FROM DAILY PRESS:

Danas daily, Belgrade, June 22, 2006

Church of St. Andrew in Podujevo damaged third time since the beginning of April

Bishop Artemije: No end to crimes

Continuous protection for Serbian holy shrines requested - Damaged church of the Holy Apostle Andrew in Podujevo

Belgrade - Unknown attackers have again damaged the church of the Holy Apostle Andrew in Podujevo for the third time since the beginning of April, breaking down the door, smashing the windows and writing new derogatory graffiti on the walls of the church, the KIM Info Service advised yesterday, citing international sources in Kosovo and Metohija. A written statement says that the local Kosovo Police Service confirmed that the church had been damaged again. The desecration of the Orthodox church in Podujevo has been condemned by Bishop Artemije (Radosavljevic) of Raska and Prizren and his vicar, Bishop Teodosije (Sibalic) of Lipljan.

"A crime happens in Kosovo and Metohija every day. There is no end to it. Recently the church in Obilic was desecrated, a few days ago there was a murder in Klina, and the Serb cemetery in Staro Gradisko was destroyed while the gentlemen representing Kosovo provisional institutions tour the United States telling everybody how the situation in Kosovo and Metohija has improved and how everything is just fine now. This is unprecedented and unbelievable hypocrisy on the part of the world toward everything that is happening in Kosovo and Metohija," said Bishop Artemije.

Bishop Teodosije, who is a member of the Commission for the restoration of churches in Kosovo and Metohija, assessed that "Serbian Orthodox churches are constantly being targeted by extremists and hooligans, and municipal authorities and the KPS are neither willing nor able to protect endangered Serbian holy shrines". He added that he has already requested through the Commission for the restoration of churches that all Serbian Orthodox churches in parts of Kosovo and Metohija where no Serbs presently live be urgently placed under continuous police protection. Bishop Teodosije said that these attacks "will not discourage the already begun restoration of Serbian churches destroyed in the March 2004 pogrom". He also said that "municipalities will be asked to pay for the damages from their own funding and that repairs will be done under the control of experts from the Commission for restoration". The newsletter of the KIM Info Service states that the Commission for the restoration of churches and monasteries destroyed in the March 2004 pogrom foresees the beginning of works on the complete restoration of about ten church buildings in Prizren, Pristina, Vucitrn and Devic Monastery this summer.

By J. Tasic

Serb member of Kosovo Police Service suspected in attack on a priest of the Serbian Orthodox Church "UNMIK police spokesman in Kosovska Mitrovica Larry Miller confirmed that a 29 year-old Serb member of the Kosovo Police Service is suspected in the attack on the former secretary of the Diocese of Raska and Prizren, Protopresbyter Srdjan Stankovic, news agencies reported. Miller confirmed that an indictment against the suspect will be issued and that the investigation, which has been turned over by regional police in Kosovska Mitrovica to the Sector for Investigation of Major Crimes in Pristina, continues. Stankovic and his family were attacked on May 6, 2006 near Zvecan when attackers blocked the road in front of his vehicle and fired several shots at him from a revolver.

Serb National Council and Serbian Orthodox Church condemn murder of Dragan Popovic Gracanica, Visoki Decani, Belgrade - The murder of Klina returnee Dragan Popovic (68) and frequent attacks on Serbs were condemned yesterday by Bishop Teodosije and the Serb National Council of Kosovo and Metohija. In a written statement forwarded to media, the SNC accused a part of the international community and KFOR of "not creating a safe environment for Serbs, especially returnees". Falsely representing the situation in the province and the alleged progress in achievement standards, as outgoing UNMIK chief Soren Jessen-Petersen did before the UN Security Council on the day that Popovic was murdered, shows to what the degree the Albanian lobby is working on achieving its goal while a part of the international community "closes its eyes to terror against Serbs", it is emphasized in the statement.

Wife Of Murdered Dragan Popovic: My Husband Was Murdered Because Of Our Property

Novi Sad, 22 Jun. (Politika)

The funeral of the recently murdered Serb, Dragan Popovic, killed by the Albanians, will take place in Belgrade, stated Dragan’s widow Darinka.

“It is clear to us that he has been killed by our Albanian neighbors for our property. They have attacked our house earlier, seven years ago, on June 19th right after the Serbian police and army withdrew from Metohija, they attacked our house, shooting firearms. Luckily, my deceased husband had a firearm so he fought back. After the attack, we fled from our home, all of us did, my five daughters, son, daughter in law and eighteen grandchildren. We settled in Leskovac, where Dragan had a complex heart surgery.

Recently, he returned to our house to renovate it and I stayed in Leskovac. Receiving news about his death, we thought he died of a cardiac arrest. But the pathologists in Orahovac confirmed that he was shot in the back of the head”, says Darinka Popovic.
“The reason is our property. In that part of Metohija, our property is the largest one.

Although we had very high offers to sell it, we did not think of doing it and leaving Kosmet, says Darinka and adds “fortune and misfortune goes together. The day before the murder, our son was paying a visit to his father. He could have been killed as well. Our son brought Dragan money for his needs.  He bought two pounds of tomatoes and he was killed at our doorsteps, returning from the store”, says Darinka Popovic.

Picture of the Day: Rice Meeting Kosovo Leaders
Originally uploaded by kosovareport.

Kosovo President and Prime Minister received by US Secreteary of State, June 19

U.S. Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice (C) shakes hands with Kosovo's President Fatmir Sejdiu (L), as Kosovo's Prime Minister Agim Ceku (R) smiles, before their meeting in the Secretary's Outer Office at the State Department in Washington June 19, 2006. REUTERS/Yuri Gripas (UNITED STATES)

SERBIAN UNITY CONGRESS (USA)

Agim Ceku must face justice, not American officials Serbian Unity Congress

June 23, 2006

The Serbian Unity Congress (SUC) is deeply disappointed in the regrettable decision of the U.S. State Department to have Secretary Condoleezza Rice meet today in Washington with Mr. Agim Ceku, "prime minister" of the PISG in the UNadministered Serbian province of Kosovo-Metohija.

