March 27, 1999

We as religious leaders of the traditional religious associations in Russia make this appeal to stop immediately the barbarous air strikes on the Union Republic of Yugoslavia. As a result of this insanity, innocent people, including women and children are being killed. We believe this brute interference in the internal affairs of a sovereign state, trampling on the basic norms of internal law, to be absolutely inadmissible.The recent actions of the North Atlantic alliance have brought to naught all the efforts of the world community to settle the conflict by peaceful means, thus having fully discredited the United Nations which has been until recently the most authoritative international structure. The aggression of the alliance has erased the last line between "big politics" and international terrorism. In fact it has untied the hands of all political and religious extremists. This way of settling an internal conflict creates an extremely dangerous precedent for using force in all similar cases, removing peaceful initiatives for resolving disputes to the background.

We believe that if the NATO aggression against Yugoslavia is not stopped, the hopes for building peace and justice in unity seeking Europe will sink for ever amidst bursting bombs and missiles.

Metropolitan Kirill
Metropolitan of Smolensk and Kaliningrad
Chairman of the Moscow Patriarchate's Department for External Church Relations

Sheikh-ul-Islam Talgat Tajuddin
Chairman of the Central Board for Muslims in Russia and the CIS

Sheikh Ravil Gainutdin
Chairman of the Council of Muftis in Russia

Rabbi Arthur Shaevich
Supreme Rabbi of the CIS

Pandito Khambo-lama Damba Ayushev
Head of the Tradition Buddhist Sangha in Russia