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February 15, 2004
ERP KiM Newsletter
Special Edition
Bishop Artemije at the Russian Orthodox Church in Washington D.C.
During his visit to the
United States from Jan 28 - Feb 12, 2004 His Grace Bishop Artemije
visited the Russian Orthodox cathedral of St. John the Baptist in
Washington D.C. and spoke to the congregation about the suffering of the
Orthodox church and Christians in Kosovo and Metohija despite the
presence of NATO led peacekeepers and the UN mission. In this special
edition on this event ERP KIM Info-service is enclosing the introductory
text by Rev. Fr. Victor Potapov, the parish priest at St. John the
Baptist Cathedral, as well as the full transcript of the speech by
Bishop (Vladyka) Artemije on the situation in which the Serbian Orthodox
Church in Kosovo and Metohija lives today.
We would like to thank to
Fr. Victor for granting us these texts and photos as well as for his
continuous support of our suffering Church and Christians in Kosovo and
Metohija in the last several years.
Fr. Victor Potapov (left) with Bishop
Artemije in the parish hall of the
Russian Orthodox cathedral of St. John the Baptist in Washington D.C.,
Feb 2, 2004
 "Crucified Kosovo" - Bishop Artemije of Raska and
Prizren in Washington D.C.
A
reception was held on Monday evening, February 2, in the Parish Hall of
the Cathedral of St. John the Baptist in Washington DC, for His Grace
the Most-reverend Artemije, Bishop of Raska and Prizren, of the Serbian
Orthodox Church. Addressing an audience that filled the hall to
overflowing, His Grace told of the current state of the Orthodox Church
in Kosovo and Metohija. Accompanying Vladyka were his secretary,
Hieromonk Symeon, and Abbot Vasily, Father Superior of the Sopocani
Monastery. The day before his talk, Vladyka attended and prayed at the
Divine Liturgy in the Cathedral of St. John the Baptist. At the
conclusion of the service, he greeted the faithful, bestowing upon each
his hierarchical blessing and, as a memento, giving each person a little
icon of St. Savva.
Bishop
Artemije's speech: Current situation in the Orthodox Church in Kosovo
These new crimes against the
Serbs in Kosovo and Metohija, especially the attacks against Serbian
holy places, make it clear to anyone who has eyes to see with that the
situation in the Kosovo region has not improved at all, and that the
Serbs and their holy places are still objects of open persecution and
terrorist activities. And all this is taking place in the presence and
under the administration of the United Nations forces. After this brief
review of facts it should be clear that the prospects for survival of
the Serbs in Kosovo and Metohija, and particularly the prospects for the
return of those banished from the region, are very poor. The fact that
the region of Kosovo and Metohija is in the state of complete chaos was
recently pointed out by the Kosovo ombudsman Marek Anthony Novicky. In
his official report on human and civil rights submitted in Pristina he
says that as regards the respect for human rights Kosovo is still the
"black hole" of Europe and the entire world. Nevertheless, UNMIK
continues to ignore the facts on which this statement was founded.
More News Available on our:
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Archive
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KIM Web-site:
http://www.kosovo.net/erpkiminfo.html
"Crucified Kosovo" - Bishop Artemije of Raska and Prizren in Washington
D.C.
TOP
A reception was held on Monday
evening, February 2, in the Parish Hall of the Cathedral of St. John the
Baptist in Washington DC, for His Grace the Most-reverend Artemije,
Bishop of Raska and Prizren, of the Serbian Orthodox Church. Addressing
an audience that filled the hall to overflowing, His Grace told of the
current state of the Orthodox Church in Kosovo and Metohija.
Accompanying Vladyka were his secretary, Hieromonk Symeon, and Abbot
Vasily, Father Superior of the Sopocani Monastery. The day before his
talk, Vladyka attended and prayed at the Divine Liturgy in the Cathedral
of St. John the Baptist. At the conclusion of the service, he greeted
the faithful, bestowing upon each his hierarchical blessing and, as a
memento, giving each person a little icon of St. Savva.
The Washington talk had first been presented on January 21, 2004 in
Moscow at the opening of the 14th Annual Conference of the Orthodox St.
