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PERSPECTIVES:
Kosovo Peace Efforts
June 4, 1999    Episode no. 240
Read This Week's October 10, 2008
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BOB ABERNETHY: Welcome. I'm Bob Abernethy. It's good to have you with us. My thanks, too, to Maureen Bunyan for sitting in for me last week.

Photo of delegation This week, the news of a peace agreement with Serbia seemed at first almost too good to be true and triggered more questions than relief. Will Slobodan Milosevic keep his word? Can troop withdrawals be verified? What devils are in the details? And whatever the agreements and their implementation, how can centuries of hatred in the Balkans be transformed into enough civility for peace? Here to help us sort out some of these questions is Father Leonid Kishkovski, ecumenical officer for the Orthodox Church in America and a past president of the National Council of Churches. Father Kishkovski was part of a delegation led by Jesse Jackson which helped free the three American servicemen. Father Kishkovski, seen here in the foreground, returned to Belgrade last week when he met with President Slobodan Milosevic to discuss the possibilities for peace. Father joins us today from New York.

Father, welcome. You have talked with Milosevic. Can he be trusted to keep his word?

Reverend LEONID KISHKOVSKI (Orthodox Church in America): The peace agreement, I believe, is good news. It will need to be verified and monitored. And I think that the word of caution that we hear from Washington and Brussels is justified.

ABERNETHY: Why do you think he agreed to this? Is it a sign that the bombing worked?

Photo of LEONID KISHKOVSKI Rev. KISHKOVSKI: I think that the agreement has come about at this point because of the two tracks that were pursued together, energetically: the military track and the diplomatic track, which for the last several weeks has been pursued really with energy and intensity.

ABERNETHY: Father, in the Balkans, it seems that every group seems to hate each other or hate some other group. Many of these ancient grievances have religious connections. Do you think those hatreds can be eased enough now so that there can be peace?

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Rev. KISHKOVSKI: There is hatred in the region. And it has historical roots with religious connections. We do need to remember that over the centuries, there have been long periods of time when the ethnic and religious communities in the Balkan region have, in fact, lived in tolerance in -- and at peace. They need to recall that memory of tolerance and peace and build on that memory in order to overcome hatred.

ABERNETHY: Father, I want to ask you a personal question. You are an Orthodox priest and have ties to your fellow -- your coreligionists in Serbia. You're also an American and have loyalties here. What tensions do they cause for you, and what message does each one of them want you to send to the rest of us?

Photo of discussion Rev. KISHKOVSKI: I believe we Americans need to be alert to the danger of slipping into the arrogance of power. We shouldn't think that the result of the peace -- that the peace was the result of, simply of bombing. It was also the result of negotiation, diplomacy, intense effort. So the arrogance of power, the thought that we can solve all problems by bombing, is something we as Americans should be alert to and do our best to avoid.

And as an Orthodox looking at the life of the religious communities in the Balkans, the Orthodox communities, I am hoping that the Orthodox will initiate a process of reflection, repentance, that leads to reconciliation. I hope they can initiate that and catalyze it and begin to include others in that conversation of repentance and reconciliation.

ABERNETHY: And -- and very quickly -- among the Orthodox and Muslim, too -- Muslims, too, do you think there can be repentance and forgiveness?

Rev. KISHKOVSKI: I believe that both religions open up the possibility for repentance and reconciliation. I think both religions have resources, spiritual resources that can lead towards that and do so very effectively.

ABERNETHY: Father Kishkovski, many thanks.

Rev. KISHKOVSKI: Thank you.

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