POPE John Paul II this evening starts a symbolic 25 hour pilgrimage to the Bosnian capital, Sarajevo. He will appeal for peaceful coexistence and forgiveness among the country's Croat Catholics, Orthodox Christian Serbs and Bosnian Muslims.
Two members of Bosnia's tripartite presidency, Mr Alija Izetbegovic, a Muslim, and Mr Kresimir Zubak, a Croat and Roman Catholic, will greet the Pope when he arrives at Sarajevo airport this afternoon.
Bosnia's third presidency member, Mr Momcilo Krajisnik, a Serb, said "security considerations" would prevent his attendance at the ceremony.
Solidarity, hope and forgiveness will be the keynotes of the Pope's message during a visit which comes at a time of tensions in the shaky Bosnian Federation put in place by the 1995 Dayton Accord. Even the extensive security measures for the visit underline both recent memories of warfare and current tensions.
Furthermore, a wave of tit for tat bombing attacks on Catholic churches and mosques that began two months ago underscores the tensions. A monastery and a church in central Sarajevo were among the targets of those attacks in which some people were hurt.
The highlight of the visit comes tomorrow, when the Pope addresses an open air Mass in Sarajevo's Kosevo soccer stadium. Even the logistical arrangements for the Mass will test the mood in Bosnia, since many Croat Catholics will have to cross ethnic dividing lines on their bus journey to Sarajevo.
Pope John Paul has long wanted to visit Sarajevo; 2 1/2 years ago, an intended 12 hour visit to the besieged city was abandoned when Bosnian Serbs made it clear that they could not guarantee his safety. Some of those Serbs still feel resentful about the Vatican's alacrity in acknowledging the independence of Croatia and Slovenia in 1992, arguing that such international recognition precipitated the Bosnian crisis.
Despite Serb reservations, the Pope has been eager to bear witness to Sarajevo's suffering, as well as pay tribute to its potential for ethnic diversity. Throughout the Bosnian conflict, the Pope condemned the violent excesses of nationalism which characterised the ethnic strife, calling for peace and reconciliation. For the Pope, Sarajevo remains a city - similar to Jerusalem - where there might be peaceful coexistence.
Bosnian commentators such as - the poet Marko Vesovic suggest - the Pope may be disappointed, however, arguing that ethically integrated and diverse Sarajevo is dead and buried, its fate sealed by the Dayton Accord.
"I'm afraid that the Pope's visit will not much help Bosnia," Mr Vesovic told the Italian magazine, Sette, this week. "There are people here who are currently dividing up the country, if they have not already definitively divided it, who are not frightened of God ... The people looking forward joyfully to the Pope's visit and his message are people with absolutely no power.
Even the Vatican itself, while welcoming the Dayton Accord in as much as it ended the bloodshed, had reservations about a peace deal that effectively rubber stamped the ethnic cleansing perpetrated by all sides in the Bosnian conflict.
This is a visit rich in symbolism. It embodies the concerns of the much travelled 76 year old Pope's pontificate: a common European heritage, the need for religious freedom and tolerance, the need for the affluent West to help in rebuilding the former communist bloc, the need for the emerging east European countries to rediscover meaningful moral, guidelines.
It is a positive sign that even if this visit comes at a moment of tension in the Bosnian Federation, those difficulties did not prevent all three members of Bosnia's collective presidency issuing a joint invitation. The Pope will hope that his visit serves to ease tensions among Croat, Serb and Muslim.