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February 07, 2004
ERP KiM Newsletter
07-02-04b
Serbs will not participate in working groups
"I got
the feeling that the standards are a list of wishes, "train without
training schedule, but despite the promise that there will be a better
tomorrow, nobody can guaranty the Serbs that the standards are
precondition for independence of Kosovo. Maybe there is the answer why
there are not Serbian envoys in the working groups for implementation of
the standards. Holkeri’s document, as Dragisa says, is not predicted who
will determine if Kosovo passed the exam of democracy and multiethnicity
in 2005".
Provisional self-governing
institutions do not want to and UNMIK is not capable of creating
conditions for involvement of Serbs in the political life in Kosovo,
Serbia and Montenegro Deputy Foreign Minister, Zeljko Perovic stated at
the UN Security Council session dedicated to the situation in the
Province.
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Behavior of German KFOR towards Monastery of Holy Archangels
still unchanged
"Perhaps the Lt. Colonel Brinkmann should become aware that
the German army in Kosovo has not come to exercise reprisals
against the Serbian Orthodox Church and the religious rights
of its faithful but to be of assistance particularly to
vulnerable communities. 30 of our churches have been
destroyed in the area of their military control and for more
than four years no one of them has shown a minimum of
responsibility and compassion but even want to leave us
completely in the hands of Albanian extremists", said Fr.
Herman.
ERP KIM
Info-service
Gracanica, February 07, 2004
(photo: Abbot
Herman - Holy Archangels Monastery)
 Information
service of the Serbian Orthodox Church for Kosovo and
Metohija has been advised by the monks of the Holy
Archangels monastery near Prizren that the German KFOR is
still refusing to show flexibility towards the basic needs
of the monastery. Abbot Herman said to ERP KIM Info-service
that the German KFOR decision to discontinue escorts and
meet the monastery's needs regarding the generator and the
food supplies for the priest in Prizren has already created
lots of uneasiness among potential returnees to Prizren
area.
"I have
received hundreds of telephone calls from many people in
Serbia and abroad and all of them expressed outrage with the
behavior of Lt. Col Brinkmann and his soldiers who behave
more as an occupation force than as peacekeepers. Perhaps
Lt. Colonel Brinkmann should become aware that the German
army in Kosovo has not come to exercise reprisals against
the Serbian Orthodox Church and the religious rights of its
faithful but to be of assistance particularly to vulnerable
communities. 30 of our churches have been destroyed in the
area of their military control and for more than four years
no one of them has shown a minimum of responsibility and
compassion but even want to leave us completely in the hands
of Albanian extremists", said Fr. Herman. |
CONTENTS:
 Serbs
will not participate in working groups
"I
got the feeling that the standards are a list of wishes, "train without
training schedule, but despite the promise that there will be a better
tomorrow, nobody can guaranty the Serbs that the standards are
precondition for independence of Kosovo. Maybe there is the answer why
there are not Serbian envoys in the working groups for implementation of
the standards. Holkeri’s document, as Dragisa says, is not predicted who
will determine if Kosovo passed the exam of democracy and multiethnicity
in 2005".
Parallel
institutions exist out of need
Provisional
self-governing institutions do not want to and UNMIK is not capable of
creating conditions for involvement of Serbs in the political life in
Kosmet, Serbia and Montenegro Deputy Foreign Minister, Zeljko Perovic
stated at the UN Security Council session dedicated to the situation in
the Province.
No conditions for Serb political integration in
Kosovo
A senior
federal official told the UN Security Council today that the interim
Kosovo institutions had refused to create the conditions for the
integration of the Serbian community into Kosovo's political life.
Vitina - fear forces them to flee from their
centuries old homes
"We live in
fear. The only lucky thing in our misfortune is that the KFOR troops are
here near the church. They have a permanent security checkpoint and
since we are right next to them we feel a little safer. Otherwise we
would have to leave. We don't have the feeling of security that people
have who are living normal lives," said Gordana Tajic, who lives in
Kosovska Vitina with her husband Dragan and their two sons. Her family
owns a lot of land nearby but they still do not dare plant crops as a
result of frequent attacks and provocations by their Albanian neighbors.
