Jeered by hundreds of angry Serbs, Bosnian Muslims made a second attempt in this Bosnian Serb capital Monday to lay the foundation stone for the rebuilding of a 16th century mosque razed during the Bosnian war.
Despite the presence of a large contingent of police, 600 to 700 Serbs whistled and shouted "Turks, Turks" at around 200 Bosnian Muslims who arrived to mark the start of reconstruction of the Ferhadija mosque in the center of Banja Luka.
Serb rioters forced the cancellation of a first attempt to hold the ceremony last month, sparking widespread condemnation and drawing broad international interest in Monday's gathering.
The riots in early May left one Muslim dead and more than 30 injured, while several high-level international officials and some 300 Muslims were trapped by protestors for several hours in a building near the mosque site.
Security personnel turned out in force to guard Monday's ceremony, blocking access to the area where the foundation stone was to be laid and allowing only local residents, who they searched for weapons, to pass.
Several hundred policemen were on the streets in the area, while about a dozen buses with extra officers and a tarpaulin-covered military armoured vehicle were parked nearby and helicopters from the NATO-led peacekeeping force hovered overhead.
The ceremony was attended by several international envoys, including the US ambassador to Bosnia, Thomas Miller, and British ambassador Graham Hand, as well as by a number of top Bosnian Serb officials.
The head of the Islamic community in Bosnia, Mustafa Ceric, was also present.
Bosnian Serb authorities called for tolerance on Sunday, warning that renewed anti-Muslim riots would have grave consequences for democracy in the Serb-run part of Bosnia.
The Ferhadija mosque was dynamited by the Serbs during Bosnia's 1992-95 war, when widespread ethnic cleansing by Serbs forced Muslims and Croats out of ethnically mixed Banja Luka.
The Dayton peace accords which ended the war left Bosnia divided into two entities -- the Serbs' Republika Srpska (RS) and the Muslim-Croat Federation -- BANJA LUKA, Bosnia-Hercegovina (AFP)
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