|
May 15,
2003
ERP KIM Newsletter
15-05-03
CONTENTS:
PARISH HALL NEAR ORAHOVAC
BURGLARIZED
ALBANIANS DRIVE TRACTORS THROUGHT SERB CEMETERY IN ORAHOVAC
SHOTS FIRED AT SERB MAN IN VITINA
TWO HOUSES SET ON FIRE AFTER BEING RETURNED TO SERB OWNER|
CROSS SET ON FIRE IN
VITINA CEMETERY
KOSOVO-METOHIJA CLAIMANTS TO BE COMPENSATED
SERBIAN OFFICALS PROTEST OVER STEINERS DECREE ON STATE-OWNED
PROPERTY IN KOSOVO
EXIBITION - CRUCIFIED
KOSOVO - BELGRADE NATIONAL MUSEUM, May 20, 2003
More News
Available on our:
KOSOVO DAILY
NEWS LIST (KDN)
KDN Archive
This newsletter is available on our
ERP KIM Web-site:
/erpkiminfo.html
PARISH
HALL NEAR ORAHOVAC BULGLARIZED
Representatives of the Dioces of Raska and Prizren from Orahovac confirmed
that after the withdrawal of KFOR protection in November of last year the
parish hall in the village of Brnjaci (near Bela Crkva) in Orahovac
municipality was broken into and burglarized. As well, after the most
recent visit to the Orahovac Orthodox Cemetery, priests saw that Albanians
were driving their tractors through the cemetery and using it is a village
thoroughfare.
TOP
ERP KIM Info Service
Gracanica, May 14, 2003
Frs. Srdjan Milenkovic and Milenko Dragicevic, Serbian Orthodox priests
from the Orahovac and Velika Hoca parishes, informed the Diocese of Raska
and Prizren Info Service today that while visiting St. Nedelja Church in
the village of Brnjaci, near Bela Crkva, Orahovac municipality, they
noticed that unknown perpetrators had broken into the parish hall and
removed most of the contents left there. St. Nedelja Church and the parish
hall, which are located in a region now inhabited exclusively by Kosovo
Albanians, was placed under the protection of KFOR troops after June 1999
and remained so until November 2002. Since then the church and the parish
hall have been without direct protection, although members of German KFOR
promised to protect the property of their church. However, their promise
was not kept.
While passing by the church with a KFOR escort, Fr. Milenkovico observed
at the end of April that some of the windows on the church and the hall
were broken. Representatives of the parish were not able to visit the
church an d parish hall before May 4 and at that time they noted signs of
the break in and burglary. Arsenije Grkovic, the president of the church
council, and Dimitirije Baljosevic prepared a detailed report on the
condition they found. In addition to the broken windows and torn out door,
three ceiling lamps with fans were also missing, as well as three smaller
ceiling lamps. Also missing were curtains and other materials from the
building. The fountain in the churchyard was broken and the church fence
broken, allowing livestock to wanter into and dirty the churchyard. Fr.
Srdjan had asked to remove the entire inventory and sacred vessels during
his most recent to the church and parish hall in November 2002 but he was
assured by members of KFOR that everything was secure and they did nto
allow him to take anything with him except a pair of wooden benches.
Fr. Milenkovic reported the bulgary to representatives of UNMIK and KFOR
and an investigation is in progress. St. Nedelja Church is first mentioned
in historical records in 1348. In the 16th century the church was
completely restored and afterwards it was partially restored several
times. The church contains valuable stone reliefs dating back to the 16th
century.
TOP
ALBANIANS DRIVE TRACTORS
THROUGH SERB CEMETERY IN ORAHOVAC
TOP
ERP KIM
Info Service
Gracanica, May 14, 2003
According to the Serbian church sources in Orahovac desecration of the
local Orthodox cemtetery is continuing.
On May 10 Fr. Milenko Dragicevic, a priest in Velika Hoca, visited the
Serbian Orthodox Cemetery, which is located in the Albanian part of the
town and where Serbs have not been able to bury their deceased for four
years, accompanied by representatives of UNMIK and Orahovac municipality.
The purpose of the visit was to reexamine the possibility of activating
the cemetery. The remaining 400 Serbs in Orahovac have been burying their
deceased in the relatively small area surrounding the Church of the
Assumption of the Most Holy Theodokos in the Serb quarter of Orahovac
since June 1999. As early as summer 2002 Serbs visited the cemetery for
the first time and found damaged graves and UCK graffiti written in red
paint. This time Fr. Dragicevic observed more graves had been damaged and
confirmed that in the visited section of the cemetery, almost 90 percent
of the tombstones were damaged or completely destroyed. Especially
worrisome is the fact that the cemetery fence has been torn down and local
Albanians are driving their tractors through the Serb cemetery, using it
as an improvised village thoroughfare. Fr. Dragicevic asked UNMIK and KFOR
to urgently fence in the cemetery and prevent its further desecration.
The Diocese of Raska and Prizren once again appeals to representatives of
the international administration in Kosovo and Metohija and officials of
the Republic of Serbia to urgently undertake measures to prevent the
further destruction and looting of the property of the Serbian Orthodox
Church.
TOP
SHOTS
FIRED AT SERB MAN IN VITINA
TOP
KIM RADIO
May 14, 2003
Last night at approximately 19,15 hours unknown persons fired three
gunshots from a moving vehicle at 50 year-old Tomislav Simic from Vitina.
The attack occurred as Simic was going to Vitina to visit the abandoned
home of a friend. No one was injured in the incident.
