The Gulf Crisis and New World Order — Page 114
Si. tth Friday Sennon Nov 16, 1990 is trying to distance itself from the others. Two of the republics are independent; two other republics follow catholic beliefs and despite a long rule of Communism, Catholicism is still very strong. It does exist as a political force but we don't know how far it exists as a religion. Slovenia and Croatia are the two large republics which are the wealthiest. Their preference to be separate independent states is becoming quite evident. In the south there is the Muslim province of Serbia, and similarly there is another province of Kosoro Metohija. The regions that are Albanian speaking have a large majority of Muslims. In these regions, religion plus nationalism and the past oppression is creating a feeling of independence, and movements toward this objective are starting there. The central government of Yugoslavia is presently facing such threats from these Muslim regions that they are putting an ever greater restriction on them and making it more difficult for the foreigners to visit these regions. In other areas where there is comparatively more freedom, we recently sent a delegation to take part in a book fair. The members of our delegation told us that they could not go to the Muslim areas. They could only develop contacts in other areas where there are fewer Muslims. The reason is that they are putting a lot of restrictions in these areas. In Spain, as a result of regional tensions, bomb explosions are going on for a long time and these conflicts have taken the shape of a running sore which is continuously festering like the running sore of Ireland. Then there are international boundary conflicts. Also there are such conflicts in which some nations have occupied other nations, and have absorbed them in their own territory. Even if we do not touch upon the old historical disputes and look only at the recent events, we find that there is a potential danger to world peace from these conflicts. OCCUPATION OF TIBET BY CHINA/ OCCUPATION OF KUWAIT BY IRAQ There is the situation regarding the occupation of Tibet by China. China has occupied Tibet by force. India made a lot of noise and tried to force China out of Tibet, but the superior strength of China did not allow the Indian moves to succeed. If the pictures of Tibet which are shown here on television, are true, and are not just 114