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July 06,
2003
ERP KIM Newsletter
06-07-03
CONTENTS:
 PUBLIC
STATEMENT OF THE SERBIAN ORTHODOX CHURCH COUNCIL FOR KOSOVO AND METOHIJA
POSITION
OF SERBS IN KOSOVO REMAINS ESSENTIALLY UNCHANGED
JAMES
BISSET: VIDOVDAN SPEECH, NIAGARA FALLS, 29. JUNE 2003
FIRST
TOPIC OF DIALOGUE - RETURN AND SECURITY OF SERBS IN KOSOVO
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PUBLIC
STATEMENT OF THE SERBIAN ORTHODOX CHURCH COUNCIL FOR KOSOVO AND METOHIJA
TOP
THE
INFORMATION SERVICE OF
THE SERBIAN ORTHODOX CHURCH
Patriarchate, Belgrade
July 5, 2003
PUBLIC STATEMENT
THE COUNCIL FOR KOSOVO AND METOHIJA OF
THE HOLY SYNOD OF BISHOPS OF
THE SERBIAN ORTHODOX CHURCH
(photo: Patriarchal Palace in Belgrade, Serbian
Orthodox Church)
 As
a result of the concern of the Serbian Orthodox Church for its suffering
people in Kosovo and Metohija, whose Golgotha has not ended but become
increasingly difficult and more horrible since the establishment of
international rule in Kosovo and Metohija in June 1999, the Council for
Kosovo and Metohija of the Serbian Orthodox Church's Holy Synod of Bishops
met in Belgrade in the Serbian Patriarchate on Friday, July 4.
After listening to multiple reports from the Province, the Council
concluded that, despite minor improvements, essentially nothing has
changed for our people. They continue to live a life unworthy of free man,
without legal, social, health or any other form of security. Judging from
the most recent murders in Obilic and violence throughout Kosovo and
Metohija they are frequently in justifiable fear for their very lives. We
fear that those guilty for these most recent crimes will be neither found
nor punished, as the perpetrators of hundreds of murders from June 1999 to
the present have been neither found nor punished. And we ask ourselves:
What good fortune and progress can the Albanians expect if these are the
promised social standards to be established by the international
community?
The Council concluded that during the mandate of UNMIK chief Michael
Steiner the return of Serb refugees begun in 2001 came to a halt and it
called on Steiner's successor and UNMIK to return the displaced to the
villages of Ljevosa, Siga, Brestovik and Belo Polje in the Pec region as
soon as possible, point out that everything necessary has existed for some
time: programs, funds provided by the Italian government, security and
volunteers for return - everything except somebody's good will!
At the same time UNMIK, which is unable to provide a normal life, is
asking that the protection of reaming Serbian churches and cultural
monuments be entrusted to the provisional institutions and officials in
Pristina. How will they be able to protect them from ruin when KFOR and
UNMIK police have failed to protect more than 110 churches from demolition
and destruction? Despite the clarity of Resolution 1244 and the
Military-Technical Agreement, proposals can also be heard once again to
turn over the protection of Serbian heritage and religious sites to the
Kosovo Protection Corps, among whose ranks yesterday's terrorists and
criminals who murdered people and destroyed these same churches are
frequently being discovered!
The Council for Kosovo and Metohija expressed its great concern because of
the situation of refugees and displaced persons from Kosovo and Metohija,
especially because international sources that largely fed them are slowly
drying up.We call on the international public, the state of Serbia and
Montenegro and on our people, despite their impoverished state, to do what
they can and help those in need. We encourage Serbs in Kosovo and Metohija
to survive and stay in their ancient homes, for this is not the first time
they have been persecuted, nor is it the first time that Serbs have
returned to their burned down and destroyed churches and homes and rebuilt
them from the ashes. Placing our faith in God the All-Supporting, we hope
that this generation will not dishonor its forefathers in this respect.
In its quest for truth, answers and a future for Kosovo and Metohija, the
Serbian Orthodox Church will soon publish its Memorandum on Kosovo and
Metohija, in the hope that God will grant that words of truth will truly
set us all free: the international community in fulfilling its purpose for
assuming rule and responsibility in Kosovo and Metohija; our state in
tending with a clear strategy the land where it came into existence; the
Serb people who stayed in Kosovo and Metohija in surviving; all expelled
persons and refugees in returning; and all residents of Kosovo and
Metohija in living in peace and human dignity.
