Don’t pluck the flowers” “

Ten years have gone by since the signing of the Dayton accord, which on 21 November 1995 put an end to the bloody conflict that convulsed the present-day Bosnia Herzegovina. It was a war that had lasted for four years and been characterised by ferocious operations of “ethnic cleansing”. The new state, born from the dissolution of the former Yugoslav Federal Socialist Republic, is now divided into two entities: the Federation of Bosnia Herzegovina with a Moslem majority and the Serb Republic with an Orthodox majority. Though the partition of the country stopped the war, it did not bring a just and lasting peace for the three peoples that inhabit it (Bosnians, Serbs and Croats). The current political order is the result of a complex institutional alchemy: three different constitutions in fact exist, one for each of the two territorial entities and one for the whole State. A NATO multinational force headed by a High Representative (currently the Englishman Paddy Ashdown) is there to guarantee the implementation of the accord. A superimposition of authorities and laws has been created. Its consequence is political paralysis. It is often the Croat minority that has had to pay the price of this; in fact 67% of the Catholic residents prior to the war were forced to abandon the country and so far only 13% of them have returned. The present situation is described for us by Saverio Clementi, SIR correspondent, who visited Bosnia Herzegovina in recent days. THE POSITION OF CATHOLICS. Not long ago the Bishops’ Conference of Bosnia Herzegovina published a searing document of indictment that did not even spare the actions of the “guarantors”. “It is very sad and disheartening – write the bishops – that representatives of the international community and of the international forces mandated to promote a just peace, the economic security of the country and respect for human rights and civil liberties, are increasingly being seen as lords of a protectorate and as promoters of their own interests. And it is even sadder to see our politicians and the authorities at every level procure and defend the private and partisan interests of certain groups or parties, instead of thinking of the common good and of all the peoples”. Bishop Franjo Komarica of Banja Luka, President of the Bishops’ Conference, has for almost twenty years been pastor of a diocese that, though it did not suffer any armed battle on its own territory, was severely put to the test by the climate of hatred: hundreds of faithful killed in their homes and over two thirds fled abroad; 95% of the churches destroyed or damaged; 6 diocesan priests, one male and one female religious assassinated. “Many war criminals – he denounces – are still at liberty and some are active in politics and occupy important public offices. Many others, real profiteers and racketeers, hold significant positions in economic life and enrich themselves each day by exploiting the process of the privatisation of public assets”. Of the almost 120,000 Catholics who lived in the diocese of Banja Luka before the war only 40,000 remain, most of them elderly. Approximately 460,000 Catholics live in Bosnia Herzegovina as a whole, in comparison with the 830,000 before the war. “During the whole period of the war and its aftermath – continues Msgr. Komarica – bishops and priests devoted themselves to the pursuit of peace and tirelessly and solicitously preached love, forgiveness, reconciliation, tolerance and solidarity between all the inhabitants and all the nations and confessions. We wished, and still wish, to make our contribution to the construction of a society founded on justice, respect for rights and the dignity of each person and of each people”. INTERFAITH DIALOGUE. Dialogue has been resumed, despite difficulties, with the representatives of the Orthodox Church and of the Islamic Council in the attempt to reconstruct the peaceful co-existence and climate of mutual tolerance that for centuries characterized relations between the various faiths in Bosnia Herzegovina. A project to which the Catholic Church attributes great importance for the moral rebirth of the country is that of the “School Centres for Europe”. The last opened its doors just a few weeks ago in Banja Luka itself. It is being attended for the time being by no more than 16 children (eight Catholics and eight Orthodox), but it represents a significant seed for the growth of social harmony, tolerance and mutual respect between the ethnic and religious communities. A day hospital run by diocesan Caritas has also been operating in Banja Luka for several years; it provides free medical assistance to anyone who presents himself. The various ethnic and religious components may therefore become a source of richness because “Bosnia Herzegovina – in the words of Semiha Borovac, the dynamic Moslem woman who has been mayor of Sarajevo for the past year – is like a garden full of flowers. If we pluck one we ruin the whole. Its beauty derives just from the presence of these flowers, none excluded”.