The 33rd plenary assembly of the bishops of Bosnia-Herzegovina, held at Mostar from 16 to 18 March, has issued a strong denunciation of the injustices that have arisen since the signing of the Dayton accords in 1995 and appealed for a just and lasting peace. “On the occasion of the tenth anniversary of the end of the war write the bishops in their final communiqué we wish to point out the failure of some projects put in place by the Dayton Accords and also the many injustices deriving from these accords after 1995. We have never ceased denouncing, also in the name of the faithful of our dioceses, the majority of them Croats, the numerous violations of human rights and civil liberties”. And “the greatest injustice” of all, according to the bishops, “is that through the horrors of the war, ethnic cleansing and territorial occupation, the Catholic population has been practically halved”. “Nor is it surprising continue the bishops that only some elderly people have decided to return to their homes, while the young have left the country”. Accessories to this fact are the difficult situation of the nation characterized by “unemployment, social insecurity, violent attacks against persons and property, and a strong resistance to the return of refugees”. “But the saddest thing of all is that the international forces charged with re-establishing peace, restoring economic security to citizens and guaranteeing respect for every ethnic group, are increasingly seen as representatives of foreign protectorates and defenders of private interests. The local politicians themselves, in defending the interests of some groups and parties, have only prolonged the agony of the citizens of this nation”. These injustices have been inflicted “to the detriment of the less numerous ethnic groups”, also with “the imposition of discriminatory electoral laws, the suppression of legal institutions, the law on the media, the ban on the use of the Croat language, and the reform of the school system… In this way the Croatian national group that forms an essential part of the nation has been reduced to a minority in an unacceptable way”. “We think conclude the bishops that without equality for all its people and for all its national groups this nation has no future, but we are also convinced that it is possible for each to enjoy equal rights, in such a way as to feel at home in every part of this country. We appeal to the international, national and local authorities to make every effort to provide Bosnia-Herzegovina with a legal and constitutional framework to put an end to ethnic division and war crimes”.
