Cardinal marks 20th anniversary of Sarajevo siege

February 17, 2012

Two decades after the beginning of the four-year Siege of Sarajevo, Cardinal Vinko Puljic announced that the Community of Sant’Egidio and the Archdiocese of Vrhbosna will sponsor an international conference for peace in Sarajevo in September.

“Sarajevo, Jerusalem of Europe, city symbol and martyr of a fratricidal war which 20 years ago caused the death of 11,000 people, many of whom were children, is presented today as a paradigm of the cohabitation of the peoples for Europe,” said Cardinal Pulji?, who was appointed Archbishop of Vrhbosna (in which Sarajevo is located) in 1990 and created cardinal in 1994.

“40% of the population is unemployed, and young people are forced to leave,” he added. “The Croatian Catholic minority in Sarajevo, a mostly Muslim city, represents nearly 8% of the population. Before the war there were 820,000 Catholics in Bosnia and Herzegovina; today however there are 440,000.”

“I hope that this meeting can help to create a positive atmosphere for the future of this country.”

 

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Further information:

• The world meeting for peace in Sarajevo (L’Osservatore Romano)
• Siege of Sarajevo (Wikipedia)