[ALBSA-Info] Yugoslav patriarch warns against Albanian extremism

[Gazhebo at aol.com]

Yugoslav patriarch warns against Albanian extremism

  
BELGRADE, March 14 (Reuters) - Patriarch Pavle, the head of the Serbian 
Orthodox church, urged world leaders on Wednesday to contain ethnic Albanian 
extremism which he said was threatening to engulf the Balkans. 

In a letter to the United Nations Secretary General and to leaders of Russia, 
the United States, Germany, France and Britain, Pavle said Kosovo, now 
administered by the U.N., had become a centre of terrorism. 

"I expect you to do everything in your power to put a halt to the evil, which 
is growing every day, and to save people's lives and preserve the peace we 
all hold dear," Pavle was quoted by Tanjug news agency as saying in his 
letter. 

Pavle's letter came as Yugoslav forces moved into a buffer zone next to the 
Kosovo boundary in a bid to clamp down on ethnic Albanian guerrillas while 
violence flared inside Kosovo and in neighbouring Macedonia. 

Pavle said that the U.N. mission in Kosovo, which took over the province in 
1999 after NATO's three-month air campaign against Yugoslavia for repression 
of ethnic Albanians, was not fulfilling its task of halting evil and 
lawlessnes. 

Terrorism had spread to the southern parts of Serbia, bordering Kosovo, while 
in Kosovo itself extremists continued attacks on the Serb minority, he said. 

"Now, when Yugoslav authorities are trying to resolve the crisis in a 
peaceful and democratic way for the good of all the citizens and the 
country...Albanian extremists are committing greater evils every day," he 
said. 

"Who guarntees that like a torch, this terrorism will not spread (its fire) 
to neighbouring countries if it is not halted?" the patriarch said.