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BANJA LUKA BISHOP ON A HUNGER STRIKE - CHRONOLOGY OF VIOLENCE

ZAGREB, May 22 (Hina) - Banja Luka Bishop Franjo Komarica has been on a hunger strike for six days now, the Bishop's Zagreb-based Office confirmed today. Bishop Komarica decided to take this ultimate step due to increased Serb racist-styled terror in the north-west Bosnian Banja Luka area. "Continuing Serb extremists' terror over non-Serb people in the area, including killing innocent civilians, priests and believers, demolishing of churches and houses, along with the indifference and inefficiency of the international community," were the reasons of Bishop's decision to go on a hunger strike on May 17, the Office said. New sweep of terror campaign started at the beginning of May, after the liberation of Croatian western Slavonia (formerly UNPA Sector West) region, when Karadzic's Serb authorities in neighboring Bosnia-Herzegovina responded by cheering "spontaneous" vindictive frenzy, mostly in largest Bosnian Serb-controlled city of Banja Luka and its surroundings. The course of violence began on May 4, when a group of nuns was expelled from the Nova Topola and Bosanski Aleksandrovac monasteries. - On May 5 the church in Vujnovici, Banja Luka suburb, was set on fire. - During the following night the explosive setup completely demolished the Franciscan monastery and the church in downtown Banja Luka. A disabled priest, Alojz Atlija, was killed on the event. - On the same night the church in near village Sargovac was completely destroyed. - On May 8, the church in the village of Majdan, near Mrkonjic Grad, south of Banja Luka, was pulled-down. - On May 12, the church and Parish Office building, of Presnace, near Banja Luka, were blown up. Carbonized corpses of the parish priest Filip Lukenda and of Cecilia Pava Grgic, a nun, were found in the ruins. - On May 18, a parish house was blown up and then set on fire in the village of Trn, Banja Luka outskirts. - The following day local authorities forced the believers to overthrow the fence which was still standing around the destroyed house. - The local parish priest, Blaz Markovic, had been "severely physically maltreated" ten days earlier, which, according to a source who didn't want to be mentioned, was "only small part of story". In his numerous letters Bishop Komarica has been reiterating that two thirds of his pre-war flock (about 55,000 people) had left their homes, after continual maltreatment and intimidation. Church's statistics said that a total of 40 churches in the area has been destroyed so far. Another 25 were severely, and 23 lightly damaged. Two monasteries were destroyed, and another two confiscated. The community of local Croats in exile has written to UN special rapporteur on human rights, Tadeusz Mazowiecki, saying that 850 ethnic Croats-civilians were killed so far and that "killings, robberies, inflaming and demolition of houses were happening on a daily basis". They also said that all Banja Luka Croats and Muslims were radically deprived of all standard human rights stated in Geneva conventions. Mazowiecki himself has never visited the area. Humiliated position of the survivors was also visible in the testimonies given by refugees coming from the area. They said many non-Serbs worked as servants on the "powerful Serbs"' estates, without any pay, thus carrying out their "labour obligations". Spending nights in stalls and pigpens was "far more secure than in a bed", they said. The Vatican and Pope John Paul II himself were the only instances to offer an undiscerning moral support to Banja Luka Catholics so far. "Who can stay silent and passive in front of such a barbarity," Pope said a few days ago. But the "Minister of Confessions" within local Serb self- styled government, Dragan Davidovic, justified these crimes in public last week. He said that Serbs were retaliating to Croats this way "for Catholic clergy's hailing" the Nazi-puppet Croat regime of the World War 2, and for new Serb losses in western Slavonia. "Our authorities can't stop the individuals from equalizing relations between Serbs and Croats," Davidovic said elegantly, apparently meaning revenge. Two groups of refugees, now in Croatia, signed petitions with about 1,000 signatures, asking of UN and other international players to move their relatives out of the Serb-controlled territory. Refugees claimed that their relatives, remaining in Banja Luka area, were used by Serb forces as "living shields" during the fighting, mostly in Glamoc and Sava river valley front lines; as hostages in political blackmail, and as a bait for humanitarian aid. According to statistics, Banja Luka has had mainly Muslim populated until the WW2 end. The 1948 census registered 10,861 Serbs, 9,951 Muslims and 8,662 Croats were registered out of 31,228 residents. In the coming years the number of Serbs was constantly increasing, but the last census of 1991 still registered an absolute majority of non-Serbs. After three years of current war they were however reduced to a "quantite negligeable". (Hina) bk 221526 MET may 95

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