Tikhon's Theological Institute. Bishop Artemije began by saying:
"Kosovo was crucified, and five years later it still hangs upon the
cross. The profound respect for the crucified victim forces everyone to
remain silent in front of the cross. Even the Mother of God kept silent
in front of her Son's Cross, but tears never ceased to speak.
As the Orthodox bishop of Kosovo and Metohija I do not merely stand in
front of the cross of Kosovo crucified, I am myself crucified on that
same cross. That is why it is hard for me to speak about it. And yet, I
cannot keep silent, because I am called to speak. If only I were granted
the power of thunder or given a trumpet of Jericho with which to make
known and bear witness to what has been happening in Kosovo and Metohija
in the last five years!
Kosovo and Metohija today—and this word "today" covers the period from
1999 to this day, and will continue beyond today—resembles more than
anything else a Roman Coliseum of the early days of Christianity. In it
are present the torturers, the martyrs and the beasts, all together, all
at the same time. It is a blood-soaked place where beasts devour
innocent Christians while the spectators—which in this case is the whole
world—watch what is happening through mass media and, in their enjoyment
of the spectacle, are themselves transformed into beasts. And there is
no end to this gory orgy.
In this tragedy, the Serbian people are cast in the role of the victim.
It is by God's will that I am the spiritual leader of that people. That
is why I find it difficult to speak of my own suffering and of the
suffering of my people in cold, scientific, academic terms. Feelings run
high in a Coliseum. Of course, there are various kinds of feelings,
depending on the role one is asked to play—the role of the victim, the
role of the beast or the role of the spectator enjoying the
performance…"
Later in his talk in Washington, Bishop Artemije explained to his large
audience that for Serbs, Kosovo is not simply a geographic space, but is
a spiritual, supernatural concept:
"What is Kosovo for the Serbs and for Serbia? It is what Jerusalem is
for the Jews. It is the heart of one's body, the hearth of one's home.
Kosovo was, Kosovo is, the cradle of Serbian statehood, Serbian culture,
Serbian spirituality. There lie our deepest national roots; there stand
our most majestic Orthodox holy places; there lives our sacred heritage,
left us by the Nemanjic dynasty.
This is why, after the name of God, Kosovo is the most sacred word in
the Serbian language. It signifies not only a territory, not only a
geographic concept. Its meaning is much broader and higher than the
meaning of such simple concepts. This word is a symbol of spiritual
values, of eternal Christian values which make life worth living and
which are worth dying for. This spiritual, this mystical content was
given to Kosovo by the famous Kosovo battle, which took place in the
year 1389. This battle was the historical turning point dividing the
history of the Serbian people into the pre-Battle of Kosovo and the
post-Battle of Kosovo periods. The profound meaning with which the
Battle of Kosovo was invested in the consciousness of the Serbian people
is rooted in the conscious choice made by Prince Lazar and all his
knights and through them by the entire Serbian people. The choice was
between the kingdom of this world and the Kingdom of Heaven. They chose
the Kingdom of Heaven; they chose the eternal Christian values and
objectives.
The Holy Prince Lazar went to the Field of Kosovo to fight a most
powerful enemy and his countless Turkish hordes. Prince Lazar did not go
to war in order to conquer lands belonging to another; he went to war to
defend his own land. He did not enslave other peoples; he protected his
own people from the enslavement by another. He did not force his Faith
upon another; he defended his own Faith. That was the Kosovo choice;
that is the Kosovo legacy. That is the stronghold of Serbian history.
Kosovo thereafter became a synonym for any suffering endured for the
sake of truth, justice and faith, "for the venerable Cross and golden
freedom."'
Bishop Artemije went on to describe the tragic fate of the Serbs who
remained in Kosovo, Serbs forced to live in enclaves reminiscent of
concentration camps. He also told of the desecration and destruction of
a multitude of Orthodox churches. Then Vladyka turned to the numbers: He
reported that during four and one-half years in which international
peace-keeping forces have been in the land of Kosovo, i.e. between
June10, 1999 and the end of 2003, there were 6,392 attacks made against
Serbs, resulting in 1,197 Serbs killed, 1,305 Serbs wounded, and 1,138
Serbs kidnapped. Today we know that 155 of the kidnapping victims were
killed, 13 escaped, and 95 were released. The fate of the remaining 863
Serbs is as yet unknown.
