SARAJEVO, Aug 23 (Hina) - Bosnia-Herzegovina's Roman Catholic bishops on Wednesday forwarded an open letter to Special Co-ordinator of the Stability Pact for Southeast Europe, Bodo Hombach, notifying him of the unendurable position of
a majority of refugees who are still waiting for the return to their homes, although five years have passed since the end of the war. The Bosnian Catholic news agency - KTA - quoted the Catholic dignitaries as saying that they had already warned participants in the July 1999 Stability Pact Summit in Sarajevo of the dire situation which Bosnian refugees were faced with. "On that occasion we shared the justified hope with many hundreds of thousands of deprived citizens of Bosnia-Herzegovina, Croatia and the Federal Republic of Yugoslavia that most responsible political representatives would pool their efforts to finally take more resolute steps in
SARAJEVO, Aug 23 (Hina) - Bosnia-Herzegovina's Roman Catholic
bishops on Wednesday forwarded an open letter to Special Co-
ordinator of the Stability Pact for Southeast Europe, Bodo Hombach,
notifying him of the unendurable position of a majority of refugees
who are still waiting for the return to their homes, although five
years have passed since the end of the war.
The Bosnian Catholic news agency - KTA - quoted the Catholic
dignitaries as saying that they had already warned participants in
the July 1999 Stability Pact Summit in Sarajevo of the dire
situation which Bosnian refugees were faced with.
"On that occasion we shared the justified hope with many hundreds of
thousands of deprived citizens of Bosnia-Herzegovina, Croatia and
the Federal Republic of Yugoslavia that most responsible political
representatives would pool their efforts to finally take more
resolute steps in the implementation of the Dayton peace agreement
in its most sensitive point - the issue of the return of displaced
persons and refugees," read the bishops' letter.
A year after, expected results fail to appear whereas attempts to
redress war injustices are incomprehensibly slow, the bishops
stressed.
Reiterating that they advocate the respect of the rights of each man
regardless of their religious or national origins, bishops said
they must express their sorrow at and dissatisfaction with what has
to date been done in the implementation of the conclusions of the
Sarajevo Summit of the Stability Pact, including the return of
refugees.
They cited official figures which show that during the first six
month of this year, over 6,500 Bosniaks (Moslems) and only 474
Croats returned to their homes in the Bosnian Serb entity (the
Republic of Srpska).
In the last four and a half years, just 1,090 Croats out of over
220,000 Croat refugees came back to the Serb entity.
The bishops urged the Special Co-ordinator Bodo Hombach to make
more efforts to see that applications for the return of property be
settled within legal time terms, to control the spending of means
earmarked for the minority returns as well as to exert his influence
so that Catholic Church facilities in the area of Banja Luka Diocese
be given back.
They particularly urged this German diplomat to help in attempts to
shed more light on the destiny of two Catholic priests who went
missing in the area of Bosnian Serb entity and for whose
disappearance local Serb authorities are held responsible.
(hina) jn ms