Cardinal urges UN to stop "genocide" of Croatians

BY LUCY LETHBRIDGE
AnwS FIGHTING BETWEEN Muslim and Croatian ties intensified in the former Yugoslavia, a leading Catholic official has called on the United Nations for swift measures to prevent the "genocide of Croats in central Bosnia".
"You are a key to stop the killing and suffering of limocent citizens," said Cardinal Franjo Kuharic of Zagreb, in a letter last week to the UN Secretary General Dr Boutros Boutros-Ghali. On the same day, the cardinal joined Mustafa Cerlc, the Bosnian Muslim religious leader, in calling for greater Croatian-Muslim cooperation in the search for peace.
The Catholic and Muslim leaders urged all sides to
stop fighting, agree to an unconditional exchange of prisoners, allow passage of humanitarian aid and permit displaced people to return to their homes.
In his letter to Dr BoutrosGhali, Cardinal Kuharic said that the "conflict between Croats and Muslims is a conflict of victims, with the victims of yesterday creating new victims of today".
The cardinal went accuse Serbian aggression as being the main causP of the sufferings of Croats and Muslims in Bosnia and he urged the UN to place human rights monitors in strategic areas of war-torn Bosnia like hospitals and prison camps, to guard against violations of basic rights.
Other UN measures urged by Cardinal Kuharic included the opening up communication and relief supply lines to Croatian enclaves before the hardship of winter.
The cardinal described Bosnia's four Croatian zones as "besieged enclaves" and he went on to say that the fate of 25,000 Croats in one enclave that fell to the Muslims earlier this month is unknown.
"Thousands of Croats live under occupation or in prison camps. There is no census of their number and their condition is not monitored."
"The issue now is whether Croats will be allowed to live with their nation and their faith respected and preserved, or will the winter of 1993 be remembered as a year of genocide of the Croats of central Bosnia" said the Cardinal.