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Catholics, Muslims suffer in Banja Luka: Bosnian city in Serb nationalist strong hold

National Catholic Reporter, June 2, 1995 by Diane Paul

I first became aware of what was happening in Banja Luka while working in refugee camps in Croatia with new arrivals from the horror in Bosnia. The stories convinced me I had to visit Banja Luka for myself.

The second-largest city in Bosnia, it is located in the Bosanska Krajina, a region of northern Bosnia considered the most hard-line nationalist Serb stronghold. Radovan Karadzie, leader of the self-styled Bosnian Serb government, often chooses Banja Luka as the site for nationalist rallies, where city fathers proclaim through loudspeakers and the media their goal of expelling most minorities and enslaving the remainder. One infamous city leader has publicly said, "We only need enough Muslims in Banja Luka to clean our streets and our shoes."

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Although there has always been a Serb majority in Banja Luka, before the war a Muslim and Croat population lived there as well. Many surrounding villages and towns had majority Muslim and Croat populations.

According to a 1991 census, more than 536,000 non-Serbs resided in this Northern region of Bosnia. Today, it is estimated there are only about 65,000 left. Hundreds of thousands of people have been removed from the region through brutal "ethnic cleansing."

The Serb-run concentration camps that so shocked the world in 1992 were located near Banja Luka. As the world averted its eyes, forced-labor and concentration camps reopened. They are still filled with innocent civilians.

There is an important difference between what happens in Banja Luka and what is happening in Sarajevo, Tuzla or Bihac. No battles have taken place in Banja Luka. What happens in Banja Luka does not transpire in the heat of combat but is coldly calculated by those determined to "cleanse' the area of all non-Serbs and to wreak vengeance upon "the enemy."

I hear that four Catholic churches have been destroyed in as many days in retribution for Croatian army offensives in Croatia. In the process, three more lives were lost. A priest and nun were murdered when their church was blown up. On the night of May 5, the Franciscan friary was bombed and destroyed. Fr. Alohzije Atilja, an elderly Franciscan, died of a heart attack when the monastery was attacked by Bosnian Serb soldiers. The other friars were threatened and abused. When two friars returned the next day to see if anything could be salvaged from the wreckage, they were beaten.

Eleven nuns were taken from their work in the fields and forced onto buses. One nun was knocked to the ground when she resisted. The nuns were then deported across the border into Croatia.

These recent attacks on Catholic churches and clergy were not the first to occur in the region. Seven priests are currently being held in concentration or forced-labor camps. Reports indicate they are suffering physical and psychological abuse. There have been more than 30 attacks on religious sisters. In all, dozens of churches have been destroyed or damaged in the Banja Luka diocese.

On Christmas Day 1994, in the suburban parish of Barlovci near Banja Luka, uniformed men met parishioners as they entered the church yard. They dragged away all the men as they arrived and beat them severely. Some were taken to a cafe where they were beaten further, then to the police station, then to prison and finally to the offices of the "defense ministry" in Banja Luka. Some were told they were being beaten with the intention of making them incapable of having children.

Catholic and Muslim men alike are afraid to spend the night at home, despite cold weather, and hide in sheds and stables to avoid capture for forced labor.

Minorities in Banja Luka, Prijedor, Bijeljina, Sanski Most, Bosanska Gradiska and other towns have long paid the price when offensives are launched by Croatian or Bosnian government troops, or when troops from the front come home seeking revenge for the death of fellow soldiers. Civilians are easy prey. The international community seems satisfied as long as the conflict is contained. A strategy of low-intensity warfare has worked well for the Bosnian Serbs in places like Banja Luka.

The leadership of the Croat and Muslim communities in Banja Luka has largely been silenced, having been taken from their homes, beaten, imprisoned or dragged away to forced labor, where they are often compelled to dig trenches at the front in the line of fire. International organizations have been denied access to the prisoners, many of whom are elderly and in poor health.

Archbishop Franjo Komarica of Banja Luka, whose life has been threatened and who has been placed under house arrest, has begun a hunger strike to protest Serbian atrocities.

Not all Serbs have been bystanders or participants. I cannot reveal too much for fear of exposing those few who are resisting, but I know of a Serb physician who has saved the lives of Muslims. Others have warned their neighbors when the authorities are about to arrest them.

I promised those I met in Banja Luka that I would not forget them, and I have kept that promise. We should not stand silently by. We must insist that our government take action. The U.N. Security Council must again demand full and unimpeded access to all Serb-held areas for human rights monitors. In the meantime, the Serbs refuse to allow the international community access to Banja Luka, save a few beleaguered aid workers.

Catholics, Muslims suffer in Banja Luka: Bosnian city in Serb nationalist strong hold

National Catholic Reporter, June 2, 1995 by Diane Paul

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