Bosnia nominates ethnic Croat bishop for Nobel peace prize

SARAJEVO (AFP) Apr 20, 2004
Roman Catholic bishop Franjo Komarica, who was punished for opposing the wartime policy of ethnic cleansing by Bosnian Serbs, has been nominated for the Nobel peace prize, an official said Tuesday.

Zdravko Surlan, head of the International League of Humanists which campaigned for Komarica, said his candidacy "gained countrywide support by all ethnic groups -- Croats, Muslims and Serbs."

Komarica, an ethnic Croat, spent Bosnia's 1992-95 war in the northern town of Banja Luka after Bosnian Serb authorities drove out almost all non-Serbs at the begining of the brutal conflict.

He was kept under house arrest for a year, prompting protests by the international community.

More than 200,000 people died in the war, which saw the worst atrocities committed in Europe since World War II.

Komarica, who is actively engaged in efforts to enable refugees to return to Banja Luka, now a Bosnian Serb administrative center, openly supports the work of the UN tribunal prosecuting war crimes suspects from former Yugoslavia, notably Bosnia.

The winner of the 2004 Nobel peace prize is to be announced in October.

WAR.WIRE