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Thousands of people who are part of the Roman Catholic church in Bosnia are being prevented from returning to their homes – some 15 years after the nation’s civil war ended – and advocates say it is the result of a campaign of “creeping extermination.”
Those are the words of Bosnia’s Bishop Franjo Komarica, who said Bosnian officials still are preventing more than 50,000 Catholics from returning to their homes.
The four-year-long strife in the region left some 800,000 displaced, and some 70,000 Catholics were forced from their homes at that time.
It’s regarded as the longest and most violent European war in the second half of the 20th Century.
The conflict developed when the “Muslim majority” in Bosnia-Herzegovina demanded secession from Yugoslavia. The violence included regular occurences of rape, and prisoners of war and civilians were kept in concentration camps.
Reins were applied to the violence through the 1995 Dayton agreement engineered by the U.S, although tensions have continued.
Open Doors USA President Carl Moeller says he believes that the Bosnian Catholics are victims of ethnic cleansing.
“This situation in Bosnia is an extension of some of the horrible things that went on during that civil war. Fifteen years is close to a generation that is growing up that has no memory of their original role and place in that society,” Moeller said.
“Ultimately the outcome of that is a form of ethnic cleansing. It is a religiocide as we have called it. It’s where one religion seeks the extermination, intentional and progressive, of another religion,” he said. “We know the horrible consequences of the policies of ethnic cleansing. We shouldn’t be allowing the policies of religious discrimination to go unnoticed.”
Listen to an interview with Moeller:
Moeller added that the cleansing is clearly the product of religious discrimination.
“The Muslims of Bosnia by and large aren’t radicalized, but there is discrimination,” Moeller explained. “So wherever Christians are denied the access to meet freely, to
worship, to live lives on an equal footing with other citizens, there’s going to be a
creeping persecution.”
Moeller said he believes the bishop is correctly analyzing the situation in Bosnia.
“One of the things we defer to is Christians who are on the ground to be able to say what’s really taking place. We try to listen to the Christians who are enduring the persecution and those who are facing the opposition,” Moeller said.
“So, we give them the greatest weight, not diplomatic analysts from the State Department or other places,” he said. “I do trust the assessments of the people who are on the ground.”
Adriatic Institute for Public Policy Co-Founder Joel Anand Samy says the bishop may be right about the Bosnian government’s involvement in hindering the repatriation of Bosnian Catholics. But Samy adds that there are a number of other factors that may be keeping many of the Catholics away.
“The rule of law is subverted. There isn’t an independent judiciary. The importance of upholding individual property rights is abysmal,” Samy said.
“When you have these fundamental elements of a democratic state that upholds the rule of law that ha[ve] been undermined, of course you will have these challenges because individuals don’t have anywhere to turn,” he said.
Samy added that the issue is serious because the amount of international aid that has been given to Bosnia.
“These issues are serious because U.S. taxpayers and E.U. member state’s taxpayers have sent billions of dollars into Croatia and Bosnia. Today we see these issues, the rule of law and property rights, being denied these individuals in this region,” Samy said.
A U. S. government report says that for the 10 years from 1995 through 2005, the United States gave Bosnia $1.354 billion in aid
Samy believes that in some cases, the Catholic Croats might be more determined to force the issue of their return if some of the governmental issues could be resolved.
“If the protection of property rights was upheld; then you would have
individuals saying, ‘Listen, I have the right to return to my home and to claim my
own property.’ But, that is not the case in Bosnia,” Samy said.
Listen to an interview with Samy:
He said several ethnic groups were displaced during the Bosnian civil war.
“There was a significant displacement of individuals within Bosnia proper. That would include the three ethnic groups, Bosnian Serbs, Bosnian Croats and the Bosnians themselves,” Samy detailed.
“In fact, a significant number of Bosnian Croats left Bosnia proper and ended up in Croatia. A number of them also migrated to Western European countries, to Canada and to the U. S.,” he said.
“Once they made their journey, very few people wanted to return to Bosnia proper. Those who owned homes, yes, they wanted to return to claim their land,” Samy said.
University of Texas Professor of International Studies Alan Kuperman agrees that all of the major ethnic groups were displaced during the civil war. Kuperman said the Catholic Croats may be content to stay out of Bosnia.
“The Croats, the smallest of the three groups in Bosnia, were also originally the most dispersed, so it is quite possible they have preferred to settle in the few areas (mainly Herzegovina) where they were a demographic majority or plurality,” Kuperman said.
However, Samy believes that the Catholic Croats may be having the decision forced upon them.
“With high unemployment, with few possibilities, those that left Bosnia
proper to Croatia and to other parts have also been reluctant, due to some of
these challenges that have been outlined by the Bishop,” Samy said.
Samy emphasized the severity of joblessness in the region and how it’s connected to the area’s other problems.
“Unemployment is very high because of not having the rule of law and
personal property rights and the economic issues have not been addressed and
therefore there is not much work available,” Samy said.
A United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees report in 2010 stated that many refugees have yet to return and the Dayton accords have not been fully implemented.
Samy agrees that the Dayton accords have not been properly implemented and suggested that Bosnia’s discrimination problems need to be taken to a higher level.
“The high representative of Bosnia and the E.U. special representative need to address these issues seriously because if the bishop has communicated that there are concerns of Catholics whether it is in Banja Luka or in places in Sarajevo or elsewhere,” Samy said. “These issues need to be addressed with the U.S. government and E.U. member states that are pouring in still, millions of dollars into that region.”
Moeller said Open Doors has not forgotten the condition of Bosnian Christians.
“The tragedy is that these are real people. These are not statistics. We can talk about 70,000, 250,000 or even a million. They’re not numbers; these are people,” Moeller said.
He also has a message for the bishop.
“As pastor, someone who is a bishop, has a heart for people. When they see these injustices taking place, I can certainly related to his emotions,” Moeller stated.
“I would say one thing to him: Stand strong, to not forget that they are part of the global body of Christ and for him to remember that they are not forgotten. Our prayer for them is that they wouldn’t be forgotten,” he said.
