THE DAILY TELEGRAPH
30 June 1999
Prince and Patriarch meet victims of "madness"
By Michael Smith in Pec
Homecoming: Crown Prince Alexander of Yugoslavia and his wife
Prince Katherine, visiting Kosovo with an escort of Italian troops.
CROWN Prince Alexander of Yugoslavia went to Kosovo yesterday
to meet the head of the Serbian Orthodox Church and call for the Serb government
to be replaced.
After meeting Patriarch Pavle, the Prince told Serbs who had taken
refuge in their most holy shrine, just outside Pec, that Slobodan Milosevic
was responsible for their plight. He called on Serbs not to leave Kosovo.
He said: "We've had communism and 10 years of total madness. On my
way here I have witnessed the results of ethnic cleansing. It is the most
disgusting thing. The Kosovo Albanians have suffered. Now we are witnessing
revenge attacks on Serbs. I must point a finger at the man who is to blame.
Milosevic must go for the sake of the Serbian people and the Montenegrin
people and all people, regardless of their ethnc origin."
The patriarch, who travelled to Pec from Belgrade, was protected by
Norwegian soldiers and accompanied by three British Army padres, Lt-Col
David Kelly, a Roman Catholic, Lt-Col Carson Nicholson, a Methodist, and
Major Kingsley Joyce, of the Church of England.
He and the prince, who lives in exile in London, sought to comfort
those who had taken refuge in the patriarch's palace. One was a 70-year-old
Muslim forced out of his home because his wife was an Orthodox Christian
from Macedonia.
Pepeljak Jonuz, a Bosnian Muslim, said: "Three days ago, my Albanian
neighbours arrived back. Four or five of them came into our house that
night. They started taking everything out. The fridge, the furniture, our
beds. When my son, Izet, tried to stop them, they beat him. They asked
me, 'Why didn't you stop them burning our homes?'
"I said I'm just one man. I'm 70. What could I do? They told me to
set fire to my own home. If not, they would do it for me." |