Associations of Croats from Banja Luka Diocese Wrote to the Pope Ahead of Dodik's Visit to the Vatican

(Patria) - Associations of displaced persons from the Banja Luka region have issued a statement regarding the visit of the Chairman of the BiH Presidency, Milorad Dodik, to Pope Francis.

The statement from the Association of Displaced Croats from the Banja Luka region "Nazaret" Zagreb and the Association "Dom Briševo Dobri Sesvete" is presented in full:

We, the displaced, Croats and Catholics from Bosnia and Herzegovina, gathered around the associations of displaced Croats from the Banja Luka Diocese, have received with trepidation the news that our supreme head of the Catholic Church, His Holiness Pope Francis, will receive the Chairman of the Presidency of Bosnia and Herzegovina, Mr. Milorad Dodik, on April 26th this year in the Vatican. Mr. Dodik is a man whose image, work, and politics are synonymous with the suffering and difficult situation of all displaced people from the ethnically cleansed smaller BiH entity, where Dodik decides the fate of all who do not obey him and blindly follow him.

We respect the procedure according to which visits to His Holiness are arranged.

We also know that His Holiness, both by his office and as a person, is a true father who receives with an open heart those who wish to come and hear his message, which always directs towards the path of good. It is a fatherly act to receive every person, even the greatest sinner. Nevertheless, we express our deep regret that in the preparation of this visit, if it was necessary at all, the highest representatives of the Catholic Church in Bosnia and Herzegovina, who best know the situation of their diocesan communities, were not more strongly involved. Should we be afraid that on this occasion too, the sad truth about the difficult life situation of the remaining Croats and Catholics, who have been almost exterminated – from over 200,000 before the war to only about 8,860 today in the RS entity, according to church data – will come to light? We know that the Holy See is well aware of the grave injustice that has afflicted and continues to afflict the Catholic community, especially in the areas of the Banja Luka Diocese and the Vrhbosna Archdiocese within the RS entity, where Mr. Dodik has been the absolute ruler for 16 years.

The bishops of the Catholic Church in BiH, especially our Bishop of Banja Luka, Dr. Franjo Komarica, tirelessly inform the church and world public about this grave situation with facts and persistence. Mr. Milorad Dodik, not the citizens of the RS, has refused to listen to him or take concrete action to improve the situation for years. Moreover, Mr. Dodik is prepared to utter completely unfounded insults against Bishop Franjo, as he particularly demonstrated in 2018, on the eve of the Catholic holiday of Easter, when he insulted him by saying that "the bishop barks against the Republika Srpska."

Since our Bishop Franjo is the representative of all Catholics of the Banja Luka Diocese and a representative of the Church, Mr. Dodik's aforementioned insult is also directed at all Catholics, as well as many people who know very well the proven humanity and love for Christ of the pastor of the Banja Luka Church towards every person, regardless of religious, racial, or national affiliation. The fact that Mr. Dodik has been persistently refusing to receive the Bishop of Banja Luka for eight years to discuss the issues and problems faced by the remaining Croat Catholics confirms how much Mr. Dodik cares about Catholics in his entity. As members of the living, displaced Catholic Church from the Banja Luka Diocese, we have never, in the 16 years of Milorad Dodik's rule (two terms as Prime Minister of the RS, and two terms as President of the RS entity), heard him express regret for the brutal and violent expulsion of over 200,000 Catholics from the territory of today's RS entity, nor have we heard him take concrete measures to rectify the injustice and facilitate the return of the displaced to that half of Bosnia and Herzegovina where he has reigned supreme all this time.
The image and work of Mr. Milorad Dodik are well known to the domestic and international public, and we hope they are well informed about it in the Vatican. We will only remind you of some of the most recent actions of him and his policies, which are leading relations in Bosnia and Herzegovina to a new boiling point and a possible new explosion with unforeseeable consequences.

