Franciscan hostages freed in Bosnia

by Timothy Elphick
FIFTEEN Franciscan friars and eight nuns of the order being held hostage by Serbian militia in Bosnia-Herzogovina were freed from captivity this week as, for the first time since fighting broke out in the ex-Yugoslav republic. a ceasefire held.
The 23 Franciscans were abducted last Monday, according to United Nations representatives of Bosnia-Herzogovina and Croatia.
Fr Emanuel Hosco, a Croatian member of the Franciscan general staff, said that officials of the European Community's peacekeeping force had secured the release of the Franciscans, and drove them to the safety of a convent 15 miles from Sarajevo, capital of Bosnia-Herzogovina.
The priests and nuns belonged to the staff of the Franciscan School of Theology in Sarajevo. The city has been torn apart by bloody inter-ethnic fighting between Moslems. Croats and Serbs in recent weeks.
Fr Hosco said the Franciscan college was closed when a commander of local Serbian forces decided to confiscate the buildings. The 23 Franciscans were the only residents in the complex. They were taken as heavy fighting raged in Sarajevo.
The release of the Franciscans came as the Catholic bishops of the United States announced their support for United Nations sanctions to help end civil war in Bosnia-Herzogovina.
The chairman of the bishops' International Policy Committee. Archbishop John Roach of St Paul and Minneapolis, told the American Secretary of State, James Baker, that the bishops' conference believed "the sanctions imposed by the UN are now necessary to halt the violence".
"Sanctions must maintain the distinction between those responsible for the violence and the general population if these policies are to be morally justified," Archbishop Roach said.
The Archbishop condemned the "succession of atrocities being inflicted on the peoples of Bosnia" that have left thousands dead and more than 300,000 homeless.
The Catholic Fund for Overseas Development (CAFOD) said this week that it had sent an emergency cash grant to Caritas Austria to help the charity's relief work in the ex-Yugoslav republics.