VANDALISMO CONTRO LE CHIESE ORTODOSSE IN KOSMET:
LA KFOR SBADIGLIA, L'UNMIK RELATIVIZZA, I MEDIA MINIMIZZANO,
PREDRAG MATVEJEVIC ED ENZO BETTIZA SE NE FREGANO
(e certo, mica e' la biblioteca di Sarajevo!)
Per le immagini e l'elenco delle distruzioni operate finora:
http://www.decani.yunet.com/
http://www.decani.yunet.com/destroyedchurch.html
---
ANOTHER SERB ORTHODOX CHURCH DESTROYED IN KOSOVO
Gracanica, July 17 2000
Last night (July 16) around 23.30 the Serbian Orthodox Church of St.
Elias in Pomazatin, 12 km west from Pristina was completely destroyed in
a powerful explosion The church of St Elias was originally built in 1937
near the river Drenica. At the beginning of the WW2 it was destroyed by
Albanian Nazi troops called Balli Combetar. After the war the Serbs
rebuilt the church in 1965 and it served as a parish church since then.
Last year in summer, just after the deployment of KFOR in Kosovo the KLA
memebers damaged the entrance of the church by a hand grenade. Despite
this damage the church could be easily repaired and the Diocese
requested from KFOR to secure the church from further destruction. KFOR
only surrounded the church by barbed wire and from time to time patrols
would pass near by.
The church of St. Elias is only a few hundred meters from the nearest
British KFOR base. The attackers who are supposed again to be the
members of the former KLA brought large quantity of explosive and
informed the local population not to go out of their homes at the time
of explosion which was planned for 23.30.
Serbian Orthodox Church has condemned this latest barbarous attack and
has requested from KFOR and UN Mission to carry out the investigation.
There are very few reasons to believe that the perpertrators would ever
be arrested because so far not a single attacker on nearly 90 destroyed
Serb churches has been identified or arrested.
Serbian Orthodox Diocese of Raska and Prizren
Information Service
KFOR
Daily Press Release
Delivered by Major Scott A. Slaten
KFOR Spokesman
#07-10
PRISTINA, Kosovo - Monday, 17 July, 2000
Serb Church Destroyed
A ruined Serb Church in the village of Pomatetin/ Pomazatin (5
kilometers west of Fushe Kosove/ Kosovo Polje) was completely destroyed
in
an explosion last night.
Explosives were detonated at approximately 11.30 p.m. and UNMIK police
reported that two suspects were seen running from the scene towards
Fushe
Kosove / Kosovo Polje. Initial reports from explosive experts state that
up
to 30 kilograms of dynamite were used in the attack.
The Church of the Holy Prophet Elijah has been out of use for the past
six years and was badly damaged during last year's conflict. As a result
it
was not one of the churches guarded by KFOR troops.
An investigation is ongoing in the destruction of the church. KFOR MNB
Centre is committed to removing the weapons used for these types of
extremist activities from general use. As a result, a search operation
has
begun in the municipality this morning.
Weapons Search Targets Extremists
Troops from MNB Centre began a search operation this morning which
centers on the village of Miradi e Eperme / Gornje Dobrevo in the Kosovo
Polje municipality.
The mission of the operation is to search for illegal weapons in the
area and remove them from the hands of extremists. Four hundred KFOR
Norwegian soldiers make up the core of the units participating in the
operation. Additional manpower and expertise is being provided by search
teams from the 2nd Battalion the Royal Regiment of Fusiliers, the
Swedish
Battalion and the Scots Dragoon Guards.
The village is located near the scene of a mine strike in early June
which killed three Serbs whose car drove over a mine which had been
planted
in the road. Although the village is in no way connected with last
night's
attack on the Serb Church, it is this type of extremism that the search
operation aims to prevent.
Incidents During the Past 24 Hours
Multinational Brigade North
Shots Reported
KFOR MNB North reported that shots were heard in the northern and
southern areas of Mitrovica for several hours last night. KFOR patrols
searched the areas. No reports of injuries or loss of life were reported
as
a result of the shootings.
Mass Held
KFOR soldiers secured the area around the southern Mitrovice/Mitrovica
Orthodox Church yesterday morning, in order to secure church goes
attending
mass. There were no reported incidents of violence or serious incidents
during the transport escort and mass of the attendees.
Multinational Brigade West
Weapons Seized, Men Arrested
KFOR soldiers near the village of Piskote stopped a vehicle driven by a
Kosovar Albanian man from the village of Skiviane. A search of the
vehicle
revealed an empty automatic machinegun magazine.
The driver was detained for questioning. KFOR Italian Military Police
then conducted a search of the man's home. One AK-47 Assault Rifle with
magazines and ammunition was discovered and confiscated. The man was
then
handed over to UNMIK Police for arrest. The investigation is still
ongoing.
Later in the evening, KFOR soldiers from Task Force Pegasus stopped a
car driven by a Kosovar Albanian man at the Zaimovo Bridge. A search of
the
vehicle revealed a Simonov Rifle. The weapon was confiscated and UNMIK
Police arrested a male passenger in the vehicle. The investigation is
still
ongoing.
Multinational Brigade Centre
See Lead Story
Multinational Brigade South
Commemoration Held
Yesterday morning, a commemoration for former UCK-fighters took place
in the village of Hoca Zagradska. The commemoration was announced
yesterday
evening. KFOR MNB South reinforced the area with additional soldiers. An
estimated 400 people participated in the commemoration. The
commemoration
was peaceful and ended without incidents at 11:45 a.m.
Multinational Brigade East
Weapons Seized
Yesterday morning, north of the village of Saraiste, soldiers from KFOR
US 501st Mechanized Infantry Battalion and UNMIK Police conducted a
house
search of a Kosovar Albanian man arrested for carrying a hand grenade. A
search of the house revealed one grenade, assorted ammunition, One MUP
uniform, two sets of binoculars, and two syringes. UNMIK Police held the
individual for questioning.
UXO Reported, Weapons Seized
In MNB East, yesterday evening in the town of Cernica, KFOR US Task
Force
1-187 headquarters reported that an item of unexploded ordinance was
found
in the backyard of a Kosovar Serb home.
An Explosive Ordinance Disposal Team was dispatched to the scene and
discovered a hand grenade near the house. Assessing the situation, the
EOD
team determined that the grenade could not be safely moved. It was then
detonated in place. The resulting blast caused some damage to the house
and
revealed some 7.62 ammunition. A search of the house was then conducted
and
an AK-47 Assault Rifle and magazines were confiscated. The investigation
is
still ongoing.
KFOR Medical Assistance Provided
An 11-year-old Kosovar Serb boy was medically evacuated (MEDEVAC) to
the 212th Mobile Army Surgical Hospital at Camp Bondsteel, and treated
for
appendicitis early this morning.
The boy was admitted to the hospital at 1:40 a.m. and had his appendix
removed. The youth was from the town of Strpce and escorted to Camp
Bondsteel by members of the 18th Polish Battalion. The boy's condition
is
currently listed as being stable.
The 212th Mobile Army Surgical Hospital also provided medical support
to another Kosovar Serb citizen last night. A 64-year-old woman
requested a
MEDEVAC last night and was transported by ambulance to Camp Bondsteel
for
treatment of a possible heart attack. The woman was admitted just after
10
p.m. and by midnight was listed in stable condition. Medical tests were
conducted and are pending results to determine the severity of the
attack.
