Forced Religious Conversion

There were no reports of forced religious conversion, including of minor U.S. citizens who had been abducted or illegally removed from the United States, or of the refusal to allow such citizens to be returned to the United States.

Abuses By Terrorist Organizations

There were no reported abuses targeted at specific religions by terrorist organizations during the period covered by this report.

Improvements and Positive Developments in Respect for Religious Freedom

In September 2003, former U.S. President Bill Clinton officially opened the Srebrenica-Potocari Memorial and Cemetery, which serves as an important part of the reconciliation process in the country. Senior politicians as well as religious leaders paid homage to the victims of Srebrenica in a solemn event that was well attended by many ethnic and religious groups. The RS police ensured that no major security incidents occurred, although graffiti with slogans praising Bosnian Serb war criminals was found on posters near the Memorial site. Serb Orthodox leaders and senior RS politicians were notably absent from the event, demonstrating an unwillingness to come to grips with the tragedy of Srebrenica.

Relations among religious communities in the Croat-dominated Stolac municipality in the Federation continued to improve over the period covered by this report. In August 2003, the reconstructed Carsjiska mosque in Stolac was officially opened during a ceremony that drew thousands of believers, including the highest Muslim official in Bosnia Reis ul-ulema ef Ceric. Some tensions remain between the Catholic and Muslim communities, as evidenced by the absence of Bosnian Croat municipal officials and representatives from the Catholic Church at the opening of the mosque. There have been no recent incidents of violence against returnees, although minor acts of vandalism against religious facilities still occur.

The reconstruction of three destroyed mosques began in Croat-dominated west Mostar. One of the mosques in west Mostar was still under construction by the end of the period covered by this report, while another was successfully completed and inaugurated in May; however, no Catholic Church officials attended the opening. The third mosque in Balinovic was completed but recently was attacked by vandals. Finances, more than religious discrimination, hampered further work on mosques in the Mostar area.

In June 2003, a foundation stone was laid for the reconstruction of Esma Sultana's mosque in Jajce, and the Travnik mufti in April expressed satisfaction with the pace of reconstruction. The mosque, originally constructed 340 years ago, had been destroyed in 1993.

In Vogosca, a suburb of Sarajevo, the first cornerstone for the construction of a new Catholic Church was laid in Spring 2004, the first such new construction in Sarajevo since the end of the war. In Bosniak-dominated Bradina, Konjic municipality, the Islamic community agreed to remove a mosquethat had been constructed on someone else's land, although there has been no action taken to remove the illegal mosque by the end of the period covered by this report.

Although in April 2003, Foca Mayor Nedeljko Pavlovic and Gorazde Mufti Hamed Efendic agreed to the reconstruction of a Muslim religious facility in Foca, a notoriously hard-line Serb municipality in the RS, there was no indication that reconstruction had begun, in large part due to a lack of funds. Several mosques have been reconstructed in the RS over the last year including in Kotarsko near Doboj, in the village of Sjenina near Doboj, Kozarac near Prijedor, in Srebrenica, two in Banja Luka (although not officially opened), in Bosanski Novi, and in Bosanska Gradiska. Mosques in Kopaci, Ustipraca, and two in Zvornik remain under reconstruction as of this reporting period. In April, the RS Ministry for Urban Planning approved the reconstruction of the Carsijska mosque in Prijedor.

A new mosque was constructed in Kupres, and there are preparations for the reconstruction of mosques in the RS villages of Kratina, Isbisno, and Popov Most in the Foca municipality as well. Approximately 30 percent of the largest mosque in Bijelina, the Atika mosque, had been completed, although reconstruction on the other four mosques had not begun by the end of the period covered by this report. On December 20, 2003, the seat of the Islamic community in Bratunac was reconstructed and opened.

Reconstruction of a Catholic church in Prijedor neared completion during the period covered by this report.

Section III. Societal Attitudes

Until the 19th century, most of the country's residents identified themselves by religious affiliation. With the rise of Balkan nationalism in the 19th century, the country came to identify itself in ethnic as well as religious terms. This tendency increased during the Communist era when the regime discouraged religious affiliation. Under the Communists, most of the country's population identified themselves by ethnic group or simply as "Yugoslavs." Only with the adoption of the 1974 Yugoslav Constitution could Muslims identify themselves as such in the census. Since the country's independence, there have continued to be persons who decline to accept either ethnic or religious identification and consider themselves simply Bosnians.

Religious buildings, clerics, and individual believers in any area where they constitute a religious minority bear the brunt of retaliation for discrimination and violence perpetrated by other members of their religious/ethnic groups in areas where those groups constitute the majority. Because they are powerful symbols of religious identification and ethnicity, clerics and religious buildings are favored targets. Most religious leaders severely criticize violence and nationalism against their own group but can be less vocal in condemning acts against members of other groups.

The 1992-1995 war was not a religious conflict. However, the association of ethnicity and religion is so close that the bitterness engendered by the war and the approximately 270,000 deaths it caused contributed to mutual suspicion among members of all three major religious groups.

Despite the constitutional and legal provisions for religious freedom, some discrimination against religious minorities occurs in virtually all parts of the country. Discrimination is significantly worse in the RS, particularly in the eastern RS, and it remains a serious problem in Croat‑dominated areas of the Federation; discrimination appears also to have worsened in some Bosniak-majority areas where more conservative Islamic communities reside.

