Media Releases

11 March 2011

Jeremy Jones, Director of International and Community Affairs for the Australia/Israel & Jewish Affairs Council, was in the Bosnian capital of Sarajevo for a series of high-level discussions last week.

The visit, organised as a result of Jones hosting leading Bosnian religious and political figures for meetings in Australia over the past few years, was designed to strengthen the ties between Bosnians and Jews as well as Bosnia and Australia.

Highlights were a round-table discussion in Parliament House, hosted by Safet Halilovic, the Minister for Human Rights and Refugee Issues, a visit to the legal faculty of the American University to lecture on Nazi War Criminals in Australia and on Australian Anti-racism laws, a tour of the historic Jewish Cemetery, which was the front-line during the siege of Sarajevo during the 1990s and a meeting with author, journalist and Nobel Prize nominated human rights activist Snjezana Mulic.

Among the senior religious figures who hosted Mr Jones was the Grand Mufti of Bosnia and Herzegovia, Mustafa Ceric, who recently made his first visit to Auschwitz to pay respects to the victims of the Nazis. Among other senior Islamic leaders Mr Jones met was Ahmet Alibasic, of the Faculty of Islamic Studies, which has an unmatched international reputation for educating progressive Islamic scholars.

Further meetings were hosted by Father Vanja, the leader of the Orthodox Church, the head of the Catholic Church Luka Tunjic, the Interreligious Council of Bosnia and the Central Jewish Community of Sarajevo.

Further Information: Jeremy Jones – 02 9360 5415 or jjones@aijac.org.au.