Letter: Mostar's bridge between faiths must be built afresh

Sir: In his article 'The burning of the mosques' (16 November), David Keys reports on the destruction of Mostar's famous 16th-century bridge and other monuments during recent fighting. Most of your readers may not know that the first victims of Mostar were Serbs and their monuments.

Before hostilities started there were in Mostar 32,000 Muslims, 30,000 Croats and 24,000 Serbs. In the period during which the Bosnian Croats and Muslims were allies, the Serbian population was reduced to fewer than 100 persons. Civil contractors were employed to dismantle completely, leaving no trace, the Serb Orthodox Cathedral of the Holy Trinity and the Episcopal Palace (1863-1873). The Old Church of the Virgin, which was rebuilt in 1833, has also been destroyed.

Yours sincerely,

ALEKSA GAVRILOVIC

Stafford

17 November