The woman will remain at the 212th MASH for further observation.
MEDIA INFORMATION
UNMIK and NATO
A Press Conference will be held Tuesday at 4:30 p.m. in the Press
Conference Room of the UNMIK Government Building. NATO Secretary
General,
the Lord George Robertson of Port Ellen and SRSG, Dr. Bernard Kouchner
will
be speaking.
MNB Centre
Destroyed Serb Church
An MNB Centre media event will take place after the press conference
today. The schedule will include a visit the site of the destroyed
church
and then go on to the search operation being carried out in the local
area.
This operation highlights the KFOR activities being carried out to
prevent
any form of extremism threatening the people living in Kosovo.
Live Fire Ranges
The Second Battalion, the Royal Regiment of Fusiliers, will be
exercising and live firing their Warrior Armored Vehicles on the
Krivolak
ranges in the Former Yugoslavian Republic of Macedonia (FYROM) next
week.
This is part of an ongoing training operation that the KFOR British
troops carry out to ensure that British soldiers are continuously
trained on
their weapon systems in order to meet any threats.
MNB Centre will provide a media opportunity on the afternoon of Wed 19
July, 2000 to cover this event. Twelve places are currently available
for
interested journalist on a KFOR helicopter. Journalists should get in
contact with Flight Lieutenant Tim Serrell-Cooke, at the MNB Centre PIO
office.
MNB South
NATO Secretary General, Sir George Robertson and North Atlantic Council,
will visit MNB South to receive an overview of the current situation and
to
gain information on reconstruction projects in the town of Reshan
Mahala.
A media event is scheduled on Tuesday 18 July 2000 in Prizren.
Journalists are requested to be at the KFOR Main Headquarters VIP Gate
no
later than 9:10 a.m. for transportation to Prizren. For details please
see
the KFOR Media Event Flyer located in the main lobby of the KFOR Press
and
Information Center, Pristina.
KFOR Press and Information Center, Pristina, Kosovo
PTT phone: +389 91 68-6600
PTT fax: +389 91 68-6610
Sat phone : +871 382 060 323
Official KFOR homepage: http://kforonline.com
For specific information related to brigade-level operations, please
contact
Brigade Information Offices:
Multinational Brigade Centre
PPT phone: +44-7808946390 or +44-7801130055
PTT fax: +381-38-501 433-234
Sat phone: +870-762 103 839, +870-762 103 843 or +870-762 134 957
Sat fax: +870-762 134 991
Multinational Brigade East
http://www.hqusareur.army.mil/htmlinks/tffalconframe.htm
Sat phone: +871 762 069 495
E-mail: pao@...
Multinational Brigade North
PTT phone: +381-28-31024 or +381-28-31025
PTT fax: +381-28 - 31022
Sat phone: +871-762159078 or +871-761294148
Sat fax: +870-762134991
Multinational Brigade South
Satellite phone: +871-11 22 151 or +871-761 617 247 or +871-762069467
Satellite fax: +871-1122152
E-mail: piz_ge_kfor@...
Multinational Brigade West
Sat phone: +871-762 069 491
E-mail: martiref@...
Serbian Church Blown Up in Kosovo
.c The Associated Press
PRISTINA, Yugoslavia (AP) - An explosion ripped through a medieval
Serbian
Orthodox Church in Kosovo, flattening the structure, U.N police said
Monday.
The church of the Holy Prophet Elijah was located in the village of
Pomazetin, just outside the Serb village of Kosovo Polje. The church was
leveled in the Sunday night explosion, said Oleg Rubezhov, a U.N. police
officer who patrols the area.
``It was destroyed to the basement,'' he said.
About 66 pounds of explosives were used in the 11:30 p.m. blast,
peacekeepers said. Two people were seen running from the site shortly
after
the explosion.
The church was not under guard by NATO-led peacekeepers, U.N. police
said.
They said it had already been severely damaged during the war between
ethnic
Albanian separatists and the forces of Yugoslav President Slobodan
Milosevic.
However, the private Beta and FoNet news agencies in Belgrade said in
their
reports that the church was first damaged last August in a fire or by an
explosion.
The opposition Serbian Renewal Movement blamed the latest explosion on
the
peacekeeping force, called KFOR, saying its troops did nothing to
prevent it
in this heavily ethnic Albanian province.
``Members of KFOR know well enough that Albanian extremists
systematically
destroy Orthodox Christian churches, but they obviously do nothing to
prevent
them, which is proven by this latest crime,'' the party said.
Minority Serbs have faced daily attacks over the past year and Serb
Orthodox
monuments have been targeted by ethnic Albanian militants. The Beta news
agency said 86 religious objects have been destroyed.
Beta said Pomazetin was an ethnically mixed village before Kosovo's
1998-99
war. Since the deployment of NATO-led peacekeepers in the province last
year,
Serb villagers have fled, fearing for their safety.
AP-NY-07-17-00 0948EDT
ETHNIC ALBANIAN TERRORISTS DESTROYED CHRISTIAN ORTHODOX CHURCH
KOSOVO POLJE, July 17 (Tanjug) A strong explosion echoed in
Pomazatin village near Kosovo Polje late Sunday, amateur radio operators
said early on Monday.
Unofficial sources said ethnic Albanian terrorists had razed
the
Serbian Orthodox church of St. Ilia in this village of Kosovo and
Metohija
province which had had a mixed Serbethnic Albanian population before
international forces KFOR arrived in June 1999. All Serbs have meanwhile
been forced to flee the village due to onslaughts by militant ethnic
Albanians.
There was a power failure a minute before the blast, which took
place at about 11.30 p.m., and electricity was turned on again a minute
after the explosion.
Local Serbs believe that this is a synchronized action by
ethnic
Albanian extremists and those employed in the Obilic electric power
plant
in order to make such attacks appear more frightening in total darkness.
======================================================================
>Orthodox Church on post-war Kosovo firing line
>
>SLOVINJE, Yugoslavia, June 13 (Reuters) - Three attacks over the
>space of 10 months have reduced a Serb Orthodox church in a Kosovo
>village to a mound of rubble.
>
>Children play in the ruins and ethnic Albanians smile when asked what
>happened. "The church stepped on a mine," said a bearded man with a
>laugh.
>
>Slovinje's Church of Saint Nicholas is just one of 87 Orthodox Serb
shrines,
>churches and monasteries that have been destroyed or damaged in the
>year since NATO-led peacekeepers entered Kosovo as Yugoslav Serb
>security forces withdrew.
>
>Father Sava Janjic, in the nearby 14th-century monastery of Gracanica,
>says Albanian extremists are systematically seeking to eradicate the
>church from Kosovo as part of a wider campaign to chase out the minority
>Serb population.
>
>"The Orthodox church is the anchor of the Serbian people here. If the
>churches are destroyed then the Serb people will not stay," said Father
>Sava, an Orthodox priest who acts as spokesman for the region's Serb
>moderates.
>
>An estimated 150,000 Serbs have fled Kosovo since June 1999, leaving
>100,000 behind out of a total population of less than two million.
>The Albanian majority is nominally Moslem.
>
>Anxious to reassure the Serbs that they have their best interests at heart,
>KFOR peacekeepers now stand guard 24 hours a day outside many of
>Kosovo's remaining Orthodox shrines.
