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.........The nearly four years of war in Bosnia and Herzegovina
marked the worst fighting on European soil since World War II.
From 1992 to 1995, the tiny former Yugoslav republic was tom asunder.
Roads, bridges and apartment buildings were shattered. Water,
heat and electricity became sporadic at best, frequently leaving
the city without such necessities for days or even weeks at a
time. In cities like Sarajevo, the Bosnian capital, conducting
routine chores like going to the marketplace oftentimes proved
life threatening, due to incoming mortar shells, snipers, or land
mines. For Bosnian attorneys, judges, professors and law students,
the elements of a legal infrastructure were shattered by this
war. Law libraries, law books, and legal records were destroyed,
and many legal institutions ceased to function. Similarly, Bosnian
journalists, broadcasters, and newspaper publishers faced daunting
challenges in the absence of printing presses and telecommunications
services.
While
the Dayton Accords and an international military presence ended
the fighting in Bosnia and Herzegovina, a strong and lasting peace
may prove elusive unless the rule of law is restored. The rule
of law and a civil society will significantly enhance Bosnia's
long-term prospects for peace. The former requires functioning
legal institutions that are perceived as legitimate. To be perceived
as legitimate, legal institutions must be able to exchange and
disseminate information. The Internet is the most efficient and
inexpensive way to fulfill these objectives.
The
underlying philosophy of Project Bosnia is that Internet technology
can help rebuild Bosnian law libraries, the court system and legislative
processes, as well as provide the means for Bosnian journalists
and other members of the press and media to assure the freedom
of information by practically replacing the mortar, bricks, paper
and printing presses with virtual legal infrastructure, news boards
and web-forums. The implementation of Internet-based legal and
media infrastructures will allow immediate and unencumbered access
to the court rulings, criminal cases, newly drafted laws, news,
judicial opinions and other pertinent information. Law students,
professors and journalists will be able to exchange views and
publish their work through e-mail exchanges, news groups and Web-based
discussion forums. It will afford a free information exchange
among members of Bosnian legal, press and media communities, as
well uncensored communication with their international colleagues.
Project
Bosnia began with the donation of a laptop computer to three law
faculty members from the University of Sarajevo, who visited the
Villanova School of Law in January, 1996. Project Bosnia, under
the leadership of Dean Henry H. Perritt, Jr., focused initially
on legal institutions in the cities of Sarajevo and Mostar,
both in the Muslim-Croat half of Bosnia. During two trips to Bosnia
in 1996, Dean Perritt and Project Bosnia students laid the groundwork
for the installation of the region's first Internet server with
telephone dial-up capability, and equipped the Federation Constitutional
Court and Ombudsmen with a number of Pentium computers. The project
subsequently arranged for the donation and delivery of an Internet
server, and obtained monetary and other resources from the World
Bank, U.S. Government, Soros Foundation and other institutions
and individuals to provide ongoing support for the project's work.
The
idea for expanding the project to media institutions in Banja
Luka, seat of government of the Serb half of Bosnia, was born
out of a September 1996 meeting in a Sarajevo café between Dean
Perritt and the chief U.S. Information Agency officer in Bosnia.
Dean Perritt and a group of students from Chicago-Kent then traveled
to Banja Luka in the fall of 1997 to establish the necessary relationships
and obtain technical information to set up an Independent Media
Intranet in Banja Luka. The IIT "Project Bosnia" IPRO
was subsequently established to provide an academic framework
in which IIT students from a variety of disciplines could participate
in accomplishing the new goals of Project Bosnia in Banja Luka.
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