Athens Conference (UPI)

 

By STEFAN RACIN  

 

        BELGRADE, Yugoslavia, April 21 (UPI) -- A senior official of the Greek foreign ministry has resigned after arousing the government's displeasure for expressing support to Serb opposition representatives at their meeting in Athens today with Serbian crown prince Alexander Karadjordjevic, the Beta news agency reported. 
        The official, Aleksandros Rondos, who is general director of  the ministry's directorate for international relations, told the two-day gathering that Foreign Minister Jorgos Papandreou himself would address it on Saturday. Beta described Rondos as a close aide to the minister. 
        If Mr. Papandreou does come to speak,  it would  mark a  serious rupture within the Greek cabinet over policy toward Yugoslav President Slobodan Milosevic and his regime. Sources close to the Greek government were cited by Beta as indicating prior to the meeting that Athens had distanced itself from the meeting. 
        Greece has been walking a tightrope between the Belgrade  regime and its opponents in Serbia and Montenegro and has been at pains not to offend Mr. Milosevic. 
        But it has also had contacts with Montenegro's president Milo  Djukanovic and other top officials who are at odds with Mr. Milosevic and his entourage. 
        Some 90 Serb opposition and church leaders and representatives  of the Serbian Diaspora mostly from the United States are attending the meeting. 
        Three Serbian orthodox church bishops Artemije, Amfilohije and  Atanasije are present as are leaders of most major opposition parties and representatives of the strong student and youth "Resistance" movement, and some non-government organizations. 
        Vuk Draskovic, leader of the biggest Serbian Renewal Movement,  who is not in Athens, is represented by a senior party official who carried a message to the prince asking him to renounce his British passport and settle permanently in Belgrade. 
        The Athens meeting, titled "Time for Change, Time for  Democracy" was called by Prince Alexander, who is the only son of Yugoslavia's last King Peter the Second and pretender to the Yugoslav and Serbian throne. 
        The aim of the meeting, the largest of several the opposition  leaders have had with the prince so far is to try and weld the fractious opposition into a single force against Milosevic. 

        In his opening remarks, the prince said the gathering was  about the fate of the Serbian nation and all citizens of Serbia. He appealed to his guests to set all their disagreements aside and think of the difficult position the Serbs had found themselves in. He told them they had come together to consider ways and means of achieving radical changes in Serbia and saving the Serbian and Yugoslav peoples from further destruction and misfortune. 
        In a statement, the participants said they would discuss  possibilities for "propelling  the present repressed society forward into the future in which democracy will reign and human rights will be respected."  

 

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