>
>CHURCH HAS LONG KOSOVO HISTORY
>
>Kosovo, which remains legally a part of Yugoslavia but has become a de
>facto international protectorate, is regularly described by Serbs as the
>cradle of their culture and the spiritual home of their Orthodox church.
>
>The seat of the Serb church was not actually founded in Kosovo, but
>moved there at the end of the 13th century after its original foundation in
>central Serbia burned down.
>
>Seven centuries later, many of Kosovo's most beautiful buildings are
>its Orthodox centres, including the monasteries at Pec, Decani and
>Gracanica.
>
>"I'd say that 95 percent of Kosovo's cultural heritage sites are Orthodox
>buildings. These need saving not just for the Serbs, but for all
Europeans,"
>said Father Sava.
>
>For ethnic Albanians, who suffered years of repression at the hands of
>Serbian troops and police, the Orthodox Church is inextricably linked
>to the notion of Serb national identity.
>
>A wave of Orthodox churches built over the past 10 years are described
>by locals as "political churches" and they have borne the brunt of the
>attacks. Some KFOR commanders openly question whether it is worth
>trying to save these buildings.
>
>"If a church has value as a historical place then clearly it should be
>guarded," said Finnish Colonel Arto Raty, head of KFOR operations in
>Slovinje, which lies just to the south of the regional capital Pristina.
>
>"But if it has no historical value and there is no chance of the Serbs
>returning anytime soon to the area, then it should be gently dismantled,"
>he told Reuters.
>
>A "CRUCIFIED" KOSOVO
>
>Slovinje's little domed church and adjacent belfry were built in 1996 on
>the site of a 16th-century church. It was attacked in June and July 1999
>and then again in May of this year, leaving just a pile of shattered
>concrete and red brick.
>
>KFOR troops later found the church's heavy iron bell hidden under an ethnic
>Albanian's haystack.
>
>Father Sava is angry that despite the presence of some 47,000 peacekeepers
>in Kosovo nobody has been caught or charged for the attacks on Orthodox
>property.
>
>The Church has published a book, "Crucified Kosovo", to highlight the
>plight of the Orthodox faith in the province, asking the world not to
>blame it for the policies of Yugoslav President Slobodan Milosevic.
>
>Father Sava, who admits to harbouring sometimes un- Christian feelings of
>hate for Milosevic, says his Church did what it could to protect the
>Albanians from Serbian forces.
>
>"There was no organised involvement of the Serb church in fighting for
>Albanian rights because we had our own problems with the Yugoslav
>regime. But we always insisted that all human beings should be treated in
the
>same way," he said.
----- Original Message -----
From: "Predrag Tosic" <p-tosic@...>
To: "yugoslaviainfo" <This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.>
Sent: Tuesday, May 23, 2000 4:54 PM
Subject: [yugoslaviainfo] A reminder: God's houses in ruin [throughout
Kosovo]
[ A few basic questions for Mr Kouchner and UNMIK, as well as each and
every NATO country government:
- How many of the damaged or destroyed churches and monasteries have
been
rebuilt?
- In how many instances has the reconstruction at least started?
- In how many instances have the culprits - arsonists, bombers and other
attackers at Christian religious shrines in Kosovo - been arrested?
- How many of the arrested have been acquited? Is anybody
currently serving a prison term in Kosovo for vandalizing or destroying
a
church? If there is, how many people?
Between 85 and 100 Christian churches (mostly Serbian Orthodox, as
well
as some other) have been either severely damaged or destroyed in Kosovo
since mid-June of 1999. If our readers know of a single case where the
culprits were arrested - please let us know; thus far, I do not recall
reading or hearing a single news agency report to that effect. PT ]
Subject: God's houses in ruins: The world keeps silent as Serb churches,
monasteries are destroyed in Kosovo under noses of
peacekeepers
The Montreal Gazette
Sunday 27 February 2000
God's houses in ruins: The world keeps silent as Serb churches,
monasteries
are destroyed in Kosovo under noses of peacekeepers
MARK ABLEY The Gazette
The Orthodox Church of St. Nicholas, in the Kosovo village Banjska, was
probably not an international treasure.
As far as we know, it was just a modest house of God in an area dotted
with
the same.
But no one may ever be sure. On Jan. 30, 11 kilograms of explosives were
detonated at the altar, leaving much of the building in ruins.
The explosion forms part of a sad and continuing pattern. Since a wary
peace took shape in Kosovo in June 1999, nearly 80 of its Orthodox
churches
and monasteries are known to have suffered heavy damage or destruction.
The
total may be higher, given that a lot of churches are located in remote
areas where few, if any, Serbs still live.
These attacks did not occur during the North Atlantic Treaty
Organization's
bombing campaign last spring. They have happened since the return of
Kosovo's Albanian majority. Extremists, usually assumed to be linked to
the
Kosovo Liberation Army, have carried out a systematic campaign of
destruction under the eyes of international peacekeepers.
The unanswered question is why this devastation has caused so little
outcry. British and French media have paid some attention to the
attacks;
but the North American media have carried few reports. Dozens of
non-profit
groups are now working in Kosovo; they have said next to nothing.
"The Western world is rather fed up with the Balkans," suggested Colin
Kaiser, chief of the unit for southeast Europe and the Arab states in
UNESCO's Division of Cultural Heritage. "The wars, first in Croatia,
then
in Bosnia and most recently in Kosovo, became more and more intense in
terms of damage. But the cumulative effect has been that the Western
sensibility to it all has been dulled."
True enough. But beyond that, it also seems true that after the wars of
the
past decade, few Westerners dare to sympathize with anything Serbian.
Last September, Bishop Artemije, the head of the Orthodox diocese of
Raska
and Prizren, charged that while the first aim of the Kosovo Albanians
"is
to expel all Serbs, the second is to eradicate all traces and witnesses
that could serve as evidence that the Serbs have existed at all.
"But who and what are the witnesses? Churches, monasteries and holy
places.
So they set out to destroy the witnesses, to obliterate the traces. In
21Z2
months more than 70 monasteries and churches were burned or demolished.
Among them were the churches built by our illustrious and holy ancestors
in
the 12th, 13th and 14th centuries. The churches and monasteries, which
survived 500 years of Turkish occupation, did not endure two months in
the
presence of a 50,000-strong international 'peacekeeping' force."
Peacekeeping troops from the United Arab Emirates, serving in the United
Nations' multinational KFOR mission, had been stationed near the Church
of
St. Nicholas. But in late January they withdrew, leaving the church
unprotected. It was soon blown to pieces.
The presence of the UN soldiers has slowed the rate of destruction in
recent months, but foreign troops can provide no guarantee of safety. On
Jan. 14, for instance, the Church of St. Elias, in a village called
Cernica, was partly destroyed by explosives. It stood just 70 metres
from a
checkpoint of U.S. soldiers.
Almost everyone would agree that the destruction of St. Elias's and St.
Nicholas's churches is regrettable. But what has so far escaped much
notice, particularly in North America, is that dozens of the earlier
victims were not just Serbian village churches, but buildings of great
beauty and historical significance. Among them:
- The Church of the Holy Virgin in Musutiste, built in 1315. Frescoes
painted in the following years were among the finest examples of
medieval
wall-painting in the entire region. The church was looted, burned and
mined
by explosives.
- The Church of St. Nicholas in Prizren, which is said to date to 1348
or
earlier, and which contained medieval icons. Five explosives went off,
causing extensive damage.
- The Monastery of the Holy Trinity near Musutiste, built from 1465 on.
