Hundred and forty-fifth Session

Transcription

1 ex ations Educational, c and Cultural Organization Executive Board Hundred and forty-fifth Session 145 EX/36 PARIS, 7 October 1994 Original: French Item 8.2 of the nrovisional agenda THE SITUATION OF THE CULTURAL AND ARCHITECTURAL HERITAGE AND OF EDUCATIONAL AND CULTURAL INSTITUTIONS IN BOSNIA AND HERZEGOVINA SUMMARY This document is submitted to the Executive Board pursuant to 144 EX/Decision 7.3 on the situation of the cultural and architectural heritage and of educational and cultural institutions in Bosnia and Herzegovina. Decision required: paragraph After examining document 144 EX/34 the Executive Board adopted 144 EX/Decision 7.3, in which it: Invites the Director-General: (cl to implement 139 EX/Decision 7.5 as soon as the situation permits; to determine the damage to educational, historical, archaeological and cultural properties of the country and to prepare an updated list of these properties, in close and effective co-operation with the Government, the National Commission and other competent authorities of Bosnia and Herzegovina and with intergovernmental or non-governmental organizations, and to present his findings to the Board; to develop, in co-ordination with the above-mentioned authorities of Bosnia and Herzegovina and with the contribution of other international, regional,

2 145 EXJ36 - page 2 intergovernmental and non-governmental organizations. restoration and reconstruction projects under a general plan in which due attention should 06 p&j tz the mulfici$tuyd2 and mul&-eligic~ds nature of c;he c~z:;p; ;n? to the considerations of the Govemment cf Bosnia and Herzegovina concerning its priorities; Cd) to elaborate a Mostar pilot project within the general plan for the restoration and reconstruction of the Bosnian cultural heritage by setting up a committee consisting of experts of Bosnia and Herzegovina and responsible staff of the Secretariat, together with experts from Member States wishing to participate on the basis of voluntary contributions; to prepare, as integral parts of the general plan, specific projects for each historical and architectural building or complex of buildings (mosques, churches, synagogues, bridges, baths, bazaars, etc.); taking as an example the Mostar bridge reconstruction project (see Annex to 144 EX/34), to appeaj to partners at the bilateral or multilateral level who will finance or implement these projects as soon as the situation permits; 9. Invites the Director-General to undertake additional steps to encourage Member States and intergovernmental and non-governmental organizations to make voluntary contributions to finance these activities; 10. Requests the Director-General to report to it on the implementation of this decision at its 145th session. 2. Since the 144th session of the Executive Board, close co-operation between the authorities of Bosnia and Herzegovina and the Secretariat has continued and been consolidated. This development, which has been facilitated in part by a relative lull in the area, has made it possible to send a number of missions to determine the damage caused to the educational, historical, archaeological and cultural property of Bosnia and Herzegovina, to look into the possibility of providing emergency assistance and to maintain a UNESCO presence in Bosnia and Herzegovina. 3. On 3 May 1994, at the invitation of the authorities of Bosnia and Herzegovina, the President of the General Conference, the Chairperson of the Executive Board and the Director- General paid an official visit to Sarajevo and had talks with the Vice-President, Mr Ganic, the Prime Minister, Mr Haris Silajdzic, the Minister for Foreign Affairs, Mr Irfan Ljubijankic, the Minister of Education and Culture, Mr Enes Durakovic, and other senior officials of Bosnia and Herzegovina. During these discussions, it was agreed that co-operation with the national authorities should be strengthened and broadened, in particular by opening a UNESCO Of&e in Sarajevo. 4. The practical details regarding the establishment of this Office are to be specified, inter alia, in a Memorandum on co-operation between UNESCO and Bosnia and Herzegovina. To this end, the Director-General invited the Chairperson of the National Commission to visit UNESCO Headquarters in June for discussions on a first draft of the Memorandum with members of the Secretariat. In July, the resulting text was handed to the Government of Bosnia and Herzegovina for approval. 5. Following the Director-General s visit, a joint UNESCO-Council of Europe mission led by the Director-General s Special Adviser for the former Yugoslavia, Mr Luis Ramallo, travelled to Sarajevo and Mostar in Bosnia and Herzegovina in June in order to make an initial

