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Friday August 11, 11:04 PM Blast damages tomb of Bosnian Muslim president Photo: AFP Click to enlarge SARAJEVO (AFP) - The grave of Bosnia's wartime president Alija Izetbegovic, a one-time Muslim leader, has been severely damaged in an explosion that local leaders denounced as a "terrorist" act. Izetbegovic's tombstone, at the Kovaci Cemetery in Sarajevo's old town, was blown up by unknown perpetrators at 3:00 am (0100 GMT), a police official told AFP. "The explosion damaged Izetbegovic's tombstone, leaving a 70-centimetre (27-inch) crater, but his body itself was not damaged," prosecutor Miroslav Markovic told journalists, adding the likely motive was "political". Police and other security services launched an investigation into the attack. The European Union Police Mission in Bosnia said it was closely monitoring the probe, warning the incident could threaten security. Tensions have risen in Bosnia in recent days after the broadcast of footage showing a former Muslim general, Atif Dudakovic, ordering his troops to burn down Serb villages at the end of the country's 1992-1995 war. Izetbegovic, who died at the age of 78 in October 2003, is seen as a hero by most Muslims for leading Bosnia to independence in 1992, a move that triggered the three-and-a-half year conflict between Muslims, Serbs and Croats. Bosnian Serbs, however, are strongly antagonistic about Izetbegovic, whom they accuse of war crimes. Friday's attack on his grave drew strong condemnation from Muslim leaders and the international community's top envoy in Bosnia, Christian Schwarz-Schilling, who called for calm and said he felt "shocked and saddened". "This country has already experienced too much suffering and this act risks setting back moves towards reconciliation in Bosnia," said Schwarz-Schilling. "I call on political and religious figures to demonstrate leadership to ensure that calm prevails," said the German diplomat. The attack was a "loathsome terrorist and criminal act," said Bosnia's current president, Sulejman Tihic, who is also a Muslim. "This is an attack on Bosnia, its peace and common life, and also an attempt to destabilise the situation in our country," Tihic, the chairman of the rotating tripartite presidency, said in a statement. The incident was an attack on the whole of Bosnia, because Izetbegovic was a symbol of resistance whom some objected to, the Balkan country's wartime foreign minister, Haris Silajdzic, told journalists. Although police blocked access to the graveyard, people gathered outside as investigators scoured the site in order to collect evidence. "Someone wants to destroy the founder of Bosnia, but he will not succeed," one of the onlookers, a 52-year-old man who gave his name as Tarik, told AFP. "This is the influence of forces who want to return Bosnia to a time of war to make people hate each other," said Mirza Hajdarevic. An association of Izetbegovic's military units called the "Green Berets" warned Friday that the attack meant Bosnia's existence was still threatened. "This is proof that enemy forces still exist and that they can prepare new attacks on Bosnian foundations, showing to what extent their hatred is towards a unique, inseparable and multi-ethnic" Bosnia, it said in a statement. Bosnian Serb officials remained silent about the incident. As many as 200,000 lives were claimed in the devastating 1992-1995 war and some 2.2 million people, or about half the country's population, were forced to flee their homes. Upon his death, the UN war crimes tribunal said it had been investigating Serb allegations that Izetbegovic had committed war crimes during the Bosnian conflict, but no charges were ever pressed against him. Post-war Bosnia consists of two entities, the Muslim-Croat Federation and the Serbs' Republika Srpska.