It
held a unique library of manuscripts as well as a collection of recent
icons. The monastery was first plundered, then burned and finally
leveled
with explosives.
- The Monastery of the Holy Archangels in Gornje Nerodimjle, built in
the
14th century, renewed and extended in 1700. The monastery was looted and
burned; a great pine tree, said to date from 1336, was chopped down and
burned; the cemetery was desecrated.
The stories go on and on. The pattern is undeniable - and for once, no
one
is even trying to claim that Yugoslavia's notorious president, Slobodan
Milosevic, is behind it.
So far, thanks to a 24-hour guard by foreign soldiers, the greatest of
all
treasures in the region - the monastic churches of Gracanica and Decani
-
have survived. Writers have waxed eloquent about them for generations;
Rebecca West, for one, called Gracanica "as religious a building as
Chartres Cathedral. The thought and feeling behind it were as complex. S
There is in these frescoes, as in the parent works of Byzantium, the
height
of accomplishment."
Some of the buildings were jewels of European civilization. Now they are
rubble.
- - -
Throughout the Balkans, politics and art, history and myth, oppression
and
religion are intertwined. The ruined Orthodox buildings of Kosovo were
not
only centres of worship and art; they were political symbols.
Since the mid-1980s, writes Michael Sells, professor of comparative
religion at Haverford College in Pennsylvania, "Serb nationalists have
manipulated concern for the (Kosovo) shrines to motivate, justify and
implement 'ethnic cleansing' and annihilation of centuries of non-Serb
artistic and religious monuments.
"In exploiting Serbian monasteries and the heritage they represented to
foment hate and violence, they desecrated a great Serbian heritage that
deserves better."
It must also be said that if the KLA is behind the devastation, it's
following a path already trod by Serbs themselves. In Sarajevo, Banja
Luka
and other Bosnian cities, the Serbs blew up historic mosques and Islamic
shrines, as well as burning the Oriental Institute and the National
Library.
Moreover, between March and June last year, while NATO was bombing
Serbia
and hundreds of thousands of Albanian-speaking Kosovars were seeking
foreign refuge, many buildings in Kosovo were subject to deliberate
Serbian
attack.
The main targets, however, do not seem to have been mosques. Serbian
forces
aimed most of their destruction at Albanian houses and marketplaces.
Now the Serbs are reaping the whirlwind. Since the Kosovars poured back
into their ravaged homeland, any buildings where Serbs lived or prayed
have
been vulnerable - even if they were homes built in Ottoman style during
the
long centuries of Turkish rule.
Another of the recently damaged buildings is the Kosovo Battle Memorial,
built on the famous battleground of 1389. That losing fight against the
invading Turks became a cornerstone of Serbian memory and folk history.
It
also became a useful symbol for Milosevic when he wanted to stir up
nationalist fervour in the 1980s.
In recent months, the Yugoslav government has bitterly protested against
the desecration of Orthodox buildings in Kosovo. But the protests have
fallen on deaf ears.
"I don't know how many times we have said this already," complained
Ljiljana Milojevic Borovcanin, first counselor at the Yugoslav embassy
in
Ottawa. "We have raised the issue at the United Nations and also
bilaterally, with the countries participating in KFOR."
Those countries include Canada. About 1,450 Canadian troops are now in
Kosovo, serving mostly in the central and northern areas alongside
soldiers
from Britain, Finland, Norway, Sweden and the Czech Republic. The
international community has a lot at stake in the peacekeepers' success.
Under KFOR, Kosovo has been divided into five sectors, each run by a
NATO-led brigade. The peacekeeping force is made up of 42,500 soldiers
from
28 countries, in addition to a further 7,500 troops based in
neighbouring
countries. For each soldier in the KFOR mission, only about two Serbs
remain in Kosovo.
Borovcanin says she has spoken to Canadian officials about the
continuing
destruction of Orthodox churches, "and the response was always
diplomatic.
The Canadian government says it regrets all the damage, but at no time
will
it take any action.
"Yet it's the non-implementation of the UN resolution that has enabled
this
barbarism to occur."
She was alluding to Security Council Resolution 1244. Under its terms,
the
mandate of the KFOR troops involves "demilitarizing the Kosovo
Liberation
Army (KLA) and other armed Kosovo Albanian groups S establishing a
secure
environment in which refugees and displaced persons can return home in
safety S (and) ensuring public safety and order."
UNESCO has been in touch with KFOR leaders, Kaiser told The Gazette.
"We provided them with lists of heritage sites that were much longer
than
what they could actually handle. We were told that they have many
responsibilities, and can't possibly station soldiers in front of every
monastery."
Speaking from Pristina last week, KFOR spokesman Lt.-Commander Philip
Anido
said that "KFOR and its soldiers have static guards on the sites that
are
active. Some of the churches are guarded by moving patrols, and it's up
to
the brigade commander to decide on the level of sensitivity and the
level
of risk."
About 800,000 Albanian refugees are thought to have fled Kosovo before
and
during the war last spring. Perhaps it's not surprising that Canada - a
full participant in the NATO bombing campaign - should be reluctant to
speak out publicly against the Kosovo Albanians whom it spent so much
time,
effort and money in helping.
Canada even contributed $200,000 to help pay for a cultural festival in
Kosovo last September. On hand along with international stars like
Mikhail
Baryshnikov, Meryl Streep and Elton John was the Cape Breton choir Men
of
the Deeps, flown in to sing coal-mining songs.
"Canada is helping rebuild Kosovo," Foreign Affairs Minister Lloyd
Axworthy
said at the time. "That rebuilding effort must not only focus on bricks
and
mortar; we must also help rebuild the human spirit."
But as elements of the KLA were quick to realize, the best way to crush
the
spirit of Kosovo's remaining Serbs was to destroy significant chunks of
their bricks and mortar. The day after the cultural festival ended, the
14th-century church of Saints Cosma and Damian in the village of Zociste
was razed. The church was noted for its frescoes of Old Testament
prophets.
On the same day, near the town of Vitina, the remnants of the
14th-century
monastery of the Holy Archangel Gabriel were destroyed by explosives.
The
monastery had already been looted and burned.
So much for the human spirit.
- - -
What is surprising, if not downright shocking, is that the destruction
of
churches and monasteries in Kosovo has aroused so little attention from
international groups that are supposedly dedicated to the preservation
of
cultural treasures.
To an outsider, it looks very much as though the ancient buildings and
artworks are somehow tainted by their association with present-day
Serbia.
When it comes to the monasteries and churches of Kosovo, silence has
become
an unofficial policy.
Consider the following:
- The World Monuments Fund (a private, non-profit group based in New
York
and funded extensively by American Express) placed no Kosovo buildings
on
its recent list of the 100 most endangered sites around the world.
The fund has given money for architectural restoration and preservation
to
165 projects in 51 countries - not including Kosovo. Its Web site
includes
no mention of Kosovo, and a request for an interview with its president,
Bonnie Burnham, was turned down.
- If you believe the Web site of the International Centre for the Study
of
the Preservation and Restoration of Cultural Property, this awkwardly
named
group is a "catalyst for action." But it has remained silent about the
dangers to cultural property in Kosovo. An E-mail asking for an
explanation
went unanswered.