Following Bishop Artemije's talk, Belgrade video journalist Lidya
Kujundjic's film "Crucified Kosovo," a film of staggering emotional
intensity, was shown. Ms. Kujundjic was in attendance at its
presentation in Washington. The film, which features chant and other
musical accompaniment, is an exceptionally graphic documentary. It
begins with a depiction of the great holy sites of Kosovo – Vysokij
Decani, Gracanica, Pec, Crna Reka, and others - that endured throughout
the 500 years of subjugation under the Ottoman yoke and throughout the
recent war. In the second part, we witness scenes of peaceful church
life in Kosovo and Metohije before the war of 1999. The concluding
portion of the film documents funerals of Serbs murdered by the Muslims
and the barbarous destruction of Orthodox holy places. The film ends
with a close-up of the sad and prayerful, ascetic face of Hieromonk
Khariton seen in profile; a tear slowly moves down his left cheek. Abbot
Vasilije of Sopocani Monastery, who was sitting next to the author of
these words, whispered "Fr. Khariton was martyred." Receiving this news
made our impressions of the evening with Bishop Artemije even more
powerful.
The evening concluded with questions from the audience. In a series of
questions phrased in different ways, Vladyka Artemije was repeatedly
asked the single question: "What should the Serbs in Kosovo do?" Vladyka
responded: "We must pray and hope, we must patiently endure and remain
in our martyred Kosovo and Metohije, together with our holy places, with
the graves of our ancestors, and with firm assurance that God also has
the answer to this problem."
Archpriest V. Potapov
Washington
TOP
Vladyka Artemije preaching at the St.
John's Cathedral in Washington D.C.
Bishop Artemije's speech - Current
situation of the Orthodox Church in Kosovo and Metohija
We are enclosing the full transcript of the speech by Bishop Artemije at
the St. John's Russian Orthodox Church parish hall in Washington D.C.
TOP
To bear our cross—that is our plight!
But it ends not with crucifixion.
So that we may reach Resurrection
The Cross leads us towards the light.
Without the Cross there is no Resurrection!
Kosovo was crucified, and five years later it still hangs upon the
cross. The profound respect for the crucified victim forces everyone to
remain silent before the cross. Even the Mother of God kept silent in
front of her Son's Cross, but tears never ceased to speak.
As the Orthodox bishop of Kosovo and Metohija I do not merely stand in
front of the cross of Kosovo crucified, I am myself crucified on that
same cross. That is why it is hard for me to speak about it. And yet, I
cannot keep silent, because I am called to speak. If only I were granted
the power of thunder or given a trumpet of Jericho with which to make
known and bear witness to what has been happening in Kosovo and Metohija
in the last five years!
Kosovo and Metohija today—and this word "today" covers the period from
1999 to this day, and will continue beyond today—resembles more than
anything else a Roman Coliseum of the early days of Christianity. In it
are present the torturers, the martyrs and the beasts, all together, all
at the same time. It is a blood-soaked place where beasts devour
innocent Christians while the spectators—which in this case is the whole
world—watch what is happening through mass media and, in their enjoyment
of the spectacle, are themselves transformed into beasts. And there is
no end to this gory orgy.
In this tragedy, the Serbian people is cast in the role of the victim.
It is by God's will that I am the spiritual leader of that people. That
is why I find it difficult to speak of my own suffering and of the
suffering of my people in cold, scientific, academic terms. Feelings run
high in a Coliseum. Of course, there are various kinds of feelings,
depending on the role one is asked to play—the role of the victim, the
role of the beast or the role of the spectator enjoying the performance.
I shall try, however, to put aside my feelings and allow the facts and
figures to speak for themselves. Let them be the only speakers and
witnesses here. After all, facts are incorruptible, and figures do not
lie. They speak the language of truth and sincerity. Kosovo! What is
Kosovo for the Serbs and for Serbia. It is what Jerusalem is for the
Jews. It is the heart of one's body, the hearth of one's home. Kosovo
was, Kosovo is the cradle of Serbian statehood, Serbian culture, Serbian
spirituality. There lie our deepest national roots; there stand our most
majestic Orthodox holy places; there lives our sacred heritage left us
by the Nemanjic dynasty.
