BANJA LUKA (Bosnia-Herzegovina): A court has ordered the Bosnian Serb government to pay euro33 million ($41.8m) compensation to the organisation representing Bosnia’s Muslims for the wartime destruction of Islamic shrines in Banja Luka.

Friday’s judgment at the Banja Luka court comes nine years after the Bosnian Islamic Community sued the Bosnian Serb government and Banja Luka city authorities over the destruction of 16 mosques and other Islamic shrines in 1993.

During the 1992-95 war, Bosnian Serbs blew up mosques and other Islamic objects. The Islamic Community says over 1,000 of its objects were destroyed or damaged.

Since the war, Bosnia has been divided into two mini-states — a Bosnian Serb republic and a federation of Bosniaks and Bosnian Croats.—AP