- At UNESCO's headquarters in Paris last July, a six-day official
meeting
took place under the auspices of the Convention Concerning the
Protection
of the World Cultural and Natural Heritage. Member nations debated the
threats to heritage sites in no fewer than 55 countries, including
Canada
(a proposed open-pit mine near Jasper National Park came under
scrutiny);
but Kosovo received only a brief general mention.
UNESCO did sponsor two missions of inquiry to Kosovo in July and
November.
Yet Colin Kaiser, who led one of them, admitted that "UNESCO is not
tooled
to work quickly for emergencies."
Part of the problem, he said, is that proper documentation is not
available
for Kosovo. The agency intends to resume work there in co-operation with
a
Swedish group called Cultural Heritage Without Borders.
"But we can't become involved in saying who did what," Kaiser
emphasized.
"UNESCO cannot take sides."
- Last April, at the height of the war in Kosovo, a statement went out
from
the International Committee of the Blue Shield (a joint endeavour that
unites librarians, archivists, museum curators and preservation
officials).
The statement expressed a generalized "concern about all damage to the
cultural heritage of the peoples of Yugoslavia." Once the war was over,
the
Blue Shield Committee had nothing more to say.
Last week, Manus Brinkman, the secretary-general of the International
Council of Museums, told The Gazette that "ICBS has not issued any new
appeals, because the first one is still as valuable as ever."
Asked about the response to the April statement, Brinkman said that
"there
have been a lot of positive reactions and the appeal invoked much
discussion. S Sadly enough, there was no reaction from the parties
involved
in the fighting in Kosovo, neither from the official Serbian or Albanian
side, nor from NATO."
- Canada is one of many nations represented on ICOMOS, the International
Council on Monuments and Sites, whose aim is "the conservation of the
world's historic monuments and sites." The Web site of ICOMOS Canada
includes statements from 1997 onward. None mentions Kosovo.
The Canadian group's administrative secretary, Victoria Angel, said that
ICOMOS Greece has tried to raise awareness about the cultural monuments
in
Kosovo. But Greece was not one of the NATO members that bombed
Yugoslavia;
and anyway, a little-known non-profit group based in Athens can scarcely
be
expected to kindle public attention in other countries.
"North America is still stuck with the message that there's a good guy
and
a bad guy in Kosovo," said Dinu Bumbaru, the head of Heritage Montreal
and
a vice-president of ICOMOS Canada. "And what the good guy does at the
end
of the movie is fine with us."
Bumbaru noted that while a great deal of information is available about
the
Kosovo destruction, especially on the Internet, "there's no
communications
campaign. Frankly I just wonder if, in the West, this is of interest."
In 1992, following Yugoslavian attacks on the magnificent Croatian city
Dubrovnik during a previous Balkan war, Bumbaru led a UNESCO-sponsored
mission to assess the damage. International funds were provided to help
Croatia, and Dubrovnik has largely been rebuilt.
But Croatia was widely seen as a victim, so, in the case of Dubrovnik,
it
was politically easy for other countries to do the right thing.
The Serbs, on the other hand, were widely seen as aggressors. Now
they're
outnumbered in Kosovo nearly 20 to 1; and in Kaiser's words, "the
problem
is that ultimately, the defence of anything depends upon local people.
"Ideally, both Albanians and Serbs in Kosovo will realize that the loss
of
the monasteries and churches, like the loss of the mosques and Ottoman
houses, will impoverish the whole area."
But that's a remote ideal. In the meantime, there appears to be no
political will outside Kosovo to stand up for an Orthodox heritage so
fraught with beauty, so redolent of pain.
- Reporter Mark Abley can be reached at (514) 987-2555 or by E-mail at
mabley@....
---
http://www.ewtn.com/vnews/getstory.asp?number=2958
19-May-2000 -- EWTN News Brief
KOSOVO PENTECOSTAL CHURCH ATTACKED BY ISLAMIC
MILITANTS
PRISTINA, Kosovo (CWNews.com/Keston) - The Fellowship
of the Lord's People, an Assemblies of God Church in
the Kosovo capital Pristina, was raided by
self-proclaimed Islamic militants in the early hours
of April 29.
The robbers, who claimed to represent the Kosovo
branch of an organization linked to Saudi terrorist
Osama bin Laden, threatened the occupants with guns
during a two-hour raid and stole a considerable sum of
money, a computer, and other valuable items of
equipment. They daubed the door and the walls of the
church building with Islamic slogans.
The United Nations Mission in Kosovo (UNMIK) police
force has primary responsibility for law and order in
the Pristina region and its officers visited the
incident, but an UNMIK representative said so far they
are only looking at the raid "from a criminal aspect."
However, he promised that all three raids the church
has endured over the past year would be reviewed.
The overwhelming majority of Kosovo's Albanian
population is of Muslim background, though some
Albanians are Christians (mostly Catholic, with a
small number of Protestants). The vast majority of the
Serbs that remain in Kosovo are of Serbian Orthodox
background.
The Rev. Artur Krasniqi and his brother Driton
reported the bandits entered the church in the early
morning and tied up the two men and two others,
including an American and a 14-year-old boy, pointing
guns at them and ordering them to renounce
Christianity.
Krasniqi reported that UNMIK police arrived an hour
after the intruders had left and, according to
Krasniqi, did little to help them. However,
representatives from the peacekeeping Kosovo Force
(KFOR) have shown interest, and KFOR representatives
attended a meeting at the church on May 9. "The
British KFOR is trying to do something investigating
this crime," Artur Krasniqi declared. "There have been
no results yet, even though they have some information
already. From UN so far nothing. 'Defend yourself' was
the reply of some UNMIK policemen."
A spokesman for the UNMIK police in Pristina region,
Charley Johnson, confirmed that UNMIK had gone to the
church in the wake of the raid. "The incident has been
listed not as an ethnic crime, but one of robbery and
vandalism," Johnson said this week. "The UNMIK police
are looking at it from a criminal aspect. We have not
developed any suspects as yet."
--------- COORDINAMENTO ROMANO PER LA JUGOSLAVIA -----------
RIMSKI SAVEZ ZA JUGOSLAVIJU
e-mail: crj@... - URL: http://marx2001.org/crj
http://www.egroups.com/group/crj-mailinglist/
------------------------------------------------------------
LA KFOR SBADIGLIA, L'UNMIK RELATIVIZZA, I MEDIA MINIMIZZANO,
PREDRAG MATVEJEVIC ED ENZO BETTIZA SE NE FREGANO
(e certo, mica e' la biblioteca di Sarajevo!)
Per le immagini e l'elenco delle distruzioni operate finora:
http://www.decani.yunet.com/
http://www.decani.yunet.com/destroyedchurch.html
---
ANOTHER SERB ORTHODOX CHURCH DESTROYED IN KOSOVO
Gracanica, July 17 2000
Last night (July 16) around 23.30 the Serbian Orthodox Church of St.
Elias in Pomazatin, 12 km west from Pristina was completely destroyed in
a powerful explosion The church of St Elias was originally built in 1937
near the river Drenica. At the beginning of the WW2 it was destroyed by
Albanian Nazi troops called Balli Combetar. After the war the Serbs
rebuilt the church in 1965 and it served as a parish church since then.
Last year in summer, just after the deployment of KFOR in Kosovo the KLA
memebers damaged the entrance of the church by a hand grenade. Despite
this damage the church could be easily repaired and the Diocese
requested from KFOR to secure the church from further destruction. KFOR
only surrounded the church by barbed wire and from time to time patrols
would pass near by.
