Cardinal Puljić and other religious leaders of Bosnia-Herzegovina visit the European Union in Brussels

Brussels, February 10, 1998 (IKA/KTA) – Leaders of the Catholic Church,
Serbian Orthodox Church, Islamic community and Jewish community of
Bosnia-Herzegovina made a joint visit to the parliament of the European
Union in Brussels, organized by the Bosnian-Herzegovian mission to the
European Union. The participants in this mission to the European Union
are the president of the Conference of Catholic Bishops of
Bosnia-Herzegovina, Cardinal Vinko Puljić; Serbian Orthodox Metropolitan
Nikolaj Mrdja of Dabar-Bosnia, Islamic Reis-ul-Ulema Mustafa Cerić; and
the president of the Jewish community in Bosnia-Herzegovina, Jakob Finci.
This morning, the religious leaders spoke with the minister of justice of
the Kingdom of Belgium, Stefann de Clerek; the Belgian minister of foreign
affairs, Erik Deryeke; and a member of the permanent delegation of the
Kingdom of the Netherlands to NATO, Ambassador Biegman. Today, the
religious leaders from the territory of Bosnia-Herzegovina are meeting
with ambassadors of various countries with NATO accreditation. The
delegation from the religious communities met yesterday with Hans Van den
Broek and Ambassador Albert Rohan as well as members of the European
Parliament, Enrique Cresp and Mable Wisse Smith. Yesterday afternoon, the
religious leaders met with the general secretary of NATO, Javier Solan.
“We must take concrete steps to stop the hatred that has come through
various manipulations, said Roman Catholic Cardinal Vinko Puljić following
meetings with the representatives of the European Commission and the
general secretary of NATO. The cardinal urged that responsibility must be
taken for the negativism that has occurred, especially the manipulation of
the mass media. All the religious leaders have supported reconciliation
and coexistence, saying that among them there is agreement but it is
difficult to penetrate the “base”. All the religious leaders also agreed
that the war in Bosnia-Herzegovina was not a religious war, although the
warring parties did identify with their respective religions and
traditions. For much of the evil that occurred, Serbian Orthodox
Metropolitan Nikolaj Mrdja blamed the many years of communist rule that
suppressed religious education and led to the alienation of the individual
from God and neighbors. The religious leader of Muslims in
Bosnia-Herzegovina, Mustafa Cerić, expressed support for the establishment
of a Council for Truth and Reconciliation, modelled after the example set
by Archbishop Desmond Tutu of South Africa.
The Catholic, Orthodox, Muslim and Jewish leaders proposed a concrete
plan to the European institutions, requesting monetary aid from the
European Union. They proposed the establishment of a Council for
Interreligious Cooperation to the representatives of Europe and NATO, and
announced the joint publication of a magazine intended to spread community
feeling, reconciliation and coexistence, as well as the preparation of
interreligious seminars and booklets. The Council would promote freedom
of movement, the return of refugees and displaced persons, religious
freedom in the territories of both political entities, and the return of
property confiscated from the religious communities.