rocked two Serbian Orthodox churches in the U.N. administered Yugoslav province of Kosovo.
The explosions late Saturday, November 16 and Sunday November 17, damaged the interior of a church in Djurakovac, about 50 kilometres (apr.30 miles) west of the provincial capital Pristina, and destroyed a second church in the nearby village of Ljubovo.
Speaking at the Pristina headquarters of the U.N. Mission in Kosovo, Annan made near Biblical references when he urged the province’s mainly Muslim ethnic Albanian majority and minority Serbs to respect each other.
"We should treat our neighbours the way we would like to be treated," Annan said at a news conference. "The incident of last weekend when bombs were thrown into the churches is not something anyone can condone. And those incidents and instances must stop," he added.
"CAMPAIGN"
The Serbian Orthodox leadership has said that the latest attacks are part of an apparent ethnic Albanian-led "campaign" which already damaged about 110 Serb religious sites, including churches, monasteries and grave yards.
In addition there have been reports about violence against Serbian Orthodox Christians, including nuns and monks, as NATO-led peacekeepers withdrew several checkpoints around religious sites.
The violence has added to international concern about the difficulties of bringing back many of the up to 200,000 Serbs who fled the troubled province for fear of revenge attacks after a Serb-led military crack-down against ethnic Albanians ended in 1999.
Annan, a former U.N. envoy to Yugoslavia, told reporters that the post-war era saw some progress in rebuilding homes and roads, the building of a "more tolerant society" proved to be difficult.
TENSIONS
He earlier saw the ethnic tensions for himself when he visited Tuesday, November 19, Kosovska Mitrovica, a tense northern town divided between Serb and Albanian halves, with U.N. police and NATO-led peacekeepers caught in the middle.
However Annan suggested he did not give up hope that reconciliation will be achieved in the volatile province. "I have had the chance to visit (Kosovska) Mitrovica and see some other villages in the country. And as difficult as things are, there are hopeful signs that we will reach further progress."
One of the U.N. plans involves setting up a local municipality government made up of ethnic Albanian and ethic Serb leaders, which he was also believed to have discussed with Kosovo’s Government.
PROTESTS
Despite Annan’s calls to respect the Serbian Orthodox Church, he received a cool later Tuesday, November 19, in Belgrade the capital of both Yugoslavia and its main republic Serbia.
Thousand of supporters of former President Slobodan Milosevic shouted slogans and demanded the release of their leader from the U.N. war crimes Tribunal in The Hague, where he faces a trial on suspicion of war crimes in Kosovo and elsewhere in the region.
Annan was expected to demand that the Government cooperates with the Tribunal and stops the further violation of U.N. weapon sanctions against Iraq.
WEAPONS TRADE
Under Milosevic, Yugoslavia had close ties with Iraq and even after he lost power state arms dealer Yugoimport continued to violate the U.N. ban on weapons trade with Baghdad by overhauling MiG jet engines and providing other unspecified military services.
Despite the set-backs, Annan stressed the U.N. was making a difference in the Balkans by "saving others from the scourge of war."
On Sunday, November 17, he unveiled a marble memorial in nearby Bosnia Herzegovina to honour the 257 U.N. workers who died in the line of duty in the former Yugoslavia "to give a better future for succeeding generations."
