Balkans, the odour of war” “

Condemnation of the war in Iraq and total endorsement of the Pope’s heartfelt appeals for peace, as expressed by the presidents of the Episcopal Conferences of South-Eastern Europe, at their recent meeting in Scutari, assume a particular significance. For they are being voiced by the Pastors of communities in States – such as Bosnia-Herzegovina, Serbia-Montenegro (Kosovo included) and Macedonia – that were convulsed by bloody conflicts in the 1990s. In the Balkans, in the area that was once Yugoslavia, the attack on Iraq is being experienced with deep apprehension. The memory of death and destruction is still vivid in the individual and collective consciousness. The tragedy began in June 1991, just after the first war against Saddam Hussein had ended, and it continued for a whole decade. Even now the region fluctuates in a condition that cannot be called one of peace, but rather one of “non war”. Serbia, after the recent assassination of its premier Zoran Djindjic, is in a state of emergency, while in Bosnia-Herzegovina, Kosovo and Macedonia non-belligerence is guaranteed only by the presence of the multinational military contingents. But the fire still smoulders below the ashes. Seeing on television the bloodshed in the market of Baghdad or the Iraqi towns besieged and shelled by tanks, one cannot help being reminded of what happened in Sarajevo a few years ago. “Those images send shivers down our spines. They revive in us the tragic experience of the war in Bosnia-Herzegovina. Those massacres recur to our mind and lead us to totally reject everything that has the odour of war”, emphasizes Msgr. Pero Sudar, auxiliary bishop of Sarajevo. But Bishop Sudar is especially afraid that the conflict in Iraq may spread and be transformed into a clash between Christian and Islamic civilization. “By direct experience – he declares – we know all too well what a war between different religions means. In Bosnia-Herzegovina attempts were made in every possible way to get people to fight on the basis of faith. A conflict of religion is the worst thing that could happen”. The bishop speaks from experience: “Among the Muslims, who form the majority here – he says –, anti-war, anti-US and anti-coalition sentiments prevail. Some don’t know how to distinguish and hurl anathemas against those identified as exponents of the West. Catholics too are unfortunately included in this blanket hostility. There have been incidents of verbal aggression against nuns, calling on them to remove their Crucifix and habit, and shouting: ‘an end to Christian terrorism’. In a couple of cases the cross was wrenched from them. In this situation we try however to keep dialogue alive”. During the preparation and outbreak of the second Gulf war, attempts were made on various sides to draw parallels with the Balkan wars, emphasizing that the NATO attack on Serbia in the spring of 1999 had occurred without UN authorization. But people have forgotten that this action was aimed at halting the ethnic cleansing then being directed at the Albanians of Kosovo. So it was not a “preventive” war. If anything, it came too late, given that the regime of Milosevic had been pursuing a policy of aggression against neighbouring peoples for a decade. And to give the go-ahead to the hostilities, in June 1991, was none other than US Secretary of State James Baker, when during a visit to Belgrade he called the declarations of the independence of Slovenia and Croatia “unilateral”, although they had occurred in a democratic manner and in conformity with the Constitution of the Yugoslav Federation. A couple of days later the Yugoslav People’s Army attacked Slovenia. Alojz Peterle, a Catholic, elected premier just a few months earlier, was forced to lead the Republic into an armed conflict. Now, as a member of the presidium of the European Convention, he has made it known from Brussels: “With a more appropriate political conduct, and especially with a unified position of the European Union, it would have been possible to achieve the objective of disarming Iraq and toppling the regime of Saddam Hussein without the recourse to war. I’m sorry that the Pope’s appeals are not being heard”.