This is why, after the name of God Kosovo, is the most sacred word in
the Serbian language. It signifies not only a territory, not only a
geographic concept. Its meaning is much broader and higher than the
meaning of such simple concepts. This word is a symbol of spiritual
values, of eternal Christian values which make life worth living and
which are worth dying for. This spiritual, this mystical content was
given to Kosovo by the famous Kosovo battle, which took place in the
year 1389. This battle was the historical turning point dividing the
history of the Serbian people into the pre-Battle of Kosovo and the
post-Battle of Kosovo periods. The profound meaning with which the
Battle of Kosovo was invested in the consciousness of the Serbian people
is rooted in the conscious choice made by Prince Lazar and all his
knights and through them by the entire Serbian people. The choice was
between the kingdom of this world and the Kingdom of Heaven. They chose
the Kingdom of Heaven; they chose the eternal Christian values and
objectives.
The Holy Prince Lazar went to the Field of Kosovo to fight a most
powerful enemy and his countless Turkish hordes. Prince Lazar did not go
to war in order to conquer lands belonging to another. He went to war to
defend his own land. He did not enslave other peoples; he protected his
own people from the enslavement by another. He did not force his faith
upon another; he defended his own faith. That was the Kosovo choice;
that is the Kosovo legacy. That is the stronghold of Serbian history.
Kosovo thereafter became a synonym for any suffering endured for the
sake of truth, justice and faith, "for the venerable cross and golden
freedom." Our history, from the Battle of Kosovo to this day, some 600
years and more, is replete with suffering. And what is happening today?
Today we find ourselves at the very apex of our suffering. However, the
causes of our suffering did not arise yesterday. Their roots are
centuries old. It would take too long to speak albeit briefly about
them. So we shall talk only about the most recent events which began in
June 1999 with the start of the international mission in Kosovo, the
arrival of the armed forces of NATO and KFOR and the UN civilian
administration with its UNMIK forces.
When we speak of the suffering of the Serbian Orthodox Church in Kosovo
and Metohija we must speak of two distinct areas of suffering:
1. The suffering of the living Church, that is to say the suffering of
the Orthodox people and
2. Destruction of Christian monuments—churches and monasteries,
destruction of our cultural heritage and of our cemeteries.
1. The clash between two extreme "isms", on the one hand the
secessionism of the Kosovo Albanians and, on the other, the totalitarian
regime of Slobodan Milosevic brought about tragic clashes in Kosovo and
Metohija in which were lost innocent lives on both the Albanian and the
Serbian sides. These were followed by a three month-long period of
bombing of Serbia and particularly of Kosovo and Metohija by NATO. Huge
material losses were sustained; more innocent victims were killed, this
time among the peaceful citizens in Serbia proper. We were constantly at
risk of becoming part of "collateral damage" which is the name the
Western "humanists" give to innocent victims. Everybody waited
impatiently for the bombing to cease, while we in Kosovo waited also for
the arrival of the international peace-keeping forces. We were convinced
that they would indeed defend the peaceful population from the vengeance
of rabid terrorists who acted either in organized groups or as
individuals, or masquerading under the name of the infamous KLA (Kosovo
Liberation Army).
At last, on June 10, 1999 a military-technical agreement was signed in
Kumanovo on the withdrawal of the Yugoslav army and the Serbian police
from the territory of Kosovo and Metohija, thus officially ending the
war and the NATO bombing. Unfortunately, the arrival of KFOR did not
bring "peaceful life for all citizens" as foreseen by the UN Security
Council resolution. Peace and freedom were given only to the Kosovo
Albanians. For the members of all other nationalities, but especially
for the Serbs, this marked the beginning of unheard of sufferings and
indescribable crimes perpetrated against unarmed people whom no one was
interested in defending.
Together with the arrival of international forces, organized units of
KLA, which were trained in Albania, came to Kosovo and Metohija. In
addition to these, there came to Kosovo a great many other groups and
individuals who had never before lived in Kosovo. They were attracted by
the opportunity for unlimited robbery, revenge, murder, persecution,
rape, kidnapping and torture of the Serbs, the Gypsies, the Muslims, the
Gorani and other non-Albanians, who had lived peacefully in Kosovo and
Metohija until then.