In addition to the standard obstruction of any sustainable return of displaced Croats and Bosniaks to ethnically cleansed areas in the RS entity, Mr. Dodik and his policies, despite final verdicts from the International Criminal Tribunal in The Hague, deny the crimes and even genocide committed in Srebrenica and other places in BiH, as established and ruled by this international court. Furthermore, with his explicit advocacy, a student dormitory in Pale was named after war criminal Radovan Karadžić, which he personally opened ceremoniously and pompously in 2016 in the company of Radovan Karadžić's wife, Ljilja Karadžić, who was sentenced to life imprisonment by the Hague tribunal. Is this how trust is built among peoples in Bosnia and Herzegovina, and are these the conditions created for the return of the expelled and displaced citizens of this suffering country, especially with the daily denial of the state of Bosnia and Herzegovina, where the "great cartographer" Milorad Dodik draws the borders of Greater Serbia???

If we add to this the daily denial of the state of Bosnia and Herzegovina, whose current Chairman of the Presidency he is, and the daily favoring of the RS entity as a state, and the announcement of its secession from the mother country of Bosnia and Herzegovina, the question arises, what is the purpose of his visit and what will the Chairman of the BiH Presidency, Mr. Dodik, inform Pope Francis about that Pope Francis does not already know? Will he ask Pope Francis for forgiveness because he publicly told the Catholic bishop of the suffering Banja Luka Church that he "barks..."? Because he subtly builds and implements a policy that has prevented the return and reconstruction of destroyed homes and infrastructure for tens of thousands of Croat Catholics in the RS entity, because he abolished the Ministry for Refugees and Displaced Persons in his entity, and because he declared the return and reconstruction completed, even though it has not even begun for Croat Catholics, of whom only a small number have returned, while a larger number of those who survived the war in that part of BiH have left.

The property of the displaced has been devastated and destroyed, and to our knowledge, no non-Serb resident has received compensation or restitution for the damages suffered in the RS entity to this day. Houses that should have been rebuilt for the displaced to return have not been rebuilt. The planned prevention of returns by the RS authorities has unfortunately been successfully implemented with the tacit consent of a large part of the international community, which, with such a policy, has acknowledged that ethnic cleansing and expulsion are legitimate if they serve the interests of major powers.

To our knowledge, no one has been held accountable for the crimes committed against innocent civilians, Croat Catholics, even though the names of the perpetrators are known. We remind you that, for example, in the village of Briševo in 1992, 67 innocent and unarmed civilians, women, children, and men, were brutally murdered in a single day. In the Banja Luka region, where there were no military operations, several hundred people were killed simply because they were Croats, and this often happened at their doorstep.

The policy that led to ethnic cleansing continues to be implemented with the blessing of a large part of the international actors, who have never had a strategy for the return of the displaced, nor have they desired one.

When such a compromised person visits His Holiness, we must ask ourselves about his intentions and whether this is an attempt to manipulate, creating the impression that His Holiness also accepts the current situation and the policy of ethnically cleansed areas in the RS, where over 90% of Catholics have been expelled and exterminated. Is this opening up space in the public for critics to say that His Holiness receives a person who violates all international norms and standards, who is, as some have called him, a "disruptive factor" with his image and actions?

We read in the press that Dodik will not "discuss the political situation in BiH with Pope Francis, nor will he lobby for political events in Bosnia and Herzegovina," but that he will "discuss ecumenism, tolerance, respect, and coexistence..." Should we discuss these topics with Mr. Dodik when everyone in Bosnia and Herzegovina and beyond knows him very well as a man who does everything to prevent ecumenism, tolerance, respect for human rights, and coexistence? Since Mr. Dodik holds the most important office in the state of Bosnia and Herzegovina, we are convinced that he must be discussed with on fundamental issues of implementing justice and peace, achieving all human rights and religious freedoms on every inch of Bosnia and Herzegovina, especially in the RS entity, and certainly on the issue of taking the most urgent steps to rectify injustices and enable the return of all those who wish to return to BiH, and especially to the RS entity.

As people who, even in these most sacred days of Holy Week, before Good Friday and the closest preparation for Easter, have been carrying our cross of displacement for almost 30 years, we express our thoughts and send our plea, which we wish to reach His Holiness Pope Francis through good and truth-loving people.

This is also our modest contribution to exposing the image and work of Mr. Milorad Dodik as the main protagonist of the continuation of the policy that drove us from our homes.

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