Banja Luka, August 16, 2000 (IKA) — Bishop Franjo Komarica of Banja Luka sent a letter to the prime minister of the government of the Republika Srpska, Milorad Dodik, in which he once again requested the return of the illegally confiscated property belonging to the Catholic Church in the Banja Luka region, information on two Catholic priests illegally abducted by the police and army of the Republika Srpska, and access by the Catholic citizens of the Republika Srpska to their property. In the letter, the bishop mentioned that he had sent a letter with the same requests three months ago but had received no response whatsoever. Since 1995, numerous buildings in the territory of the Banja Luka Diocese belonging to the Catholic Church have been confiscated: the parish pastoral centers in Banja Luka, Derventa and Kozarska Dubica; the rectory in the village of Barlovci, the parish centers and churches in the villages of Vrbanjci and Dragalovci, the building of the Diocesan Ordinariate in Banja Luka on Omladinska Street, two houses belonging to the Catholic Church on the outskirts of Presnače; and convents in Banja Luka (Srpska Street 26), Budžak, Aleksandrovac and Nova Topola. Bishop Komarica furthermore noted that four months ago Dr. Gret Haller, ombudsman for human rights in Bosnia-Herzegovina, had sent the prime minister of the Republika Srpska a directive to take all the necessary measures to return the property confiscated from the Catholic Church within a period of one month. “What explanation do you have, as the premier of the Government of the Republika Srpska, for not honoring the decision of a legitimate international institution, unless you want to continue to keep us, your disenfranchised fellow citizens, disenfranchised?” asked the bishop in his letter. The bishop of Banja Luka also demanded the return of the priests Ratko Grgić and Tomislav Matanović, who were abducted illegally by members of the army and police of the Republika Srpska. The letter also points out that over 150 Catholic families who had remained in Banja Luka throughout the war and postwar period had been forcibly expelled from their homes, while at the same time there are many confiscated houses and apartments being occupied by persons of Serbian ethnicity who already had their own houses and apartments. The bishop reminded the premier that he had sent him a list of these persons in May, and expressed the hope that there will be more decisive action taken to correct the injustices being inflicted upon their fellow citizens of the Catholic faith. The bishop further noted that 2,733 claims have been submitted to the Legal Counseling Center of the Banja Luka Diocesan Caritas for the return of property but that the authorized ministry and international commission have only resolved 645 claims, and the ministry has issued 161 rulings. “Of the total number of positive rulings, up to now only 80 residential units have been returned to their owners: 32 apartments, 36 houses, 1 weekend house, 8 houses have been exchanged for others, while 3 houses have been sold. Many of these rulings were issued eight, ten, twelve or even sixteen months ago but their owners have still not been able to take possession of their properties because no one will carry out the eviction [of the current occupants],” stated Bishop Franjo Komarica in his letter to the premier of the Republika Srpska, Milorad Dodik.