His 14 years at the helm are being marked by an exhibition of photographs, rare chat-show appearances and a volume trumpeting his greatest achievement: German unification.
Strauss is long dead. Franz- Josef Strauss, the towering monument to right-wing virtues, predicted confidently: “Herr Kohl will never become Chancellor. He was viewed as an intellectual minnow, a provincial oaf. I pray to God that this surface peace becomes a real, lasting and just peace. Bosnia and Herzegovina must be integrated again.”There is no way of knowing if the precarious new security of the surviving Muslims will continue.The mufti says: “Thousands of God’s buildings were destroyed in this war, but the dearest of God’s places is peace We were in darkness for a long time We welcome the light of a single candle now.”.

We perform the minimum of Islamic rituals now, but there is still some Islamic life here. I thank God that Muslims remain – because they actually spoiled the plans of those monstrous people who wanted to completely destroy us. “They planned to throw every one of us out, but we had so much spiritual strength to resist those pressures that we remained But we have given our lives for it. He insists that the leaders of all three churches in northern Bosnia – Muslim, Serb Orthodox and Croat Roman Catholics – should mix again and that their people should be reintegrated, that the West must ensure the Dayton provisions are carried out to the letter.He seems dazed by the ability of even a few Muslims to hang on amid the fire and hatred of the past four years in northern Bosnia. It is in Latin script rather than the Cyrillic alphabet used by the Serbs, respectfully refers to him as a Hadzdzi – one who has made the pilgrimage to Mecca – and bears the country’s title of the “Republic of Bosnia and Herzegovina” rather than the rump Serb republic. It depends what local political wind prevails here and which winds come from Pale [the Bosnian Serb "capital"] Muslims still feel uncertain. They are frightened, hungry, they have the minimum means of living; there is less and less humanitarian aid arriving.

They have no work, nothing to heat their homes with.”Yet the mufti still believes that Dayton is better than war, and proudly shows his new visiting card, printed in Islamic green by a local Serbian printing company. They are struggling to get their homes back through the courts in Banja Luka, but the process is very slow. “We thought Dayton would reverse things – that Muslims would be coming back. There are many Muslims who were thrown out of their homes in northern Bosnia and came here. “Since the Dayton accord, very many unpleasant things have been happening,” Mr Khalilovic says. And still the “ethnic cleansing” continues, officially sanctioned now by local government officials.