by Amra Hadziosmanovic
MOSTAR, Bosnia-Hercegovina, July 23 (AFP) - Bosnia was due on Friday to inaugurate a replica of the destroyed 16th century Mostar bridge, a potent symbol of reconciliation in the war-ravaged former Yugoslav republic.
International dignitaries including the foreign ministers of France, Italy and the Netherlands, regional leaders and Britain's Prince Charles are expected to attend the festivities.
Destroyed by Bosnian Croat artillery in 1993, the original world heritage-listed bridge has been painstakingly rebuilt with help from the UN Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organisation (UNESCO) and the World Bank.
The new 30-metre (100-foot) span was fashioned with stones taken from the same quarry used by Ottoman architect Mimar Hajrudin, who built the original bridge in 1566, when Bosnia was under Turkish rule.
All 1,088 stones were carved by hand and constructed using traditional tools and techniques, gleaned through archaeological work on the original's remains and historical records across Europe.
But for residents of this southern town the Stari Most (Old Bridge), from which the town takes its name, is more than just a masterpiece of Ottoman architecture. It is a link between cultures and ethnic traditions that have coexisted here for centuries.
"When the bridge went down it hurt my soul and my heart but it couldn't prevent people communicating with each other," said painter Zarisa Velic, a 55-year-old Muslim.
Most of Mostar's ethnic Serb residents fled during Bosnia's 1992-95 war, when the Muslim and Croat communities fought bitterly for control of the town after centuries of relatively peaceful cohabitation.
The town's Croats and Muslims are divided to this day, keeping mainly to their respective sides of the Neretva river, sending their children to separate schools and patronizing different bars.
Velic said the reopening of the bridge would help heal some of the emotional wounds that have poisoned community relations in Mostar and Bosnia generally since the end of the war.
"Ordinary people didn't want the bridge to be destroyed. I expect a lot of change once the bridge is reopened. For the past month you can feel that life is returning -- it will help to heal this society," she said.
Vesna Leto, an editor and an ethnic Croat resident of Mostar, said she also had felt a palpable thaw in community relations in recent months, expressed in small but increasing acts of kindness between the two ethnic groups.
"These little things are the real bridges. Reconciliation has already started," she told AFP.
The European Union has set the reunification of Mostar as one of the pre-conditions Bosnia must fulfil before it can start negotiations on an association agreement with the bloc.
The international community's top envoy in Bosnia, Paddy Ashdown, said the bridge was a "signal of our resolve to re-establish the tradition of multiconfessional, multinational co-existence that, contrary to common misperceptions, has characterised life in this part of the world for most of the last 500 years".
Croatian President Stipe Mesic, one of the regional leaders expected to attend the festivities which will include whirling dervishes from Turkey, said Mostar's bridge symbolised Bosnia's European future.
"I believe that the opening of the Old Bridge is a chance for us to move forward together to our common goal -- a united Europe," he told the Mostar-based Dnevni List daily.
Bosnian Croat general Slobodan Praljak, who allegedly ordered the Stari Most's destruction, is currently awaiting trial before the UN war crimes tribunal at The Hague.
The two-hour inauguration ceremony was due to start at 8:30 pm (1830 GMT)