STOP HATRED AND TENSIONS - BOSNIAN CROAT CULTURAL SOCIETY

SARAJEVO, Feb 22 (Hina) - The central board of the "Napredak" Croat cultural society held a session on Saturday after "distressing events which have been shaking Bosnia-Herzegovina in waves and have also testified to deliberate and broadly-organized activities of destructive forces in the country," it said in a statement. After the Church of St. Anthony in Bistrik (the downtown Sarajevo) was stoned recently, it became a target of an attack by hand grenades. We can hardly believe that anyone could raise his hand against the church in which St. Anthony is venerated not only by Roman Catholics but also by other true believers of this city who showed thus their wonderful sense of tolerance and faith in the same God, the statement said. Don't those criminals know how many starving people, not only Catholics but others, were fed in the war just thanks to the goodness of Friars in the monastery (of the St. Anthony in Bistrik) and of the Guardian Fr. Perica Vidic, who remained in Sarajevo during all the time of the war and was one of very active citizens in religious, cultural and humanitarian fields ? In the statement "Napredak" condemned a recent assault against Fr. Perica while he had been travelling through Mostar. The Croatian cultural society added in the statement that it deplored perpetrators and inspirers of such and similar crimes regardless of who have committed them in the name of whose idea. Believing in justice we request police to perform their task conscientiously, and media to fulfill their professional duty to inform the public objectively. We call on politicians to ask themselves where all this is heading for and who needs all those tensions. We call on them to avert the spreading of hatred and media tensions, said the statement of "Napredak" signed by its head, Rev. Franjo Topic. (hina) mš 222115 MET feb 97