Interethnic violence continues:

Serb bus attacked in Kosovo

Beta news agency, Belgrade
October 6, 2006 12:59

PRISTINA -- A UN bus full of Serbs traveling from Osojane to Kosovska Mitrovica was attacked in Rudnik this morning.

Rocks were thrown at the passing bus at about 9:30 am today.

No one was injured in the incident, though a larger rock broke a window on the bus despite the protective layers added to the bus windows recently.

The bus takes people from Osojane to Kosovska Mitrovica every Tuesday and Friday. Today it was full, with children among the 50 or so passengers. The incident occurred near a school in Rudnik, an Albanian village in which Spanish KFOR troops are currently stationed.

The attacks on the bus were regular occurrences on every Tuesday and Friday up until several months ago when the Spanish KFOR troops arrived. When the bus was attacked last several months ago, it was being escorted by officials of the Kosovo Police Service as well.

Osojane is a Serbian village in the municipality of Istok from which all citizens were forces out and all homes burned once the Serbian police and military exited it. It was one of the first villages in the region where Serbian refugees returned and there are several hundred returnees living there currently.

Coordination Center Condemns Stoning Of Bus Full Of Serbs

Belgrade, 06 Oct (Beta) – Coordination Center for Kosovo and Metohija condemned the Friday stoning of the UN bus transporting Serbs from Osojane to Mitrovica, at the same time evaluating that extremist “are intensifying their actions right in front of the eyes of UNMIK and the KPS”.

 “The latest attack of extremist Albanians caused additional disturbance and bitterness among the Serbs in Kosovo and Metohija,” writes the announcement issued after the incident.

Serbian National Council Condemns Attack On Bus

Kosovska Mitrovica, 06 Oct (Tanjug) - Representatives of the Serbian National Council (SNV) of northern Kosovo and Metohija on Friday strongly condemned the incident that took place at 9:30 a.m. today in the village of Rudnik in the north of the province when a UN bus carrying Serbs from Osojane in Metohija to Kosovska Mitrovica was stoned.

 Nebojsha Jovic, president of the SNV for Kosovska Mitrovica, stated that the council condemns any form of aggression, and called UNMIK and KFOR representatives to protect the Serbs in the enclaves and the ones which need a ride from there.

 Jovic called on Kosovo Albanians to stop any kind of violence which right now does not go in anyone’s favor.

US evangelists 'join campaign to keep Kosovo within Serbia'

By Guy Dinmore in Washington             

Jerry Falwell and Pat Robertson, outspoken and influential televangelists in the US, are joining forces with Serbia's Christian Orthodox church to campaign against independence for the mainly Muslim province of Kosovo, according to the spiritual leader of the Serb minority there.

Bishop Artemije, the most senior Orthodox cleric in Kosovo, said the two Christian broadcasters had promised to alert their followers and exert their influence.

"They point out that they have friends at the highest level of government and will urge them to help us so that Kosovo remains in the borders of Serbia," he said.

Diplomats in Washington say that whipping up Christian fervour in the US reflects the increasingly vitriolic and intolerant debate within Kosovo that occasionally spills over into violence.

Efforts on both sides are intensifying as the ethnic Albanian majority - overwhelmingly secular but with a majority tracing Muslim roots - lobbies hard for full independence.

Martti Ahtisaari, the United Nations mediator, is due to present his recommendations on final status by the end of the year. Kosovo has been a ward of the international community since 1999, when Nato bombed Serbia and occupied the province to stop further ethnic cleansing of the ethnic Albanians.

In an interview with the FT during his third visit to the US this year, Bishop Artemije set out the argument shaping the Serb case - that independence would provide a base for an "extremist Islamic jihad" and endanger the Balkans, Europe and the US.

Followers of the puritanical Wahhabi strain of Sunni Islam and al-Qaeda jihadists would be drawn there, he said. Already the province, under UN rule, was the "black hole" of Europe, run by criminal gangs trading in people, guns and drugs, while murderers and desecrators of churches and cemeteries were trying to "eradicate" the Christian community.

"It is unbelievable to see the US on one side declaring war on terror around the world and on the other side tolerating it in Kosovo," he said.

