Tuesday, August 28, 2007

Bosnian widow in church battle



A Bosnian Muslim widow's battle to remove a Serbian Orthodox church from her land is nearing its end. The BBC's Nicholas Walton visited Fata Orlovic in her village to find out more.
Fata Orlovic's house is easy to find in the village of Konjevic Polje. It is the one with a large Serbian Orthodox church built in its front garden.

Fata herself is an irrepressible ball of energy, greeting me as she has greeted other journalists, with a long fusillade of invective about the building.

"I want them to remove the church and I want soil back on this plot of land," she tells me, furiously motioning towards what would have been her front garden.

"They can give me money and I'll do it myself," she explains, a smile breaking out across her wrinkled features.

I do not doubt that she would set about dismantling the church, brick by brick, were she given the go-ahead.

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