Pope brings message of hope

By Matthew Price BBC, Banja Luka

Even just a few years ago the events that took place in Banja Luka on Sunday would have been unthinkable.

Tens of thousands came to see the Pope in Bosnia

Pope John Paul II conducted Mass in front of 50,000 Catholics, in the heart of this Orthodox Serbian community.

There is much pain in Banja Luka - born of the conflicts of Bosnia's past.

Serbs here accuse Croats, backed by the Catholic Church, of killing thousands of their men, women and children during World War II.

Fifty years later the tables were turned. Serbs forced Bosnian Croats and Muslims to flee Banja Luka as Yugoslavia fell apart.

Today, perhaps, the people of this troubled area moved a little closer to reconciliation.

There was none of the feared violence, no demonstrations. The anti-Pope posters that had been put up around the town earlier in the week had disappeared.

Shadow of the past

Bosnia's fledgling police force lined the streets with 4,000 officers.

Nato peacekeepers kept a discreet watch as Catholics from Bosnia, neighbouring Croatia, even as far afield as Canada made the pilgrimage to the monastery of Petricevac.

From this city, marked in the course of history by so much suffering... I ask Almighty God to have mercy on the sins committed against humanity

Pope John Paul II

It is a place with a tragic history.

In 1942 a priest from Petricevac led Croat forces to a nearby village. About 2,300 Serbs were killed.

In 1995, near the end of the Bosnian war, Serb forces blew up the monastery.

Today the Pope asked for forgiveness on all sides:

"From this city, marked in the course of history by so much suffering and bloodshed, I ask Almighty God to have mercy on the sins committed against humanity, human dignity and freedom, also by children of the Catholic church," he said in Bosnian.

I wandered through the crowd. Perhaps as many as 50,000 had turned up.

There are just a handful of Catholics left in Banja Luka. Just three percent of those who fled during the Bosnian war have returned.

I bumped into Drago Kordic, a Bosnian Croat. "I love the Pope,'" he told me. "He came here for peace. He is bringing peace to this region".

New start?

Ljubica Vukaric had travelled from Zagreb. I asked her if a few words - even from the pontiff - really could help to end years of mistrust.

Most Roman Catholics have left Banja Luka

"The people want to make peace and justice," she said, "but it's a problem to make justice on this place." She paused: "I think with prayer and belief in God maybe it will be better."

But perhaps it is less the words that are important here, and more the visit itself.

Now the head of the Catholic church has come to this Serb-dominated area and called on people here to "start again".

It will of course change nothing overnight. There is still ethnic tension here.

But if it gives even just a handful of people in Bosnia the confidence and desire to work together to create a lasting peace, this historic visit will have served its purpose.