The Bosnian Croats are a minority in Bosnia, around 15%, and are worried about their survival in Bosnia. That is why in Bosnia, NOT Croatia, some of them formed an alliance with the Serbs in certain parts. And that's why a few of them want to work with Serbs today - the Bosnian Muslim population is now around 48-50% - up from 42-43% before the war. With the Bosnian Serbs, they - (Croats and Serbs combined) - hold a slight majority. They can work together to prevent legislation which gives the Muslims more power, for instance.
There's been some Muslim immigration to Bosnia and the Catholics (Croats) believe their numbers are falling. Recently a Bosnian Croat Cardinal spoke how the Muslims prevented the Croats from building churches (in areas dominated by the Muslims), prevent them from getting jobs, etc. In other words, the Muslims make it hard for others to survive, so they end up leaving for Croatia or other countries and the population falls.
The Croats also wish they had their own entity - such as the Serbs have the RS (Republika Srpska) - while they are in a "Federation" with the Muslims.
In Croatia it is almost ethnically pure - around 90% Croat - so they don't need to worry about their population being squeezed out.
They are a racist people - especially towards Serbs - and want the country to themselves.
This is an article from earlier this month about Croat concerns:
http://bcc.rcav.org/06-05-15/intl3.htm
Cardinal says Catholics feel threatened in Bosnia
By Regina Linskey, Catholic News Service
WASHINGTON (CNS) -- Catholics in Bosnia-Herzegovina feel pressure, threats and discrimination from an unfair political system and from Muslims financially backed by Islamic countries, said the head of the Bosnian bishops' conference.
Successful dialogue between Catholics and Muslims, which is solely "about coexistence," depends on the political situation, Cardinal Vinko Puljic of Sarajevo told Catholic News Service in a May 2 interview.
During the 1992-1995 war for independence and up to today, radical influences from Eastern Islamic countries infiltrated into Bosnia, the cardinal said through a translator during a visit to Washington.
Bosnian Muslims have access to funding and permits to build their mosques, but Catholics do not have access to either, he said. The cardinal said he has been waiting for a building permit for eight years, whereas "the Muslims, whenever desired, they get" a building permit.
In the Serb republic -- one of the two Bosnian federations divided along ethnic lines since the 1995 Dayton peace accords -- Orthodoxy is the state religion, so it is also financially and politically secure, the cardinal said. The other federation is Muslim- and Croat-controlled. The central federal government has a rotating presidency.
The plight of the country's Croatians -- most of whom are Catholic -- is not really about churches, the cardinal said. Catholics in the country are not protected by the government and the police and do not have a voice in the media; they need employment and infrastructure, he said.
Because Catholics do not have access to the media, there is "no way to get our views across," so it seems like discrimination does not exist, the cardinal said.
Meanwhile, most of the Catholic refugees displaced during the war have not been able to return, he said.
To return to Bosnia-Herzegovina, refugees need to prove to the government that they own land, the cardinal said, "but on the other hand, everything was taken away from them. Documents were burned. ... It's an impossible situation ... it's easier to go to another country."
More than 10 years after the Dayton peace accords, "barely 12,000 of the 220,000 refugees" have returned, he said, adding that international funds designated to help the refugees have not been given to Catholic Croats. The cardinal also said that since Jan. 1 donations to Catholic agencies have been taxed 17 percent by the government.
"All we want is that which the other has," he said. "All we want is the same rights as Muslims and Serbs."
Cardinal Puljic said the Bosnian bishops' conference has proposed constitutional reforms that include multiethnic rights and would squash fears that rights would be "taken away even more."
Sometimes Catholics feel like "we are toys in the hands of great players," the cardinal said.
He said he is concerned with the country's youths, who "do not see any perspective regarding their political future."
Cardinal Puljic told CNS that the actual number of Catholics living in the former Yugoslav republic is unclear, although he estimates that 14 percent of the population of approximately 4.5 million is Catholic. The government has not held a census since before the war, the cardinal said, adding, "They don't want to do that because it (census) will make clear the ethnic cleansing."
While he was in Washington, the cardinal visited the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops. He also met with representatives of the U.S. Institute of Peace and discussed interfaith relations, the status of Catholics in Bosnia and constitutional reform.
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MrZedd
16 years ago
If you think that the Muslims are racist when Croats and Serbs burned their homes,killed them and raped their women solely based on their race. Of course they're gonna be spiteful against them, who wouldn't. And just so you know, Republika Srpska shouldn't exist, you dont see Bosniaks having Republika Bosna in Croatia or Serbia.
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jm2-1
15 years ago
The Bosnian Muslim had concentration camps of Serbs in the territory their army controlled - in Tuzla, in Zenica, in Sarajevo, etc.
In the Muslim controlled part of Sarajevo their were scores of rape camps - and often abducted Serb women were held in basements of apartments or restaurants. They also barged into Serb homes and raped the women, killed their parents, then put the women in vans to the rape camps.
Investigators found a Muslim army rape camp operating in Tuzla.
There's no DNA evidence of Serb rape of Muslims, nor are there ever and so-called "rape babies" brought forward and proved.
The Muslim Green Berets started the first killings. They shot at Sarajevo Serbs celebrating a wedding and killed the father of the groom and injured many others.
The Muslims have video tapes of Serbs they decapitated.
The Bosnian Muslims never have any sign of torture on them to back up all their claims. None of them shows they starved - no stunted growth on children who lived there during the entire war.
The staged attacks for the cameras and UN officers have testified over this. They were big at PR and would initiate mortar attacks from around UN compound in Sarajevo to draw Serb fire and get them in trouble.
The Ukrainian officer testifying on this was not angry for the return fire (which was near, but didn't hit their building) because he heard the Muslim OUTGOING mortar first.
They SO LIED and exaggerated about the deaths in that war. The dead have been found to be mostly military.
The number of women and children killed in the Bosnian war is a small percentage - as over 90% were men.
This is a smaller percentage than U.S.-run operation or other wars which always kill more civilians than military - Vietnam, Korea, Iraq, Afghanistan, etc.
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