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January 06, 2004
ERP KiM Newsletter
06-01-04b
The
latest "Christmas gift"
Orthodox church near Pristina desecrated
"The
spectacle I found was horrible," the Pristina parish priest told the ERP
KIM Info Service. "The vandals had scattered the holy chalice, the Holy
Scriptures, the candle holders and icons on the floor of the church.
After a detailed examination, I discovered that two silver candle
holders were missing from the holy altar table, one icon lamp and all
the money from sold candles and donations," said Fr. Miroslav.
Thousands of holy icons and books perished in Serbian Orthodox churches
desecrated by ethnic Albanian extremists in Kosovo since June 1999
(photo: ERPKiM)
CONTENTS:
 Serbian Orthodox Church of Sts. Peter and Paul
desecrated near Pristina
"The
spectacle I found was horrible," the Pristina parish priest told the ERP
KIM Info Service. "The vandals had scattered the holy chalice, the Holy
Scriptures, the candle holders and icons on the floor of the church.
After a detailed examination, I discovered that two silver candle
holders were missing from the holy altar table, one icon lamp and all
the money from sold candles and donations," said Fr. Miroslav
Insider opinion
Kosovo Standards and Not-so-hidden Aid Agenda, by
Henry Braesal
From almost the
first moment that UNMIK moved into Kosovo in June 1999, a process of
"Kosovarisation" was set in place. One example was the sending home of
non-Albanian employees of the electricity company KEK in June 1999 by
KFOR with the promise that they could reapply for their jobs within
three weeks. To date none has been reinstated. In addition, almost all
non-Albanian, and in particular Serb staff, have been ejected from the
hospitals, public services and from Pristina University, schools and
colleges.
"Povratak" Coalition will demand explanation from
Holkeri
The initial serious
step by the POVRATAK coalition in response to the transfer of
competences from UNMIK to provisional Kosmet institutions must be the
leaving of the Kosovo-Metohija Assembly, the president of the Serb
Resistance Movement, Momcilo Trajkovic, assessed. On the eve of the New
Year, Holkeri transferred almost all the competences from UNMIK to
provisional Kosmet institutions, save those reserved for him personally.
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
Serbian Orthodox church of
Sts. Peter and Paul in Gornja Brnjica, near Pristina, desecrated
"The spectacle I found was horrible," the Pristina parish priest told
the ERP KIM Info Service. "The vandals had scattered the holy chalice,
the Holy Scriptures, the candle holders and icons on the floor of the
church. After a detailed examination, I discovered that two silver
candle holders were missing from the holy altar table, one icon lamp and
all the money from sold candles and donations," said Fr. Miroslav
TOP
ERP KIM Info Service
Gracanica, January 6, 2003
Pristina parish priest Fr. Miroslav Popadic informed the Diocese of
Raska-Prizren and Kosovo-Metohija that during his visit on Monday to the
village of Gornja Brnjica, five kilometers north of Pristina, he found
that the Church of Sts. Peter and Paul, built in 1975, had been
desecrated.
"Unknown assailants probably tried to break down the metal doors which
remained stuck so they then cut through three metal bars on the window,
broke the window and entered the church," stated Fr. Miroslav. The
priest and parishioners were consequently unable to enter the church
through the door and immediately called members of the Kosovo Police
Service, who checked the church to make sure it was not mined. Finally a
Serb member of the KPS entered the church through the window and opened
the door for the priest and the gathered villagers so they could inspect
the church.
"The spectacle I found was horrible," the Pristina parish priest told
the ERP KIM Info Service. "The vandals had scattered the holy chalice,
the Holy Scriptures, the candle holders and icons on the floor of the
church. After a detailed examination, I discovered that two silver
candle holders were missing from the holy altar table, one icon lamp and
all the money from sold candles and donations," said Fr. Miroslav.
Forty days ago unknown persons broke into the Church of Sts. Peter and
Paul through the bell tower, climbing down the rope of the bell. On that
occasion only the money was stolen but the objects within the church
were not disturbed.
In the mixed village of Gornja Brnjica there is a total of 47 Serb
families with 187 members. After June 1999 eight Serb families left
their homes in the Albanian part of the village and for the past more
than four years have been unable to return their homes for fear of
attacks.
The Church of Sts. Peter and Paul is located at some distance from the
village, in the woods next to the Orthodox cemetery. It is possible to
get to the church completely unobserved from the direction of the
neighboring Albanian village of Sinji Do, from where local residents
believe the vandals probably came. The present-day church was built in
1975 on the ruins of the medieval Church of St. Nicholas, destroyed
during the Turkish occupation.
