One of Yugoslavia's state-run newspapers criticised the Serbian Orthodox Church yesterday in the first official reaction to its call this week for President Slobodan Milosevic to resign. Mr Zivorad Djordjevic, general manager of the daily Borba, wrote that the church's Holy Synod was effectively siding with NATO, the perpetrator of an 11-week bombing campaign which did massive damage to Serbia.
"The leadership of the Serbian Orthodox Church is less and less concerned with believers and its usual religious activities. Instead of God's will, they prefer that of domestic political servants and the intentions of cruel aggressors," the article said.
Borba is a small state-run newspaper controlled by the Yugoslav Left party headed by Mr Milosevic's wife, Mira Markovic. The article was also printed in the main pro-government newspaper, Politika.
"Today, instead of being with their people in Kosovo, Patriarch Pavle [the head of the Orthodox Church] and the synod are taking part in a campaign against legally elected authorities, alongside NATO killers, in order to . . . humiliate the people and put eternal political losers into power who don't have a clue about Serbs or Serbia," Mr Djordjevic wrote.
But further anti-Milosevic sentiment was expressed yesterday by the head of the Serbian opposition Democratic Party, Mr Zoran Djindjic, who said the international community should not isolate the people because of what the government had done. "The international community must not isolate Serbia because of Milosevic. It would be tragic if after the war, the Serb people fell victim to peace," he said.
"It would be a mistake to think that Milosevic is the only problem" in Yugoslavia, said Mr Djindjic, adding that Mr Milosevic's "propaganda machine" could win if elections were held there in the near future.