Delegates pass motion on Kosovo

A motion on Kosovo was passed by the General Synod yesterday despite an attempt by its proposer to have it withdrawn. Canon Walter Lewis's original motion had called for an immediate end to NATO bombing of Yugoslavia but this was amended to drop the reference to NATO.

The final motion called for "an immediate end to inter-ethnic violence and [the] forced exodus of people in Kosovo and the intensification of diplomatic negotiations, involving the churches and religious bodies in Yugoslavia, to establish peace and security in Kosovo so that all displaced persons may return to their homes and live free from fear."

Canon Lewis's call for the opening up of a humanitarian corridor into Kosovo immediately was also dropped.

Speaking in the debate, Canon John McKegney warned against having a simplistic approach to what was a complex problem. Those who lived in Northern Ireland this past 30 years knew what it meant when people from the outside tried to sort out their problems.

Bishop John Neill of Cashel and Ossory felt the motion expressed exactly what the views of the churches were. He recalled being on a delegation to Bosnia during the war there and how everyone was arguing for an intensification of the violence then. "We came away convinced that was wrong," he said.

The former Yugoslavia had suffered desperately and not just because of Milosevic but also because of European policies which had seen the country reduced to a rump. He queried the practice of bombing from on high, suggesting it raised new ethical issues.

Mr Patrick Comerford, in support of Canon Lewis's motion, said as a pacifist he believed something had to be done (about Kosovo) but he could not accept the killing of civilians and believed NATO had failed to distinguish between military and civilian targets as dictated by just war principles since the 16th century.