Mostar, 18. march 2005. (KTA)  

COMMUNIQUÉ 

From 16 - 18 March this year, during our 33rd regular session in Mostar, we the members of the Bishops' Conference of Bosnia-Herzegovina, gathered to hear the presentations and suggestions of our working groups and commissions completed since the time of our last gathering.

In many and various ways we have spoken out, before, during and after the recent war (1992-1995) against blatant injustices, and we have appealed for a just and durable peace, through our numerous communiqués and appeals to various bodies with the intent of making our voice heard to all people. We have always described evil as evil and invited the individual citizens and national groups of this country, as well as those who decide upon her fate, to show solidarity towards the common good, in a human and Divine way.

Whilst now from many sides and in various ways, in the name of justice injustices are being legalized, in the name of humanism humans are being mistreated, in the name of ideology the truth is being ignored; on this occasion we wish to publicly repeat our positions and condemnations of injustices.

On the occasion of the 10th anniversary of the end of the war, and whilst looking at the current situation of the local Catholic Church, we point out not only certain failed projects implemented by the Dayton Accords which go contrary to the past, present and future of this country and its peoples, but also to so many injustices which have arisen from this agreement of 1995. Whilst being in constant contact with those responsible in the public sector, especially the representatives of the international community, we have not ceased on behalf of the faithful of our dioceses, who are predominantly Croats, to speak out against the numerous violations of human rights and national liberties.

The greatest injustice can be seen by the fact that through the horrors of the war, ethnic cleansing and territorial domination, the Catholic population has been practically halved. It’s not surprising then that only some of the older members have decided to come back to this type of situation, while the younger ones are leaving for good. The general condition of the country favours this predicament: from unemployment and social insecurity, by way of armed violent attacks on persons and properties, to the determined obstruction of the return of exiles. Yet the painful fact remains that the international forces that are empowered to establish a just peace, economic security for citizens and respect for each national identity, are being ever more looked upon as representatives of a foreign protectorate and champions of their own interests. What is even more painful is that the local politicians, in defending the partial interests of certain groups and parties, all under the guise of the needs of their own national groups, have only further extended the agony of the citizens and national groups of this country.

Besides this, these injustices, from Dayton onwards, under the veil of the international community, are evidently being carried out predominantly against the survival of the smallest national group: through certain actions of the Hague Tribunal, by the imposition of electoral laws, by the suppression of legal institutions and the overthrowing of national representatives, by unjust legal procedures against individuals, by the law on the mass media, by denying the use of the Croatian language, by reforms in the educational system, and by the organization of the municipal structure of this city of Mostar. Through all this, the Croat "constitutive" national group is being inadmissibly and unacceptably transformed into a national "minority".

We believe that without equality for all people and national groups, this country has no future as a state of law, freedoms and healthy progress, let alone any chance of being associated to the remaining democratic world.

Despite everything, we still believe that it’s possible to put this country in order upon just foundations in which each national group and every citizen will be able to enjoy equal rights and feel at home in each and every corner of the country.

Hence we once again appeal to the local political authorities and the official international representatives that they employ all their efforts to establish Bosnia-Herzegovina upon a just constitutional and legal framework, and that they dissolve the unjust State division established upon ethnic cleansing and war crimes.

Firmly believing that God, who guides the history of every person and all nations, through the intercession of St. Joseph, the just man (Mt 1:19), the patron saint of the Croatian people and the Universal Church, who makes use of human resources and intelligence, will provide this country and its national groups with a just peace and order, we invite all our faithful, all male and female religious, and priests, to unite in our common prayer for this great gift from God.

Mostar, 18 March 2005
Catholic Bishops of BiH