TOP
POSITION
OF SERBS IN KOSOVO REMAINS ESSENTIALLY UNCHANGED
TOP
Beta
News Agency, Belgrade
July 5, 2003
BELGRADE - The Council for Kosovo and Metohija of the Serbian Orthodox
Church's Holy Synod of Bishops has assessed that, despite minor
improvements, essentially nothing has changed for the Serb people in the
Province.
"The Serb people continue to live a life unworthy of free man, without
legal, social, health or any other form of security. Judging from the most
recent murders in Obilic and violence throughout Kosovo and Metohija they
are frequently in justifiable fear for their very lives. We fear that
those guilty for these most recent crimes will be neither found nor
punished, as the perpetrators of hundreds of murders from June 1999 to the
present have been neither found nor punished," reads the statement of the
Serbian Orthodox Church.
The members of the Church council ask the question: "What good fortune and
progress can the Albanians expect if these are the promised social
standards to be established by the international community?"
At yesterday's session Council members concluded that during the mandate
of UNMIK chief Michael Steiner the return of Serb refugees begun in 2001
came to a halt.
The Council called on Steiner's successor and UNMIK to return the
displaced to the villages of Ljevosa, Siga, Brestovik and Belo Polje in
the Pec region as soon as possible, point out that everything necessary
has existed for some time: programs, funds provided by the Italian
government, security and volunteers for return - "everything except
somebody's good will."
The Council for Kosovo and Metohija expressed its great concern because of
the situation of refugees and displaced persons from Kosovo and Metohija
because international sources that fed them are slowly drying up.
"We call on the international public, the state of Serbia and Montenegro
and on our people, despite their impoverished state, to do what they can
and help those in need. We encourage Serbs in Kosovo and Metohija to
survive and stay in their ancient homes. This is not the first time they
have been persecuted, nor is it the first time that Serbs have returned to
their burned down and destroyed churches and homes and rebuilt them from
the ashes," the statement says.
The Council announced that in its quest for truth, answers and a future
for Kosovo and Metohija, the Serbian Orthodox Church will soon publish its
Memorandum on Kosovo and Metohija.
TOP
JAMES
BISSETT: VIDOVDAN SPEECH, NIAGARA FALLS, 29. JUNE 2003
TOP
VIDOVDAN SPEECH NIAGARA FALLS 29 JUNE 2003
Honored guests ladies and gentlemen:
I want at the outset to thank Bora Dragasevich for inviting me to speak to
you this afternoon. It is a privilege and a sincere honor for me to be
with you and to share your Vidovdan celebrations.
I recall that it was thirteen summers ago that I set off to Belgrade to
take up my post as the Canadian Ambassador to Yugoslavia. Yugoslavia was
then a strong and united country- more prosperous than most of the Eastern
Bloc countries. Yet there were emerging signs of trouble. Urged on by the
former Central Powers - Germany, Austria and Hungary - Slovenia and
Croatia were already planning to separate from the Yugoslav Federation.
I became an eyewitness to the subsequent violence and break up of the
country. I also was a witness to the "historical amnesia" suffered by the
political leaders of France, Britain, the United States and my own
country, Canada. These countries were Serbia's old traditional allies in
two world wars yet they shamefully stood by and joined in the betrayal of
Yugoslavia. The break up of Yugoslavia was a disaster for the Serbian
people. Thousands killed and many more thousands forced to flee their
ancestral homelands. Serbs have been humiliated and many have lost their
self-respect. Yet the greatest tragedy of all is that the Serbs have been
blamed for everything that has happened since the breakup. They have been
blamed for the breakup itself. They have been blamed for starting the
violence. They have been blamed for the ethnic cleansing that occurred.
They have been blamed for the massacres. They have been blamed for
genocide. Finally they have been blamed for the NATO bombing of their own
country!
These are lies! Lies! Lies! Hitler's propaganda Minister Joseph Goebbels
said if you tell a monstrous lie people will believe you because they
cannot imagine anyone making up such an outrageous falsehood. Then if
evidence is shown to contradict the lie, you dismiss it as irrelevant or
misguided. Finally when the truth finally is disclosed it is too late.
Nobody cares or wants to know. So it has been with the dreadful lies told
about the Serbs. President Clinton and Tony Blair talked about genocide
taking place in Kosovo. The US Secretary of Defense, William Cohen, said
there were over a hundred thousand young Albanian men missing in Kosovo.
Robin Cook the British Foreign Minister and Clare Short his cabinet
colleague both made outrages charges against the Serbs about non-existent
rape camps. Later it was reported by the UNHCR and even the anti-Serb,
Soros NGO, Human Rights Watch, that these stories had no foundation. Can
you believe that these two hypocritical British Cabinet Ministers actually
resigned over the war against Iraq!
