“Although we believe that after the verdict and the tragic death of Slobodan Praljak in The Hague, silence and contrition prayers for the Defunct and for all the victims of the war are the most appropriate expression of our feelings, we know that perhaps rightfully, all the well-intentioned people of this country, and especially Catholics, expect our response”, declared the President of the Bishops’ Conference of Bosnia-Herzegovina, Cardinal of Sarajevo, Vinko Puljic, also on behalf of his confrere bishops of Bosnia and Herzegovina in a letter dated November 30th 2017, following the sentence of the Yugoslav War Crimes Tribunal in The Hague. “We don’t intend to comment on the sentence of the Court”, the bishops wrote, “but also on this occasion we reiterate what we repeated throughout this war, that we oppose and condemn every crime: everyone should face their responsibilities.” The bishops added: “during the war we were most pained by crimes perpetrated by those washed in the baptismal water of the Catholic Church.” However, “we cannot and will not turn a blind eye before the obvious fact that a message was sent and keeps being sent to the native Croatian people, since the Washington and Dayton Peace Accords, especially in the manner of their implementation, that Bosnia and Herzegovina is not their homeland and that there is no room for them here.” The bishops wrote that they consider this “immoral and unacceptable for the future of this Country and all its citizens and peoples”. This too “is a crime for which many should answer”, the bishop wrote, adding that they “remain open to every fruitful collaboration with all those who care about the more rightful and human worthy general state in this country.”