NEWS & VIEWS
from a CATHOLIC perspective

      NEW YORK (CWNews.com) -- As the UN Security Council prepared to discuss a peace proposal aimed at ending the war in Kosovo, NATO aircraft continued to strike targets in Yugoslavia.

      The latest peace plan would call for an international peacekeeping force under UN command to enter Kosovo and ensure the safe return of refugees from the province. Both Yugoslavia and Russia had balked at an earlier plan, submitted by NATO, which would have called for peacekeeping troops under NATO control. Yugoslavia has consistently said that the force must include soldiers from Eastern European countries, and Russian leaders have said that their troops will not serve under NATO command.

      Intense diplomatic activities continued on June 8 as NATO leadership shored up support for the peace proposal. Representatives of the "G8" industrial countries huddled before the Security Council meeting, US President Bill Clinton sent a special envoy to Moscow to confer with Russian leaders, and Finland's President Martti Ahtisaari-- acting on behalf of the European Union-- traveled to Beijing, hoping to ensure that China would not use its seat on the Security Council to stall a peace agreement.

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