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The
Latest News From the Diocese
The statement by Bishop Artemije / Accounts of abductees from Zociste/ Devic nuns under alert / Zociste monastery free again / Devic nuns relieved after 8 months of blockade News on the abducted Serbs from Orahovac Area  The occupied monastery is free again THE PRESS RELEASE The Serbian Orthodox Diocese of Raska and Prizren Prizren, July 22, 1998 Yesterday morning, July 21, 1998, at 04.30 AM CET, the armed units of the Kosovo Liberation Army (KLA) attacked the monastery of SS Cosma and Damian in Zociste (Zochishte) village near Orahovac, in the restive province of Kosovo. The attack lasted 45 minutes and was undertaken by the light artillery and machine guns. At that time in the monastery there was a brotherhood of seven monks, one elderly nun and about 30 Serb refugees from the neighboring villages who had found shelter in the monastery after the attack of the KLA on their villages. Two grenades damaged the refectory of the monastery and the monks immediately ran in the church for prayer. After the prayer the abbot, Fr. John, waved the white flag and the brotherhood surrendered to the KLA units without any resistence. The KLA soldiers searched the monastery and took the monks with the civilians to an empty school building in the neighboring Albanian village. The monks say that they were not beaten but they suffered great fear and shock. After several hours there appeared a team of the International Red Cross and the KLA set the monks and the elderly civilians to them. Alltogether 35 persons were set free. The monks are now in Gracanica monastery near Pristina but were not allowed to take the reliquaries and their personal things from the monastery which is still under the control of the Albanian armed units. There is no information about other damage in the monastery. It is also not known what happened to other Serb villagers from the area. This is the first attack by the KLA on a monastery of the Serbian Orthodox Church in Kosovo and this incident has arroused great concern in the Serbian Orthodox Church. The Diocese of Raska and Prizren protests against the armed attack on an a civilian and religious object and believes that such incidents would not occur in the future and that the monks will be allowed to go back to their monastery. The Information Service of the Serbian Orthodox Diocese of Raska and Prizren
The Letter of Protest to Washington Post 07/24/98 In the Thursday (July 23, 1998) issue of the Washington Post there appeared an article: Kosovo Town is Destroyed So the Serbs Could Save It by R. Jeffrey Smith, WP Foreign Service, Page A21 In this article there is a following passage referring to the events in Zociste monastery which was attacked by the KLA units. "The Kosovo Liberation Army, which gambled here by trying to hold out against vastly superior Serbian firepower, today released to the Red Cross 35 Serbs it had captured at a monastery at the edge of the city and interrogated at a rebel command post Malisevo, to the northeast. The group included eight Serbian Orthodox priests who the rebels said were all armed at the time of their capture." Bishop Artemije of Raska and Prizren has immediately written a refutation of this incorrect information and asked the editors of the WP to pay more attention to the objectivity and the other side of the truth. I am enclosing the letter by Bishop Artemije. hieromonk Sava - -------------------------------------------------------------------- THE WASHINGTON POST Washington DC Dear Editor, With great distress we have been following the tragic events in Kosovo, especially in Orahovac region. Many times we have pointed out that the tragedy in Kosovo is not the tragedy of Serbs or Albanians, but the tragedy of simple, everyday people of Kosovo who are squeezed between two disasterous ideologies and trapped in the vicious circle of violence. Both Serbs and Albanians are forced to fight the war they do not want. We are very sad that in your today's article (WP July 23, 1998) about the events in Orahovac you reported an incorrect statement by the KLA in which our monks of Zociste monastery were accused as having been armed. Nowhere in your article it was mentioned that the monks DID NOT make any armed resistance to the attackers. Neither it is said that the monastery was attacked by mortars and machine gun fire although there were only monks and refugees inside who did not make any provocations. While the grenades were shot at the monastery the monks and the people prayed in the Church. After the prayer, since there was no resistance, the KLA stopped with their fire and Fr. John, the abbot, surrendered with his little flock peacefully. They were treated rather correctly by the KLA but suffered great psychological pain and fear. Later they were brought to a room where weapons was put in front of them and a KLA soldier shot the scene with his camcorder. It was done in order to give an impression that the monks were armed so that the Church could be accused of supporting the violence, although the peace efforts by our Church are known all over the world. Just a few days ago I met Ambassador Gelbard in the Hague and informed him about the constant attempts of false accusations in the Albanian media as well as the threats to our monasteries. We are proud to say that our position is supported by the US Administration which sees in our Church an important factor of peace in the region. I kindly ask you in future to hear the other side of the truth as well. It is a pity your reporter did not have time to talk to our monks and the refugees who were attacked in the monastery but only with the Albanian victims. In tragedy the victims cannot be divided into the Serb and Albanian because in suffering there are no differences and all deserve compassion and sympathy. Also, we feel that there is no Serb or Albanian truth but the truth of suffering Kosovo people who are all victims of extremists on both sides. The people of Kosovo, no matter if they were Albanians, Serbs, Romas or Turks, need peace and the media can help this just cause with their objectivity and balanced approach to the truth. Sincerely Yours Bishop Artemije of Raska and Prizren
The Statement of Bishop Artemije to Radio Prizren Prizren, July 26, 1998 It is well known
in our country as well as abroad that I, as a Bishop of Raska and Prizren,
have been trying so hard that the issue of Kosovo and Metohija is resoleved
by dialogue and democrastic methods, without any use of violence. In
all my contacts with foreign diplomats as well as in my interviews I
stressed as a positive trait among the Albanian rebels that our churches
had never been attacked, although Devic monastery in Drenica is completely
surrounded by KLA and cut off. I am sorry to say that in my future contacts
I would not be able to speak in that way because it is my duty to point
out that one of my monastery was attacked without any reason and my
spiritual children driven away. It was an attack on our monastic community
and the Serbian Orthodox Church in general.
