The gravest damage” “

“Today it’s clear that” the war in Bosnia and Herzegovina is continuing, but with other means. Equality between the religious components in the country does not yet exist” and “a revision of the Dayton accords” that “have especially damaged the Croatian Catholics” is urgently needed, says Cardinal VINKO PULJIC , archbishop of Vrhbosna Sarajevo, who is currently in Rome with the other Bosnian bishop for their ad limina visit to the Vatican from 22 to 28 February. The cardinal was speaking in recent days at a press conference promoted by Italian Catholic Action and the Bishops’ Conference of Bosnia and Herzegovina on “Ten years after the Dayton Conference. Bosnia Herzegovina: a failure or a multiethnic future?”. The Dayton accords (signed on 21 November 1995) put an end to three and a half years of bloody conflict in Bosnia and created a particular structure made up of the Federation of Bosnia-Herzegovina, with a Moslem majority, and the Serb Republic, with an Orthodox majority; de facto a protectorate under the control of a High Representative of the international community. The archbishop of Sarajevo has called the Dayton accords “a confused treaty” that is “unjust and structurally unsustainable”. THE CONDITION OF CATHOLICS. Cardinal Puljic said at the press conference that he intended to “inform the Pope of the situation. I expect the Holy See – he said – to exert pressure on the international community to ensure that the same measures are adopted for all the religious components in the country”. In a system that “privileges Orthodox and Muslims” it is essential, he said, to “create equality and respect for human rights for everyone” in the country. His plea was seconded by Bishop FRANJO KOMARICA of Banja Luka, who did not mince words: “The Dayton accords de facto legitimised the right of the strongest; ethnic cleansing was rewarded, and an iniquitous partition of the territory between the warring parties put in place”. In the bishop’s view, “the current order”, according to which “the three peoples of the region, Bosnians, Serbs and Croats, are placed in two political entities, has especially damaged the Croats, the majority of whom are Catholics. 67% of them were expelled from their own land during the war, but only 13% have been able to return home”. Of the 820,000 Catholics “present in the four archdioceses of the country before the conflict, only 460,000 have remained – explained the bishop -, and in my own diocese the number of Catholics has dropped from 120,000 to 40,000, most of them elderly”. At the present time”, he remarked, “political will, legal protection and material aid do not exist to facilitate their return”. The Croats have been twice penalised by the Dayton accords because, as Komarica explained, “although they form the original and most ancient people of Bosnia Herzegovina, they do not even enjoy the rights of minorities. Bosnians and Serbs issue the laws by simple majority, without any regard for the Croatian representatives”. CONTRIBUTION TO EUROPE. “The peace resulting from the Dayton accords – declared Monsignor PERO SUDAR, auxiliary bishop of Sarajevo – is only the absence of war. All the other effects of the war continue to be very much present and we feel them in person every day”. “The victims of this peace – says the bishop – are not just the Catholic Church, but all the inhabitants of the country. The economy is all but stagnant – he explained -, unemployment has soared to 48%, and many workers have not received their wages for months, some for years. Last year the average salary was 246.59 euros and the average pension 92.03. The percentage of those forced to live on 0.75 euro per day is high”. The result of this is “the dreadful growth in corruption and crime”. “But the gravest damage – the bishop emphasized – is undoubtedly the spiritual and moral dissolution: the war profoundly injured, and in large part tore apart, the fragile bonds that had been forged between people through the centuries and that could have formed our contribution to a Europe that is still trying to develop a capacity to live in a multiethnic and multi-religious society”. COMMITMENT OF THE CHURCH. “Experiencing the tragedy of the country as her own tragedy – continued Bishop Sudar – the Catholic Church has never ceased, neither during nor after the war, to recall the voice of reason. But if during the war her voice was listened to and her counsel appreciated, now the appeals of the bishops fall on deaf ears: they even cause irritation because they dare to call a spade a spade”. However, “even if accepted and interpreted in bad faith, the Church does not give in and will continue to strive for a just and democratic order” that “can be built” only with a revision of the Dayton accords, the establishment of “a genuinely multi-ethnic and multi-religious State, and the overcoming of the current partition of the country into two entities determined by the ethnic principle enshrined in the treaty”. What is needed is a constitutional State “which guarantees the legal equality of all three peoples, and respect for their human, religious and civil rights and liberties”: a State – concluded Sudar – in which “power is articulated at the communal, regional and national level” and according to “the principle of subsidiarity”.