Need for serenity and peace

“On behalf of the European Commission I wish to express my satisfaction on hearing the news of the arrest of Radovan Karadzic. This is a very positive development that will contribute to justice and lasting reconciliation in the Western Balkans”, declared José Manuel Barroso, head of the EU Executive. The former Bosnian-Serb leader is held responsible of genocide for the massacre of Srebrenica in 1995, when 8,000 Muslims were slaughtered, and for the siege of Sarajevo (that caused the death of some 12,000 civilians), during the war that followed the disintegration of the former Yugoslavia. Commenting on the arrest of Karadzic, news of which broke on 21 July, Barroso said that the operation conducted by the Serb forces “demonstrates the determination of the new government” in Belgrade “to achieve full cooperation with the International Court in The Hague”. The European Commissioner for Enlargement, Olli Rehn, also hailed what he called “a decisive step in cooperation” with the UN war crimes Court” in the Dutch capital. The former Bosnian leader was at the top of the list of the last three fugitives being sought for war crimes in the former Yugoslavia. Of the significance of this arrest for the future of Serbia, Giovanna Pasqualin Traversa spoke, on behalf of SIR Europe, with the Most Rev. Stanislav Hocevar, Metropolitan Archbishop of Belgrade. The former Yugoslav Republic now comprises a population of circa 10,614,000. There are some 514,000 Catholics, subdivided in 7 ecclesiastical circumscriptions and 290 parishes. Healing the past and opening a new future. “We need to heal the past and open a new future, and not only for political reasons and with a view to European integration: the government, and in particular the President of the Republic Boris Tadic, are finally conscious that the country and the population have a need to re-discover serenity, unity, stability and peace”, and “the process of European integration itself” may also contribute to this, says Archbishop Hocevar. It is in these terms that he sees the gesture of collaboration of the Serb authorities with the UN war crimes court in The Hague. “The process that has just begun in Serbia – he explains – will be fairly long due to the diversity of the parties and points of view, but what’s important is that President Tadic and the government should commit itself to promote – albeit gradually – the interior catharsis of which the population really has a need”. In this horizon the arrest of Karadzic on 21 July is “a sign of the interior decision to heal the past and open a new future, and this represents a strong hope also for the young, often tempted by discouragement”. Dialogue between East and West. “Here – emphasises the Archbishop of Belgrade -, the strong desire can be felt to give to all the populations, to all the ethnic groups and minorities present on the territory a ‘European context’. Integration in the EU will also be an important step to achieve internal reconciliation and a solution to the many political problems that still remain unresolved. I think that the European Community and the international community should do everything possible to achieve this integration, though while respecting the Serb identity linked to an Oriental Christian culture”. “A closer dialogue between East and West is also needed – continues Archbishop Hocevar -. We ask the West to ensure as far as possible a network of communication with the East: in this region (Serbia, Kosovo, Montenegro and Albania) there’s a lack of road, rail and air infrastructures and connections: this has hampered internal and external communications; it has caused isolation, hindered dialogue, and precluded cultural, social and economic progress. Serbia is still a very poor country; a national system of schools, educational institutions and universities spread evenly through the territory is still lacking”. Somewhat forgotten. According to the Archbishop of Belgrade, Catholics too are living amid countless difficulties. “The Catholic Church represents a decided minority and little consideration is given to it in Europe. Catholics in Serbia, though subjected to sufferings of every type, feel somewhat forgotten by the Churches of other countries; despite that they are working tirelessly for reconciliation and, in view of their situation on the border between East and West, for the promotion of Christian unity and for dialogue with Islam”. “Europe ought not to limit itself to promoting Serbia’s entry into the EU – continues Hocevar -; it ought also to provide concrete aid to the population; we Catholics hope for ever more moral support and material aid both from the international community and from the universal Church”. But to achieve all this, he concludes, “what’s needed, among other things, is that a widespread prejudice against Serbia be overcome: it cannot be a whole people that should pay the price for the crimes committed by a few individuals”.