However, there is a striking difference between Kosovo and Iraq. Despite
all of Milosevic's faults he didn't compare with Saadam Hussein.
Milosevic, after all, obeyed all of the UN Resolutions - including
allowing troops from the Organization for European Cooperation and
Development [OECD] into Kosovo. He was no threat to his neighbors. He did
not aspire to, nor did he possess, weapons of mass destruction. Although
not a democrat he was not a psychopathic killer like Saadam nor was Serbia
under his regime a totalitarian state, as was Iraq. In reality he was
trying to suppress an armed rebellion in his own territory- a rebellion
led by a Muslim terrorist organization - and for this the NATO countries
bombed his country.
I believe now that it is generally accepted by most of the informed public
in the West [with the exception of the main stream media in Canada and the
United States] that the bombing of Yugoslavia was deliberately contrived.
It served as a means of providing NATO with a reason for existence and
President Clinton with a distraction from his sexual embarrassments. The
truth is gradually emerging from a variety of reliable sources. One of the
most revealing has been the admission by the former British Defense
Minister, Lord Gilbert, who told the British House of Commons in July 2000
that the terms forced upon Milosevic at Rambouillet were deliberately
designed to provoke war.
So the truth is slowly coming out. Regretfully it is too late in itself to
restore to many Serbs their sense of pride and self-respect. This is left
to you as a people. However, knowing you as I do- and mindful of your
historic courage and heroism - I am confident you will overcome this
historic setback as you have done before. The main thing is to ensure that
your young people remain proud of their heritage and do not accept the
simplistic and biased accounts of the North American media's account of
the Yugoslav breakup.
I want to end my speech today on a positive note. There are, believe it or
not, some encouraging signs of reconciliation and hope in the former
Yugoslavia. A recent agreement signed in Lake Ohrid by representatives of
five Balkan countries: Serbia/Montenegro, Croatia, Macedonia,
Bosnia-Herzegovina and Albania will translate, if all goes well, into a
free trade agreement to become effective in 2007. Moreover, Croatia and
Serbia/Montenegro have agreed to declare both countries "visa free" so
that citizens of each country can travel back and forth without visas.
There is even some hope that under EU pressure property rights might be
restored to those who have been displaced by the wars.
The driving force behind these positive developments is of course the
European Union. The incentive for these countries to forget their ancient
hatreds and to conform to so-called Western values of free markets and
democratization is the carrot to becoming members of the EU Club. In the
final analysis geography and economics may well conquer Balkan politics.
The circle will become closed - and once again in a different form - the
former Yugoslavia will emerge.
I will conclude on this upbeat note but not before adding a personal
warning. The history of Serbia has recorded heroic victories and terrible
defeats. The victories have come when Serbs have relied on their own
resources and inner strengths. The defeats have come when their allies
have betrayed them or let them down. There is a lesson here that you must
not forget. Do not put all of your trust or faith in others, especially in
multilateral organizations or in politicians. And remember history does
sometimes repeat itself. You ought never to forget this. Who could have
imagined that the horrors that took place in the spring and summer of 1941
in Croatia and Bosnia would repeat themselves in the 1990's?
James Bissett
[former Canadian Ambassador to Yugoslavia 1990-1992.]
TOP
FIRST
TOPIC OF DIALOGUE RETURN AND SECURITY OF SERBS IN KOSOVO
TOP
Radio
Serbia-Montenegro
Belgrade, July 5, 2003
The
political analyst and consultant for the Institute for social sciences in
Belgrade, Ognjen Pribicevic, has announced that preparations for genuine
talks on the resolving of the Kosovo issue are to be expected during this
year. He also pointed out that the first topic of talks between Belgrade
and Pristina should be the return and security of the Serbs to Kosovo.
What is happening in Kosovo, how Serbs live there and how they are treated
is below African standards and not in concordance with European trends
during the last 100 years.
Pribicevic added that first of all, the standards, which were set not by
the Serbian side but the international community, must be respected, and
only then can talks be held on the status of Kosovo. He assessed that
there must be a dialogue about the return of Serbian security forces in
Kosovo for, as he said, this was stipulated by the international community
in Resolution 1244, adding that he cannot see any reason why the Albanians
would be worried about this.
TOP
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
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and the Serbian community in the Province of Kosovo and Metohija. ERP KIM
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www.serbian-translation.com as well as the
Kosovo
Daily News (KDN) News List
Disclaimer:
The views expressed by the authors of newspaper articles or other texts
which are not official communiqués or news reports by the Diocese are
their own and do not necessarily represent the views of the Serbian
Orthodox Church
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