While Sarajevo, the Bosniak-majority capital of the country, has preserved in part its traditional role as a multiethnic city, complaints of discrimination remained during the period covered by this report. Media reports increasingly discussed the "Islamicization" of Sarajevo and some non-Muslims reported feeling "out of place" in the nation's capital. Youths and hooligans generally are responsible for the majority of acts of vandalism in Sarajevo and across the country. While religious leaders applaud growing religious sentiment among youth, the scars of the war, economic woes, and a recent history of segregation as a result of post-war returnee movements has in many places also injected a streak of nationalism in the younger generation that at times is targeted against religious communities.

Numerous buildings belonging to the Islamic, Serbian Orthodox, and Roman Catholic communities were damaged or destroyed during the 1992-1995 war, usually in a deliberate attempt at ethnic intimidation. The religious buildings destroyed during the war included 618 mosques and 129 churches in RS territory. RS authorities frequently did not intervene to prevent the violent obstruction of efforts to rebuild many of the mosques and churches. Despite the issuance of building permits these last several years on the part of Federation and RS authorities, the religious communities lack funds to rebuild religious facilities. In response, the Islamic community in April planned to file charges with the Federation Constitutional Court seeking damages from the RS for the destruction of its mosques during the war.

In the immediate postwar period, the major religious communities avoided reconstruction of the more symbolic religious facilities in the country, such as the Ferhadija mosque in Banja Luka, the Aladza mosque in Foca, and the monastery Plehan near Derventa, but there is now some movement on rebuilding these mosques. After violent efforts to obstruct the reconstruction of Osman Pasha Mosque in Trebinje, the rebuilding process finally commenced in June although violent acts against the mosque occurred during period covered by this report. Reconstruction of the Ferhadija Mosque in Banja Luka had not begun by the end of the period covered by this report, but the Islamic community had all the necessary permits and was collecting money for its construction.

Acts of anti-Semitism against the small Jewish community in the country are significantly less frequent that in other parts of Europe. However, Jewish leaders state that there is a growing tendency in the country to mix anti-Israeli sentiment with rare acts of anti-Semitism, as the general public and media often fail to distinguish between criticism of Israeli policy and anti-Semitic rhetoric. Following the terrorist attack against a mosque in Turkey during the period covered by this report, the Jewish community was quickly granted police security at its synagogues and no incidents were reported.

Despite the lack of overt anti-Semitic acts, there were two particularly vocal websites in Bosnia and Herzegovina that allowed their audience to express their resentment against non-Muslims. They advocated the boycott of American and Jewish companies and both called for Muslims to avoid interacting with Christians and Jewish persons.

Leaders of the Muslim, Orthodox, Catholic, and Jewish communities have committed themselves publicly to building a durable peace and national reconciliation. The leaders of these four communities participate in the Interreligious Affairs Council of Bosnia and Herzegovina, which operates with the active involvement of the World Conference on Religion and Peace, a U.S.-based NGO. Although the traditional religious communities have not wavered in their commitment to national reconciliation, there were rifts between the faiths on the Council during the period covered by this report. The Roman Catholic Church "froze" its relations with the Council over differences regarding the signing of a bilateral agreement with the Vatican. The Serb Orthodox Church pulled out of the Interreligous Council entirely due to differences of opinion on political and security matters, primarily dealing with NATO's early April raid on Orthodox Church premises in Pale in search of indicted war criminals, when a Serb priest and his son were accidentally injured. The Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe (OSCE) and the Office of the High Representative seek to facilitate interfaith meetings at the local level as well.

Section IV. U.S. Government Policy

The U.S. Government discusses religious freedom issues with the Government and leaders from all three major religious communities in the context of its overall interfaith dialogue and policy of promoting human rights. The U.S. Government supports the return of refugees, democratization, and protection of human rights throughout the country. The U.S. Government also encourages leaders from all major religious communities to promote a multiethnic society that is conducive to religious freedom. Strong U.S. Government support for full implementation of the Dayton Accords and a politically moderate, multiethnic Government is intended, over time, to improve respect for religious freedom in the country.

During the period covered by this report, the U.S. Government succeeded in encouraging the State Constitutional Court to assume human rights cases, including those involving religious freedoms, to promote high-level national attention to such cases. The Ambassador frequently meets with the principal religious leaders, individually and collectively, to urge them to work toward moderation and multiethnicity. The Ambassador has been involved actively as a member of the Executive Board of the Srebrenica Foundation, which oversaw the construction of a Memorial and Cemetery dedicated to victims of the 1995 massacre of Muslims in Potocari. The U.S. Government provided approximately $1 million (1.62 million KM) to help establish the Srebrenica Memorial and Cemetery in Potocari. International and U.S. Government involvement in this issue has helped advance the process of interethnic reconciliation.

The U.S. Embassy funded the development of the countrywide democracy courses on "Democracy and Human Rights" and the "Culture of Religion," using its SEED funds and continues to support its implementation. The comparative religion course, "Culture of Religion," was still under discussion at the end of the period covered by this report.

In addition, the Embassy engages in an active outreach program with the religious communities at all levels, including hosting speaking engagements by visiting U.S. academics and lecturers, and creating university linkage affiliation focusing on comparative religious studies. The Embassy publicly criticizes instances of religious discrimination and attacks against religious communities or buildings (most recently, the Ambassador strongly condemned the March arson attack against the Serb Orthodox Church in Bugonjo) and encourages leaders from all ethnic groups and members of the international community to respond equally strongly. The U.S. Agency for International Development provides funding to train lawyers and judges on human rights, including religious freedom, and provides much-needed infrastructure assistance to areas with high rates of refugee return to promote the sustainability of return.