Center for Peace and Multiethnic Co-Operation in Mostar started an initiative for organizing an exhibition

"Old Bridge - Monument of Peace”

As the mayor of Mostar from 1994 until 2001 I was permanently seeking for all possible ideas to re-establish life, to bring back trust and to re-unite the city by understanding and forgiving one another. Old Bridge became a symbol of destruction, hatred and crime in the previous war.

We had an opportunity to reconstruct this famous bridge immediately after the war, but as the authorities of the eastern part of Mostar. Such kind of reconstruction would have taken away all beauties of that bridge. Those beauties belonged to citizens of all confessions and nations in Mostar. Therefore, I made a decision that the Bridge would not be built without a common participation of Croats and Serbs. I refused a concrete proposal of the President Demirel for Turkey to reconstruct Old Bridge by itself. That way I hindered that Old Bridge became a symbol of one single nation and of one part of the divided town. I offered this program to be a symbol that would gather all nations of BiH and many other friendly countries.

That idea was supported by UNESCO and World Bank as well as by many other countries and leaders that wanted to get involved in this project.

I was convinced that all citizens from former Yugoslavia were strongly connected to the image of Old Bridge because it represented ancient values of BiH. Even in the most difficult times all political structures of BiH supported the idea of the reconstruction of Old Bridge .

This exhibition as mission of peace in cities of Southeast Europe and farther developes exactly an idea of connecting broken communications.

By reconstructing Old Bridge and its surroundings we are re-establishing human values and norms that overcome religious and ethnic barriers. We hope that this noble effort will succeed and that the Bridge will be a true symbol of peace. This brochure shows the chronology of highlights from 1995 until 2003 and the contribution of numerous individuals in the reconstruction of Old Bridge as a planetary monument of peace.

Director
Safet Oručević
(Mayor of Mostar in the period 1994 –2001)