From ...... Associated Press

November 4, 1994

BELGRADE, Yugoslavia (AP) -- The Serbian Orthodox Church ended a four-day conference by supporting the Bosnian Serbs' rejection of an international peace plan for Bosnia. A church statement said the plan was unjust. It would reduce the Bosnian Serbs' holdings from 70 percent to 49 percent of the republic. The conference was held in the Bosnian Serb stronghold of Banja Luka, where Serbs have been accused of ethnic harassment and expulsions.

Remarks made at the start of the conference by the head of the church, Patriarch Pavle, indicated that church support might be shifting away from the Bosnian Serbs. Pavle didn't condemn the peace plan or blame any single group for the war. But Friday's statement showed Bosnian Serbs still have the church's support.

It criticized Serbian President Slobodan Milosevic's decision to cut off supplies to the Bosnian Serbs, in an attempt to pressure them to accept the peace plan. The statement demanded that Yugoslavian officials "immediately lift the sanctions against their people" in Bosnia.