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21 October 2005

Franciscans demand apology about Croatian war crimes' general

Jonathan Luxmoore
Warsaw (ENI). The Roman Catholic Franciscan order in Croatia and Bosnia-Herzegovina has demanded an apology from United Nations' war crimes prosecutor Carla Del Ponte after she accused members of harbouring a general wanted for war crimes.

"We have been deeply injured by these undeserved claims," the order's five provinces said in a joint letter. "Although we are ready to forgive you, our love for truth entitles us to expect a public apology."

Del Ponte, chief prosecutor in The Hague of the UN Criminal Tribunal for former Yugoslavia, had been quoted by Britain's Daily Telegraph newspaper in September saying she believed the wanted general, Ante Gotovina, was sheltering in one of Croatia's 80 monasteries.

General Gotovina faces charges of overseeing the killing of at least 150 Serb civilians during the Croatian army's 1995 operation to regain control of the Serb-occupied Krajina region, and the forced deportation of tens of thousands of people.

The Franciscans said in their letter dated 10 October that the accusations they were sheltering the general had "struck at the Catholic church", adding that it would ask the order's "creator and confessor", St Francis of Assisi, to forgive the "defamation of Franciscans".

Del Ponte had been reported saying she believed the Vatican could pinpoint which monastery was involved "in a few days", and had decided to go public after receiving no reply to a direct appeal to Pope Benedict XVI.

The allegations were rejected by the Vatican and Croatia's Catholic Bishops Conference, as well as by the country's Conference of Religious Superiors, which said it was "unacceptable and intolerable" that a UN-appointed official had "voiced public suspicions without evidence". The European Union opened entry talks with Croatia in October after Del Ponte said the country was co-operating fully with the war crimes tribunal, while also noting that the Croatian government's actions in trying to track down Gotovina were under scrutiny. The EU had made compliance with war crimes investigators a condition for starting the talks.

Roman Catholics comprise almost 88 per cent of Croatia's population of 4.5 million, according to a 2001 census.

© 1994 - 2006 Ecumenical News International.

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