3 145 EX/36 - page 3 assessment of the state of the cultural and architectural heritage in those two cities. Discussions were held with the ministers responsible for matters within the Organization s fields of competence and with persons in charge of educational and cultural institutions in Sarajevo and Mostar, representatives of the United Nations and its Specialized Agencies and the temporary administration of the European Union for Mostar. In this connection, the Minister of Education and Culture of Bosnia and Herzegovina said that his government hoped that UNESCO, in co-operation with the Council of Europe, might focus its action on safeguarding the cultural heritage of Bosnia and Herzegovina as a whole, with particular emphasis on the restoration of monuments of great symbolic value. 6. In June, in pursuance of resolution 4.8 adopted by the General Conference at its twentyseventh session, the Director-General sent a mission to Bosnia and Herzegovina as part of the scheme to restore the National and University Library of Bosnia and Herzegovina. This mission, which included an expert in librarianship and a representative of the Council of Europe, was led by the Director of the Division of the General Information Programme. The members of the mission held discussions with the national authorities regarding the location of a new site to house the collections of books and manuscripts which had been saved after the great fke of August Based on the conclusions of the mission, a plan of action and recommendations for the rehabilitation of the Library have been drawn up and submitted for approval to the Government of Bosnia and Herzegovina. The members of the mission also met with the United Nations Special Co-ordinator for Sarajevo, Mr Eagleton, in order to request him to include the reconstruction of the Library among the priorities identified by his staff. 7. In co-operation with UNPROFOR, UNESCO succeeded in helping to break the cultural and intellectual isolation of Bosnia and Herzegovina by facilitating cultural exchanges, thus enabling a number of researchers, scientists and artists to travel freely from and to Sarajevo as part of the cultural airlift. In this way, UNESCO has, since April 1994, financed and facilitated travel to and from Sarajevo by more than 130 artists, teachers, intellectuals and managers of cultural and educational institutions. Previously, such persons had not been accepted on the humanitarian flights organized by the United Nations in countries at war. Certain bodies, institutions and private individuals, particularly ones from Sarajevo (the Winter Festival, the International Film and Theatre Festival, the Philharmonic Orchestra, several painters from Bosnia and Herzegovina, the National and University Library, and the University) benefited from this; other beneficiaries were: in France, the Compagnie Quarks, the lntemational College of Philosophy, the Dia Association (from Lyon), the ThCitre du Radeau and the National Theatre of Brittany; in the United States, the National Peace Foundation; and in the United Kingdom, the actress Vanessa Redgrave. For the first time since the conflict began in Bosnia and Herzegovina, the Organization succeeded in bringing a group of artists out of Sarajevo to enable them to participate in the inauguration at Headquarters on 13 April 1994 of 17 engravings for peace - Sarajevo I993 in the presence of representatives of Bosnia and Herzegovina, in particular from its Ministry for Foreign Affairs. More recently, UNESCO facilitated the visit to Paris of the Sarajevo Festival Ensemble drama group and the organization of a European tour in September In the field of education, the Director-General has sent several missions to Bosnia and Herzegovina as part of efforts to rehabilitate its education system. In the light of the recommendations of these missions, the Organization has helped to prepare a new version of the United Nations Consolidated Appeal seeking assistance from the Specialized Agencies for the succession States of the former Yugoslavia.

