ABSTRACT
Religious sites in Bosnia and Kosovo represent the key ‘cultural hearth’ of various religious groups. It is religion which is the key defining indicator and which drives other indicators, such as variations in dress, cuisine and so forth. In Bosnia during the UNPROFOR period other than in terms of diplomatic ‘protests’, which were ineffectual, the international community did not attempt to intervene in any physical manner. It catalogued the destruction of key religious heritage sites, but the protection of these sites was not specified in the UNPROFOR mandate nor was there manpower available and committed to these tasks. By the time that the Intervention Force (IFOR) arrived in December 1995 the damage had been done and the site of the mosque at Banja-Luka, for example, was in use as a car park. This chapter explores the legal, military and conservation issues. It details the lessons learned and subsequent developments which have been based upon the Western Balkans experience. For example, one such lesson is that while the UK government recognised a requirement for international human rights lawyers in 1995, little academic training was being provided, so there was very limited UK presence in this field on the ground in Bosnia.
