justified the war as "righteous". During the Bosnian War, Pavle supported the President of Republika Srpska, Radovan Karadžić, in his rejection of the Vance-Owen peace plan and supported Karadžić in his claims that there were no Serbian rape camps that kept Muslim women, but accused Bosnian Muslims and Croats of the same thing. A famous photograph from this time is that of Karadžić kissing Pavle's hand. In May 1993, Pavle received a letter from Karadžić which thanked him for his "advice and support" in the Bosnian Serbs' "just battle". Karadžić regarded the Serbian Church as the "only spiritual force capable of uniting the Serb nation, regardless of borders." In 1994, Pavle claimed that Serbs were native to Bosnia and Herzegovina and that Bosniaks had only arrived there when the Ottomans invaded. When a swift Croatian offensive in May 1995 put western Slavonia region back into Croatian control, he urgently called Slobodan Milošević, asking if he will defend Serbia's "brethren in need". On 31 July 1995, he traveled to the Krajina capital Knin with Ratko Mladić (currently on trial for war crimes and genocide by the International Criminal Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia), to assure the rebel Serbs of military and religious support. However, Krajina ceased to exist just three months later, following Operation Storm that resulted in 200,000–250,000 Serbian refugees.In September 1997, Pavle signed a declaration to the UN Security Council which demanded suspension of the proceedings against Karadžić before the Hague tribunal. Pavle urged Belgrade not to give up Karadžić and Mladić, indicted for war crimes, to the ICTY. He and other nationalist intellectuals also signed a declaration demanding their pardon. In 1998, Pavle was invited to Zagreb by Croatian Archbishop Josip Bozanić for talks on peace where he was snubbed by several leading Croatian party members and Christian groups for his and the Orthodox Church's role with the rebel Serbs during the war. After the launch of NATO deployment into Kosovo and Pristina in June 1999, Norwegian special force soldiers escorted Pavle from Pristina to the Patriarchal Monastery of Peć in the city of Peć. The escort mission was regarded to possibly be provocative so soon after the atrocities in the area in question and there were fears of a possible assassination. The patriarch and the Norwegian soldiers were attacked several times on their way. 1996–1997 protests in Serbia In 1997 Pavle took part in the massive anti-government