BOSNIA-HERZEGOVINA: SENIOR INTERNATIONAL GOVERNMENT REPRESENTATIVES ARRIVE FOR INAUGURATION OF MOSTAR'S NEW "OLD BRIDGE"
Record ID:
646659
BOSNIA-HERZEGOVINA: SENIOR INTERNATIONAL GOVERNMENT REPRESENTATIVES ARRIVE FOR INAUGURATION OF MOSTAR'S NEW "OLD BRIDGE"
- Title: BOSNIA-HERZEGOVINA: SENIOR INTERNATIONAL GOVERNMENT REPRESENTATIVES ARRIVE FOR INAUGURATION OF MOSTAR'S NEW "OLD BRIDGE"
- Date: 23rd July 2004
- Summary: (W5) MOSTAR, BOSNIA-HERZEGOVINA (JULY 23, 2004) (REUTERS) 1. IMPORTANT SENIOR INTERNATIONAL FIGURES (VIPs) GATHERED NEAR THE BRIDGE 0.07 2. CROATIAN PRESIDENT STIPAN MESIC WALKING BY THE BRIDGE 0.14 3. BRITIAN'S PRINCE CHARLES DURING COCKTAIL RECEPTION 0.19 4. WS/SLV: RIVER AND PLATFORM WHERE VIPs HAVING COCKTAILS (2 SHOTS) 0.29 5. UNESCO DIRECTOR-GENERAL KOCHIRO MATSUURA WALKING UP STEPS 0.36 6. UNIDENTIFIED SENIOR INDIAN REPRESENTATIVE AND HIS WIFE WALKING ON THE BRIDGE 0.43 7. ELIZABETH REHN, FORMER UNITED NATIONS HIGH COMMISSIONER FOR HUMAN RIGHTS (UNHCR) WALKING 0.52 8. VARIOUS: PRINCE CHARLES WALKING AROUND BRIDGE (4 SHOTS) 1.333 9. PRINCE CHARLES GOING UP STAIRS INTO ONE OF THE FORTIFIED TOWERS AT THE END OF THE BRIDGE (2 SHOTS) 1.52 10. HANS KOSCHNIK (FIRST GOVERNOR OF MOSTAR FOR INTERNATIONAL COMMUNITY AFTER THE WAR) SHAKING HANDS 1.56 11. HIGH REPRESENTATIVE FOR BOSNIA, LORD PADDY ASHDOWN 2.02 12. (SOUNDBITE)(English) PADDY ASHDOWN, HIGH REPRESENTATIVE TO THE INTERNATIONAL COMMUNITY FOR BOSNIA AND HERZEGOVINA SAYING: "If there was one picture which encapsulated the Bosnian war it was the micro second that the Stari Most in Mostar fell into the Neretva. And now there'll be another picture that will be flashed across the world on every television screen tonight which is that that which fell down and was destroyed can be rebuild. I think that's an improtant new image for Bosnia-Herzegovina." 2.25 13. VIPs WALKING DOWN STEPS OF THE BRIDGE 2.31 (U3) MOSTAR, BOSNIA (FILE - NOVEMBER 9, 1993) (REUTERS) 14. EXPLOSION AS BRIDGE TAKES A HIT FROM A BOSNIAN CROAT ARTILLERY SHELL / BRIDGE CRUMBLES INTO RIVER / DEBRIS FROM BRIDGE FLOWING INTO RIVER 3.10 (U3) MOSTAR, BOSNIA-HERZEGOVINA (JULY 23, 2004) (REUTERS) 15. NEW REBUILT STARI MOST BRIDGE ACROSS THE RIVER NERETVA 3.15 16. PEOPLE WALKING ON THE BRIDGE 3.20 17. WOMEN WALKING ACROSS THE BRIDGE, DESTROYED BUILDINGS IN THE BACK GROUND 3.27 18. (SOUNDBITE) (Croat) MOSTAR RESIDENT, RUSTEM SARKIC, ON THE MUSLIM-RUN EASTERN SIDE OF THE CITY SAYING: "This is the day I am reborn and the day when Mostar is born again. It is the heart of the city where everyone comes together and meets." 3.40 19. (SOUNDBITE) (Croat) RESIDENT, ASIA CAMPARA (pronounced: SAMPARA) ON THE MUSLIM-RUN EASTERN SIDE OF THE CITY SAYING: "It will never be the same bridge it used to be. Hajruddin built his soul in this bridge but now, its as if his heart has been transplanted. But we will still love it as if it were the old one." 3.50 20. MAN LOOKING AT POSTERS OF THE BRIDGE 3.55 21. WREATH WITH BOSNIAN FLAG ON THE BRIDGE 3.59 22. (SOUNDBITE) (Croat) YOUNG COUPLE ON THE CROAT-RUN SIDE OF THE BRIDGE, UNIDENTIFIED MAN SAYING: "It's great! We go there sometimes." 4.11 23. (SOUNDBITE) (Croat) MAN IN THE STREET, ANTE RUPOVAC, SAYING: "I think the whole thing has been exaggerated. As someone born in Mostar I would have preferred opening a couple of factories instead and that the bridge had been rebuilt from our own economic wealth." 4.28 24. WS'S: BRIDGE SEEN FROM THE EASTERN SIDE OF THE CITY (2 SHOTS) 4.42 Initials Script is copyright Reuters Limited. All rights reserved
- Embargoed: 7th August 2004 13:00
- Keywords:
- Location: MOSTAR, BOSNIA-HERZEGOVINA
- Country: Bosnia
- Reuters ID: LVAA477H1EJUD40NYKCCD80T22QU
- Story Text: VIPs arrive for inauguration of Mostar new "Old
Bridge".