Mr Falwell, a Baptist minister and Moral Majority founder, and Mr Robertson, the Christian broadcaster, have courted controversy in portraying what they see as the threat to the western world emanating from the nature of Islam.

In 2002 Mr Falwell provoked outrage among Muslims by calling the prophet Mohammed a "terrorist". His comments led to deaths among rioters in the Indian city of Mumbai and he later apologised.

Mr Robertson is on record as saying that Islam "is anything but peaceful", subjecting unbelievers to forced conversion or death. "It's just that simple," he said. Neither responded to FT queries about their reported offers of help to the Serbs.

While earlier this year it was commonly believed that the US backed full independence for Kosovo, analysts and diplomats believe there has been a recent shift towards a form of "conditional" independence that falls short of full sovereignty.

Asked if he felt he was making progress in his lobbying, Bishop Artemije answered: "We are still sowing the seeds and we have to wait for the final gathering of the crop." He also said that since July he had felt "a different breeze" crossing the Atlantic. "All of this shows we are following the right path," he said, urging the international community to let negotiations continue beyond this year. He endorsed Belgrade's call for substantial autonomy for Kosovo.

Bishop Artemije cited an aide to Dick Cheney, the US vice-president, as saying he believed Kosovo would get "some form of independence".

Diplomats said Boris Tadic, Serbian president, made a strong impression last month on Mr Cheney and Condoleezza Rice, secretary of state.

He projected Serbia as an ally in the "war on terror" while warning that independence for Kosovo could hand power at the next elections - probably in December - to the anti-western Radicals and Socialists.

Serbia has a growing military relationship with the US and is to send a small contingent of medics to Afghanistan and possibly personnel to Lebanon. Analysts say these are remarkable developments for an army still going through reforms since the atrocities committed against ethnic Albanian Muslims in the late 1990s.

Independent academic experts on Kosovo are highly sceptical of the notion that a new state would provide Islamist extremists with a foothold on the edge of Europe.

But they do recognise the danger of Kosovo becoming a weak state reliant on international aid and prone to exploitation by criminal gangs involved in drugs and human trafficking.

Anna Di Lellio, former adviser to Agim Ceku, the Kosovo Albanian prime minister, warned that a partially independent Kosovo could come to resemble the West Bank - with all the attendant political violence.

Stretched in Iraq and Afghanistan, the US is eager to draw down its 1,700 troops and police stationed inKosovo.

Address of the Holy Assembly of Bishops of the Serbian Orthodox Church

Information Service
of the Serbian Orthodox Church
October 5, 2006

Gathered in the second session of the Holy Assembly of Bishops in the course of this year, we, the bishops of the Serbian Orthodox Church, call on all our faithful in Serbia, all faithful who are citizens of Serbia living abroad and all citizens of Serbia, regardless of their religion and ethnicity, to take part in the forthcoming referendum and to vote in favor of the new Serbian Constitution. This Constitution is the fruit of a consensus among all relevant factors on the Serbian political scene; it has been adapted to new internal and international circumstances and consequently, dictated by the need to adapt constitutional norms and provisions to the changed realities of life so that the rule of law and the real space for the freedom of men and women and citizens are as broad as possible.

There is no doubt that the will of the entire Serbian people is that Kosovo and Metohija forever remain within Serbia. We Serbs do not seek to take away anything belonging to someone else but at the same time we cannot accept under any conditions or pressures that what has been and remains ours for centuries be taken away from us. Is it necessary to remind that this is not just a piece of territory but the heart and the soul of the Serbian people?

This time no one should be late getting to Kosovo. The referendum will last two days, after all, so that everyone can arrive in time. We all know how Kosovo and Metohija are defined in the new Constitution.

On this occasion, the Serbian Orthodox Church also calls on all other traditional churches and religious communities in the country to join us in calling on their faithful and all citizens to take part in the referendum. This is the referendum for the state of Serbia and its organization as the common home of all ethnic communities, all churches and religious communities, and all her citizens.

This address on our part is not a political message but a reflection of our concern for the survival and the future of our age-old holy shrines and our people in the ancient homes of their grandfathers, and for the good of all without exception. For the Church and her pastors, this is not a right but a most holy duty, an important part of serving the God of truth, justice and love.

THE ECONOMIST (UK)
The Balkans