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February 14, 2004
ERP KiM Newsletter
14-02-04 b
Brinkmann ordered
food to be thrown away rather than to be shared with a Serbian priest
who cannot buy it
Fr. Herman: To throw food to the
garbage rather than to share it with a hungry neighbor is nothing but a
basic lack of human solidarity and culture
| Lack of
basic human solidarity - an example what peacekeeping should
not be "We are particularly
offended by the behavior of some German officers and soldiers who behave
towards us like an occupation force and not as peacekeepers", says Abbot
Herman of the Holy Archangels monastery. "We definitely do not want
to depend on
their food and we can provide our supplies ourselves, but so far it has
been a matter of elementary human solidarity and kindness that their
soldiers who keep guard at the St. George's church in Prizren share
their food rations with our priest who cannot normally buy food in town.
We ourselves have always offered to their soldiers food and drink
whenever they would visit our monastery and so far have had quite
friendly relations with the previous contingents of German KFOR.
However, their latest decision that the soldiers at St. George's must
throw away the remaining food into garbage rather than to share it with
our priest is definitely not a consequence of their "lack of food or
cooks" as Lt. Col. Brinkmann officially told me. In fact, this is basic lack of human
solidarity and culture which is so important for the peacekeeping forces. They are
here to help and win the confidence of the local population and not to
evoke the painful memories from the past century", says Fr. Herman.
In the year which is
expected to be a year of increased returns of Serb refugees
to the Prizren area behavior of the local German KFOR
seriously undermines the confidence in the peacekeeping
forces presenting them ethnically biased against Serb
population. |
Serbian Orthodox Diocese of Raska and Prizren would like to thank to
many of our German friends who have written to us or contacted the
Holy Archangels monastery immediately on hearing the news of
behavior of the local German KFOR in Prizren. They expressed their
solidarity with our monks and were shocked by the behavior of the
local German commander in Prizren and his elementary lack of
flexibility and understanding. Among those who contacted us are some
of German soldiers who served in Prizren and still remember a glass
of brandy in the monastery as well as beautiful wood-carved crosses
Fr. Herman made for them. These messages give us assurance that the
measures taken against the brothers of the Holy Archangels monastery
are not the general position of the German people who have accepted
hundreds thousands of Serbs after the World War II in their country
in which they found their new home. Regrettably, the example of Lt.
Col Brinkmann and his men is an isolated, but yet a painful example
how irresponsible individuals in the position of command may damage
good relations which his predecessors have built with the Serbian
Orthodox Church since the arrival of KFOR.
Among
the reactions we are enclosing an article by Jürgen Elsässer
published in the Junge Welt. Danke, Jürgen!
INTERNATIONAL – KOSOVO
Original text in German:
http://www.jungewelt.de/2004/02-09/005.php
Modern Persecution of Christians - Bundeswehr denies Serbian monks
protection from Albanian terrorists
If KFOR no longer supports the Serbs
with food, electricity and escorts, they are turned over to Albanian
extremists who thrive on destruction. Since the deployment of KFOR in
June 1999, they have destroyed 30 churches and monasteries just in the
German sector, 100 throughout Kosovo, many of them irreplaceable
monuments with frescoes from the early Middle Ages. "None of the
offenders has ever been brought before the court, and there is not even
proof that actual inquiries were ever conducted," criticizes the
Diocese.
Junge Welt
February 9, 2004
Jürgen Elsässer
"I am horrified by the treatment of my monks. This behavior on the part
of the German military contingent will lead to the complete eviction of
the Serbian church from a region in which it has survived for centuries,
even under Turkish dominion," protested Bishop Artemije, the highest
dignitary of the Serbian Orthodox Church in Kosovo, at the beginning of
February.
The current deterioration of relations between the occupying powers and
the faithful goes back to an attack by 30 Albanian extremists on the
January 21 on Orthodox monks in Djakovica who were accompanied by an ARD
television team and a KFOR escort. After the Diocese informed the press,
Belgrade newspapers reported on the incident in detail. The German armed
forces, who would have had reason to seriously pursue the Albanian
offenders for damaging their vehicles during the attack, strangely
enough turned their fury upon the Serb victims. First, they refused the
monastery to which the monks attacked in Djakovica belonged further use
of their electrical generator – in the middle of winter a practically
lethal measure. Second, they stopped delivering food to the last Serb
priest in the bishop's residence in Prizren, the capital of the German
area of jurisdiction. Third, all military escorts which had protected up
to now the travelling of the faithful within Kosovo were discontinued.
"The monks are being punished only because they published the truth
about the incident in Djakovica. The German KFOR wanted to cover up
everything," protested Bishop Artemije.
If KFOR no longer supports the Serbs with food, electricity and escorts,
they are turned over to Albanian extremists who thrive on destruction.
Since the deployment of KFOR in June 1999, they have destroyed 30
churches and monasteries just in the German sector, 100 throughout
Kosovo, many of them irreplaceable monuments with frescoes from the
early Middle Ages. "None of the offenders has ever been brought before
the court, and there is not even proof that actual inquiries were ever
conducted," criticizes the Diocese. Orahovac and Prizren are the last
bases of Orthodox Christianity in the German zone. Prior to NATO
deployment some 20,000 Serbs in Prizren; only about 60 remain.
Altogether between 200,000 (according to the Red Cross) and 360,000
(according to the Serbian government) non-Albanians have fled from
Kosovo or been expelled since 1999, leaving 80,000 to 120,000 still
remaining in the province. The population of the Albanian majority is
given as two million. "During the last four years 2,500 Serbs and other
non-Albanians have been killed in spite of the KFOR-protectorate,"
Serbian Prime Minister Zoran Zivkovic, a politician absolutely friendly
to NATO, complained during a state visit to Berlin at the end of
November 2003.
During a visit to the monastery in Prizren at the end of January,
captain Mark Stiehlers, the spokesman of the German KFOR commander's
office, stated that the monks should be prepared for attacks because
"the Serbs have killed many Albanians here". He especially criticized
Bishop Artemije because of his continued insistence "on UN Resolution
1244 and on the fact that Kosovo is a part of Serbia". This UN
resolution is the international law basis for the stationing of KFOR in
Kosovo and defines its mission as, among other things, the "guarantee of
public safety and order" (Article 9d).
TOP
Serb
Parlamentarian requests protection of Holy Archangel
Monastery
 Member of the Kosovo parliamentary presidency Oliver
Ivanovic today asked for help from international
administrators in Kosovo in securing relatively normal
living conditions for the brotherhood of Holy Archangels
Monastery near Prizren.
Ivanovic asked for help
for the monks during today's meeting with Kosovo
Ombudsman Marek Antoni Nowicki in Pristina after German
KFOR discontinued providing escorts for them last month.
"We agreed that the
situation the monks are in now is alarming and that it
is unacceptable that they cannot visit the Orthodox
people remaining in the Prizren area," said Ivanovic
(BETA News Agency, Belgrade, Feb 12)
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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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