PATRIOTISM IS THE LAST REFUGE OF A SCOUNDREL
The recent article on the alleged Bosnian pyramids in The Chronicle of Higher Education caught the eye of participants at the Hall of Ma'at forum yesterday. One statement from the article got a special treatment by a participant who explained it as a sort of a proof that no real historical and archaeological heritage is being damaged or endangered in the Visoko valley by pseudoarchaeological activities of Mr. Semir Osmanagic:
„Elma Kovacevic, international-relations coordinator of the Pyramid of the Sun Foundation and an adviser to a Bosnian foreign-trade-promotion group, bristles at the critics from abroad: "I never heard the voice of a single one of these archaeologists during the war when other sites were being destroyed and damaged. Now, when we have a chance for the future, they are trying to fight against us."“
The following is my response to such ignorant conclusions.
In addition to this response, it should be noted that in the previous days, more information has come out on how Osmanagic and his Foundation *lost* some of the finds which they excavated last year at the Visocica hill plateau, namely, the remains of a human skeleton, indicating that the so-called 'pyramid' project has indeed devastated a medieval necropolis and suppressed evidence about it.
Don Barone,
These words of Ms. Kovacevic's slandering of Bosnian-Herzegovinian and international archaeologists proves only to what extent the Osmanagic crew is willing to go in their twisting and manipulation of the information: to proclaim their project to be the measure of patriotic feelings towards Bosnia-Herzegovina. In reality, things are quite different.
Elma Kovacevic is not an adviser to „a Bosnian foreign-trade-promotion group“, but for the official state Foreign Trade Chamber of Bosnia-Herzegovina. Her boss, chairman of the Trade Chamber, is also one of the Board Directors of the Foundation that promotes these 'pyramids'. In any normal country this would raise concerns about some serious legal breach and conflict of interests. Ms. Kovacevic uses her official position as the Foreign Trade Chamber employee to promote Osmanagic's private 'pyramid' project at international trade fairs, as exposed on the APWR English blog in case of a trade fair in Albania - http://apwr-central.blog.com/ . Of course she will want to cover that up as patriotism. Wasn't there someone who said:
„Patriotism is the last refuge of a scoundrel.“
Her statement about our and foreign archaeologists during the war is absolutelly shameless – they were, as it happens, risking their lives to save our archaeological and historical heritage. For example, they were running in the open of the National Museum lapidarium under shelling and sniper fire with sand bags in their hands to place them around medieval artefacts to protect them from sniper fire and bomb shards. They were risking being shot or burned alive while rescuing archives and treasuries! These heroic undertakings during the war were made possible by the engagement of the international archaeological and historical community – for starters, people like Ms. Kovacevic and you might want to get yourselves familiar with the war-time activities of the organization called Bosnia-Herzegovina Heritage Rescue and its leader, the late archaeologist and art historian Marian Wenzel. Then you might proceed to reading about the conditions under which these experts worked during the entire war - in an interview with a Bosnian archaeologist, Lidija Fekeza. After reading these two texts, you might want to ask yourself: where were Elma Kovacevic and Semir Osmanagic at that time?
The National Museum in Sarajevo is situated on what used to be the very front line along the river Miljacka during the Sarajevo 92-95 siege and it was the prime target of the daily bomb shelling – the aggressor was taking a particular pride in that: destroying the main institution of the Bosnian-Herzegovinian heritage and memory! Another example of heroicism of our archaeologists is the salvation of the Sarajevo Haggadah from the Museum by the Bosnian archaeologist Enver Imamovic, who happens to be one of the staunchest Osmanagic's opponents. In 1992, while Osmanagic was touring Mexico's pyramids and reading about New Age conspiracy theories, professor Imamovic was risking his life to save the Bosnian Jewish heritage under sniper fire! There is plenty of information on the Internet about these heroic deeds of our archaeologists and historians.
Therefore, I utterly resent statements like Ms. Kovacevic's and ignorant reactions like yours.
S.
