Pope Says World Must ‘Disarm Aggressor’ in Bosnia

In his “state of the world” address Saturday, Pope John Paul II said that the war in Bosnia-Herzegovina has humiliated Europe and that the international community has a duty to “disarm the aggressor” if other means fail.

Addressing diplomats from nearly 150 countries, the Pope also said the people of Iraq are still suffering from “cruel privations” two years after the Persian Gulf War. But he made no mention of the current showdown between Western powers and Baghdad.

Referring to the bloodshed in Bosnia, the Pope said that the “whole of Europe is being humiliated” by the fratricidal battles in the former Yugoslav republic.

“(Europe’s) institutions are being ignored. All peace efforts of recent years have been, as it were, destroyed,” he said.

The Pope did not mention Serbia, which the United Nations has charged with fomenting the Bosnian war. But he seemed to refer to Serbs several times.

“The international community ought to show more clearly its political will not to accept aggression and territorial conquest by force nor the aberration of ‘ethnic cleansing,’ ” the Pope said.

He said he wanted to admonish those who “have in their hands a weapon in order to attack their brothers and sisters.”

Those who indulge in such actions will answer for it not only before the international community but also before God, he said.

In a section of his address in which he did not specifically mention Bosnia, the Pope said states no longer have a “right to indifference” if populations are still “succumbing to the attacks of an unjust aggressor.”

“It seems clear that their duty is to disarm the aggressor if all other means have proved ineffective,” he said.

Saturday marked the first time the Pope, who has made dozens of appeals for peace in Bosnia, used such explicit terms as “disarming the aggressor.”