The Diocese of Raska-Prizren and Kosovo-Metohija most vehemently
condemns this latest case of desecration of Orthodox holy shrines in
Kosovo and Metohija. Only a few days after an attempt by Pristina
municipal authorities to usurp the church property on which the Orthodox
Cathedral of Christ the Savior in Pristina has been built at the urging
of the University of Pristina and the Kosovo Ministry of Education, a
second "Christmas present" from Albanian extremists followed.
Although the police has launched an investigation in this most recent
case of church desecration, it appears that this case of attack on the
property of the Serbian Orthodox Church is as unlikely to be resolved as
any of the others.
TOP
Insider
opinion
Kosovo Standards and
Not-So-Hidden Aid Agenda
From
almost the first moment that UNMIK moved into Kosovo in June 1999, a
process of "Kosovarisation" was set in place. One example was the
sending home of non-Albanian employees of the electricity company KEK in
June 1999 by KFOR with the promise that they could reapply for their
jobs within three weeks. To date none has been reinstated. In addition,
almost all non-Albanian, and in particular Serb staff, have been ejected
from the hospitals, public services and from Pristina University,
schools and colleges.
TOP
Letters
By Henry Braesal
(the following text is a contribution from one of our international
readers in Kosovo who is employed in UNMIK)
Having visited Kosovo many times since the year 2000, I have often been
struck by the disparity between what is said and what is done by those
whose responsibility it is to administer the province in accordance with
Resolution 1244. Most recently, the United Nations Mission in Kosovo
(UNMIK) has put forward eight "standards" to be met in Kosovo's road to
development and before its future status is finally determined.
The logical presumption is that the procedures to ensure that these
standards are met, should be fair, transparent and equitable, along the
lines of the best traditions of western democracy. However, the reality
is very different. As regards the standard of good governance, the
Provisional Institutions of Self-Government (PISG) and the local
municipal structures have failed to exercise the powers devolved to them
in a just, democratic fashion. Many of the elected representatives who
now form the PISG and municipal structures not only have no experience
in governance but were directly connected with the Kosovo Liberation
Army responsible for expelling 270,000 persons in 1999 - 2000 and also
for the continuing campaign of intimidation and violence against
non-Albanian elements of Kosovo society.
Furthermore, the failure of the international community to facilitate
the return of the non-Albanian communities who were expelled from Kosovo
in the wake of the arrival of international peacekeeping troops KFOR
(and the withdrawal of Serbian military and civil authorities), brings
into question the true meaning of the standards being proposed. Many
internationals who work in Kosovo that I have spoken to, are convinced
that statements from both UNMIK and the PISG encouraging return are
merely "tokenism", paying lipservice to the right of return for the sake
of international acceptability but in reality covering up the deliberate
and systematic obstruction of return to Kosovo by Serbs and other
non-Albanians. In fact, returns is not a demand-driven process, as there
is no free choice for the displaced to return in safety and dignity as
there was for the Albanians in 1999. The Serbs and Roma who wish to
return have to be vetted by a process at both municipal and UNMIK level
which has nothing to do with choice or the internationally accepted
right of return.
The proposed standard of the proper functioning of, and respect for, the
rule of law is still far from established in Kosovo with the bulk of
crimes, including murder, committed in Kosovo since June 1999 unsolved.
For instance, no one has ever been charged with any of the 90 murders
committed in Western Kosovo in 2001 alone. As regards dialogue with
Belgrade no serious attempt has been made to initiate meaningful
discussions with a view to normalising relations. The first meeting
between Belgrade and Pristina in Vienna in October 2003 was in the
opinion of most internationals I have spoken to, little more than a
cosmetic exercise with no serious intent to tackle the most pressing
issues; the fact that the Pristina PISG did not even attend demonstrated
how important a priority it was for them.
From almost the first moment that UNMIK moved into Kosovo in June 1999,
a process of "Kosovarisation" was set in place. One example was the
sending home of non-Albanian employees of the electricity company KEK in
June 1999 by KFOR with the promise that they could reapply for their
jobs within three weeks. To date none has been reinstated. In addition,
almost all non-Albanian, and in particular Serb staff, have been ejected
from the hospitals, public services and from Pristina University,
schools and colleges.
More sinister still are remarks reputedly made on several occasions in
2000 by the then head of EU Pillar II, part of the UNMIK administration,
who stated in front of many witnesses that Serbian would never again be
spoken in Kosovo. Effectively, "Kosovarisation" means "Albanisation"
with all traces of non-Albanian presence in Kosovo eradicated.
As recently as October 2003, a leading official in the Housing and
Property Directorate (HPD) admitted to me that in the absence of an
effective system of law and order and where intolerance, terrorism and
organised crime are the 'order of the day', the effect of HPD's
decisions has been to ethnically cleanse Kosovo by economic means. In
the experience of this official, Serbs and other non-Albanians who dealt
with HPD stayed in Kosovo just long enough to sell their property and
leave.