Serbian Ministry of Information report July 26, 1998 "While the rebels were attacking Orahovac, in these three villages (Ratimlje, Zociste, and Opterus), our Albanian neighbours surrounded us. We were under attack for two days and one night. I saw eight Serbs from Opterusa and 15 from Ratimlje, with their arms roped on the back, with Albanians taking them somewhere away. Here in Zociste, where over eight hundred Albanians and about 70 Serb souls live in one community, we were in a state of total exhaustion. There was shooting all around us. Before the rebels broke into our community, all young men left for the neighboring Serb village of Velika Hoca, to join the local defence there. The old men, all sick and weak, left for the monastery. Together with the monks, there were 35 of us. The next day, Tuesday morning, armed Albanians arrived and packed us on a bus which happened to be down in the village. They took us for a ride, lasting about two hours, to some place in Drenica, as they told us. Yet, after we came there, I recognised that we were locked up in the local school of Banja, near Malisevo," 86-year old Vukadin Krstic from Zociste told us. Over twenty hours, together with another 26 old men, seven monks and one nun from the monastery of Zociste, he was hold captive by terrorists. Prior of the monastery Zociste, Father Jovan, and the monastery brotherhood are now in the monastery of Gracanica. Yesterday, he stated the following to our paper. "Before they took us captive, they were attacking the village and the monastery for several days. Yesterday morning they broke into the monastery precisely at the time when in accordance with the monastery codex , we officiated the holy service and special prayer to St. Kozma and St. Damjan. During the holy service shells were hitting the roofs of the monastery dormitory with 27 Serbian old men inside. One shell hit the chapel. We took no heed of their attacks, though there were over five hundred them round the monastery." "They packed us on a bus, " Father Jovan goes on, "together with the exhausted old men, among whom there were also four stroke-affected men, and took us all to some village." "There, in the school building, they made us sit down, and displayed infantry weapons in front of us. We were told this would serve for the needs of the Albanian TV and the Internet. After they filmed the scene for propaganda purposes, they started hours-long investigation. They harassed us most because we gave our monk cassocks to three civilians, in order to save them. These men were our guests: one was the father of one of our monks, second was his mother whom we represented to terrorists as our novice, and the third was a student of theology school from Pristina, 16-year old Trajkovic. Before they released us, they told us that the monastery of Zociste is not Serbian, but belongs to Albanian Orthodox church, and that we would do the best to go away from their land," Father Jovan accounts. One of the old men from Ratimlje, barefoot, and in clothes he had on while feeding cattle in the stabling, fled to the monastery. "Those were our neighbours who took us captive, I know them all from before. Some of them we were addressing with: my good man, yet now our good men have betrayed us and our good relations have gone to nothing. Down in the village I had 17 grandchildren and 8 great-grandchildren, and now who knows where they are… I could have never guessed that my neighbours would buy off my house, estate, and vineyard so cheap, for a song. Let them have my cattle, cows, calves, poultry, only that they release my children whom they took somewhere away," the old men accounted, whose name shall not be quoted out of understandable reasons. An old women, unable to move, named Ljubica, added to this: "What is the point of life, when my children, grandchildren and great grandchildren are kept captive by Albanians. I was born 1910, I wish they had taken me instead." The International Red Cross did not communicate how it came to their mediation and setting free of these Serbs and monks. However, we learnt from their drivers that "over there, near Malisevo," there are more imprisoned men, mainly young. Today, in front of the office of this humanitarian organisation in Pristina, a large number of Serbs rallied, all cousins of Serbs abducted in Orahovac, about whose fate still nothing is reliably known. The church originating from the 8th Century The monastery of Zociste is one of the oldest churchesof the Serbian Orthodox church. It was built in the early Christian time in the 8th century. In the monastery chapel are safeguarded the holy relics of St. Kozma, and the monastery itself is dedicated to saints Kozma and Damjan, popularly known as the Holy Medics because of their wonder-working deeds. To this monastery both Serbs and men of different religion, Albanian of Catholic or Islamic faith, used to come looking for cure. After a prayer and a stay beneath the reliquary of St. Kozma, many have left out cured. It was just recently when Milan Jankovic, photo-journalist of our paper, took a picture of an Albanian girl with a serious disorder, from a village near Djakovica, sleeping beneath St. Kozma's holy relics. After three-day prayer and special praying service officiated by monastery prior, Father Jovan, and monastery monks, this Albanian girl who until then could not walk, went out alone on her own legs, without her parents' assistance, to their car parked in front of the monastery. Prior Jovan's orderly kept diary, recorded numerous such examples.
