wfn.org | Yugoslav Government Promises Soldiers' Release

[CAROL_FOUKE.parti@ecunet.org (CAROL FOUKE)]

National Council of the Churches of Christ in the USA
Contact: NCC News, 212-870-2227
  Stephanie Gadlin, Rainbow/PUSH, 773-256-2758
E-mail: news@ncccusa.org; Web: www.ncccusa.org

MILOSOVIC GOVERNMENT PROMISES RELEASE SUNDAY OF U.S. 
SOLDIERS
U.S. Interfaith' Delegation to Belgrade Secures Promise, 
Sees Soldiers Again Saturday

Note to Editors/Reporters: National Council of Churches & 
Rainbow/PUSH media relations staff "stateside" expect 
confirmation sometime after 6 a.m. Sunday (EDT) of the U.S. 
religious leaders' "return travel" plans and will distribute 
an update (probably around 9 a.m.).  We recognize that, 
thanks to your correspondents' first-hand coverage, you may 
well know more than we do, and sooner!  Nevertheless, let us 
know how we can be helpful to you in your coverage of this 
story.

 May 1, 1999, BELGRADE, Yugoslavia - The Milosevic 
government today promised a delegation of U.S. Christian, 
Muslim and Jewish leaders that it would release the three 
captured U.S. soldiers to the delegation on Sunday.

 Several of the 19 delegation members - including its 
co-leaders, the Rev. Jesse Jackson, Founder and President of 
the Rainbow/PUSH Coalition, and the Rev. Dr. Joan B. 
Campbell, General Secretary of the National Council of 
Churches - met for about three hours Saturday morning with 
Yugoslav President Slobodan Milosevic, during which time 
they made a humanitarian and religious appeal for the 
soldiers' release.

 Later, delegation members were called back to the 
Yugoslav Foreign Ministry and informed that the soldiers 
would be released.  "When Rev. Jackson and Dr. Campbell 
returned to the hotel with the news, as they came in the 
door, they burst into tears," recounted the Rev. Roy Lloyd, 
Broadcast News Director for the National Council of 
Churches, who is accompanying the delegation.

 Saturday's events also included a second meeting with 
the three soldiers, captured March 31 by Serb forces.  On 
Friday, the Rev. Jackson, Congressman Rod Blagojevich and 
reporters for CNN and The New York Times had met with the 
soldiers; today, a larger contingent from the U.S. religious 
leaders delegation spent about half an hour with the 
soldiers.

 The nine delegation members who met with the soldiers 
today included Dr. Campbell, of New York City; Rabbi Steven 
Bennett Jacobs, Los Angeles, Calif.; Dr. Nazir Uddin Khaja, 
M.D., Chairman and President, Board of the American Muslim 
Council, Los Angeles; the Rev. Fr. Irinej Dobrijevic, 
Serbian Orthodox Priest, Cleveland, Ohio; the Rev. James 
Trent Meeks, Pastor, Salem Baptist Church, Chicago, Ill.; 
the Rev. Jackson, of Chicago, and Mr. Blagojevich.

 Dr. Campbell reported that the group was able to "pray 
with them, and laugh with them, and be very serious.  I 
think the whole gamut of emotions was felt and expressed.  
It was an overwhelming experience and I thank God for it."

 In statements made during the course of the day, the 
Rev. Jackson praised Dr. Campbell, saying that without her 
and the National Council of Churches, the religious leaders 
delegation could not have been put together."  Dr. Campbell 
in turn thanked the Rev. Jackson for his inspiration in 
leading such an effort and believing that it could succeed.

 The Rev. Jackson summarized the group's mission when he 
said, "The choices are to go forward by hopes and dreams or 
simply to recycle pains and sorrows, and we choose the 
positive option.  We must build spiritual bridges that 
cannot be blown up.  We can bring about peace with security 
if we have the will to do so."

-end-

This story was reported by Roy Lloyd and written by Carol 
Fouke, both of the NCC Communication Department.
 -0-