'THROUGH FAITH AND FORGIVENESS YOU MUST MAKE BOSNIA ONE AGAIN', SECRETARY-GENERAL TELLS COUNTRY'S RELIGIOUS LEADERS
Press Release
SG/SM/6569
'THROUGH FAITH AND FORGIVENESS YOU MUST MAKE BOSNIA ONE AGAIN', SECRETARY-GENERAL TELLS COUNTRY'S RELIGIOUS LEADERS
19980520 CHECK AGAINST DELIVERY In Remarks to Dialogue among Four Religious Leaders of Bosnia And Herzegovina, Kofi Annan Congratulates Them on 'Remarkable Act of Healing'Following are the opening remarks by Secretary-General Kofi Annan at the interreligious dialogue among the four religious leaders of Bosnia and Herzegovina, in New York today:
It is a great pleasure for me to welcome you to the United Nations today. I wish to congratulate you on this remarkable act of healing and reconciliation. I urge you to meet many more times in Bosnia itself so that the people can see that coexistence is not only necessary, but possible.
Your mission has a special place in the hearts of all of us here at the United Nations who sought to end the war in Bosnia. We did so in the fervent belief that coexistence -- once flourishing among the communities of your country -- could once again become reality.
For too long during Bosnia dark's days of war, religion was used not to unite but to divide; not to teach mercy, but to incite hatred; not to resolve differences peacefully but to make those differences the cause of conflict. Those days are now over, and as your society slowly rebuilds and reunites, you have a solemn responsibility to restore religion to its rightful role as peacemaker and pacifier.
For as you -- the religious leaders of Bosnia -- know better than anyone, the problem is never the Bible or the Torah or the Koran. Indeed, the problem is never the faith -- it is the faithful and how we behave towards each other.
You must, once again, teach your faithful the ways of peace and the ways of tolerance that they knew before the war and will know again.
Through faith and forgiveness, you must make Bosnia one again. The hopes of all of the United Nations are with you as you create a future of peace and coexistence for the people of Bosnia and Herzegovina.
* *** *