The church of St. Elias is only a few hundred meters from the nearest
British KFOR base. The attackers who are supposed again to be the
members of the former KLA brought large quantity of explosive and
informed the local population not to go out of their homes at the time
of explosion which was planned for 23.30.
Serbian Orthodox Church has condemned this latest barbarous attack and
has requested from KFOR and UN Mission to carry out the investigation.
There are very few reasons to believe that the perpertrators would ever
be arrested because so far not a single attacker on nearly 90 destroyed
Serb churches has been identified or arrested.
Serbian Orthodox Diocese of Raska and Prizren
Information Service
KFOR
Daily Press Release
Delivered by Major Scott A. Slaten
KFOR Spokesman
#07-10
PRISTINA, Kosovo - Monday, 17 July, 2000
Serb Church Destroyed
A ruined Serb Church in the village of Pomatetin/ Pomazatin (5
kilometers west of Fushe Kosove/ Kosovo Polje) was completely destroyed
in
an explosion last night.
Explosives were detonated at approximately 11.30 p.m. and UNMIK police
reported that two suspects were seen running from the scene towards
Fushe
Kosove / Kosovo Polje. Initial reports from explosive experts state that
up
to 30 kilograms of dynamite were used in the attack.
The Church of the Holy Prophet Elijah has been out of use for the past
six years and was badly damaged during last year's conflict. As a result
it
was not one of the churches guarded by KFOR troops.
An investigation is ongoing in the destruction of the church. KFOR MNB
Centre is committed to removing the weapons used for these types of
extremist activities from general use. As a result, a search operation
has
begun in the municipality this morning.
Weapons Search Targets Extremists
Troops from MNB Centre began a search operation this morning which
centers on the village of Miradi e Eperme / Gornje Dobrevo in the Kosovo
Polje municipality.
The mission of the operation is to search for illegal weapons in the
area and remove them from the hands of extremists. Four hundred KFOR
Norwegian soldiers make up the core of the units participating in the
operation. Additional manpower and expertise is being provided by search
teams from the 2nd Battalion the Royal Regiment of Fusiliers, the
Swedish
Battalion and the Scots Dragoon Guards.
The village is located near the scene of a mine strike in early June
which killed three Serbs whose car drove over a mine which had been
planted
in the road. Although the village is in no way connected with last
night's
attack on the Serb Church, it is this type of extremism that the search
operation aims to prevent.
Incidents During the Past 24 Hours
Multinational Brigade North
Shots Reported
KFOR MNB North reported that shots were heard in the northern and
southern areas of Mitrovica for several hours last night. KFOR patrols
searched the areas. No reports of injuries or loss of life were reported
as
a result of the shootings.
Mass Held
KFOR soldiers secured the area around the southern Mitrovice/Mitrovica
Orthodox Church yesterday morning, in order to secure church goes
attending
mass. There were no reported incidents of violence or serious incidents
during the transport escort and mass of the attendees.
Multinational Brigade West
Weapons Seized, Men Arrested
KFOR soldiers near the village of Piskote stopped a vehicle driven by a
Kosovar Albanian man from the village of Skiviane. A search of the
vehicle
revealed an empty automatic machinegun magazine.
The driver was detained for questioning. KFOR Italian Military Police
then conducted a search of the man's home. One AK-47 Assault Rifle with
magazines and ammunition was discovered and confiscated. The man was
then
handed over to UNMIK Police for arrest. The investigation is still
ongoing.
Later in the evening, KFOR soldiers from Task Force Pegasus stopped a
car driven by a Kosovar Albanian man at the Zaimovo Bridge. A search of
the
vehicle revealed a Simonov Rifle. The weapon was confiscated and UNMIK
Police arrested a male passenger in the vehicle. The investigation is
still
ongoing.
Multinational Brigade Centre
See Lead Story
Multinational Brigade South
Commemoration Held
Yesterday morning, a commemoration for former UCK-fighters took place
in the village of Hoca Zagradska. The commemoration was announced
yesterday
evening. KFOR MNB South reinforced the area with additional soldiers. An
estimated 400 people participated in the commemoration. The
commemoration
was peaceful and ended without incidents at 11:45 a.m.
Multinational Brigade East
Weapons Seized
Yesterday morning, north of the village of Saraiste, soldiers from KFOR
US 501st Mechanized Infantry Battalion and UNMIK Police conducted a
house
search of a Kosovar Albanian man arrested for carrying a hand grenade. A
search of the house revealed one grenade, assorted ammunition, One MUP
uniform, two sets of binoculars, and two syringes. UNMIK Police held the
individual for questioning.
UXO Reported, Weapons Seized
In MNB East, yesterday evening in the town of Cernica, KFOR US Task
Force
1-187 headquarters reported that an item of unexploded ordinance was
found
in the backyard of a Kosovar Serb home.
An Explosive Ordinance Disposal Team was dispatched to the scene and
discovered a hand grenade near the house. Assessing the situation, the
EOD
team determined that the grenade could not be safely moved. It was then
detonated in place. The resulting blast caused some damage to the house
and
revealed some 7.62 ammunition. A search of the house was then conducted
and
an AK-47 Assault Rifle and magazines were confiscated. The investigation
is
still ongoing.
KFOR Medical Assistance Provided
An 11-year-old Kosovar Serb boy was medically evacuated (MEDEVAC) to
the 212th Mobile Army Surgical Hospital at Camp Bondsteel, and treated
for
appendicitis early this morning.
The boy was admitted to the hospital at 1:40 a.m. and had his appendix
removed. The youth was from the town of Strpce and escorted to Camp
Bondsteel by members of the 18th Polish Battalion. The boy's condition
is
currently listed as being stable.
The 212th Mobile Army Surgical Hospital also provided medical support
to another Kosovar Serb citizen last night. A 64-year-old woman
requested a
MEDEVAC last night and was transported by ambulance to Camp Bondsteel
for
treatment of a possible heart attack. The woman was admitted just after
10
p.m. and by midnight was listed in stable condition. Medical tests were
conducted and are pending results to determine the severity of the
attack.
The woman will remain at the 212th MASH for further observation.
MEDIA INFORMATION
UNMIK and NATO
A Press Conference will be held Tuesday at 4:30 p.m. in the Press
Conference Room of the UNMIK Government Building. NATO Secretary
General,
the Lord George Robertson of Port Ellen and SRSG, Dr. Bernard Kouchner
will
be speaking.
MNB Centre
Destroyed Serb Church
An MNB Centre media event will take place after the press conference
today. The schedule will include a visit the site of the destroyed
church
and then go on to the search operation being carried out in the local
area.
This operation highlights the KFOR activities being carried out to
prevent
any form of extremism threatening the people living in Kosovo.
Live Fire Ranges
The Second Battalion, the Royal Regiment of Fusiliers, will be
exercising and live firing their Warrior Armored Vehicles on the
Krivolak
ranges in the Former Yugoslavian Republic of Macedonia (FYROM) next
week.
This is part of an ongoing training operation that the KFOR British
troops carry out to ensure that British soldiers are continuously
trained on
their weapon systems in order to meet any threats.
MNB Centre will provide a media opportunity on the afternoon of Wed 19
July, 2000 to cover this event. Twelve places are currently available
for
interested journalist on a KFOR helicopter. Journalists should get in
contact with Flight Lieutenant Tim Serrell-Cooke, at the MNB Centre PIO
office.
