Serbian President Milosevic Faces Wrath of Church

BELGRADE, Yugoslavia — The Serbian Orthodox Church, for centuries a pillar of support for Serbian rulers, issued a blistering criticism on Thursday of President Slobodan Milosevic, accusing his government of stealing elections and provoking bloodshed.

Calling on Milosevic to “recognize the will of the people,” the church gave a significant boost to opposition forces that for more than six weeks have demonstrated to demand Milosevic restore election results that he threw out.

The church accused the authorities of destroying the country and pitting Serb against Serb “to the point of bloodshed” merely to hold on to power.

The influential church, which commands a large following in the Serbian population, adds its voice to a growing anti-Milosevic chorus that includes members of his own ruling coalition, Western capitals, the government of Yugoslav federation partner Montenegro and a purported group of disaffected army officers.

But Milosevic refuses to relent.

While the church has been at odds with Milosevic since 1992, Thursday’s condemnation was stronger and went much further than previous ones.

It follows remarks by the head of the church, the Patriarch Pavle, who on Dec. 23 praised the students who make up a large portion of the daily demonstrations.

Thursday’s statement carries more weight, however, because it represents the official position of the entire church leadership. It emerged after a daylong emergency meeting of the Holy Synod of Bishops.

Opposition leaders immediately welcomed the support and read the two-page communique aloud to Thursday afternoon’s boisterous rally in downtown Belgrade’s Republic Square. For the opposition, the church position represents one more chink in Milosevic’s armor of power.

The Serbian Orthodox Church is a highly nationalistic institution that originally backed the wars launched by Milosevic in neighboring Croatia and Bosnia-Herzegovina as part of a holy crusade to unite all Serbs in a Greater Serbia.

Serbian Orthodox priests frequently appeared alongside notorious Bosnian Serb leaders such as indicted war crimes suspect Radovan Karadzic.

But the church is also divided, with a more moderate faction overshadowed by the hard-line nationalists. The wording of Thursday’s statement included clearly nationalistic references but also voiced support for genuine democracy.

Despite its past conflicts with Milosevic, the church until now had stayed largely in the background of the current unrest.

“This is one of the most conservative of all Christian churches . . . nationalistic by definition and proud of never changing,” Belgrade analyst Zarko Korac said.

“Some bishops clearly had sympathies [with the opposition], but the church did not want to provoke or take sides,” Korac said.

The church first distanced itself from Milosevic in June 1992, denouncing “Communist tyranny” and appealing indirectly for Milosevic to step down.

In 1995, the church twice attacked Milosevic, once for considering diplomatic relations with Bosnia and again for allowing tens of thousands of Serbs to be driven from the Krajina section of Croatia. It accused the regime of sacrificing “the blood of our people only to remain in power.”

Now, however, the church appears to be entering a new phase in its relations with Milosevic, a former Communist turned socialist who rode nationalism to power and then abandoned the cause for political expediency.

Thursday’s statement is more wide-ranging than earlier condemnations, blaming Milosevic--though he is never mentioned by name--for the ruin of the country and betrayal of Serbian history.

“The Serbian Orthodox Church most sharply condemns the falsification of the people’s votes, the quelling of political and religious [freedoms] . . . and especially the beating and murdering of people on the streets of the once-free Belgrade and throughout Serbia,” the church said.

The synod “condemns the authorities which have not only violated the electoral will of the people but have trampled upon our glorious and [long-suffering] history . . . [have] brought the nation and state to complete break and made beggars of the people, put us at odds with the entire world, and are now attempting to put us at odds with each other to the point of bloodshed so that only their power may be saved.”