c. 1999 Religion News Service

VATICAN CITY _ Pope John Paul II held a”very cordial and friendly”meeting with moderate Albanian Kosovar leader Ibrahim Rugova on Monday (May 10), blessing the writer-turned-political activist and strongly endorsing his peace efforts, the Vatican said.”In the course of the meeting, the Holy Father told Mr. Rugova that he hoped that his contribution and his efforts to reach a just peace in Kosovo as soon as possible might be immediately successful,”Vatican spokesman Joaquin Navarro-Valls said.

The spokesman described the meeting as”very cordial and friendly,”and Vatican Television showed the pope welcoming Rugova to his study with a warm embrace.

After talking alone with Rugova for 30 minutes, about 10 minutes longer than he usually devotes to a private audience, the pope received Rugova’s wife and four children, ranging in age from an adolescent to an infant.

The Roman Catholic pontiff, who returned Sunday from a three-day visit to Romania,”wished to take this occasion to bless him and his family, who have suffered so much recently,”Navarro-Valls said.

Rugova, leader of the Democratic League of Kosovo and long an advocate of nonviolent resistance against the Yugoslav authorities’ harsh treatment of ethnic Albanians in Serbia’s southern province, arrived unexpectedly in Rome last Wednesday with his family. They are staying in a government guest house.

Following the audience, Rugova told reporters he had asked to meet the pope in order to inform him of the situation in Kosovo.”Kosovo today is dead,”he said.”Pristina is a phantom city. There are only soldiers and police.” John Paul has repeatedly condemned both the forcible expulsion of Albanian Kosovars by Serb forces and the NATO bombing. On Saturday, he joined with Romanian Orthodox Patriarch Teoctist in an appeal for an immediate end to hostilities.

Rugova met last week with the Vatican foreign minister, Archbishop Jean-Louis Tauran, Italian Prime Minister Massimo D’Alema, Foreign Minister Lamberto Dini and traveled to Bonn for talks with German Chancellor Gerhard Schroeder, Russian envoy Viktor Chernomyrdin and United Nations negotiator for the Balkans Carl Bildt.

He has called for the withdrawal of Serbian forces from Kosovo and the deployment of a peacekeeping force, including troops from NATO, Russia and countries not engaged in the conflict.”I make a new appeal to Belgrade,”he said today in French and halting Italian.”I pray to these people not to confront the world and to save Kosovo and its people. In the first place, this situation must be stopped. The persecution, the hunt must end. Belgrade must accept the demands of the international community. I think that in the first place they must accept international forces.” Asked whether he intended to visit the refugee camps in Albania, Rugova said,”I intend to do something concrete for the return of the refugees.””Every effort must be made for the return of the people to Kosovo, but it is necessary to create conditions of security so that the people can return,”he said.

In an apparent reference to Serbian Kosovars who have also fled, he added,”It is a majority of Albanians who have left Kosovo, but there are others. It is necessary to protect all of them,”he said.

Rugova said he considered the agreement reached at the Rambouillet talks, which Yugoslav President Slobodan Milosevic rejected,”a good accord. In particular, the transition stage of three years contained in the accord would have allowed the creation of social structures to then give people the opportunity to decide on independence.”If the accord reached at Rambouillet had been signed, we would not have reached this point,”he said.

Rugova was reluctant to discuss his meeting in Belgrade last month with Milosevic and photographs showing their apparently friendly handshake. The rebel Kosovo Liberation Army accused him of playing into Milosevic’s hands and said he is no longer entitled to speak for the Kosovars.”I don’t want to talk about it. At that time, I was in such a situation that my position can be understood only by understanding the pressure from both sides when I had this meeting. I can say clearly that there was pressure in the situation.” Monsignor Vincenzo Paglia, founder of the Community of Sant’Egidio, an influence group of Catholic social activists, accompanied Rugova and his family to the Vatican. Paglia led an unofficial peace mission to Belgrade last month.

DEA END POLK