The SUC welcomes constructive multilateral engagement as well as direct political contacts of the U.S. government with all relevant parties in the post-Yugoslav fragmentation, in search of necessary stability and prosperity. However, the present choice of negotiator on behalf of the Kosovo Albanian body politic is a deeply flawed and dangerous political precedent.

As has been repeatedly pointed out by the SUC, Mr. Ceku is an indicted war criminal and mass murderer, sought in his native country on major charges from wars in both Croatia and Kosovo. The latter indictment alone includes 687 murders, 518 counts of inflicting serious bodily harm (including torture) and wounding, and 584 counts of abduction against loyalist population in Kosovo. He was wanted on Interpol warrants on which he was twice arrested, though inexplicably never extradited.

The influential Jane's Defense Weekly called Mr. Ceku a "mastermind" of the worst ethnic cleansing of the Balkan wars for his 1995 role in the massacres and expulsions in the Krajina. In 1993, Canadian UNPROFOR troops witnessed and eventually confronted the mass slaughter of over 200 Serbian civilians of the Medak Pocket led by Ceku, then a colonel of the Croatian Army. During the last 7 years of UNMIK administration, he mostly headed KPC, a "civil emergency organization" operated as an illegally militarized successor to the "disbanded" terrorist KLA. The KPC has organized and fomented terror and violence within Kosovo (e.g. the March 2004 pogrom of its loyalist population) and has exported it outside its boundaries, maintaining proven ties to groups (ANA) labeled as terrorist by UNMIK.

Legitimizing such individuals is entirely incompatible with the principles of U.S. foreign policy as laid out by this and previous administrations. It clearly contradicts the stated goals of multi-ethnicity and stability for the province. Former U.S. Ambassador W. Montgomery succinctly summarized this recently:

"The former KLA got reorganized into the Kosovo Protection Corps, under the leadership of general Ceku and other higher KLA commanders. Members of this organization have been found responsible for violence in Kosovo and Macedonia. It could not be clearer that the ultimate goal of general Ceku is to have it become the army of an independent Kosovo. He frequently states this publicly. It is equally clear that no Serb could feel secure or comfortable with such an army. Everybody really knows that, but nobody is ready to grab the bull by the horns and disband this organization.

Nevertheless, prolonging the life of the KPC dooms the idea of a multi-ethnic Kosovo."

It is high time to take the "bull by the horns", break with the likes of Mr. Ceku and all other bigots in the Balkans, and thereby promote true stability while facilitating the reconciliation and reconstruction that their peoples sorely need.

Serbia To Decide: Either Into Europe Or To The Past

Belgrade, 23 Jun (Blic) - 'Pressure from abroad is not going to determine the future of Serbia in spite of the claims that the international community shall dictate what is going to happen with Kosovo or memberships in the 'Partnership for Peace' and the EU. There are mutual values that we have and share as the international community. Some countries recognize those values and some do not. Serbia has to decide in which group it is going to belong. The citizens of Serbia have to make a choice and their leadership has to warn them of the consequences', US Ambassador in Belgrade Michael Polt said in his interview with 'Blic'.

Q: Is the international community putting pressure on Serbia as the Prime Minister claims?

A: 'There has to be a national debate as to what Serbia wants. This is a decisive year. It is time for you to decide. Where do you want Serbia to go? To speak about too much pressure from abroad is a step in the wrong direction. The questions should be what Serbia wants and what it should do to get that. After that, everything becomes an internal issue. Serbia is totally free to choose its course'.

Q: The US President is appealing to our Prime Minister to become aware of 'the needs of the Albanian majority in Kosovo' in return for the guarantees of the rights to the Serbian minority?

A: 'There are two things in Kosovo. One is the will of the majority, and the other is the rights of the minority. The President said that both sides have to be satisfied. The majority has a certain stance, the international minority guarantees the rights that the minority is insisting on. This does not mean that both sides are going to get the same reply when the political status of Kosovo is concerned'.

Q: Is that trading human rights?

A: 'If you pay attention to the President's argument, you shall realize that it is not the case. Human rights are not part of the agreement. They are universal standards. The status is subject to negotiations. A combination of these two things is out of the question. One has to be frank towards one's own population when the possible outcome of the negotiations over the status are concerned. There are no secrets, both independence and autonomy are possible, and nothing has been decided yet'.

Q: Still, Bush's statement can be interpreted as a green light to the Albanian requests?
A: 'Let us make the things clear. You have to be frank towards yourselves and recognize the fact that the majority in Kosovo wants independence. The President did not want to say that you had to accept that, but simply to accept the reality that such a mood does exist. It is important to know what has priority, the political status or the life of the Serbs in Kosovo'.
Q: If the radicals win the following elections, will the US cooperate with Serbia?

A: 'We shall not work with the elements in this country opposing reforms and the European future of Serbia who are wanting to repeat mistakes from the past'.

Q: What should the democratic bloc do to prevent Serbia from going into a reverse direction?

A: 'If there is something I could suggest, then it would be making a more clear distinction between the two stances or positions so as to make it possible for the citizens to be aware of the choices being offered to them. Do you want a Serbia that accepts a package of values taking you towards a better life that your citizens deserve, or do you want the other Serbia looking with rage both into the past and into the future? Do you want a Serbia that is rejecting to take responsibility for events done in the name of the Serbian nation and for which Serbian nation is not responsible?'

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