 11 Goodwin Street, London N4 3HQ; tel.: 44-71-272-9092; fax:
44-71-272-3044). A similar effort is underway in France, led by the Association
pour la renaissance de la Bibliotheque nationale de Sarajevo, which is
collecting both funds and book donations (contact: A.R.B.N.S., 23-25 rue des
Petites Ecuries, 75010 Paris, France; tel.: 33-14-801-0580; fax:
33-14-253-5803). The Turkish National Library has undertaken to locate
Bosnia-related materials in its own collections =D1 with the goal of making
copies available when Bosnia's National Library is rebuilt =D1 and has issued a
call to national and academic libraries elsewhere urging them to join the effort
(contact: T.C. Milli Kutuphane, 06490 Ankara, Turkey). In June 1994, Iran's
ambassador to Bosnia promised financial support for the reconstruction of the
Oriental Institute; the Royal Library in The Hague has also pledged assistance.
British academics have established Bosnia-Herzegovina Heritage Rescue U.K., a
private foundation, to assist with immediate conservation needs in Bosnia
(contact: Dr. Marian Wenzel, 9 Canterbury Mansions, Lymington Road, London NW6
2EW U.K.; tel.: 44-71-433-1142). In the United States, tax-deductible
contributions to support the reconstruction of Bosnia's National Library can be
sent to the Sarajevo Fund (P.O. Box 1640 Cathedral Station, New York, NY 10025;
checks should be made out to "Sarajevo Fund/National Library Account"
- book donations cannot be accepted at present). The American Library
Association's official response, at its 1993 mid-winter meeting in Denver, was
to issue a cautiously-worded statement decrying the loss of access to
information by the peoples of the former Yugoslavia. This statement (CD#37) was
passed over the vocal objections of some members, who wanted the ALA to avoid
involvement in "political" issues. The full text of the statement was
sent to the official addressees (including the White House and the U.N.), but it
was decided not to give it wider publicity. The debate in Denver reflects an
unfortunate confusion. The burning of libraries and archives cannot be construed
as a mere expression of one side's views in a two-sided political dispute =D1
where right is assumed to reside somewhere in the middle. It is a crime against
humanity and a violation of international laws and conventions. The latter
include the 1931 Athens Charter, the 1954 Hague Convention on the Protection of
Cultural Property in the Event of Armed Conflict, the 1964 Venice Charter, and
the 1977 Protocols I and II Additonal to the Geneva Conventions of 1949, all of
which were ratified by the government of the former Yugoslavia and remain
legally binding upon its successor states. The loss of access to information
also affects those of us who study the history and cultures of the Middle East
and the Islamic world. Scholars in fields seemingly remote from the Balkans -
Persian literature, Islamic science, Sufism - have lost resources of which they
were only beginning to become aware. Fortunately, not all has been lost and some
of what has been destroyed may be recoverable. Sarajevo's Gazi Husrev Beg
Library (est. 1537) was shelled in May 1992, but most of its collection has been
saved. Of the manuscripts and documents destroyed in the fire that consumed the
Oriental Institute, many had been filmed for research and exchange projects.
Copies of those microfilms, now dispersed in foreign libraries and research
institutes, can be collected=D1 with the help of foreign scholars =D1 to form
the core of a rebuilt Institute. We have at hand some of the means to undo the
destruction of memory.* * Readers who know the whereabouts of such microfilms
are asked to contact the author (c/o Fine Arts Library, Harvard University,
Cambridge MA 02138; e-mail: riedlmay@fas.harvard.edu). BIBLIOGRAPHY Algar,
Hamid. "Persian Literature in Bosnia-Herzegovina." Journal of Islamic
Studies 5 (1994), pp. 254-267. Arhiv Hercegovine. Katalog arapskih, turskih i
persijskih rukopisa Catalogue of the Arabic, Turkish and Persian Manuscripts.
Ed. Hivzija Hasandedic. Mostar: Arhiv Hercegovine, 1977. 330 pp. The Art
Treasures of Bosnia and Herzegovina. Ed. Mirza Filipovic; text: Djuro Basler et
al.; photographs: Sulejman Balic et al. Sarajevo: Svjetlost, 1987. 176 p. : col.
ill. A reminder of what Bosnians of all religious backgrounds - and the rest of
us - have been deprived of in little more than three years of organized
destruction. Illustrations include: illuminated pages of mss.from Bosnia's
Christian, Islamic and Jewish traditions, historical documents, civil and
religious architecture, and other works of art. This book was also published in
German and Serbo-Croatian editions. Bollag, Burton. "Bosnia's Desperate
Campuses," Chronicle of Higher Education , vol. 41 no. 16 (14 December
1994), pp. A40-42. "Bosnia-Herzegovina: History, Culture, Heritage."
(Special issue) Newsletter / Research - Centre for Islamic History, Art and
Culture, no. 31 (April 1993). 46 + 14 p. : ill. Lists nearly 500 monuments of
Bosnian culture (mosques, churches, libraries) destroyed in the first months of
the war. Available from: Research Centre for Islamic History, Art and Culture
(IRCICA), P.O. Box 24, 80693 Besiktas-Istanbul, Turkey. Council of Europe.