In the course of a single month, over seven hundred thousand Albanian
refugees returned to Kosovo and Metohija. Many of them had become
"refugees" because they were encouraged or forced to do so by the KLA or
Albanian political leaders, in order to create in the eyes of the world
community the strongest possible impression of a "human catastrophe"
providing thereby both a cause for and the justification of the NATO
intervention in Serbia. It was a heart-rending scene. On the one hand
the entry of endlessly long columns of returning Albanians, triumphant
and spurred on by their KFOR escorts and, on the other, the exodus of
equally long columns of new refugees of banished Serbs and other
non-Albanians also escorted by the KFOR. But these KFOR escorts did not
defend the Serbs from violence; they were there to facilitate their
departure from Kosovo and Metohija. Many crimes, many murders and
robberies were committed before the very eyes of KFOR soldiers but they
never reacted, never did anything to defend the victims. The Serbs were
thrown out of their homes, into the streets, into the arms of KFOR
soldiers who simply helped them on the way out of Kosovo.
Christianity is exposed to attacks of
extremist Muslim terrorists
Traces of Albanian barbarism in Kosovo and Metohija
ruins of the Serbian Orthodox Catherdral of the Holy Trinity in
Djakovica
In these first months, from June to September 1999, 230,000 Serbs
together with 50,000 other non-Albanians, mostly Gypsies, Ashkalis
(Gypsies of Turkish origin) and Bosnians, were banished from Kosovo.
Banishment of these nationalities continues to this day, albeit at a
much lower rate.
So the ethnic cleansing of Kosovo took place under the "protection" of
KFOR and under the administration of UNMIK. This was particularly true
of towns, which until then were to a high degree multiethnic. At this
moment there are no Serbs, or almost none in any Kosovo town. The only
exception is Kosovska Mitrovica, and even there the Serbs have remained
only in the northern part of the town. Pec, Djakovica, Prizren, Urosevac,
Vucitrn, Klina, Istok and other towns are virtually cleansed of all
Serbs. In Pristina, where in 1999 lived 40,000 Serbs, there are now
under 200 of them left; and they all live in one apartment house, in
total isolation, without any possibility of stepping out of the building
on their own. Every day we received news of persecuted, kidnapped or
murdered Serbs from all parts of the Kosovo region. It was heart-rending
to witness these crimes which the Albanians perpetrated against the
Serbs, against their homes, their property, against anything that bore
signs of belonging to or having to do with the Serbs. More than 1300
Serbs have been murdered in the most atrocious manner. Approximately the
same number of Serbs have been kidnapped, and their fate remains unknown
to this day. Tens of thousands of dwellings have been burned down or
demolished; hundreds of villages have been razed to the ground.
In spite of it all, one-third of the Serbian population has remained in
Kosovo. They number about 135 thousand. All of them live in smaller or
larger enclaves, which frequently bring to mind concentration camps or
ghettos. This is the "Serbian Archipelago" of Kosovo and Metohija, whose
small islands are surrounded on all sides by a stormy sea of Albanians.
These Serbs, who in spite of all the suffering, misery and oppression
had chosen to remain in Kosovo and Metohija, became citizens outside of
the law, deprived of all basic human and national rights. In the first
place they are deprived of the right to live. To this day, anybody can
with impunity attack, kill or kidnap a Serb wherever he or she might
appear. They are deprived of the right of movement, as for a longtime we
could not take one step outside our enclaves without a KFOR or UNMIK
escort. The Serbs are deprived of their right to work and to live by the
fruits of their labor. After the return of the Albanians, all Serbs were
fired from their jobs and thrown out of their firms and enterprises;
they were thrown out of all institutions. They could not even work in
their fields and in their gardens as even there they were subject to
attacks, killings and kidnappings by Albanian terrorists. The Serbs are
deprived of adequate healthcare as in all hospitals and health centers
are in the hands of Albanians and have become ethnically pure. In
hospitals today, there is not a single Serbian doctor, nor a single
Serbian patient. Again the only exception is the northern part of
Kosovska Mitrovica where the Serbs have remained. All schools, all
educational institutions are also in the hands of Albanians. For the
most part, Serbian children are taught in private homes and basements.