MNB South
NATO Secretary General, Sir George Robertson and North Atlantic Council,
will visit MNB South to receive an overview of the current situation and
to
gain information on reconstruction projects in the town of Reshan
Mahala.
A media event is scheduled on Tuesday 18 July 2000 in Prizren.
Journalists are requested to be at the KFOR Main Headquarters VIP Gate
no
later than 9:10 a.m. for transportation to Prizren. For details please
see
the KFOR Media Event Flyer located in the main lobby of the KFOR Press
and
Information Center, Pristina.
KFOR Press and Information Center, Pristina, Kosovo
PTT phone: +389 91 68-6600
PTT fax: +389 91 68-6610
Sat phone : +871 382 060 323
Official KFOR homepage: http://kforonline.com
For specific information related to brigade-level operations, please
contact
Brigade Information Offices:
Multinational Brigade Centre
PPT phone: +44-7808946390 or +44-7801130055
PTT fax: +381-38-501 433-234
Sat phone: +870-762 103 839, +870-762 103 843 or +870-762 134 957
Sat fax: +870-762 134 991
Multinational Brigade East
http://www.hqusareur.army.mil/htmlinks/tffalconframe.htm
Sat phone: +871 762 069 495
E-mail: pao@...
Multinational Brigade North
PTT phone: +381-28-31024 or +381-28-31025
PTT fax: +381-28 - 31022
Sat phone: +871-762159078 or +871-761294148
Sat fax: +870-762134991
Multinational Brigade South
Satellite phone: +871-11 22 151 or +871-761 617 247 or +871-762069467
Satellite fax: +871-1122152
E-mail: piz_ge_kfor@...
Multinational Brigade West
Sat phone: +871-762 069 491
E-mail: martiref@...
Serbian Church Blown Up in Kosovo
.c The Associated Press
PRISTINA, Yugoslavia (AP) - An explosion ripped through a medieval
Serbian
Orthodox Church in Kosovo, flattening the structure, U.N police said
Monday.
The church of the Holy Prophet Elijah was located in the village of
Pomazetin, just outside the Serb village of Kosovo Polje. The church was
leveled in the Sunday night explosion, said Oleg Rubezhov, a U.N. police
officer who patrols the area.
``It was destroyed to the basement,'' he said.
About 66 pounds of explosives were used in the 11:30 p.m. blast,
peacekeepers said. Two people were seen running from the site shortly
after
the explosion.
The church was not under guard by NATO-led peacekeepers, U.N. police
said.
They said it had already been severely damaged during the war between
ethnic
Albanian separatists and the forces of Yugoslav President Slobodan
Milosevic.
However, the private Beta and FoNet news agencies in Belgrade said in
their
reports that the church was first damaged last August in a fire or by an
explosion.
The opposition Serbian Renewal Movement blamed the latest explosion on
the
peacekeeping force, called KFOR, saying its troops did nothing to
prevent it
in this heavily ethnic Albanian province.
``Members of KFOR know well enough that Albanian extremists
systematically
destroy Orthodox Christian churches, but they obviously do nothing to
prevent
them, which is proven by this latest crime,'' the party said.
Minority Serbs have faced daily attacks over the past year and Serb
Orthodox
monuments have been targeted by ethnic Albanian militants. The Beta news
agency said 86 religious objects have been destroyed.
Beta said Pomazetin was an ethnically mixed village before Kosovo's
1998-99
war. Since the deployment of NATO-led peacekeepers in the province last
year,
Serb villagers have fled, fearing for their safety.
AP-NY-07-17-00 0948EDT
ETHNIC ALBANIAN TERRORISTS DESTROYED CHRISTIAN ORTHODOX CHURCH
KOSOVO POLJE, July 17 (Tanjug) A strong explosion echoed in
Pomazatin village near Kosovo Polje late Sunday, amateur radio operators
said early on Monday.
Unofficial sources said ethnic Albanian terrorists had razed
the
Serbian Orthodox church of St. Ilia in this village of Kosovo and
Metohija
province which had had a mixed Serbethnic Albanian population before
international forces KFOR arrived in June 1999. All Serbs have meanwhile
been forced to flee the village due to onslaughts by militant ethnic
Albanians.
There was a power failure a minute before the blast, which took
place at about 11.30 p.m., and electricity was turned on again a minute
after the explosion.
Local Serbs believe that this is a synchronized action by
ethnic
Albanian extremists and those employed in the Obilic electric power
plant
in order to make such attacks appear more frightening in total darkness.
======================================================================
>Orthodox Church on post-war Kosovo firing line
>
>SLOVINJE, Yugoslavia, June 13 (Reuters) - Three attacks over the
>space of 10 months have reduced a Serb Orthodox church in a Kosovo
>village to a mound of rubble.
>
>Children play in the ruins and ethnic Albanians smile when asked what
>happened. "The church stepped on a mine," said a bearded man with a
>laugh.
>
>Slovinje's Church of Saint Nicholas is just one of 87 Orthodox Serb
shrines,
>churches and monasteries that have been destroyed or damaged in the
>year since NATO-led peacekeepers entered Kosovo as Yugoslav Serb
>security forces withdrew.
>
>Father Sava Janjic, in the nearby 14th-century monastery of Gracanica,
>says Albanian extremists are systematically seeking to eradicate the
>church from Kosovo as part of a wider campaign to chase out the minority
>Serb population.
>
>"The Orthodox church is the anchor of the Serbian people here. If the
>churches are destroyed then the Serb people will not stay," said Father
>Sava, an Orthodox priest who acts as spokesman for the region's Serb
>moderates.
>
>An estimated 150,000 Serbs have fled Kosovo since June 1999, leaving
>100,000 behind out of a total population of less than two million.
>The Albanian majority is nominally Moslem.
>
>Anxious to reassure the Serbs that they have their best interests at heart,
>KFOR peacekeepers now stand guard 24 hours a day outside many of
>Kosovo's remaining Orthodox shrines.
>
>CHURCH HAS LONG KOSOVO HISTORY
>
>Kosovo, which remains legally a part of Yugoslavia but has become a de
>facto international protectorate, is regularly described by Serbs as the
>cradle of their culture and the spiritual home of their Orthodox church.
>
>The seat of the Serb church was not actually founded in Kosovo, but
>moved there at the end of the 13th century after its original foundation in
>central Serbia burned down.
>
>Seven centuries later, many of Kosovo's most beautiful buildings are
>its Orthodox centres, including the monasteries at Pec, Decani and
>Gracanica.
>
>"I'd say that 95 percent of Kosovo's cultural heritage sites are Orthodox
>buildings. These need saving not just for the Serbs, but for all
Europeans,"
>said Father Sava.
>
>For ethnic Albanians, who suffered years of repression at the hands of
>Serbian troops and police, the Orthodox Church is inextricably linked
>to the notion of Serb national identity.
>
>A wave of Orthodox churches built over the past 10 years are described
>by locals as "political churches" and they have borne the brunt of the
>attacks. Some KFOR commanders openly question whether it is worth
>trying to save these buildings.
>
>"If a church has value as a historical place then clearly it should be
>guarded," said Finnish Colonel Arto Raty, head of KFOR operations in
>Slovinje, which lies just to the south of the regional capital Pristina.
>
>"But if it has no historical value and there is no chance of the Serbs
>returning anytime soon to the area, then it should be gently dismantled,"
>he told Reuters.
