BOSNIA - STALEMATE OVER CATHOLIC CHURCH PERMIT

C O N F I D E N T I A L SECTION 01 OF 02 SARAJEVO 002270

SIPDIS

SIPDIS

DEPARTMENT FOR EUR/SCE (HOH/FOOKS)

E.O. 12958: DECL: 10/22/2017
TAGS: PGOV PHUM KIRF BK
SUBJECT: BOSNIA - STALEMATE OVER CATHOLIC CHURCH PERMIT

REF: SARAJEVO 1806

Classified By: Michael J. Murphy for reasons 1.4 (b) and (d).


1. (C) SUMMARY: During recent visits to Sarajevo, prominent
Catholic Church (hereinafter "Church") officials have
highlighted their concerns over a seven-year wait for
permission to build a new church in the Sarajevo neighborhood
of Grbavica. Although the Church has made several requests
for a building permit, authorities of the Novo Sarajevo
Municipality tell us that the Church has not followed the
correct application procedures. We recently discussed the
permit application with Church officials and offered several
suggestions for resolving the problem. These suggestions,
however, were met with little or no enthusiasm. In addition,
several contacts have suggested a dispute between the
Archbishopric and the Jesuits over control of the parish is
complicating efforts to secure the permit. All of this
raises questions in our mind about how important the Grbavica
permit is to the Bosnian Catholic Church. END SUMMARY.

Background
--------------


2. (SBU) Grbavica rests in the only parish in Bosnia and
Herzegovina administered by Jesuit priests. For the past 25
years, these priests have used the basement of a private home
to hold services and perform religious duties. (Note:
Although not ideal, this practice is common among all
religious groups in Bosnia and Herzegovina. End Note) In June
2000, the priests requested permission from the municipal
authorities of Novo Sarajevo to build a larger and more
permanent church in the vicinity of their current premises.
The municipality rejected their request, explaining that the
Church had asked for a much larger plot of land than what had
been foreseen in the municipality's urban plan. In addition,
the municipality replied that plans were already underway to
use the prospective plot for a sports complex.


3. (SBU) Church authorities, led by Archbishop of Vrhbosna
Diocese Vinko Cardinal Puljic, and the Jesuit priests then
sent a new request asking the municipality for an alternative
location. The municipality forwarded this request to the
Sarajevo Canton Spatial Planning Institute which finally, in
2005, suggested that the church could be constructed on land
that is currently a park. The Municipal Council accepted this
proposal, but Grbavica residents rejected it during public
debate, claiming that it would deprive them of the only
available play-area for their children. (Note: These same
residents also reportedly objected to the construction of a
mosque in the same park for the same reason, but the mosque
has since been constructed in the park. According to the
municipality, the paperwork for the mosque was submitted
prior to the Church's request, but the Church disputes this
fact. End note.)

Komsic Takes on the Issue
--------------


4. (C) In May 2006, Zeljko Komsic, current Croat Presidency
Member and then Mayor of Novo Sarajevo, met with Church
representatives, cantonal authorities and Jesuit priests to
resolve the permit issue. During the meeting, Komsic offered
the original location requested by the Jesuits, since plans
for a sports complex and swimming pool in the same location
had been canceled. The Jesuits tell us they accepted
Komsic's proposal and submitted all necessary documentation
to finalize the plan a few days later. The Archbishopric,
however, claims that the municipality never responded to the
new request for the permit. Komsic claims that it was the
Catholic Church who froze all contact with the municipality.
He believes Cardinal Puljic forbade the Jesuits from pursuing
the matter. When we contacted the Jesuits to schedule a
meeting about the permit, the parish priest told us to first
call the competent individuals in Vrhbosna Archbishopric,
saying they have the sole and ultimate authority to speak on
this issue. He then added "if we had the authority, we would
have handled things differently."

Playing the Blame Game
--------------


5. (C) During recent visits to Sarajevo, prominent Catholic
Church officials from the Vatican and the U.S. have
highlighted their concerns over the Grbavica church permit,
often using it as an example of the type of discrimination
the Bosnian Croat minority population faces in Bosnia and
Herzegovina. Following up on these accusations, we met with
Novo Sarajevo Mayor Nedzad Koldzo, a Bosnian Muslim. Mayor
Koldzo explained that the municipality's urban plan foresees

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the presence of a Catholic church, but that Church officials
have neither followed the correct application procedures nor
filed the correct paperwork to formally request the permit.
Additionally, he explained that all applicants seeking
valuable land plots in the municipality must go through the
same uniform application procedures, including public tender.
The Mayor claimed that the municipality is very cautious
about this because they do not want to be perceived as
playing favorites -- especially with religious communities.


6. (C) When asked about their previous correspondence with
the municipality, Church officials told us that instead of
applying to the requisite Department for Urbanism, the church
has been writing directly to the Mayor's office. The Church
believes the municipality should just donate the land like
other neighboring municipalities have done, instead of
burdening the Church with lengthy paperwork and the financial
burden of a public tender. They fear that if forced to a
tender, their limited funding would not be enough to outbid
other contenders with deeper pockets. They told us that the
Mayor is using the bureaucratic process as a front to deny
the permit to prevent the church's construction and to win a
larger sum from the sale of the land.

Proposing a Way Forward
--------------


7. (C) In a recent conversation with Cardinal Puljic and his
advisors, we suggested that the Church apply for the permit
through the process requested by the municipality, i.e. to
apply to the Department of Urbanism and go to public tender
to purchase the land. We also suggested that the Cardinal
meet with Mayor Koldzo to discuss the issue openly and try to
find a resolution. The Cardinal told us that he has tried to
meet with Mayor Koldzo to discuss this issue in the past, but
that the mayor has refused to see him. We informed him that
we had met with Mayor Koldzo and had suggested a meeting and
that he had been receptive to the idea. The Cardinal said he
would "potentially" look into the situation later this fall
and thanked us for our attention to the issue.

Comment
--------------


8. (C) It appears to us that the dispute over the Grbavica
church permit is more than a straightforward case of
discrimination, as the Catholic Church regularly asserts. It
is true that the Mayor Koldzo's claim of paperwork
irregularities is a common ploy used by municipalities in
Bosnia to obstruct religious freedom. It is also true that
resolution of this issue has taken much longer than it should
have. However, it is quite possible that profit rather than
an anti-Catholic bias is driving the municipality. In
addition, our conversations with the Church suggest that the
permit might not be as important to the Church as it claims.
The Cardinal left us with the distinct impression he was in
no hurry to resolve it and appeared uninterested in our
effort to facilitate a meeting between him and Mayor Koldzo.
There are also clear differences of opinion within the Church
-- between the Archbishopric and the Jesuits -- about how to
move forward. Some of our religious freedom and Catholic
contacts have suggested that the Cardinal wants to take
control of the Jesuits' parish and is using the permit
dispute to justify installing his own priests. Whether this
is true, our efforts to underscore to the Cardinal our
continuing support for religious freedom and offer to arrange
a meeting between Church and municipal officials has helped
make clear that the U.S. concern for religious freedom
extends to Bosnian Croats.
ENGLISH