NO MORE CRAVINGS OF THE STOMACHS, BUT OF THE MINDS

AIM London, November 27, 1995

Among the terrible, but admirable sights which have been arriving from the besieged Sarajevo in the past few years, one will be remembered for its power of excellence and magnificence: on the ruins of the University Library which was burnt to the ground and in the midst of its still warm ashes, Zubin Mehta directing Mazart's Requiem. For the repose of the souls of the dead, but for the destroyed cultural and artistic wealth as well.

Books collected over decades, thousands of books, some of them even three or four centuries old, have disappeared in a single day, together with the 150-years old building, gem of architecture of the Moorish style. Flames have swallowed the most precious part of the once wealthiest library in Bosnia & Herzegoviina.

The war has irretrievably taken away a lot - human lives in the first place. The destroyed library is at the top of the list of misfortunes that have stricken Bosnian-Herzegovinian universities. The list is unfortunately too long. "In five years, more than 60 per cent of information in medical science becomes obsolete. The situation is similar in other spheres", Professor Dr Nedzad Mulabegovic says, who is the President of the Sarajevo University and who has together with his colleagues come from Bosnia for a visit to Britain. "In almost four years of the war, the number of students in Sarajevo has decreased to one third of the previous number, we have changed technology of teaching, worked under shells, with no heating, often with no electricity either, we did not even mention salaries of the professors".

From 25 thousand, the number of students in Sarajevo has decreased to eight thousand, and only 900 out of the previous 1400 teachers have remained. "When the war began, many students who were from other republics either went home or could not return to Sarajevo", Professor Mulabegovic (47) says, adding bitterly that the war has had certain positive effects: it improved the ratio between students and teachers. "Suddenly, the possibility of tutorial teaching emerged, which was inconceivable before the war. At some of the faculties, such as the Medical School, the students were offered practical training one could only dream of - instead of from books, they learnt from life situations".

A Professor of medical science, born in Sarajevo, father of two young children (they are still living with their parents in Sarajevo), Dr Mulabegovic speaks with fine irony about the following absurdity: all chemicals necessary for practical training at many faculties were proclaimed by UNPROFOR to be 'strategic material', in other words, material that could be used for military purposes. "Had there been no colleagues and students who 'smuggled' literally on their backs the necessary 'strategic material' from abroad, the situation would have been even worse. But, on the whole, the war has left an enormous cultural void behind".

The arrival of Professor Mulabegovic and his colleague, Enver Mandzic, Vice-President of Tuzla University in Britain is an attempt to bridge this cultural void. To bring as many visiting professor to Bosnia, to send abroad as many Bosnian professors for temporary specialization as possible, to establish communications for quick exchange of scientific and professional information. "Although financially poor, universities in former Yugoslavia moved in step with Europe, especially from '85 to '90, when associations of faculties were formed on the level of Yugoslavia and when everything, starting with the university reform moved towards coordination of plans and curricula of our universities with the ones in Europe", Professor Dr Mandzic (51) says, referring, as evidence, to numerous students from former Yugoslavia who are nowadays teachers at universities around the world, and Britain.

Contacts with foreign universities are always important, especially at time of war, when it becomes easiest to start lagging behind the world. For that reason, these two professors in turn list all the universities they have stablished contacts with in the past two years: Paris, Lyon, universities in Barcelona, Graz, Vienna... about ten agreements on cooperation. "There are good intentions among the colleagues, but there is still little response", Professor Mandzic says, explaining that this is their first visit to Britain, though informal - they are guests of the Academic Lifeline for Bosnia - but that is just as well for the beginnng. And in view of the fact that relations have been established with the European Union, cooperation with universities on the Old Continent will take place directly through the EU.

During their ten-day stay on the island, the two professors visited universities in Canterbury, Oxford, Cambridge, Birmingham, Nottingham, Leicester, Sussex, and in London, they paid a visit to the School of South Slavonic Languages, London School of Economics. "We expect the most of direct cooperation with related faculties and that is what we call for, because it is possible to do much more that way than via ministries", Professor Mandzic says. "In Tuzla, we have a building for the library, but it is empty, and in Sarajevo they have neither one nor the other. More than 90 per cent of the periodicals have been destroyed there, as well as books, catalogues. Now that telephone lines have been reestablished, apart from exchange of books, we can also exchange information by means of computers." An agreement of this kind has already been reached with the library in Cambridge.

"But, we need books published since '92. Relevant ones. 'Geology of Vietnam' published in 1954 can hardly be useful to anyone in Bosnia. I would not like to be misunderstood, but when the war began, we had already been using PC 286. Pentium computers are in use in the world nowadays, and we are now getting equipment older than the one we already have. Sometimes we have the impression that some people have simply cleaned their laboratories and then sent us everything they did not need," Professor Mandzic says, who is a geologist by profession, born and educated in Tuzla. Mulabegovic adds that technology progress has made things simple. "Instead of two truckloads of books, everything can be packed onto a CD. And it is not difficult to transport a CD to Bosnia, and believe me, we would be capable of operating it as well as a Pentium."

Universities in Bosnia and Herzegovina also need good English Language departments. People in Britain have understood this and promised assistance of the universities the guests from Tuzla and Sarajevo have visited. To a question what has arrived from Britin to their two universities so far, Mandzic answers: "A piece of software for application in mining has arrived and went to an institute. But, we hope things will change now. I am certain that our hosts have understood that we do not feel cravings in our stomachs any more, but that we do feel them in our minds. The assistance in education of the young pays off a hundred times better than feeding and clothing us".

Haizel Smith, lecturer at Kent University, who is engaged in the Academic Lifeline for Bosnia, explains for AIM: "The objective of ALB's operation is to inform local intellectuals about very high quality of education which exists in Bosnia and former Yugoslavia - at least better than in most of Western Europe. The other objective is to collect money for salaries of our colleagues, because students cannot do withour professors. This is a small amount of money, their salaries are just 40 pounds a month. I think that people wish to help Bosnia, but still cannot conceive the degree of demolition which has alsmost completely destroyed the several century-old Bosnian culture. Of course, we are aware that we will not move the world with this campaign, but we are doing what we can, this is our moral obligation."

Milica Pesic AIM London