Senior international government representatives
arrived in the Bosnian city of Mostar on Friday (July 23)
as the residents eagerly awaited the unveiling of its
rebuilt 16th-century bridge, which some hope can help
reconcile Muslims and Croats living on opposite sides of
the river.
Almost 11 years after Bosnian Croat artillerymen
shelled it to destruction, the new "Stari Most" (Old
Bridge) was due to be officially inaugurated at a large
evening ceremony (1830 GMT) attended by the international
guests and delegations.
They included Croatian President Stipe Mesic and
presidents and prime ministers from neighbouring Balkan
states, Britain's Prince Charles, Italian Foreign Minister
Franco Frattini as well as Bosnia's High Representative,
Paddy Ashdown.
The new bridge is the culmination of a 15 million US
dollar UNESCO project begun In 1994, when the U.N. cultural
agency launched an appeal to recreate the 30 metre long, 20
metre high humpbacked bridge and work by Turkish company
ER-BU began in 2001. It has been assisted by institutions
and governments including the World Bank, Croatia, Turkey
and Italy.
The reconstruction work was painstakingly carried out
using some of the original stone recovered from the river
bed.
The remainder was taken from the same quarry used to
build the first one 500 years ago and crafted using
traditional methods.
Built by the Ottomans in the 16th century and a
survivor of centuries of conflict, the "Old Bridge" had
been a powerful symbol of multi-culturalism and ethnic
tolerance.
It was Lord Ashdown, who has powers to impose
legislation, who ordered the city's reunification in
January this year.
Around 250,000 people died in the inter-ethnic conflict
between Bosnian Muslims, Croats and Serbs - part of the
break-up of Yugoslavia.
Ashdown said he hoped the new old bridge will focus
people's attention on reconstruction and cooperation across
the Balkans.
"If there was one picture which encapsulated the
Bosnian war it was the micro second that the Stari Most in
Mostar fell into the Neretva. And now there'll be another
picture that will be flashed across the world on every
television screen tonight which is that that which fell
down and was destroyed can be rebuild. I think that's an
important new image for Bosnia Herzegovina," Ashdown said.
It was brought down in a deliberate shell attack during
the conflict which raged between 1992 and 1995 when Croats
and Muslims fought each other for 11 months in the capital
of Herzegovina - the second largest city in
Bosnia-Herzegovina.
On November 9, 1993, the battered monument collapsed
into the river after withstanding months of Serbian, then
Croatian onslaught.
At the time of the Second World War, the bridge was
strong enough to support the crossing of Nazi tanks and
during the bloody Bosnian conflict, it also provided the
only access to a source of drinking water which people
collected at night while dodging sniper fire.
After the war, Mostar was left divided into a Croat-run
western half and Muslim-run eastern section.
Muslims in Mostar said they were overjoyed by the
reconstruction although one admitted the bridge could never
be fully replaced.
"This is the day I am reborn and the day when Mostar is
born again. It is the heart of the city where everyone
comes together and meets," said Rustem Sarkic, a taxi
driver on the eastern side of the river.
"It will never be the same bridge it used to be.
Hajruddin built his soul in this bridge but now, its as if
his heart has been transplanted. But we will still love it
as if it were the old one," said resident Asia Campara.
Reactions on the Croat side were a little more muted.
"It's great! We go there sometimes," said one young
man.
"I think the whole thing has been exaggerated. As
someone born in Mostar I would have preferred opening a
couple of factories instead and that the bridge had been
rebuilt from our own economic wealth," said a resident on
the Croatian-run side, Ante Rupovac.
The elegant, 29-metre single-span bridge hangs above
the rushing green waters of the Neretva River.
The original bridge was commissioned by Suleiman the
Magnificent about 100 years after Turkey's Ottoman empire
claimed the Balkans.
It stood the tests of time and war until November 1993,
when it succumbed to Bosnian Croat high explosives in an
attack condemned globally as an act of sheer vandalism.
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