Zagreb, March 31, 1999 (IKA) – According to the head of the Albanian Catholic Mission in Zagreb, the Rev. Ndue Ballabani, the situation in the Catholic parishes in Kosovo is grave. Priests and nuns are being forced to abandon their parishes, and villages are being burned. The parish of Đakovica was abandoned by the Franciscans from the Bosnian Province and the nuns of the Society of the Holy Cross who moved to the neighboring parish of Bistražin, and the population is fleeing. The village of Glavičica is now empty: the expelled priests and nuns are now lodged in Montenegro and the Catholic population is scattered among the surrounding parishes. Yesterday, March 30, Serbian forces took the convent of the Society of the Sisters of Divine Love in Binač and the nuns are now living in a private house while the local people were forced to abandon their homes and find lodging in the surrounding parishes. The fate and whereabouts of 80 Albanian Catholics who had sought shelter in the parish church in Peć and were abducted by Serbian forces is still unknown. The parish priest is still in Peć, because the Serbian forces told him he has nowhere to go. The bishop of Skoplje-Prizren for the Albanian Catholics, Marko Sopi, is still in Prizren with the local priests, and the Catholic parishes in the Prizren vicinity are being burned. Some of the parishioners of Uroševac are lodging in the local parish church while others have fled. There are no connections with Priština because it under Serbian occupation. According to the Rev. Ballabani, nuns of the Society of the Sisters of the Holy Cross and the local Salesian monks have abandoned Priština. At present, the situation in Janjevo and the surrounding localities is unknown. The priests and local population have still not been expelled from the parishes of Budisavce and Zlokučani but houses in the vicinity are being burned.