4 145 EX/3$ - page.,4 9. Since the inauguration at Grude in December 1993 of the fest prefabricated school, which stands, as it were, as a pedagogical and architectural model for other schools to be built in the future, UNESCO has pursued its implementation of this programme. Last August it arranged for the delivery to Nevesinje and Mostar East of two prefabricated schools, which should be opened before the end of the year. Each of these schools costs about $300,000 and is financed from extra-budgetary resources. Consideration is being given to the construction in Sarajevo of a fourth school, to be used for the training of teacher trainers; other schools are expected to follow as soon as further extra-budgetary funds have been raised. The siting of these schools will be decided in consultation with the authorities of Bosnia and Herzegovina. 10. In addition, under the sponsorship of UNESCO and with its technical and logistic assistance, the French NGO Enfants de Bosnie hopes to undertake the reconstruction of the Skender Kulenovic school at Dobrinja, in the most severely damaged district of Sarajevo, on the front line. 11. In the sphere of communication, UNESCO is continuing its activities for the independent media in Bosnia and Herzegovina. At UNESCO s request, UNPROFOR and UNHCR facilitated the transport of all the equipment donated by the German television company WF and the Open Society Fund to the independent electronic media based in Sarajevo. Meanwhile, UNHCR resumed deliveries of paper for the independent press in Sarajevo and the German Commission for UNESCO provided emergency assistance for the weekly publication of the Oslobodenje newspaper, part of whose circulation is distributed free of charge to refugees. The municipality of Bologna (Italy) has also lent its support to UNESCO SOS Medias by organizing a concert in aid of the Organization s efforts on behalf of the independent media in Bosnia and Herzegovina. 12. Appointed by the Director-General in August 1994, UNESCO s representative in Bosnia and Herzegovina, who will run the Office in Sarajevo, took up his post at the beginning of September The ofl-icial opening of the Office will take place after approval by the Government of Bosnia and Herzegovina of the draft agreement concerning the establishment of the UNESCO Office. The work of this Office will initially be directed towards the reconstruction of the education system, the restoration of cultural monuments and the promotion of cultural and scientific exchanges. In this regard, UNESCO is co-operating with the United Nations Special Co-ordinator for the reconstruction of Sarajevo and has been made responsible for carrying out emergency operations relating to education and culture in the city of Sarajevo. Close co-operation has already been established with UNHCR, UNPROFOR, the Special Representative of the Secretary-General of the UnitFd Nations in the former Yugoslavia, several Specialized Agencies of the United Nations, numerous NGOs and the Bosnian authorities. 13. By agreement with the Council of Europe, an expert answerable to the Sarajevo Office has been appointed for cultural heritage issues. He is based at Mostar and has been instructed to prepare a pilot project for the restoration and rehabilitation of the old city. UNESCO s role of catalyst where the cultural heritage is concerned should initially be centred on the following focal points: (a) integration of the rehabilitation of monuments into a programme to revitalize historic urban districts affected by the war;

5 145 EXl36 - page 5 (b) cc> (d) dispatch of basic equipment and materials to protect monuments that are still roofless and emergency conservation measures such as making the Sarajevo Museum rainproof; organization of a briefing and further training workshop for specialists who are at present too isolated professionally; publication of fact sheets for potential sponsors; 63 organization of events to publicize UNESCO s action to safeguard the cultural heritage of Bosnia and Herzegovina. 14. The Executive Bard may wish to adopt the following draft decision: The Executive Board, 1. 3 Ad Recalling 139 EX/Decision 7.5, 140 EXLDecision 8.4, 141 EX/Decision 9.3, 142 EX/Decision 9.2, 144 EX/Decision 7.3 and 27 C/Resolution 4.8, on the situation of the cultural and architectural heritage and of educational and cultural institutions in Bosnia and Herzegovina, Taking note of the report on this subject submitted by the Director-General (145 EX/36), Exnresses its satisfaction at the strengthening of co-operation between Bosnia and Herzegovina and UNESCO and in particular at the opening of the UNESCO Office in Sarajevo; Welcomes the appointment by the Director-General of a UNESCO representative in Bosnia and Herzegovina and of an expert in cultural heritage issues, the sending of several missions to that Member State and the effectiveness of the cultural airlift with Sarajevo; Invites the Director-General to pursue his efforts to implement the resolutions and decisions mentioned in paragraph 1 above; Invites Member States, intergovernmental organizations and international nongovernmental organizations, as well as public and private institutions, to make voluntary contributions towards the financing of the Organization s activities on behalf of Bosnia and Herzegovina; Reauests the Director-General to report to it at its 146th session on the implementation of this decision.