These are the conditions in which the Serbs live. This is the life the
Serbs lead even as we speak. True, the frequency of attacks and murders
has decreased. However, it is not because security has improved, but
simply because in many places there are no more Serbs remaining; there
is no one left to kill. Nevertheless, Kosovo is still in the grip of
such tendencies and psychoses. Suffice it to remember the violence and
the crimes committed against the Serbs last year, in 2003.
In the first months of 2003 there were frequent attacks and incidents of
provocation against the Serbs throughout the Kosovo region. Some of the
victims were the Serbs in the vicinity of the town of Obilic. The Serbs
in that area were frequently attacked in the course of 2002 also. (There
were six attacks in the month of October 2002 alone.) On January 20,
2003, a hand grenade was thrown into the house of Slavisa Vukadinovic in
the village of Janjine Vode near the town of Obilic. No one was hurt on
this occasion, but great material damage was caused. A few days later,
on February 6, a hand grenade was thrown into the house of Slobodan
Todorovic near Oblic, and on April 10 the house of Pavle Milic was
burned down.
Similar incidents happened in other places. On Good Friday, on April 25,
2003 a 66 year-old Serbian woman, Smiljka Andjelkovic, was severely
beaten in her home in Lipljan. The woman was at home alone at the time
and was found by her husband Ljubinko as she lay in her kitchen bleeding
and with severe head wounds. There was blood also on the chair with
which the old woman's was beaten about her head.
The same day we received sad news from Gnjilane. The Albanians went into
the town library, took out several thousands of books in the Serbian
language and dumped them on the rubbish heap. Among these books were the
works of the Nobel laureate Ivo Andric, the poet Desanka Maksimovic and
Njegos. Unfortunately, this barbaric act, reminiscent of the burning of
books in Germany under the Nazis, was not an isolated incident of its
kind in Kosovo and Metohija. Immediately after the end of the war in
1999, after the arrival of the international mission with its KFOR and
UNMIK forces many thousands of Serbian books were thrown out of public
libraries by the Albanians. This was also the fate of the books in
private libraries wherever their owners did not manage to evacuate them
in time.
On May 3, 2003, just a few days after Pascha, a whole series of
incidents took place in the village of Suvi Do near the town of Istok.
Milan and Milorad Jeftic, Serbian residents of the village, were injured
when an Albanian bus ran them down intentionally. Three days later, on
May 6 Albanians hurled rocks on a bus owned by the firm "Kosmetprevoz"
which carried school children from Kosovska Mitrovica back to Suvi do.
On the same day some Albanians attacked Dejan Jeftic, a taxi driver from
the same village. His injuries were such that he had to be transported
to the northern part of Kosovska Mitrovica where he staid hospitalized
for a long time.
The next tragedy in Kosovo and Metohija took place on May 17 in the
village of Vrbovac near Vitina, when some Albanians killed Zoran
Markovic, a teacher of Russian, as he worked in his field outside the
village. The Albanians shot him several times in the chest and the head
and then threw him in a nearby river, where he was later discovered by
KFOR soldiers. The following day Albanians beat up a ninety year-old man
by the name of Slavko Stamenkovic in his own home. About the same time
they tried to kidnap Stanko Nisic in the neighboring village of Klokot.
In the beginning of the following month, in the night between June 3 and
4, another atrocity was committed by Albanians in Obilic. Slobodan
Stolic (aged 74), his wife Radmila and son Ljubinko were all killed in
their home by blows to their heads with a blunt object. This crime, as
so many others, was condemned by the representatives of UNMIK and by
some Albanian leaders but in a purely pro-forma fashion, and no further
steps were taken. Perpetrators were never caught, and this failure to
bring criminals to justice only encouraged the terrorists to continue
with their orgy of blood-spilling in Kosovo and Metohija.
Then, on July 6, in the settlement of Devet Jugovici, not far from
Pristina, about 5 o'clock in the afternoon, in broad daylight, some
Albanians set fire to the home of Nebojsa Stamenkovic. The house was
burned to the ground, while Nebojsa, miraculously, survived. This is the
method used by the Albanians to try to force the remaining Serbs to
leave. In as much as neither KFOR nor UNMIK forces are doing anything to
protect the Serbs, in as much as this failure to do anything encourages
the Albanians to continue with their terrorist activities, the situation
of the Serbs in Kosovo and Metohija is becoming increasingly difficult
and unbearable with every passing day.
