Bosnian Serbs cast doubt on papal visit

(First Edition)

Pale - Bosnian Serbs put Pope John Paul's pilgrimage to Sarajevo on Thursday in doubt yesterday by refusing to guarantee his safety, despite the pleas of a Vatican envoy. Aleksa Buha, foreign minister of the self-proclaimed Bosnian Serb Republic, said after meeting Monsignor Francesco Monterisi that 'Serbs could not take responsibility for possible incidents from the Muslim side', but 'the visit by the Holy Father is still in the air'.

Bosnian Serb leaders have privately told the Vatican that the papal trip is undesirable because, they say, the Roman Catholic Church has been biased against Orthodox Serbs during the conflict in former Yugoslavia. Reuter