March 30, 2007

KiM Info Newsletter 30-03-07

UNESCO world heritage site targeted by extremists again

Decani Monastery area hit by a mortar-grenade, no injuries or damage

Bishop Teodosije said for KIM info-service that this is obviously one more mortar attack on the Monastery. The attackers probably wanted to intimidate us and send a threatening message both to the monks and NATO peacekeepers in this critical political moment for Kosovo firing only one grenade. It is well known that this area is full of well armed extremist paramilitary groups. Some of them threatened the monastery before. It is early now to speak more about this attack and we expect KFOR to come out with an official statement and perform a thorough investigation in order to identify the perpetrators of this terrorist attack on Visoki Decani Monastery. Thank God, no one is hurt, said the Bishop.

Visoki Decani Monastery, fourth time since 1999. targeted by mortar grenades
With this latest attack this is the 23rd grenade fired at this monastery after the war

Bishop Teodosije

This morning (March 30 2007) at 01.10 a.m. the immediate vicinity of Visoki Decani Serbian Orthodox Monastery was rocked by a powerful blast which woke up the monastic brotherhood. The monks who were still awake, among them Bishop Teodosije, confirmed that they first heard a strange muffled sound, then a whiz which lasted about 2 seconds followed by a powerful blast in the very vicinity of the medieval monastery. According to the testimony of the monks the whizing sound came from the hill above the monastery from where it is believed that the grenade was launched. All the monks who remember the last mortar-grenade attack on Visoki Decani Monastery on March 17 riots in 2004 said that the sound and the explosion were very similar to those in the previous attack.

Beside March 2004 attack when 7 grenades fell only 50 m away from the 14th century church, Visoki Decani Monastery area was targeted by mortar grenades twice more since the deployment of NATO led peacekeepers, in February 2000 (6 grenades) and June 2000, when 9 mortar grenades hammered the area around the monastery. The perpetrators of these three attacks have not yet been identified and brought to justice.

The soldiers of the Italian KFOR who are providing military protection of the monastery from a military base in the vicinity of the monastery immediately reacted after the explosion and began a search for the attackers. The situation around the monastery is peaceful again, KFOR soldiers said to the monks who returned to their cells to take some rest before the morning prayer.

Bishop Teodosije said for KIM info-service that this is obviously one more mortar-grenade attack on the Monastery. The attackers probably wanted to intimidate us and send a threatening message both to us and the NATO peacekeepers in this critical political moment for Kosovo firing only one grenade. It is well known that this area is full of well armed extremist paramilitary groups. Some of them threatened the monastery before. It is early now to speak more about this attack and we expect KFOR to come out with an official statement and perform a thorough investigation in order to identify the perpetrators of this terrorist attack on Visoki Decani Monastery. Thank God, no one is hurt, said the Bishop.

photo showing where the grenades fired in March 17 riots fell

The remains of 60mm mortar grenades found by KFOR in the monastery field

JUNE 2000 - AFP

Blasts hammer area around Kosovo Serb monastery

AGENCE FRANCE PRESSE
Thursday, 22-Jun-2000 3:20AM

PRISTINA, Yugoslavia, June 22 (AFP) - Nine blasts believed to be mortar rounds hammered an area overnight near the Serbian Orthodox monastery of Decani in western Kosovo, a KFOR spokesman said Thursday. 

The explosions did not cause any injuries or damage, said Major Scott Slaten, spokesman for the NATO-led peacekeeping force. The blasts ocurred at around midnight (2200 GMT Wednesday) at five-second intervals, said Slaten, who added it was too early to say if the monastery had been targetted.

The explosions were heard by KFOR Italian troops at a guard post some 400 metres (yards) from the monastery, 15 kilometres (10 miles) south of the western city of Pec.

Father Sava Janjic, a spokesman for the Serbian Orthodox curc in Gracanica near Pristina, told the independent Yugoslav agency Beta the explosions landed close to the monastery building, throwing earth up onto the building. There have been several mortar attacks on a variety of targets in the Italian-led western sector of the Yugoslav province in recent months. KFOR arrested one ethnic Albanian man earlier this month in posesion of a 60 mm mortar in the sector.

FEBRUARY 2000 - Diocese ERP

Six Mortar rounds fired at the 14th century Monastery

PRESS RELEASE
DIOCESE ERP, Sunday February 27, 2000

On Sunday, Feb 27, at 20.30 six mortars were fired on the Visoki Decani Monastery. They fell and exploded in the monastery garden, thirty meters south from the Monastery church built in 1327. The mortars exploded in the very vicinity of the Italian KFOR checkpoint. This heinous attack on the only remaining Serb community in the area has greatly disturbed the brotherhood and the Italian soldiers.

The monastery was threatened many times so far by the local Albanian extremists who wanted to destroy this Medieval Christian shrine as they did with more than 80 other Orthodox churches destroyed after the end of the war. The attack occurred on the eve of the Albanian celebration of the founding of KLA.