Letter to the Mostar citizens
with the reconstruction of the Old bridge
THE OLDEST AND THE
YOUNGEST |
Up to this war I have often wondered how
come that the Old bridge resisted to the
armies, occupators and wars, knowing the
characteristic of the human being which
in those times unfortunately most
frequently is proved with destruction.
Then I assured myself that the Old bridge
could be destroyed only by someone who
has never seen him and who has never
heard anything about him.
I belong to those people who have seen
the falling of the Old bridge I have
experienced as a greatest help to the
Bosniacs. Only when the news about the
destruction broke out, it has been found
out about the Mostar hell: then the
"Old one" broke the silence and
spoke out about the suffering and about
camps, about rapes and evictions, about
all the evil comitted to innocent people.
As if the Old bridge laid down its life
and sacrificed itself in oreder to save
people in his Mostar. So again he has
showed his supremacy - the one he has
been proving for centuries with his
beauty.
Who has demolished the Old bridge? For
everything that has been demolished in
history it would not be true to say that
it has been demolished from a nation. It
would not be just as well - the burden of
evil deed would wait even for unborn. The
Old bridge has been demolished by evil
people in the name of Croatian people. I
am sure that the Croatian people will not
take pride because such persons have been
a part of it. In this war they have been
most frequently called the fascists, but
history has an objection to that name:
ustashas and other fascists during the
occupation of Mostar in the World War II
have not demolished the Orthodox church,
the Old bridge has remained intact and
there was no camp for Mostar citizens.
Hence, to the ones who have destroyed the
Old bridge history has not yet given the
adequate name.
What and why they have attempted to
destroy by demolishing the Old bridge? It
would be the identification of the
extermination of a people with the act of
destruction. When someone tolerance and
beauty which symbolizes this bridge
attempts to kill in a people by
destructing, then I have to say that even
with that act the Bosniacs have been
determined as a people whose tradition,
but the fate as well, like bridges, to
connect the cultures, religions and
civilizations. So the Mostar's Bridge has
become a Bosniac symbol. As much the
destruction spoke of very destroyer, it
many times more has spoken of the people
which was wished to be destroyed. Today
it is clear that the fight in Mostar took
place between the ones who defended and
the ones who have been destroying of the
Old bridge both from the east and the
west. Thats is why the citizens of Mostar
do not speak of the former Old bridge -
for all of us, he is still
"alive" as well as the people,
who has been defended him and who has
succeeded in defencing him.
Every man as a member of his people bears
a message. The message of the ones who
have been destroying him has been very
clear. The building of the Old bridge
will be the message of the Bosniacs to
the civilization who have found their
home in Bosnia and all the nations of the
world who have been observing the this
world treasure with their hands crossed.
The reconstruction of the Old bridge will
be the most sublime victory of the
victory of BiH. The bridge will be built
in the exactly same way in which it has
been built 428 years ago. It will be a
peculiar ritual by which Bosnia will show
its indestructibility. For a wise
person-enough to comprehend, for less
wise - to wise up. The remains of the
fallen we shall get out of Neretva and
embody into Old bridge - so it will be as
old as it has been, and ever younger in
order to remind the world of its
stupidity. As the masters stonemasters
cut the tenelija (translator's note - the
most beautiful and valuable stone used
for building bridges, found only in the
vicinity of Mostar), they will look from
the new Old bridge scaffolds how a new
Old Mostar is built - the one who has
always been harmony of civilizations.
It will be built by the ones which have
in line, regardless of grenades and
sniper bullets, gone in his direction to
make sure with their own eyes that it has
been demolished: one should not be
surprised by them - these are the ones
who did not believe that someone can
demolish it.
The breath of centuries in the tenelija
of the fallen will flow in its crescent
between the worlds: Old bridge at the
same time both older and younger than his
very self.
In the land of the worlds, Bosnia,
spreading from east and west, his
magnificent crescent will be the symbol
of their unification.
My Allah, will the Neretva stop running
when she sees him!
MAYOR
Safet Orucevic
(prijevod:
Dragan Pavlovic) |
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