After Dayton poverty” “

Ten years after the end of the war in Bosnia and Herzegovina “poverty, far from having been reduced, has increased”: those worst affected are the refugees who are still returning, the unemployed and children. The Bosnian authorities are therefore urged to “implement without delay social, political and economic reforms”. This and many other denunciations and requests are contained in the joint document “for the reduction and prevention of poverty” signed by the Catholic, Orthodox, Muslim and Jewish humanitarian organizations of Bosnia and Herzegovina (Caritas, Merhamet, Dobrotvor, and Benevolencija) on 11 October. The statement was issued at the end of the conference “Ten years after the Dayton peace accords: the faces of poverty”, held in Sarajevo on the initiative of Caritas of Bosnia Herzegovina, under the auspices of Caritas Europe and with the support of Italian Caritas. TOO MANY SOCIAL INEQUALITIES. The document – which will be sent to national and European institutions – denounces the “corruption” rife in the country, the “confused political and judicial system”, the lack of state assistance to returning refugees, and the enormous social inequalities between “a tiny affluent minority and the overwhelming majority of the population who are living in poverty”. “This situation makes economic development impossible and prevents the influx of important investments from abroad. In so unfavourable an economic environment – the document continues – many companies are forced to close, while at the same time there are no possibilities and no interest in creating new jobs”. “A particular form of the poverty of this country is expressed by an uninterrupted process of emigration of the young with a high level of education. So this country is being divested of an inestimable asset”. For these reasons the government is urged “to implement without delay social, political and economic reforms” able to guarantee “the democratic order, the rule of law and equal opportunities for all people, irrespective of their ethnic or religious belonging”. “UNACCEPTABLE” TAXES. The representatives of the various confessions and religions emphasise the need to work together, given that “isolation from others, in particular to the detriment of others, does not lead to the prosperity of the community, nor of one single people or of one single group”. “It is unacceptable – says the document – that the State should become an end in itself and that the imposition of taxes, that have the sole objective of supporting a huge state apparatus, should jeopardize both the survival of individuals and the investment capacity of firms”. The document further condemns the proposal to introduce a new tax, VAT on consumer goods, “an unacceptable attack on the living standards of the already impoverished population”. It also denounces other abuses such as “tax evasion, contraband and the payment of bribes”, and asks the authorities to “apply the laws and punish violations”: “Only in this way will it be possible to create social justice and just relations between people, the fulfilment of citizens’ obligations to the State and vice versa”. MORE LOCAL AUTONOMY. With regard to the international administration of Bosnia and the role of the High Representative, the documents laments the fact “that the political representatives of the peoples of Bosnia Herzegovina, whose responsibility is limited, have no chance of playing a more active role and by the same token have no moral obligation to do more and feel responsible for what is happening in political and economic life”. “It’s high time – the document suggests – to establish an undisturbed and responsible political activity by the country’s elected representatives, who should act […] in the interests of Bosnia Herzegovina as a united community of peoples with the same rights, with equal respect for all persons, and constructed on the basis of principles common to the constitutions of modern European states. The principle of subsidiarity must be visibly applied also in the socio-political institutions on the basis of the territorial system of the country”. For these reasons, the document asks for “sufficient freedom” to act and to exercise “responsibility to realize projects of vital or great importance for the local communities”. “The individual and the family too”, concludes the document, must not suffer “the burden of useless pressures by the political authorities, to be able to exercise their own elementary rights such as freedom of conscience, the right to the education of their children, or the right to practice their own religion”.