pastor of the town, was sentenced to three and a half years imprisonment with forced labor for allegedly participating in a nationalistic plot. After Amnesty International, among others, appealed for his release and a judicial appeal was made, the sentence was reduced in the Yugoslav Federal Court in Belgrade to one and a half years, and the priest was released from prison in 1983.
In the last years before the breakup of Yugoslavia, the travel of pilgrims was no longer hindered by the state.
Me?ugorje during the Bosnian War
During the Bosnian War Me?ugorje remained in the hands of the Croatian Defence Council and in 1993 became part of the internationally unrecognized Croatian Republic of Herzeg-Bosnia. By the Dayton Agreement in 1995, Me?ugorje was incorporated into the Federation of Bosnia and Herzegovina, populated mostly by Bosniaks and Croats. It lies within the Herzegovina-Neretva Canton, one of ten autonomous regions established so that no ethnic group could dominate the Federation.
In 1992 the town was the launching point for ethnic cleansing on the part of the Croatian Defence Council, which led to the complete destruction of the Serbian Orthodox �itomisli? Monastery. The property of the Franciscan order in Bijakovi?i below Podbrdo ("Apparition Hill") was used during the war years as a testing ground for grenade launchers by the militia of a local weapons dealer.
On April 2, 1995, at the high point of conflict within the local diocese, Bishop Ratko Peri? was kidnapped by Croatian militiamen, beaten, and taken to a chapel run by one of the Franciscans associated with Me?ugorje, where he was held hostage for ten hours. At the initiative of the mayor of Mostar he was freed without bloodshed, with the help of the United Nations Protection Force.
Development after the war
After the ending of the Bosnian War, peace came to the area: UN peace troops were stationed in western Herzegovina. Efforts by
