THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1996, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Monday, January 15, 1996 TAG: 9601150040
SECTION: LOCAL PAGE: B1 EDITION: FINAL
SOURCE: By TONY WHARTON, STAFF WRITER
DATELINE: WILLIAMSBURG LENGTH: Medium: 77 lines
As Virginia's social and intellectual elite celebrated 220 years of religious freedom in their state and the nation, a top American diplomat reminded them it remains a distant goal in other parts of the world.
Hours after accompanying President Clinton to Bosnia, Assistant Secretary of State Richard C. Holbrooke came to Williamsburg on Sunday to accept the National First Freedom Award from the Council for America's First Freedom.
To demonstrate how vital religious freedom is, Holbrooke said the president on Saturday told a rare meeting of differing Bosnian religious leaders, ``You can't make peace with your friends. You have to reach out to others.''
Clinton was quoting assassinated Israeli leader Yitzhak Rabin, showing how far Bosnia has to go, said Holbrooke.
The Middle East, Holbrooke said, is in ``good shape.'' But in Bosnia, he said, ``We have the absence of war, but not quite full peace yet.''
The council, a who's who of Virginians, works to commemorate and preserve the Virginia Statute for Religious Freedom, written by Thomas Jefferson. It is considered a cornerstone of religious freedom in the U.S. Constitution and political thought worldwide.
The group has recently dedicated the site of Virginia's former Capitol building where the statute was adopted, at 14th and East Cary Street in Richmond.
Together with B'nai B'rith International, the council honored Holbrooke as a peacemaker for his key role in the Bosnian accords reached in Dayton, Ohio, and now being enforced by NATO peacekeepers, led by U.S. troops. The ceremony was attended by Gov. George F. Allen, former Gov. Gerald Baliles and U.S. Rep. Bobby Scott, whose district stretches from Norfolk to Richmond.
Holbrooke and others at the ceremonies, held in the House of Burgesses building where Jefferson argued for religious freedom, said Americans may take the principle for granted, but it is far from universal.
Martin E. Marty, a leading religious historian from the University of Chicago, noted that Jefferson and his colleagues never believed that their work was finished.
``We are still involved in the middle of this plot,'' Marty said. ``We are stopping to think about religious freedom today. Yet in much of the world, they have not reached this place we reached over 200 years ago.''
Even in the 18th century, Marty said, Jefferson specifically mentioned Jews, Muslims and Hindus as protected by the Statute for Religious Freedom.
Yet today in Eastern Europe, some of those same religions fight each other. Holbrooke said Clinton's meeting with the religious leaders was remarkable because almost no basic freedoms are preserved in Bosnia today.
In addition to religious freedom, Holbrooke said, there are several immediate goals in Bosnia: allowing refugees to return to their homes; ensuring free and fair elections; building an honest and fair police force; prosecuting war criminals; and building a new civic political structure.
``These are huge tasks,'' he said. ``They're going to be really tough to do. . . . We're going to be tested by people on all sides.''
The goals cannot necessarily be achieved in the year that peacekeepers are pledged to stay, Holbrooke said. But what is necessary, he said, is that during this year, ``The U.S. military and NATO must create a situation and an atmosphere where problems are not solved by violence.''
Holbrooke himself plans to leave the State Department Feb. 21 for private life. He said he will continue to take on individual diplomatic missions if asked.
About the prospect for lasting peace in Bosnia, Holbrooke said, ``It's going to take time. There's an enormous amount of bitterness. . . . (But) I'm not prepared to contemplate the possibility of failure. I hate to fail.'' ILLUSTRATION: HUY NGUYEN
The Virginian-Pilot
Richard Holbrooke, who accepted the National First Freedom Award,
says of peace in Bosnia: "I'm not prepared to
contemplate...failure."
by CNB