Bosnians erect monument to kung fu legend

(27 Nov 2005)

1. Kung Fu training team from Tuzla walking to main park in Mostar
2. Nino Raspudic, organiser of the event, speaking to people gathered in park, UPSOUND (Bosnian):
"Please, an applause for our brothers in Hong Kong."
3. Kung fu training team from Tuzla showing their Kung fu skills
4. Boy watching the ceremony from up a tree
5. Kung fu club performing
6. Kung fu fighter preparing for performance
7. Kung fu fighters performance with swords
8. Unveiling of the statue of Bruce Lee
9. Wide shot of Bruce Lee statue with crowd standing around
10. Statue
11. Tilt up from sign reading "Bruce Lee, 1940-1973, yours Mostar" to statue
12. SOUNDBITE (English): Veseling Gatalo, Mostar Urban Movement, organiser of the event:
"It is about universal justice, where the idea of skills, good intentions, vigilance and honesty can fight against corruption, against bad intentions, against hegemony or dictatorship."
13. Pan from Kung fu fighter to statue of Bruce Lee
14. SOUNDBITE (Mandarin): Li Shuyuan, Chinese ambassador to Bosnia:
"I'm pleased to take part in the opening of this monument. The idea is one year-old, and I have always supported it. Bruce Lee is Chinese but his ideas and fight for freedom and justice are universal and can be applied to every country."
15. Bruce Lee statue with crowd standing around it

STATUE UNVEILED FOR KUNG FU STAR

Fans and the curious from all ethnic groupings gathered in the Bosnian city of Mostar on Saturday to see the unveiling of a life-sized bronze statue of kung fu film star Bruce Lee.

Lee played in a series of Hong Kong films in the early 1970s that propelled him to stardom first in Asia, then Europe and eventually the United States.

He died in 1973 aged 32.

Mostar Urban Movement believes Lee is a hero everybody can relate to even in the city that was both physically and psychologically scarred in Bosnia's 1992-95 war.

Hundreds of thousands of Serbs, Croats and Bosnians were killed in the conflict and the country was left divided along ethnic lines.

Organiser of the event, Veseling Gatalo from Mostar Urban Movement, said: "It is about universal justice, where the idea of skills, good intentions, vigilance and honesty can fight against corruption, against bad intentions, against hegemony or dictatorship."

In Mostar, some 70 kilometres (45 miles) south of Sarajevo, Roman Catholic Croats and Muslim Bosnians fought each other fiercely. Even now they still live apart, sending their children to different schools, watching their own television stations and cheering for rival football teams.

The statue is sited on the Spanish Square, which separates the Croat and Bosnian sections of the city.

At the unveiling, members of a martial arts club exhibited their kung fu skills for about 200 citizens from both ethnic communities who attended the ceremony.

The Chinese ambassador to Bosnia, Li Shuyuan, also took part in the ceremony and said that Bruce Lee's "ideas and fight for freedom and justice are universal and can be applied to every country".

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