wfn.org | Letter Urges President, NATO To Step Up Peace Efforts in Kosovo

[PCUSA NEWS <pcusa.news@ecunet.org>]

21-May-1999 
99196 
 
    Stated Clerk's Letter Urges President, NATO 
    To Step Up Efforts to Make Peace in Kosovo 
 
    by John Filiatreau 
 
LOUISVILLE, Ky. - The Rev. Clifton Kirkpatrick, the stated clerk of the 
Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.), on May 20 wrote a second open letter to 
President Bill Clinton, expressing the church's "deepening anguish" over 
bloodshed in the Balkans and urging Clinton to "seek with renewed energy a 
negotiated peace." 
 
    Kirkpatrick said evidence of rape, pillage and mass murder committed by 
Serbian forces against Kosovars is mounting. "This horror must stop," he 
wrote. "And everything humanly possible must be done to help the victims of 
this outrage." 
 
    The stated clerk  also spoke of the church's "growing concern over the 
impact of the NATO bombing campaign," pointing out that, while it may have 
weakened the Serbian military in general, "there seems to be little 
evidence that it has actually diminished the violence against Kosovars." On 
the other hand, he said, the air campaign "has undermined the efforts of 
those who have been working to bring an end to the Milosevic regime." 
 
    "As our concern deepens," he wrote, "we want to reiterate our call to 
you and the other leaders of the NATO community to seek with renewed energy 
a negotiated peace. ... We believe that such a peace can best be achieved 
under the auspices of the United Nations with a significant role for the 
Russian government and other parties." 
 
    In his previous letter to the president, on March 15 -  before the 
bombing began -  Kirkpatrick called for "a negotiated peace in which both 
sides accept the presence of an international force to guarantee that the 
terms of the peace are respected." 
 
    That was a reiteration of the 1998 General Assembly's call for 
"international humanitarian intervention" in Kosovo. 
 
    In the latest letter, Kirkpatrick said Presbyterians "share the concern 
of many" that the use of ground troops "as an invasion force" would provoke 
Serb resistance and result in "a bloody ground campaign marked by increased 
loss of life." Instead, he called for "a fully-armed, international 
protective force" under the auspices of the United Natons to enable Kosovar 
refugees to return safely to their homeland. 
 
    Any peace agreement, he said, "must be accompanied by an immediate, 
rapid, verifiable withdrawal of all Serbian military and paramilitary 
forces from Kosovo as a basis for halting NATO military actions." 
 
    More than half a million residents of Kosovo have sought refuge in 
neighboring countries, especially Albania. The PC(USA) has about a dozen 
mission workers in the area distributing food, water, blankets and 
mattresses to the refugees, working in partnership with Orthodox, Roman 
Catholic and Protestant Christian groups and the international ecumenical 
relief organization, Action by Churches Together (ACT). 

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