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February 20, 2004 ERP KIM Newsletter 20-02-04b German KFOR officially refuses to provide escort for monks, referring them to UNMIK police ERP KIM Info
Service
The Diocese of Raska and Prizren is surprised and disappointed with the results of yesterday's meeting between outgoing Serbia-Montenegro defense minister Boris Tadic and German defense minister Peter Struck, where the issue of the inhumane treatment of German KFOR toward Serbs in Kosovo and Metohija was not even brought up. Instead of informing his German counterpart of the problem experienced by some citizens of the state he is supposed to represent, Mr. Tadic went so far as to praise the German Army for its "great accomplishments", ignoring the behavior of German KFOR toward Serbs in Serbia's southernmost province. The German defense minister's statement that the Germans will continue to provide protection for the Serbs in Kosovo can only be understood ironically, taking into account the recent removal of a security checkpoint in Velika Hoca, indifference to the obstruction of Serb returns to the Orahovac area, and rejection of plans for the renewal of the monastery in Zociste. Serbs in Velika Hoca have also been left without the KFOR escort which until recently accompanied their bus on a regular route to Mitrovica. Serbs have been told that they will be provided with escorts by the UNMIK police even though the whole task appears have been left up to ethnic Albanians from the Kosovo Police Service. Understandably, Serbs have no confidence in the KPS which is under the direct influence of the same group of people who abducted over 50 Orahovac Serbs in 1998. Unlike in other KFOR sectors where there are several projects for returns, in the German sector one has the distinct impression that KFOR does not want Serbs to return because this would represent an additional responsibility for the German contingent, which is scheduled to be reduced to half its present size by the end of the year. Yesterday's double murder of a Serb man and woman in
Lipljan is just a warning to the international forces that
premature removal of security checkpoints and turning over
the protection of the endangered Serb community to the
professionally ill-prepared and thoroughly corrupt UNMIK and
KPS organizations by KFOR will lead to the departure of the
remaining Serb population and directly encourages Albanian
extremists to continue their campaign of ethnic cleansing. 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. Additional information on
our Diocese and the life of the Kosovo Serb Community may be found at:
http://www.kosovo.net |
After
12 days of waiting for a response to a request for a
military escort to distribute humanitarian aid to Serbs in
Prizren, German KFOR finally sent a written notification
referring the monks of Holy Archangels Monastery to the
UNMIK police. The German Army has thus made it clear that it
is not willing to provide protection for the monks in
carrying out their basic spiritual and humanitarian work to
meet the needs of the remaining Serbs in Prizren. There has
also been no change in the demeanor of German KFOR, which is
still refusing to provide the monastery with electrical
power from its generator and withholding food from the
Orthodox priest in Prizren, who is now being fed by the
remaining Serbs despite the fact that they themselves live
on the very edge of existence.