Statement
by the Honorable Warren L. Miller, Chairman,
U.S. Commission for the Preservation of America’s Heritage Abroad
on Signing the Agreement
Between the United States of America
and Bosnia and Herzegovina
on the Protection and Preservation of Certain Cultural Properties
July 2, 2002 * Sarajevo, Bosnia and Herzegovina
Your Excellency Foreign Minister Lagumdzija, Ambassador Bond, honored guests.
I am delighted to be in Sarajevo, and with you to sign this symbolically and substantively important agreement.
The agreement recognizes the importance of protecting and preserving historic sites, places of worship, monuments, cemeteries, collections, and documentary materials that relate to the cultural heritage of our peoples. It will help preserve a precious legacy for generations to come and further strengthen the bonds between our nations.
The agreement --
- Commits our countries to protecting and preserving the cultural heritage of all national, religious, and ethnic groups that were victims of genocide and ensuring that there is no discrimination against their cultural heritage.
- It commits our countries to identify, protect and preserve properties of special significance -- especially properties that are in danger of destruction or deterioration because a victimized group cannot on its own ensure its protection or preservation.
- And it establishes a Joint Cultural Heritage Commission to oversee the effort and to resolve issues that may arise.
The agreement also expands upon the 1972 UNESCO Convention Concerning the Protection of the World Cultural and Natural Heritage. It covers many cultural and religious properties that do not meet UNESCO’s requirement that protected sites be of “universal value,” notwithstanding that such sites may be of great importance to the cultural heritage of Bosnia and Herzegovina and U.S. citizens whose roots are in this country.
For example, under this agreement, modest cemeteries, synagogues, churches, mosques, and other properties are recognized as worthy of protection based on their individual values, particularly sites cherished by minority communities.
On behalf of the people and the Government of the United States -- including President George W. Bush, who appointed me, I thank and congratulate the Government of Bosnia and Herzegovina for taking the positive steps that are represented by this agreement.
Like your government, the United States recognizes the special need to protect the heritage of groups that were victims of genocide. Some U.S. citizens are members of such groups. Many properties that are an essential part of their heritage are endangered because the members of those groups who would have otherwise taken care of the properties were killed or forced to flee from their communities.
For centuries Bosnia and Herzegovina has been a place where diverse ethnic and religious groups have created expressive and meaningful cultural legacies. In the very recent past, the world watched in horror as this tapestry of cultures unraveled in a terrible war, with acts of violent depravity not seen in Europe since the Nazis. Here in Sarajevo, where in 1984 athletes raced for Olympic gold, in 1992 innocent civilians, including women and children, raced for their lives. Sadly, as part of this violence, we witnessed the calculated and systematic destruction of cultural heritage throughout Bosnia.
Moreover, as we have seen in the course of the past decade throughout the embattled countries of the former Yugoslavia, ignorance and abuse of cultural heritage is often a prelude to oppression of and violence against people and communities. This is a lesson that Bosnia, and the entire world, learned in all the harsh destructive reality of war and siege here.
Although, today’s agreement commits our countries to a cooperative effort to preserve cultural heritage, it does not begin such efforts. During the past two years, our Commission and the Jewish community of Sarajevo have worked together to restore the prayer house at Sarajevo’s historic Jewish cemetery. I am proud that a grant from the Government of the United States through the commission that I chair made this work possible along with support from others, including a private foundation, the city and the canton of Sarajevo, and an international group - Norwegian People’s Aid, that cleared mines and unexploded artillery shells from the cemetery.
Together, we have restored a cultural landmark of this lovely and historic city – one that is especially representative of the tradition of religious and ethnic tolerance in this country . . . and one that was seriously damaged in the terrible fighting that occurred here in a war that put that tolerance to the test.
Later today I will visit the restored prayer house at the Jewish Cemetery, which ten years ago overlooked “Snipers” Alley.” That project is nearly finished. Yet, all around us, we can witness other examples of physical and social rebuilding, as streets and buildings are restored, and new representative social and political institutions are created.
It is my fervent
hope that this agreement will fulfill its purpose and bring our governments
and people together even more to protect, preserve, and restore the cultural
properties of our nations, and to develop ways to share and expand the
meaning of these special places.
As Americans and Bosnians know very well, cultural pluralism is not easy.
Its’ rewards, however, are great and the alternatives are unthinkable.
Again, I congratulate the vision and responsibility to history of the Government of Bosnia and Herzegovina demonstrated by entering into this agreement.
Thank you.