It must be kept in mind that since Kosovo came under UNMIK and KFOR
administration over two thirds of the non-Albanian population has been
expelled and 112 Serb Orthodox churches have been destroyed.
Effectively, this means that 112 villages have ceased to exist, given
the Orthodox Christian tradition of communities developing around the
local ecclesiastical centre. The expulsion of the population is
accompanied by the destruction of the church to eradicate all traces of
their ever having been there and to discourage their return. This is not
the "balance sheet" of a successful international intervention in the
name of justice and democracy.
Now, Kosovo is to all intents and purposes a mono-ethnic, mono-cultural
inward-looking society. The structures set in place by UNMIK have all
but precluded the possibility of non-Albanians receiving anything
approaching fair treatment. As part of the "Kosovarisation" process, aid
to Kosovo was and is systematically and exclusively aimed at the ethnic
Albanian population. The few 'crumbs' that have fallen to non-Albanian
communities still resident in Kosovo are provided on condition that they
form part of a multi-ethnic package which must involve the majority
Albanian population. This leads to the impossible situation where to
provide aid to Serb enclaves for instance, projects must also help the
surrounding Albanian communities whereas aid to ethnic Albanians has
never been tied to the conditionality of multi-ethnicity. More than one
international has commented to me that the idea of 'multi-ethnicity' is
now nothing more than a tool to stop minorities from receiving aid.
Today, according to cadastral records, 60 % of the arable land in Kosovo
belongs to Serbs yet little or none of it can be accessed safely by them
and much of it has been illegally occupied and built upon. In towns and
cities, many Serb-owned properties have been illegally occupied or
destroyed. To give but one example; German KFOR troops in Prizren have
been occupying several Serb-owned properties for over four years now but
they have refused to pay rent or offer any compensation to the rightful
owners. It is now some four and a half years since UN Resolution 1244
was passed and UNMIK took over responsibility for running Kosovo. In
this time Kosovo has become almost completely Albanised and the future
of non-Albanian communities in the province remains bleak. In the face
of all this, the so-called standards that the authorities in Kosovo
claim to be working towards, are little more than empty words. Such
empty words cannot hide the fact that the Kosovo established under the
auspices of UNMIK and KFOR is an undemocratic, lawless society where
organised crime and terrorism flourish and where not only the
non-Albanian population but any traces of non-Albanian culture are
critically endangered.
It is distressing to contemplate the human tragedy concerning the
expulsion of 270,000 people from their homes but this is compounded by
the self-congratulatory tone of statements from those encharged with the
administration of Kosovo whose pronouncements bear little resemblance to
the reality of the situation. Where else in the world would the
destruction of a unique and irreplaceable cultural heritage go largely
unnoticed by the western media and be ignored by the governing
authorities? The Orthodox churches of Kosovo, many of which date back to
medieval times, contained some of the finest examples of Byzantine
architecture and Christian religious art. One might ask 'Why such a
systematic effort not only to drive out the present Serb population of
Kosovo but to destroy their churches?' Could it be that the existence of
distinctly Serb Orthodox churches dating from as far back as the 11th
and 12th centuries would prove awkward for exponents of the "Kosovarisation"
process and the theory that Kosovo was originally Albanian?
The first 'Standard' one should adhere to is 'Truth', however truth in
Kosovo, to paraphrase the well known words of US Senator Hiram Johnson
(1917), has become the first casualty.
TOP
"Povratak" will demand explanation from
Holkeri
The
initial serious step by the POVRATAK coalition in response to the
transfer of competences from UNMIK to provisional Kosmet institutions
must be the leaving of the Kosovo-Metohija Assembly, the president of
the Serb Resistance Movement, Momcilo Trajkovic, assessed. On the eve of
the New Year, Holkeri transferred almost all the competences from UNMIK
to provisional Kosmet institutions, save those reserved for him
personally.
TOP
Radio
Serbia-Montenegro
January 5, 2003
Kosovska Mitrovica, 05 Jan (Radio S-M) - A member of the Kosmet
(Kosovo-Metohija) Assembly Presidency, Oliver Ivanovic, has announced
that the Serb POVRATAK coalition will launch an initiative as of January
5 whereby it will demand of UNMIK Head Harri Holkeri to explain the
meaning of his latest move by which he has transferred part of
competences from UNMIK to provisional Kosmet institutions.
Ivanovic assessed that at issue is Holkeri's concession to Kosmet
Albanians who, as he said, have accepted international community
standards, which they are unable to fulfill. The initial serious step by
the POVRATAK coalition in response to the transfer of competences from
UNMIK to provisional Kosmet institutions must be the leaving of the
Kosovo-Metohija Assembly, the president of the Serb Resistance Movement,
Momcilo Trajkovic, assessed. On the eve of the New Year, Holkeri
transferred almost all the competences from UNMIK to provisional Kosmet
institutions, save those reserved for him personally.
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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