More News Available on our:
Kosovo Daily News
list (KDN)
KDN
Archive
This newsletter is available on our ERP
KIM Web-site:
http://www.kosovo.net/erpkiminfo.html
Serbs
will not participate in working groups
"I got
the feeling that the standards are a list of wishes, "train without
training schedule, but despite the promise that there will be a better
tomorrow, nobody can guaranty the Serbs that the standards are
precondition for independence of Kosovo. Maybe there is the answer why
there are not Serbian envoys in the working groups for implementation of
the standards. Holkeri’s document, as Dragisa says, is not predicted who
will determine if Kosovo passed the exam of democracy and multiethnicity
in 2005".
TOP
BK TV, Belgrade
06 February 2004
"Serbs will not participate in the working groups for implementation of
the standards, but they will remain in the interim institutions" said
for BK chief of the parliamentarian club of "Povratak", Dragisa Krstovic.
"I got the feeling that the
standards are a list of wishes, "train without training schedule, but
despite the promise that there will be a better tomorrow, nobody can
guaranty the Serbs that the standards are precondition for independence
of Kosovo. Maybe there is the answer why there are not Serbian envoys in
the working groups for implementation of the standards. Holkeri’s
document, as Dragisa says, is not predicted who will determine if Kosovo
passed the exam of democracy and multiethnicity in 2005".
Speaking about the
standards he takes up the return of the displaced. "In the standards,
the return includes that at one moment there would be institutions
established that are going to be occupied with the return, some working
bodies, some other subjects, but this document does not say that in
2005, when is expected that the standards are going to be fulfilled,
that there would be return 100,000 Serbs or 100% of the ones that want
to return to Kosovo and Metohija.
Despite the fact that there
is a "lynching" of the Serbs in the Kosovo Parliament and the Albanians
as majority break Resolution 1244 and the Constitutional Framework,
Dragisa claims that the Serbian community for most of the rights can
fight only through the interim institutions.
"The statement of the
General Secretary of UN, Kofi Annan, who said that the Kosovo
institutions and especially the Kosovo Assembly have showed certain
stoppage in the progress and that it is obviously that in the Kosovo
Assembly the rights of the minorities are not respected, that the
majority is trying to impose its decisions to the minorities, decisions
that are not in their interest, and if we were not there we would not
have that kind of statement or evaluation. Dragisa Krstovic does not
deny that the Coalition "Povratak" presents in Kosovo the politic of
official Belgrade and says that he does not understand why the Albanians
are complaining because according the resolution 1244 Kosovo is part of
Serbia and the capital town is Belgrade, and not Pristina.
TOP
"Parallel Institutions" exist out of need
Provisional self-governing institutions do not want to and UNMIK is not
capable of creating conditions for involvement of Serbs in the political
life in Kosmet, Serbia and Montenegro Deputy Foreign Minister, Zeljko
Perovic stated at the UN Security Council session dedicated to the
situation in the Province.
TOP
Radio Serbia-Montenegro
February 6, 2004
Provisional self-governing institutions do not want to and UNMIK is not
capable of creating conditions for involvement of Serbs in the political
life in Kosmet, Serbia and Montenegro Deputy Foreign Minister, Zeljko
Perovic stated at the UN Security Council session dedicated to the
situation in the Province.
This also applies to the process of creation of a plan for
implementation of standards, which was expected to be presented at the
Council’s session, Perovic said. Regarding UNMIK statement on existence
of parallel government institutions in Kosmet and Belgrade support to
their work, Perovic has pointed out that UNMIK and the local authorities
have not offered an efficient alternative to the Serb community in
Kosmet. He pointed out that authorities in Belgrade want to renew the
work of the High Working Group, determined by the agreement between
UNMIK and Serbia and Montenegro, and whose functioning presents an
important element in the process of implementation of Resolution 1244.
TOP
No conditions for Serb political integration in Kosovo
A senior
federal official told the UN Security Council today that the interim
Kosovo institutions had refused to create the conditions for the
integration of the Serbian community into Kosovo's political life.
TOP
Beta News Agency, Belgrade
February 6, 2004
NEW YORK -- Friday - A senior federal official told the UN Security
Council today that the interim Kosovo institutions had refused to create
the conditions for the integration of the Serbian community into
Kosovo's political life.
The UN mission in the province had also failed to create such
conditions, said Zeljko Perovic, the assistant to Serbia-Montenegro's
foreign minister, Goran Svilanovic.
"This also applies to the process of drafting plans for the
implementation of standards, which should have been complete by now and
presented to the Council," Perovic told today's sitting of the Security
Council in New York.
