Princess Pleads for Bomb Halt 

By COLLEEN EMSING and BILL EGBERT 
Daily News Writers 

Tears in her eyes, Princess Katherine of Yugoslavia called yesterday for NATO to stop the bombing yesterday as she spoke at a Manhattan church.
 
"It's not up to the international community to punish the [Serbian] people in order to teach their leaders a lesson," she told Easter Sunday congregants at the Serbian Orthodox Cathedral of St. Sava on W. 25th St. 

After the Mass, the princess left for her London home to be with her husband, Prince Alexander, who is "sad and upset that the Yugoslavians are still fighting for their lands." The prince's father, King Peter II, was exiled from Yugoslavia during World War II. 

Her emotional plea came as area Serbs and Albanians marked a bittersweet Easter, warmly greeting neighbors and friends while worrying about the fate of their loved ones back home. 

"I haven't heard from my family [in Kosovo] for a week," said Leke Vataj, an Albanian who organizes relief effort from Our Lady of Shkodra Church in Hartsdale, Westchester County. 

"Last Sunday they all slept in their church because they were afraid to stay in their houses. Monday morning, they were given five minutes to leave." 

Their village was burned, Vataj said. "Whether they are alive or they are massacred, I do not know." 
Vataj said about 30% of parishioners have immediate family in Kosovo, and nearly all have some extended relations affected by the fighting. 

"We have to help however we can," the Rev. Peter Popaj, the church's pastor, told congregants. "Those people could have been you and I." 

He reminded his flock of the promise of the Easter season: "Suffering and death can turn to hope and life."