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."

 

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