Responding to UNMIK criticism of Belgrade over parallel Serb
institutions in the province, Perovic said that the interim institutions
and UNMIK had failed to provide an effective alternative for the Serb
community.
He emphasised that Belgrade wanted the Joint Document of November 5,
2001, implemented.
"This is an important element in the overall context of implementing
Resolution 1244 and must not be marginalised, which is what is happening
right now," he added.
TOP
Vitina: Fear forces them to flee from their
centuries-old homes
"We live
in fear. The only lucky thing in our misfortune is that the KFOR troops
are here near the church. They have a permanent security checkpoint and
since we are right next to them we feel a little safer. Otherwise we
would have to leave. We don't have the feeling of security that people
have who are living normal lives," said Gordana Tajic, who lives in
Kosovska Vitina with her husband Dragan and their two sons. Her family
owns a lot of land nearby but they still do not dare plant crops as a
result of frequent attacks and provocations by their Albanian neighbors.
TOP
Vesti, Belgrade
February 3, 2004
"Vesti" reporter visits Serbs in Kosovska Vitina
Only 208 Serbs remain in this small town out of a pre-summer 1999
population of 3,500. They are safest close to the church, the location
of the KFOR checkpoint. Albanian physician who treats our illnesses
threatened by his compatriots, says teacher Milusa Jokic
Until June 1999 just over 3,500 Serbs lived in Kosovska Vitina, a small
town on the fertile Kosovsko Pomoravlje plain. Today only 208 remain.
Most of them moved away. Those who stayed in Vitina, where most of them
live in the few small streets not far from the Serbian Orthodox Church
of St. Petka and in so-called Dajic Mahala, cannot really say life is
good.
"We live in fear. The only lucky thing in our misfortune is that the
KFOR troops are here near the church. They have a permanent security
checkpoint and since we are right next to them we feel a little safer.
Otherwise we would have to leave. We don't have the feeling of security
that people have who are living normal lives," said Gordana Tajic, who
lives in Kosovska Vitina with her husband Dragan and their two sons. Her
family owns a lot of land nearby but they still do not dare plant crops
as a result of frequent attacks and provocations by their Albanian
neighbors.
Planting crops a life-threatening danger
"Two years ago my husband tried to plant crops on those fields but he
was attacked. They fired four shots at him," said Gordana.
When asked what they are planning for the future, Gordana shrugged her
shoulders and replied that "many of our neighbors have sold their
houses..."
"Recently an Albanian man who usurped a part of land built a cattle
market on it. I sued him, I complained to UNMIK, 70 year-old Milorad S.
Rajkovic told us. He said that the most difficult thing for him is that
he is forced to live on meager social assistance.
Serb children in Kosovska Vitina attend classes for grades one to eight
in the private house of Radovan Dajic. Every day the 40 or so children
worry whether their teachers will come to class. The children are not
provided with KFOR escorts but luckily, the locals tell us, in the last
few months children have not been targeted although the fear is always
there while they are on their way to and from the improvised school. In
the past four years 60 Serbs have been killed in the Vitina region. One
of the victims was a 17 year-old youth from Vitina, Sasa Dodic.
"We don't have a doctor in our small town. Most of the Serbs go to
Vrbovac or to other Serb villages. But when someone has a problem and no
transportation or opportunity to go to a Serb doctor, then we are sent
to an Albanian private physician. Dr. Fetija generally charges us
symbolic fees for his services. He is nice, despite the fact that local
Albanians threaten him for treating Serbs," Milusa Jokic, a teacher in
the Serb school, told us.
Most Serbs in the enclave are without work and waiting for buyers for
their houses; meanwhile, their hopes for survival in this small town are
quickly fading.
* * *
Combination shop and reading room
The Serbs get together in the shop across the road from the church. The
same building houses an area where younger Serbs, and a few not so
young, read newspapers and magazines to keep up with events in other
parts of Serbia.
"The foreigners say that this is an improvised youth center. Since we
don't get the Belgrade press and can watch only Albanian TV, if it was
not for the center, we would not even know that we are in Serbia," said
19 year-old Boban.
by B. Krstic
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
Additional information on
our Diocese and the life of the Kosovo Serb Community may be found at:
http://www.kosovo.net
Copyright 2004, ERP KIM Info-Service
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