Friar Mile Babic: Prayer meeting for Prlic et al. is betrayal of faith!

The prayer meeting scheduled to take place before handing down the verdict for The Hague convicts Jadranko Prlic et al. in Mostar has faced strong objections. On 8 June, at the football stadium Zrinjski in Mostar, a meeting of support for 'Croat martyrs' was held in spite of disapproval by some political parties and antifascist and former soldiers' associations.

- They should organize a meeting for the victims. Faith should be in service of the truth and good. This has to do with instrumentalization of the faith and making faith an instrument of national politics, which is nothing else but a betrayal of faith, said friar Mile Babic in the context of the planned prayer meeting for The Hague convicts which will take place at the Cathedral of Mary Mother of the Church in Mostar.

He emphasized that faith represents salvation for all people, not only Croats.

The Hague Tribunal will hand down a second-instance verdict on 29 November in the case of former Prime Minister of so-called Herzeg-Bosnia Jadranko Prlic and five other officials and members of the Croat Council of Defense (HVO). All parties appealed against the first-instance verdict of 29 May 2013.

By that verdict, The Hague Tribunal convicted the 6 officials of so-called Herzeg-Bosnia on a total of 111 years in prison for war crimes.

Jadranko Prlic was sentenced to 25 years in prison, and the former Defense minister Bruno Stojic to 20 years.

Commanders of the HVO's Headquarters, Generals Slobodan Praljak and Milivoj Petkovic were each sentenced to 20 years in prison, the HVO's military police commander Valentin Coric was sentenced to 16 years, while the head of office for prisoners exchange, Berislav Pusic was sentenced to 10 years in prison.

The prayer meeting will be held this Tuesday, in the eve of handing down second-instance verdict in the case against the six officials.

The invitation to the meeting was sent by the Association 'Croat Heart of Hope – Mostar', Department of defenders HVO of the Homeland war HNS and Foundation for legal help of the HVO.