However, what happened on August 13 in the village of Gorazdevac was a
crime of such unprecedented viciousness that it overshadowed everything
that happened before. Albanian terrorists opened fire on innocent
children while they were bathing in a river. Two children were killed;
five others received such serious injuries that some of them are still
being treated in a Belgrade hospital. It happened on the very day the
new chief of UNMIK, Mr. Harri Holkeri, began his official duties in
Kosovo. Astounded by this "welcome" on the part of the Albanians,
Holkeri promised that perpetrators would be apprehended and tried. This
promise, as all preceding promises, has remained a dead letter.
Much time and much paper would be needed just to give a list of all
attacks on the Serbs. But even these brief remarks must surely give you
a clear picture of apartheid which is rampant in Kosovo and Metohija in
the presence and under the administration of the international
community.
Nevertheless, we cannot leave out the recent incident involving a
Russian delegation of the Fund of Andrew the Fist Called which visited
Kosovo and Metohija on Christmas in 2004. In spite of the heavy escort,
consisting of ten armored vehicles and helicopters in the air, in a
well-organized attack, the Albanians hurled rocks at the Russian
delegation in the village of Decani. The members of the delegation,
which included a member of Parliament, Sergey Shcheblygin, could see for
themselves that the war of the barbarians against civilization is still
going on. Fr. Sergey Popov, also a member of the delegation, said that
he would remember the Christmas that he celebrated with the Serbs until
the day he died.
We are convinced that the Serbian tragedy in Kosovo and Metohija, which
has been unfolding for these past five years, has opened the eyes of the
Russian public in as much as everything that is happening there might be
just a dress rehearsal of what the West is intending to do to Russia.
2. As concerns the suffering of the Serbian Orthodox Church in terms of
Orthodox churches and cemeteries, we have already said that Albanian
extremists are bent on destroying everything that can be identified as
Serbian. Their first and foremost target are our churches and
monasteries. The exact number of destroyed and damaged holy places
cannot be determined as we have no free access to all of our holy
places, not even with a KFOR escort. However, we have established beyond
any doubt that 50 churches were destroyed in the first three months
after the end of the war (between June and September 1999). By the end
of that year, this number rose to almost 100. Today we know of about 115
destroyed and desecrated churches and monasteries, the oldest of which
were built in the 12th century and the most recent ones in the 20th
century. Many of these had survived five hundred years of our
enslavement by the Turks but could not withstand just one year of
international peace. This fact, better than anything else, shows what
sort of peace was given to us, to the Serbs in Kosovo and Metohija. The
destruction of Serbian Orthodox churches and monasteries and the
obliteration of Orthodox cemeteries and cultural monuments are only one
aspect of a comprehensive Albanian strategy, the objective of which is
the transformation of not only the demographic but also the cultural and
historical identity of the Kosovo region. At the same time, the most
recent Albanian historiography and educational institutions have falsely
identified and have ascribed false origins to some of our great holy
places, such as Decani, the Patriachate of Pec, Bogorodica Ljeviska and
Gracanica. The Roman Catholic circles have played a particularly
iniquitous role in this process. In the first place this was done by
Albanian Roman Catholic themselves as they proclaimed quite openly that
the Serbs had "misappropriated" Albanian Catholic churches. In an
interview published by Caritas Vicenza in a book on Kosovo, the Roman
Catholic Bishop of Prizren, Marko Sopi, an Albanian by origin,
resolutely justifies the destruction of Serbian churches after the war,
calling them "political" churches, in spite of the fact that some of
these churches were built in the 13trh, 14th and 15th centuries.