Parliamentary Assembly. Information Report on the Destruction by War of the
Cultural Heritage in Croatia and Bosnia-Herzegovina. Strasbourg, 1993 Reports
1-5 (2 February 1993, 12 April 1994) were adopted as Assembly Documents nos.
6756, 6869, 6904, 6989, and 7070). Based on research and site inspections of
institutions (libraries, archives, museums) and architectural monuments, carried
out by rapporteurs commissioned by the European Parliament. Reports are
available from: The Secretary, Committee on Culture and Education, Conseil
d'Europe, B.P. 431, Strasbourg Cedex F-67006, France. Detling, Karen J.
"Eternal Silence: The Destruction of Cultural Property in Yugoslavia,"
Maryland Journal of International Law and Trade, vol. 17 no. 1 (Spring 1993),
pp. 41-75. Examines the legal implications, including the applicability of the
1954 Hague Convention and other treaties to Yugoslavia and its successor states.
Dossier: Urbicide, Sarajevo =3D Sarajevo, une ville blessee. Ed. by Borislav
Curic [et al.]. Sarajevo: Drustvo arhitekata Sarajevo; reprt. Bordeaux: Arc en
reve centre d=D5architecture, 1994. [100] pp. =09Catalogue of an exhibition of
photographs documenting the destruction of Sarajevo's historic buildings and
cultural institutions targeted by Serb forces. This exhibition was first held in
Sarajevo in the fall of 1993; it has since been shown in Europe and the U.S..
Text and captions in English, French and German. Fisk, Robert. "Waging War
on History: In Former Yugoslavia, Whole Cultures Are Being Obliterated."
The Independent (London), 20 June 1994, p. 18. First of a series of reports on
cultural genocide, its ideologues, and efforts to document the destruction and
to bring perpetrators to justice; reprinted in the San Francisco Chronicle, 3
July 1994. Gazi Husrevbegova biblioteka u Sarajevu. Katalog arapskih, turskih i
persijskih rukopisa / Catalogue of the Arabic, Turkish and Persian Manuscripts.
Ed. Kasim Dobraca, Zejnil Fajic. Sarajevo: Starjesinstvo Islamske vjerske
zajednice, 1963-[1991]. 3 vols. Lovrenovic, Ivan. "The Hatred of
Memory." New York Times, 28 May 1994, p. A15. A noted Bosnian scholar
descibes the destruction of public and private libraries in Sarajevo, including
his own. Malcolm, Noel. Bosnia: A Short History. London: Macmillan ; New York:
NYU Press, 1994. xxiv, 340 pp. The best history of Bosnia in English; a
synthesis of Bosnian and foreign scholarship based on primary source materials
now largely destroyed. Mostar '92: Urbicid. Ed. Ivanka Ribarevic-Nikolic and
Zeljko Juric. Mostar: HVO Opcine Mostar, Drustvo arhitekata Mostar, 1992. 167
pp. Catalog of an exhibition of photographs documenting the destruction of
Mostar's historic buildings and cultural institutions by Serbian shelling in
1992; incl. English text and captions. Orijentalni institut u Sarajevu. Katalog
perzijskih rukopisa Orijentalnog instituta u Sarajevu. Ed. Salih Trako.
Sarajevo: Orijentalni institut u Sarajevu, 1986. 268 pp. Catalog of the
Institute's collection of Persian manuscripts, now destroyed; illustrated with
facsimiles. Schwartz, Amy. "Is It Wrong to Weep for Buildings?" The
Washington Post, 10 May 1994. Report on a symposium on the destruction of
cultural heritage in Bosnia, held 2 May 1994 at the Carnegie Endowment for
International Peace in Washington. A transcript of this symposium was submitted
to the U.N. Commission of Experts Investigating War Crimes in the Former
Yugoslavia. The complete transcript is available on the International Council on
Monuments and Sites (ICOMOS) gopher: from a gopher server menu, choose
"Other Gophers" and then "International Organizations" (on
the World Wide Web use the URL gopher://hpb.hwc.ca:10000/11/.icomos); from the
ICOMOS gopher menu, choose "Related Treaties" and then
"Hague." Sijaric, Rizo. "Update on the Zemaljski Muzej,
Sarajevo." Museum Management and Curatorship, 12 (1993), pp. 195-199. An
appeal for help by the director of Bosnia's National Museum; an appendix
describes ongoing efforts to preserve rescued library materials and museum
objects and to keep cultural life going under siege. Wenzel, Marian.
"Obituary: Dr. Rizo Sijaric, Director of the Zemaljski Muzej, Sarajevo.
Killed in Sarajevo, 10 December 1993." Museum Management and Curatorship,
13 (1994), pp. 79-80. Zdralovic, Muhamed. "Bosnia-Herzegovina." In:
World Survey of Islamic Manuscripts, Vol. I. Ed. G. J. Roper. London: Al-Furqan
Islamic Heritage Foundation, 1992, pp. 87-110.
________________________________________________________________________
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nor any of their host institutions. Zeljko Bodulovic