Management and workers of the National University Library of Bosnia and Herzegovina failed today to hand over the “Petition for the return of the National Library of Bosnia and Herzegovina to the City Hall and a permanent solution to its financing” to the Mayor of Sarajevo, Samir Avdić, because, as they say, they did not find him at his workplace.
NUBBiH director Adisa Žero stated that the deputy mayor Mirela Džehverović told them that she does not have the authority to receive anything addressed to the mayor and that they must deliver the petition to the office of the City Administration in Skenderija.
Žero added that she will submit the petition, whose signatories come from 21 countries, to the office of the Sarajevo City Administration, after which it will be sent to the Council of Ministers of BiH, the Parliamentary Assembly of BiH, the Office of the Attorney General of BiH and the Office of the High Representative.
She stated that it is the mayor who can decide on the return of the library to the City Hall, which NUB could share with the City Administration.
Deputy Mayor Mirela Džehverović stressed that she supports the initiative to return the library to the City Hall, which is her personal position and the position of the party she comes from.
She emphasized that the fact that the NUB currently does not have a systematically resolved funding issue should not be an obstacle to the return of this institution to the City Hall.
Academician Esad Duraković, who is also the author of the petition, also gave support to the NUB, emphasizing that we are witnessing a barbaric fight against the highest values of humanity and civilization, because the issue of the accommodation and financing of the NUB has been unresolved for 34 years. The NUB delegation today laid a wreath in front of the City Hall in memory of four colleagues who were killed in 1992 and 1993 – Adela Leota, Aida Buturović, Mirko Azinović and Ante-Slavko Kovačić.