TOP
TWO HOUSES
SET ON FIRE AFTER BEING RETURNED TO SERB OWNER
Two houses owned
by Milan Sotic, a Serb from Kosovska Vitina, were set aflame after UNMIK
and Habitat for Humanity implemented the decision displacing the Albanian
family who illegally occuppied them since 1999
TOP
ERP KIM Info
Service
Gracanica, May 14, 2003
According to ERP KIM Info Service sources in Kosovska Vitina unknown
perpetrators set two houses belonging to Milan Sotic, a Serb, on fire. The
Sotic family fled from its home after the war and found sanctuary in the
nearby village of Letnica. They houses were illegally occuppied by an
Albanian family, which continued to use the Sotic home until May of this
year, when the houses were returned to their rightful owner by decision of
UNMIK and the NGO Habitat for Humanity. However, before the Sotices could
return to their home, unknown attackers set fire to the new house on May 5
and, three days later, on May 8, to the old house located on the same land
parcel. Both houses were set aflame despite their immediate proximity to a
KFOR checkpoint and the Vitina police station.
Both attacks were reported to the police; however, the perpetrators have
not yet been found despite suspicions that the Albanians who were recently
living in the house and were then forced to vacate it were involved in the
attack.
CROSS SET ON FIRE IN VITINA CEMETERY
Unprecedented act of
barbarism
TOP
ERP KIM Info Service
Gracanica, May 14, 2003
Sources from the Serbian Orthodox parish in Kosovska Vitina have confirmed
that during the night of May 4th unknown attackers set fire to a wooden
cross in the Orthodox cemetery marking the grave of a Serb man buried the
preceding day, Sunday, May 4. Members of the deceased's family who came to
visit his grave the day after the funeral found the charred and broken
remains of the cross.
TOP
KOSOVO-METOHIJA CLAIMANTS TO BE COMPENSATED
http://www.serbia.sr.gov.yu/news/2003-05/12/329106.html
TOP
SERBIAN GOVERNMENT
May 12, 2003
Belgrade, May 12, 2003 - The Bureau for Property and Legal Issues of the
Department for the Judiciary and Human Rights of the Coordinating Centre
for Kosovo-Metohija has prepared a proposal for the local population
asking for compensation starting from June 11, 1999, the date of the
deployment of international peacekeeping forces in the province. The
request will be sent to UNMIK shortly, said Bureau chief Svetlana
Scepanovic.
Scepanovic also said that Serbia has no effective power in
Kosovo-Metohija, and thus cannot be held responsible for the compensation.
As UNMIK and KFOR are in charge of safety and protection of property under
UN Security Council Resolution 1244, the international community should be
the one to provide this reimbursement, Scepanovic said.
The proposal demands that Serbs and other non-Albanians be granted
compensation for damaged and looted property, torture, illegal arrests and
kidnappings, injuries and murders.
The request should first be discussed by the Coordinating Centre for
Kosovo-Metohija, after which Nebojsa Covic, the head of the Coordinating
Centre, will present it before the UN Security Council.
TOP
SERBIAN OFFICIALS PROTEST OVER STEINER'S DECREE ON STATE-OWNED PROPERTY IN
KOSOVO
http://www.serbia.sr.gov.yu/news/2003-05/13/329118.html
TOP
SERBIAN GOVERNMENT
May 13, 2003
Belgrade, May 12, 2003 - Head of the Coordinating Centre for
Kosovo-Metohija Nebojsa Covic said on Tuesday that a decree by UNMIK chief
Michael Steiner, allowing for the privatisation of state-owned property in
the province, is one-sided and represents yet another provocation directed
towards the Belgrade authorities, which had not been consulted before it
was issued.
Steiner has issued a decree replacing the right to use the land of
state-owned firms in Kosovo with a 99-year lease, which can also be used
as a guarantee for insurance credits.
Covic said that this decree which enables the snatching of Serbia's
property against all international regulations was drafted without
Belgrade's consent. He called on the international community to prevent
such one-sided moves that may destabilise the situation in the province.
Serbian Minister of Economy and Privatisation Aleksandar Vlahovic said
that there are still a number of issues to be resolved before embarking on
a privatisation process in Kosovo-Metohija, as no transition country has
sold its enterprises without regard to its creditors.
"Since this decree, issued without the Serbian government's consent,
creates additional confusion regarding the approach to Kosovo
privatisation, Deputy Prime Minister Covic and I will intensify our
communication with UNMIK in order to resolve this issue," the Beta news
agency quoted Vlahovic as saying.
TOP
ARTICLE
ERP KIM INFO SERVICEE
THE SERBIAN ORTHODOX CHURCH AND
THE DIOCESE OF RASKA-PRIZREN AND KOSOVO-METOHIJA
INVITE YOU TO THE OPENING OF THE EXHIBITION
EUROPEAN CULTURAL HERITAGE IN PERIL
ORTHODOX SPIRITUALITY OF KOSOVO AND METOHIJA
CRUCIFIED KOSOVO
DESTRUCTION AND
DESECRATION
OF THE SERBIAN ORTHODOX RELIGIOUS LEGACY
IN KOSOVO AND METOHIJA
1999-2003
IN THE ATRIUM OF THE SERBIAN NATIONAL
MUSEUM IN BELGRADE
ON TUESDAY, MAY 20, 2003 AT 8:00 P.M. (20,00 HOURS)
Made possible with the assistance of THE KARIC FOUNDATION
contact: kerp@eunet.yu
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
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 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
If you received this
message by error or you don`t want to receive our e-mails anymore, please
write to us: erpkim@kosovo.net
Our Newsletters are
available on our ERP KIM Info-service Web-Page:
/erpkiminfo.html
Additional
information on our Diocese and the life of the Kosovo Serb Community may
be found at:
Copyright 2003, ERP KIM Info-Service
|