The desecration of Serbian Orthodox churches has not ceased. It
continues to this day. The most recent case is the damage done to the
village church in Gornja Brnjica just outside Pristina on this Christmas
Eve. Two recent incidents can also attest to the fact that Serbian
Orthodox churches, monasteries and cemeteries are still the object of
the destructive drive of Albanian extremists. During the festivities of
May 1 in 2003, Albanians desecrated eleven Serbian graves in the village
of Zitina near Vitina. Serbian residents of Zitina had been banished
from their homes as early as summer of 1999. Having finished with Zitina,
the Albanians turned their destructive fury on to the cemetery in Vitina
itself, where they tore out and threw away the cross from the grave of a
recently buried Serbian woman. In the evening of May 10, Albanian
hooligans hurled rocks at the church of Saint Nicholas in Pristina,
breaking all the windows of the church. They also hurled rocks at the
house of the local priest, Fr. Miroslav Popadic. These incidents were
repeated on many occasions during the past year. All our protests and
appeals addressed to the KFOR and UNMIK forces, in which we asked for
protection for the priest and the church, were answered by profound
silence.
Recently, in addition to overt attacks, mining and wrecking of our
churches, monasteries, cemeteries and cultural monuments, the Albanian
extremists are now trying to complete the process of ethnic cleansing
and misappropriation of our holy places through the work of transitional
institutions as UNMIK is transferring its authority to new Kosovan (for
Kosovan read Albanian) institutions. So in January 2003 the Kosovan
Ministry of Education initiated a proposal to pull down the unfinished
Church of Christ the Savior in the center of Pristina. Thanks to our
protests and the submission of proper documentation including the permit
for the acquisition of the land and the construction of the church, the
proposal was quashed. Unfortunately, however, judging by all indications
this is only a temporary success.
The monumental proportions of the Church of Christ the Savior has long
been a thorn in the side of the Albanians. That is why at the end of
2003 the municipality of Pristina again tried to seize the property of
the Serbian Orthodox Church and the Church of Christ the Savior by
adopting a resolution depriving the Serbian Orthodox Church of the right
to use the area in the center of the town where the Church of Christ the
Savior is located. Again we began to defend our legitimate rights
sending letters and appeals to everybody, and again UNMIK granted a
temporary stay of this illegally adopted resolution. The operative word,
however, is "temporary." The resolution has not been annulled. We do not
know what will happen in the future.
These new crimes against the Serbs in Kosovo and Metohija, especially
the attacks against Serbian holy places, make it clear to anyone who has
eyes to see with that the situation in the Kosovo region has not
improved at all, and that the Serbs and their holy places are still
objects of open persecution and terrorist activities. And all this is
taking place in the presence and under the administration of the United
Nations forces. After this brief review of facts it should be clear that
the prospects for survival of the Serbs in Kosovo and Metohija, and
particularly the prospects for the return of those banished from the
region, are very poor. The fact that the region of Kosovo and Metohija
is in the state of complete chaos was recently pointed out by the Kosovo
ombudsman Marek Anthony Novicky. In his official report on human and
civil rights submitted in Pristina he says that as regards the respect
for human rights Kosovo is still the "black hole" of Europe and the
entire world. Nevertheless, UNMIK continues to ignore the facts on which
this statement was founded.
Let us conclude this presentation with information received recently
from the Coordinating Center for Kosovo and Metohija. According to the
Center's report, "in the four and a half years of the UNMIK
administration, that is between June 10, 1999 and the end of 2003, in
the Kosovo region there were 6392 attacks against the Serbs in which
1197 Serbs were killed, 1305 were wounded and 1138 were kidnapped. Today
we know that of those kidnapped 155 were killed, 13 managed to escape,
95 were let go. The fate of the remaining 863 Serbs remains unknown."
All we can do is to pray, to hope, to endure and to remain in our
martyred Kosovo and Metohija, together with our holy places, together
with the graves of our ancestors and with the conviction that for this
problem also God has a solution.
TOP
Bishop Artemije in front of the
Russian Orthodox cathedral of St. John in
Washington D.C. February 2004
ERP KIM Info-Service is
the official Information Service of the Serbian Orthodox Diocese of Raska
and Prizren and works with the blessing of His Grace Bishop
Artemije.
Our Information Service is
distributing news on Kosovo related issues. The main focus of the
Info-Service is the life of the Serbian Orthodox Church and the Serbian
community in the Province of Kosovo and Metohija. ERP KIM Info Service
works in cooperation with www.serbian-translation.com
as well as the Kosovo Daily
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not official communiqués or news reports by the Diocese are their own and
do not necessarily represent the views of the Serbian Orthodox
Church
Additional information on
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Copyright 2004, ERP KIM Info-Service
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