Links and reports: SS
Cosma and Damian Monastery Page
For your information the Albanian guerilla (KLA) attacked the Serbian Orthodox Monastery in Zociste, Kosovo on July 21. During the attack the monks and the refugees did not make any resistance but gathered on prayer in the church. After the prayer the monks and the refugees surrendered to KLA and were given over to IRCR a day later. Many other villagers who did not find refuge in the monastery in time were arrested and taken away to KLA camps. This afternoon we
received an information that the police reentered the village again
and that the KLA retreated from Zociste and neighboring villages. I
have just talked to Bishop Artemije and he told me that Fr. Myron reported
from the monastery and tomorrow, God willing, he would be serving there
the first Holy Liturgy after 60 days of occupation. There is no damage
in the monastery and the church was not desecrated, thank God. The special
prayer will be offered for the local Serb villagers abducted by the
KLA and all the suffering people in In Christ PS The names of
40 Serb villagers abducted from Orahovac area. Lord Jesus Chirst have
mercy on them: (surname+name)
THE LATEST NEWS FROM DEVIC MONASTERY Devic Nuns Relieved after 8 months of blockade
 Devic Monastery Devic: August
18, 1998.
NEWS ON ABDUCTED SERBS FROM ORAHOVAC AREA News on abducted
persons from August 4, 1998. Reuters Kosovo Serbs plea for return of abductees PRISTINA, Serbia, Aug 6 (Reuters) - More than 50 relatives of Kosovo Serbs pleaded on Thursday for the return of family members they say have been abducted by ethnic Albanian separatists. ``I want my brothers back. They have killed my father but I want my brothers alive,'' said Zivka Kostic through tears. Her two brothers are among 171 Serbs who have been reported abducted by separatists since the beginning of March when clashes began in Kosovo, a Serbian province with a 90 percent ethnic Albanian majority. International observers say most public attention has been paid o the plight of ethnic Albanian refugees, tens of thousands of whom are now cowering from the fighting in Kosovos hills. But, they say, the fighting has taken its toll on both sides. The desperate Serbian families protested outside the media centre in Pristina, Kosovos provincial capital. They accused international agencies and local authorities of not helping them in their search for their fathers, sons, husbands and brothers. ``What are they (the international organisations) doing? What is the state doing? I want my husband and the father of my three small children back,'' said Zivana Patrnogic from Velike Hoce near Orahovac. ``No one cares about us,'' she said. Patrnogic said her husband was abducted during an attack by ethnic Albanian separatists on July 16 from a medical centre in Orahovac where he worked. ``My husband walked to work every day and was not afraid of anyone as he was helping all the people equally,'' she said. ``I just want him back, my children have nothing to eat, I cannot work,'' she said. The protesters also
planned to protest to U.S. officials in Pristina. Dated : August
06, 1998 at 13:12:42
AP Photo/Srdjan
Ilic B92 News: According to the
special reporter of B92 Radio, Antonella Richa, a group of 50 Serbs
whose family memberw were abducted in Orahovac came to Pristina today
in organization of the IRCR. From July 17, since the armed Albanians
attacked villages Ratimlje, Otprerusa and Velika Hoca, as well as during
the fights in Orahovac, it is not known what happened to 30 Serbs whose
relatives came to Pristina. The women which were abducted were set free
but the men were taken in unknown direction. Only the Serbs from Zociste
village managed to flee
WOMEN AND CHILDREN RELEASED FROM THE KLA CAMP: Pristina July 31,
1998 |
An unidentified Serb woman comforts Radmila Savelic, left, Thursday,
Aug. 6 in Pristina, the capital of Yugoslavia's Kosovo province. These
women are part of more than 40 Serbs from Orahovac, the village 31 miles
southwest of Pristina which was the scene of fierce battles in July
between Serb forces and Albanian rebels of Kosovo Liberation Army (KLA).
They arrived in Pristina to complain to Serbian authorities and international
the Red Cross about their 140 relatives allegedly kidnapped by the KLA
during fighting.