A news item published in the
Banja Luka Nezavisne Novine on http://www.nezavisne.com/vijesti.php?vijest=10690&meni=2
states that the Bosnia-Herzegovina embassies in Argentina and South Africa, as
well as the general consulate in Bonn are going to be closed.
The Bonn consulate serves
some 40000 citizens of B-H who live in that area.
The embassy in South Africa
serves to cover a good part of the vast African continent.
Finally, the Embassy located
in Buenos Aires provides diplomatic and consular services for all of Latin
America, from Mexico to the southern tip of the American continent.
In Argentina live many
Croatians and a good number of them trace their roots to Bosnia and
Herzegovina. However, there are not only Croatians –Catholics– but also Muslims
and Orthodox, in lesser numbers.
Besides these personal and
familiar relations between B-H and Latin America, there is not doubt that
Medjugorje is the big connection. The Gospa at Medjugorje has a large number of
devoted followers in these mostly Catholic Latin American countries.
After learning of the
possible closing of the Embassy in Buenos Aires, a number of persons approached
our Journal asking what could be done to prevent that closing.
So an action was initiated
to collect signatures supporting the continuation of the Embassy in Argentina
(see http://www.studiacroatica.org/bol2007/20070702_molimo.htm)
We received supporting
messages coming from all the countries in Latin America, The United States,
Canada, Spain, Sweden, Norway and some other European countries.
The people that signed up
include people of Croatian, Muslim, and Serbian origin, as well as many people
with no family connection with B-H or her neighbouring countries, but rather
signed up because they are devoted to the Gospa in Medjugorje.
The group of signatories
include persons that have not traveled yet to B-H, as well as people that went
once, twice and three or more times.
Many of the messages that we
received ask for the reasons for the announced closing: Why are they closing?,
How are we going to get the visa to visit Medjugorje?
Why? We did not hear any official
or any other kind of explanation. Usually the reasons given for these kind of
closings are economic or rationalization, which amounts to the same thing.
But that reason, if given,
cannot be the real reason for the threatened closing, considering the important
number of people that go from Latin America to B-H, mainly to Medjugorje, who
pay for their visas and spend their money in that country.
Some people believe that
there are other – darker – reasons for the possible closing. And the reasons
have also to do with Medjugorje. It appears to be the case that some groups in
B-H want to reduce the importance of Medjugorje, to dwindle the flow of
peregrines going there, and to dry the source of money going to Croatian hands
in B-H.
It is a well known fact that
the position of the Croatian nation in B-H is not easy at all. After the unjust
peace signed at Dayton, we have seen a long and never ending series of moves
threatening the position of Croatians in B-H: politically, economically (no
jobs for Croatians), in education (no Croatian curricula at schools),
culturally, in communications (no Croatian TV in B-H), and so on. And recently
we have even witnessed the holding of constitutional talks without the presence
of the Croatian part.
So they want to reduce the
Croatian nation in B-H from being one of the constitutive nations to being a
minority, a set of folklore troupes.
Given the above facts, it is
very difficult to find a better explanation for the threatened closing of the
B-H Embassy in Buenos Aires: it is an attempt to reduce even further the status
of Croatians to being a minority, to become a small footnote to the history of
Bosnia-Herzegovina
Joza Vrljicak
July 2007