As bombs fell in Kosovo this weekend, three local vigils convened both for and against the NATO attacks.

On Friday hundreds of Muslims in the Boston area held a "March Against Genocide" in front of Boston's City Hall in support of NATO's actions in Kosovo.

The Kosova Task Force, the organizer of the event, called for the independence of Kosovo, the arming of the ethnic Albanians, and the indictment of Slobodan Milosevic as a war criminal.

The task force, an alliance of 16 regional and national organizations of Muslims and Albanians, stressed the need to support their "fellow brother and sister Muslims" in Kosovo.

"I'm Muslim and most of the people in Kosovo are Muslim. This particular rally was important because it was organized by the mosques, and we were at least there for them morally if

not behind them physically," said Saif I. Shah Mohammed '02.

Later that day, about 15 people participated in a silent vigil for peace in front of Holyoke Center.

The American Friends Service Committee (AFSC) and the Peace and Social Concerns Committee of Cambridge Friends Meeting organized the vigil to voice their opposition to NATO's bombing in Yugoslavia. Members of Peace Action and the Women's International League for Peace and Freedom (WILPF) also attended the vigil.

"I hope to encourage people to think about alternatives for protecting human rights without making war," said Steven J. Brion-Meisels, a board member of Peace Action.