KLA reportedly forced Kosovar Jewish leader from Pristina home

ROME, June 27 (JTA) — People claiming to be representatives of the Kosovo Liberation Army have ordered the president of the tiny Jewish community in Kosovo to vacate his home and leave town, according to the Federation of Jewish Communities of Yugoslavia. Further details were not immediately available. A spokesman for the Belgrade-based federation told JTA that Chedar Prlincevic had been visited at his home in the Kosovar capital of Pristina on Sunday by “men who claimed to be representing the KLA.” “They told him to vacate his apartment and clear out,” the spokesman said. “We don’t know what has happened.” He added that he has been trying to reach Prlincevic by phone from Belgrade to receive more information, but it has been impossible to get through. Several dozen Jews — including about 14 children — live in Kosovo, most of them in Pristina. Most of them stayed put in the province during the NATO air campaign, although children were sent briefly to relatives elsewhere in Serbia. Jewish communal organizations in Yugoslavia repeatedly issued statements protesting the NATO air campaign, and, while deploring the plight of Kosovar Albanians, expressed loyalty to the Yugoslav state in the face of the attacks.