The Committee for the Protection of Serb Rights in the Federation of Bosnia and Herzegovina says it has obtained video footage and photographs documenting the destruction of the Serb Orthodox Church of the Synaxis of the Holy Archangel Gabriel in Jasenica near Bosanska Krupa.
The church was built in 1885. According to the Committee, footage recorded in 1995 shows members of the predominantly Muslim Fifth Corps of the Army of Bosnia and Herzegovina approaching the church.
The Committee said the first recording shows armed uniformed men approaching the building, while the church tower can be seen intact at the end of the footage.
According to the Committee, the recording clearly shows the church without visible signs of damage from combat, rifle fire, or artillery shells.
In a second recording, individuals identified by the Committee as the same men seen in the first video can allegedly be seen damaging the iconostasis and firing at the cross.
A photograph of the church taken in 2002 by the Republika Srpska Operational Team for Missing Persons shows the building without its church tower. The Committee claims that the tower was subsequently destroyed with explosives.
Based on the footage and photographs, the Committee alleged that members of the Army of Bosnia and Herzegovina destroyed Serb Orthodox churches, chapels, and parish buildings during the war.
“What remains unclear is how Muslim religious and political leaders could state on March 18 that their army preserved the religious and cultural sites of other peoples, in this case those of the Serb people,” the Committee said.
The Committee referred to a statement signed by the head of the Islamic Community in Bosnia and Herzegovina, Husein Kavazović, former head of the Islamic Community Mustafa Cerić, and President of the Assembly of the Islamic Community Edhem Bičakčić.
According to the Committee, the statement claims that their wartime forces preserved key religious and cultural sites belonging to other peoples.
“For Serbs, the most important such sites are churches, chapels, and parish buildings,” the Committee concluded.
Source: RTRS
