The anarchy and the efforts to maintain divisions in Bosnia and Herzegovina must stop as soon as possible, as they cause more and more concerns among citizens, said Bosnia’s Catholic Archbishop Vinko Puljic on Tuesday at a press conference in Banja Luka.
“The unsettled political situation regarding the formation of the government and the persistent attempts to dominate are difficult for us,” said Puljic, adding that there is less and less equality in Bosnia’s society.
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Hopelessness is gripping the society and it is becoming more and more dangerous as everything is becoming politicised. Even those who dare criticise the policies of the ruling parties are being threatened and the ongoing divisions in society continue, he said, according to the Catholic Press Agency in Bosnia (KTA).
“The party is not and should not be more important than the people,” he stressed.
Puljic said that what worries him the most are the “political games” being played regarding the migrant crisis. He said it was clear that many migrants were escaping injustice and war in their countries, but that the fear of those who “were sent intentionally to certain areas to create disorder” is justified.
The Bishop of the northwestern city of Banja Luka, Franjo Komarica, said that representatives of the Catholic Croats from the area of the northwestern town of Bihac, the place most affected by the migrant crisis, turned to him for help because of a decision by local authorities to transfer a reception centre for migrants from Asian and African countries to the border area of Vucijak.
Bishop Komarica cited this as just one example of how the views of the few remaining Croats who still live in the Banja Luka diocese are being ignored.
“In my diocese which was severely hit by destruction and devastation during the war, four parishes still do not have their churches. The most dramatic situation is in the parish of Drvar, where the municipal authorities keep for no reason obstructing the right of Catholics to rebuild the parish church at the site of the demolished one which is guaranteed by the law,” he said.
He also mentioned “the case of unacceptable arbitrary behavior of municipal authorities in Bosanski Novi” who he said transferred land belonging to the church to the people who built houses there, saying that now the parishioners cannot access the newly rebuilt local church.
