REUTER

June 17, 1997

UNESCO condemns attacks on Bosnian monuments

PARIS - UNESCO Tuesday condemned attacks on religious monuments in Bosnia and urged the international community to prevent them to fully enforce the 1995 Dayton peace agreement.

Federico Mayor, director general of the U.N. Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization, said in a statement such attacks harmed ``the very foundations of both the present and the future.''

``Every shot targeting cultural and religious monuments in Bosnia and Herzegovina, over and above material damage, constitutes an attack on the principle of a multicultural society which is at the heart of the Bosnian state,'' he said.

``I appeal to the international community to give itself the necessary means for the full implementation of the Dayton agreement,'' he said.

Hundreds of churches and mosques were deliberately destroyed during Bosnia's 3-year war and some such attacks have continued since it ended in late 1995.

A NATO-led international force is overseeing the implementation of the accord which ended the war between Muslims, Serbs and Croats. The force is scheduled to leave in June next year.

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