Stolac is an ancient center of civilization in Hercegovina. It has also become a paradigm in the struggle between the religious nationalists that attemped to destroy Bosnia-Hercegovina and carve it up into states of religious apartheid, and those who are working to preserve and re-enliven BiH's historic character as a pluriform civilization. This page includes a three part photo essay that begins below, after the table of contents, along with full documentation of the attack on Stolac, the war-crimes, annihilation of librairies, places of worship, and historic homes, names and histories of both victims and war criminals, and the efforts of the surviving refugees to return and reconstruct the city.
New: Rebuilding the Mosques of Stolac New: Peto Pismo biskupu Ratku Pericu
Also Militant Bishop of Mostar, Ratko Peric, Boycotts Bridge Celebration Bosnia Report (London) N.S. no. 41, Aug.-Sept. 2004.
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Crosses of Blood. Pursuant to the "ethnic cleansing" of the Mostar area, Catholic-Croat nationalists placed Latin crosses, crucifixes, statues to the Virgin Mary, Croat checkboards Croat flags, and other symbols above, next to, or upon the ruins of Muslim and Orthodox shrines destroyed by the militias, as well as on public buildings (such as public schools, hospitals, and governmental buildings) of the cleansed areas. For an image presentation of such shrines, beginning at Mostar's out-of-scale Franciscan church and bell tower with cross on Hum Hill above, down the road to destroyed Orthodox and Muslim sites at Pocitelj, Stolac, and Zitomislic, see the exhibit Bloodshrines Hercegovina (with six pages of thumbs each leading to a larger image. (explanatory captions under construction). This exihibit is meant to go along with the explanation and analysis in Michael Sells, "Crosses of Blood: Sacred Space, Religion, and Violence in Bosnia-Hercegovina" in press at this moment in the 2003 special issue of Sociology of Religion. |
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See the Stolac Documents Page for the first and second editions of the War Crimes in Stolac Municipality report, one of the most detailed on the genocidal activity known as "ethnic cleansing" in BiH; two reports by Hector Gullan on the war-criminals in Stolac and others complicit in its destruction, including the Renner Company; four letters from the Stolac Muslim community to Mostar Bishop Ratko Peric and Papal Nuncio Giuseppe Leanza asking for the dioscesan authorities to cease opposition to the reconstruction of the major Stolac mosque and to end the illegal construction of blood shrines in which local priest Rajko Markovic has been witnessed participating; an article by historian Ivo Banac on the manipulation of history and archeology to deny the existence of non-Catholics and their heritage in the area. Includes the new document Hector Gullan's 08/03 Address on Return to Stolac for the Carsijska opening. |
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Letter to Don Rajko Markovic This letter document includes a reply to Markovic's claims that he had no connection with the tragic events of 1993, with photos of Markovic, his brother Andeljko (former mayor), Gojko Susak, and Mate Boban, along with photographs of old Stolac, before the destruction of the town in 1993, and the men, women, and children murdered at the time. It also details the way in which forces allied with Don Markovic cleansed the town of non-Catholics, inscribed Catholic symbols throughout the area they cleansed, and continued to violate the laws of BiH and Annex VIII of the Dayton peace agreement. |
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Bloodshrine of Ahmici. This is a short excerpt from the Hercegovina Bloodshrines display. It shows a mosque destroyed in the village of Ahmici, near Vitez and the triumphant shrine built to claim the cleansed town. Croat-Catholic nationalist militias and local party leaders organized the extermination of the Muslim population, many of whom were burned alive in their homes, and the organized destruction of all non-Catholic heritage. Several leaders of the killing have been convicted at the International Criminal Court in The Hague. Another shorter display has been excerpted in the Bloodshrines at Mostar, Pocitelj and Zitomislici page (scroll right beneath the thumbnails). This shows the massive new church in Mostar built to tower over the ruins of Islamic and Orthodox sites, along with crosses placed over, under, and upon the ruins of recently destroyed non-Catholic monuments and places of worship. |
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The Destruction of Stolac, a Photo Essay. In 1996, while Stolac was still controlled by those who had destroyed it and a zone of intimidation and terror, Matej Vipotnik filed this remarkable piece in the last edition of the online journal Bezerkistan, with some of the first clear documentation of the systematic annihilation of the non-Catholic heritage in this ancient seat of Bosnian and Hercegovinan culture. I have also included a short note (from the report on Crimes in Stolac Municipality on the Stolac Documents page, that lists the libraries (public and private) and manuscript collections destroyed as part of the cleansing, a destruction that was clearly led by those with bibliographical and historical expertise. We might best glimspe such programmatic and thorough annihilation by focusing on one area at a time. See Crimes in Stolac Municipality for other areas as well, such a carpet collections, traditional garments, bronze work, and other traditional arts all sought out for annihilation with determination and with the help of academic expertise. |
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The Podgradska Dzamija, built 1732, destroyed 1993: Illustrated Report:
Bosnian Language |
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New: Rebuilding the Mosques of Stolac Stolac Images of Renewal: the Careva (Carsija)
Dzamija (1519-1993, 2003 -- ). After the 1995 Dayton peace agreement,
the religious nationalists who destroyed the non-Catholic communities
and heritage of Stolac remained in control of the town. In the face
of physical, religious, political, and economic intimidation, returning
refugees and their supporters began and perservered in the efforts to
reconstruct the 16th-century Careva Mosque, one of the major shrines
and monuments in the region. The project that brought hope and confidence
to the refugees and not only thwarted, but reversed the effort to destroy
both the physical monument and its memory. This page charts this example
of historical, artistic, social, and human renewal, a renewal that is
supported and financed by Muslims, Catholics, Protestant, Jews and those
of other traditions. See also the two important documents concerning
the reconstruction |
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Stephen
Schwartz, Jewish Stolac: Sephardic Judaism, Balkan Islam, and Tomb Visitation
In Bosnia-Hercegovina |
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Stolac As It Was: Images of Stolac before the 1993 Destruction. These photos are taken, with permission, from a small booklet put out by members of the Stolac community to help preserve the memory of Stolac from effacement and to support the rebuilding of the shrines and heritage of the town. The refugees were not able to save their town and heritage from systematic physical destruction, but they have resisted and even reversed the efforts of militant religious nationalists to obliterate the memory of these sites--by publishing works like this and by persisting in the retrieval of new levels crafts, skills, and knowledge of the sites in order to rebuild them; in cases such as this, the effort to annihilate heritage has helped deepen that heritage in a revived consciousness that both retrieves cultural memory and renews it. |
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New: Letter to Pope John Paul II, appealing for reform of Catholic Church position in the Mostar diocese of Bishop Ratko Peric. The thumbnail on the left shows a large cross constructed in triumph underneath Pocitelj after Catholic militias dynamited and burned the historic town's Islamic monuments. This letter details the situation in the Mostar area and Bishop Peric's continual rejection of pleas for interreligious cooperation and his attack on refugees' efforts to rebuild their shrines, in violation of the Pope's repeated statements and publications on the need for peace and reconciliation in Bosnia-Hercegovina. Previous appeals directed by refugee returnees to the papal nuncio Giuseppe Leanzo were rejected, leaving Bishop's Peric's policies intact as the apparent Vatican policy in the area. |
Redesigned and Enlarged 28 October 2003, updated 6 March 05
The Bridge Betrayed War-Crimes Reports Page
The Stolac Page of the Community of Bosnia
Michael Sells Personal The Community of
Bosnia Page
