Anti-Semitic Graffiti Alarms Bosnian Jews

Jewish leaders in Bosnia have expressed concern after two pieces of anti-Semitic graffiti were discovered on Thursday night in Sarajevo and in Tuzla on buildings where members of the community live.

Bosnia's Jewish community condemned the incidents, as did Abdulah Skaka, Mayor of Sarajevo, who condemned them while also stressing the centuries-old coexistence of different religious communities in the country.

"We received this news with regret and bitterness, aware that these incidents will not violate the good neighbourly relations that Bosnian Jews have built with their fellow citizens from other ethnic and religious groups.

"We appeal to the competent authorities to identify and punish the perpetrators," the Jewish community said in a written statement on Friday.

The statement noted Bosnia's record as a country of tolerance, coexistence and good-neighbourly relations, and with no recent history of anti-Semitic incidents.

The Jewish community in Bosnia is small, with only some 1,000 members. It was decimated in the Second World war when Bosnia was occupied by Nazi Germans and their Croat Fascist allies, and many others left during the 1992-5 war in Bosnia.

"Sarajevans have been nourishing the wealth of different cultures for decades, and the inter-religious respect has been preserved in Sarajevo even in the most difficult times and we are convinced that ... these acts will never be welcome in this city," the Sarajevo Mayor's office said.

Local security and statistical institutions do not keep separate data on ethnically or religiously-related hate crimes in Bosnia.

The only available data about these trends come from the OSCE Mission to Bosnia, which maintains a monthly "Hate Monitor".

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