BISHOP KOMARICA: ONLY 1,343 CATHOLICS HAVE RETURNED TO BANJA LUKA

BANJA LUKA, Feb 23 (Hina) - Roman Catholic Bishop of Banja Luka (the north-western Bosnia), Msgr. Franjo Komarica, has forwarded a letter to the recently elected President of the Republic of Srpska, Mirko Sarovic, asking him to help resolve the most urgent problems the Catholic believers are faced with in the Bosnian Serb entity. Bishop Komarica urged Sarovic to call in the public on the Catholic faithful, who fled the Serb-controlled areas in the war, to come back to their homes in that entity. The dignitary reiterates that since the conclusion of the Dayton peace accords, only 1,343 Catholics, of 70,000 exiled from the Banja Luka area, have returned. "As far as we know, to date the Bosnian Serb authorities have reconstructed not at least one house of any Catholic-returnee, nor have they helped construct infrastructure in the villages where returnees and displaced people decide to come back," the Bishop wrote. He also urged Sarovic to help shed light on the destiny of two catholic priests who went missing in previous years. One of them who was the parish priest of Nova Topola (in the municipality of Gradiska) was kidnapped from the parish office on 16 June 1991. The other, the parish priest of Prijedor and his parents, were abducted from his office on 24 August 1995. Since then their whereabouts have been unknown. (hina) ms