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Catholic World News News Feature

A VISIT TO A VANISHING DIOCESE July 17, 1996

by Josip Stilinovic

{Josip Stilinovic, a correspondent for Catholic World News, recently became the first Croatian Catholic journalist to enter Banja Luka since it was overrun by Serbian forces. Returning today, he filed the following exclusive report.)

For the first time since 1992, when the war broke out in the former Yugoslav territories that now constitute the Republic Bosnia-Herzegovina, Cardinal Franjo Kuharic of Zagreb, accompanied by the president of the Croatian charitable group Caritas. Msgr. Vladimir Stankovic, visited the diocese of Banja Luka in north-west Bosnia-Herzegovina on July 15 and 16.

The diocese is by large under control of the so-called "Republika Srpska," the self-proclaimed state run by Bosnian Serbs. Catholics and Muslims here have been the victims of "ethnic cleansing" by the Orthodox Serbs, although there are no open military operations in the area-aside from a few small Muslim self-defense efforts in villages under Muslim control.

Cardinal Kuharic was welcomed by the bishop of Banja Luka at the Croatian border in Stara Gradiska, where they crossed a bridge which has been closed to traffic except for international organizations; together the two bishops entered Serb-controlled area. The Serbian "militia" was officially polite and did not pose any problems, since the cardinal's visit had already been cleared "from above." The occasion for the visit was the celebration of St. Bonaventura, protector of the Banja Luka cathedral and the whole diocese. Two other Croatian Catholic bishops, from Dubrovnik in Croatia and from Mostar in Bosnia- Herzegovina, also arrived without incident.

The Mass in the Banja Luka's cathedral was concelebrated by 19 priests and attended by more than 2,000 believers-nearly one-third of an estimated 6,000 who remain on the territory of Banja Luka. Before the war there were more than 80,000 Catholics in the area, and 130,000 in the diocese as a whole. During years of terror against Catholics and Muslims, without a trace of any armed resistance by any non-Serbian ethnic group (Croats, Muslim-Bosnians, Italians, Ukrainians or other minorities) Catholics have have suffered terribly. Five Catholic priests and one nun have been killed, and one priest and his family disappeared in September 1995.

At least 41 churches have been completely destroyed, 24 heavily damaged, 19 others partially damaged, and 21 burned to the ground. Thus 98 percent of the churches in the region have been either destroyed or damaged. Similarly, 33 percent of the church buildings, monasteries, and pastoral homes and centrers have been totally destroyed and a large number damaged to some degree. Many church properties have been confiscated.

There have been 412 civilians killed among the Catholic parishioners here, and 130 soldiers-Croats forcefully mobilized by the Serbian forces. These figures are not complete, since many people still missing. The remaining non-Serbs here are exposed to the continuous maltreatment including forced labour, loss of jobs, robberies, and dispossession of their homes and good. The local police do not intervene when such crimes are reported.

All 16 mosques of Banja Luka have also disappeared without a trace, after Serbs blew them up. There are no more than 3,500 Muslims left in the region, out of pre-war close to 80,000. The imam of Banja Luka is forced to walk around in civilian clothes in order to avoid being assaulted.

The pre-war census (1991) shows that the whole northern region of Bosnia-Herzegovina-of which Banja Luka is one part-had a population of 62,000 Serbs, 356,000 Muslims, and 180.000 Croats. By April of 1995 (as reported by the UN High Commission on Refugees) there were 719,000 Serbs, 37,000 Muslims, and 30,000 Croats. Even after those statistics were assembled, in May, there was a new wave of terror which led to the expulsion of many more Muslims and Croats.

The Dayton Accord has brought a relative cessation of wide- scale bloodshed, but everyday pressures continue. The local de-facto authorities are avoiding fulfilling the terms of the peace accord wherever possible. Croats in the region believe that the coming elections in Bosnia-Herzegovina for the Banja Luka region cannot be just, because not even minimum security for non-Serbs has been established.

In the course of his visit Cardinal Kuharic talked to the Orthodox Bishop Jefrem Milutinovic and the imam of Banja Luka, Ibrahim Halilovic. He also visited a few sites of the destruction-such as parishes in Presnace, Budzak, Petricevac, and Trn. On the scene of the conflagration that engulfed a monastery in Petricevac he prayed on the spot where the charred bodies of one Franciscan friar and nun were found. He also visited the parish in Trn where a parish house is being reconstructed-for the second time, since it was burned again after the first reconstruction. The Cardinal talked to the clergymen who now face constant attacks by snipers, hand-grenades, and even anti- tank missiles. One of the local priests has survived 36 attempts against his life.

Just before crossing back to the relative safety of Croatia, Cardinal Kuharic paid a visit to the parish in Bosanska Gradiska which welcomed the last huge wave of Croats and Muslim refugees on their way to Croatia in May last year. "I have crossed the border to visit a diocese that has suffered a lot," said Cardinal Kuharic arriving to Croatia, "in which the bishop has been restricted in his freedom of movement, but in which the history moves gradually forward. The hope must not die! In that belief we look toward the future emerging out from a heavy past."

The cardinal called the decision of local Serbs to grant him freedom to visit Banja Luka "a good sign." Bishop Komarica commented on the visit as the sign that there still might be hope for the survival of this heavily wounded diocese.