Documentation

INTERFAITH APPEAL

SUPPORT PEACE IN BOSNIA!

December 6, 1995

As Orthodox, Muslim and Catholic religious leaders, we welcome the Bosnia peace agreement and urge Americans to support full U.S. participation in its implementation.

It is time for peace in Bosnia-Herzegovina. It is time to bring an end to the suffering, to stop the cruelty, to overcome the hatred, to begin healing the wounds of a frightful war. The Dayton Agreement, for all its inadequacies, offers the peoples of the Balkans a new opportunity to turn away from fratricidal conflict and to embark on a new path of peace and reconciliation. U.S. leadership has helped create the new prospects for peace. U.S. participation is necessary for the peace process to move forward. While not without significant risks, the use of U.S. forces seems indispensable. The alternative to U.S. participation could well be more war, more ethnic cleansing, and a wider conflict.

While religion has sometimes been misused in Bosnia to exacerbate the violence, religious communities will be a vital part of any long-term solution. We are committed, therefore, to redoubling our efforts to work with our Muslim, Orthodox, and Catholic counterparts in the Balkans to bridge the deep divisions between communities, and to use our relief and reconstruction programs to promote peace and reconciliation.

With support from the international community, we are convinced that the peoples of the Balkans will succeed in breaking historic cycles of violence and will be able to build a multi-ethnic Bosnia in which people can once again live together in peace with justice.

Dr. Muhammad Aslam Cheema

President

American Muslim Council

Fr. Leonid Kishkovsky

Ecumenical Officer, Orthodox Church in America

Chair, Europe Committee

National Council of Churches of Christ

Bishop Daniel P. Reilly

Chair, International Policy Committee

U.S. Catholic Conference