>
>A "CRUCIFIED" KOSOVO
>
>Slovinje's little domed church and adjacent belfry were built in 1996 on
>the site of a 16th-century church. It was attacked in June and July 1999
>and then again in May of this year, leaving just a pile of shattered
>concrete and red brick.
>
>KFOR troops later found the church's heavy iron bell hidden under an ethnic
>Albanian's haystack.
>
>Father Sava is angry that despite the presence of some 47,000 peacekeepers
>in Kosovo nobody has been caught or charged for the attacks on Orthodox
>property.
>
>The Church has published a book, "Crucified Kosovo", to highlight the
>plight of the Orthodox faith in the province, asking the world not to
>blame it for the policies of Yugoslav President Slobodan Milosevic.
>
>Father Sava, who admits to harbouring sometimes un- Christian feelings of
>hate for Milosevic, says his Church did what it could to protect the
>Albanians from Serbian forces.
>
>"There was no organised involvement of the Serb church in fighting for
>Albanian rights because we had our own problems with the Yugoslav
>regime. But we always insisted that all human beings should be treated in
the
>same way," he said.
----- Original Message -----
From: "Predrag Tosic" <p-tosic@...>
To: "yugoslaviainfo" <This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.>
Sent: Tuesday, May 23, 2000 4:54 PM
Subject: [yugoslaviainfo] A reminder: God's houses in ruin [throughout
Kosovo]
[ A few basic questions for Mr Kouchner and UNMIK, as well as each and
every NATO country government:
- How many of the damaged or destroyed churches and monasteries have
been
rebuilt?
- In how many instances has the reconstruction at least started?
- In how many instances have the culprits - arsonists, bombers and other
attackers at Christian religious shrines in Kosovo - been arrested?
- How many of the arrested have been acquited? Is anybody
currently serving a prison term in Kosovo for vandalizing or destroying
a
church? If there is, how many people?
Between 85 and 100 Christian churches (mostly Serbian Orthodox, as
well
as some other) have been either severely damaged or destroyed in Kosovo
since mid-June of 1999. If our readers know of a single case where the
culprits were arrested - please let us know; thus far, I do not recall
reading or hearing a single news agency report to that effect. PT ]
Subject: God's houses in ruins: The world keeps silent as Serb churches,
monasteries are destroyed in Kosovo under noses of
peacekeepers
The Montreal Gazette
Sunday 27 February 2000
God's houses in ruins: The world keeps silent as Serb churches,
monasteries
are destroyed in Kosovo under noses of peacekeepers
MARK ABLEY The Gazette
The Orthodox Church of St. Nicholas, in the Kosovo village Banjska, was
probably not an international treasure.
As far as we know, it was just a modest house of God in an area dotted
with
the same.
But no one may ever be sure. On Jan. 30, 11 kilograms of explosives were
detonated at the altar, leaving much of the building in ruins.
The explosion forms part of a sad and continuing pattern. Since a wary
peace took shape in Kosovo in June 1999, nearly 80 of its Orthodox
churches
and monasteries are known to have suffered heavy damage or destruction.
The
total may be higher, given that a lot of churches are located in remote
areas where few, if any, Serbs still live.
These attacks did not occur during the North Atlantic Treaty
Organization's
bombing campaign last spring. They have happened since the return of
Kosovo's Albanian majority. Extremists, usually assumed to be linked to
the
Kosovo Liberation Army, have carried out a systematic campaign of
destruction under the eyes of international peacekeepers.
The unanswered question is why this devastation has caused so little
outcry. British and French media have paid some attention to the
attacks;
but the North American media have carried few reports. Dozens of
non-profit
groups are now working in Kosovo; they have said next to nothing.
"The Western world is rather fed up with the Balkans," suggested Colin
Kaiser, chief of the unit for southeast Europe and the Arab states in
UNESCO's Division of Cultural Heritage. "The wars, first in Croatia,
then
in Bosnia and most recently in Kosovo, became more and more intense in
terms of damage. But the cumulative effect has been that the Western
sensibility to it all has been dulled."
True enough. But beyond that, it also seems true that after the wars of
the
past decade, few Westerners dare to sympathize with anything Serbian.
Last September, Bishop Artemije, the head of the Orthodox diocese of
Raska
and Prizren, charged that while the first aim of the Kosovo Albanians
"is
to expel all Serbs, the second is to eradicate all traces and witnesses
that could serve as evidence that the Serbs have existed at all.
"But who and what are the witnesses? Churches, monasteries and holy
places.
So they set out to destroy the witnesses, to obliterate the traces. In
21Z2
months more than 70 monasteries and churches were burned or demolished.
Among them were the churches built by our illustrious and holy ancestors
in
the 12th, 13th and 14th centuries. The churches and monasteries, which
survived 500 years of Turkish occupation, did not endure two months in
the
presence of a 50,000-strong international 'peacekeeping' force."
Peacekeeping troops from the United Arab Emirates, serving in the United
Nations' multinational KFOR mission, had been stationed near the Church
of
St. Nicholas. But in late January they withdrew, leaving the church
unprotected. It was soon blown to pieces.
The presence of the UN soldiers has slowed the rate of destruction in
recent months, but foreign troops can provide no guarantee of safety. On
Jan. 14, for instance, the Church of St. Elias, in a village called
Cernica, was partly destroyed by explosives. It stood just 70 metres
from a
checkpoint of U.S. soldiers.
Almost everyone would agree that the destruction of St. Elias's and St.
Nicholas's churches is regrettable. But what has so far escaped much
notice, particularly in North America, is that dozens of the earlier
victims were not just Serbian village churches, but buildings of great
beauty and historical significance. Among them:
- The Church of the Holy Virgin in Musutiste, built in 1315. Frescoes
painted in the following years were among the finest examples of
medieval
wall-painting in the entire region. The church was looted, burned and
mined
by explosives.
- The Church of St. Nicholas in Prizren, which is said to date to 1348
or
earlier, and which contained medieval icons. Five explosives went off,
causing extensive damage.
- The Monastery of the Holy Trinity near Musutiste, built from 1465 on.
It
held a unique library of manuscripts as well as a collection of recent
icons. The monastery was first plundered, then burned and finally
leveled
with explosives.
- The Monastery of the Holy Archangels in Gornje Nerodimjle, built in
the
14th century, renewed and extended in 1700. The monastery was looted and
burned; a great pine tree, said to date from 1336, was chopped down and
burned; the cemetery was desecrated.
The stories go on and on. The pattern is undeniable - and for once, no
one
is even trying to claim that Yugoslavia's notorious president, Slobodan
Milosevic, is behind it.
So far, thanks to a 24-hour guard by foreign soldiers, the greatest of
all
treasures in the region - the monastic churches of Gracanica and Decani
-
have survived. Writers have waxed eloquent about them for generations;
Rebecca West, for one, called Gracanica "as religious a building as
Chartres Cathedral. The thought and feeling behind it were as complex. S
There is in these frescoes, as in the parent works of Byzantium, the
height
of accomplishment."
Some of the buildings were jewels of European civilization. Now they are
rubble.
- - -
Throughout the Balkans, politics and art, history and myth, oppression
and
religion are intertwined. The ruined Orthodox buildings of Kosovo were
not
only centres of worship and art; they were political symbols.
Since the mid-1980s, writes Michael Sells, professor of comparative
religion at Haverford College in Pennsylvania, "Serb nationalists have
manipulated concern for the (Kosovo) shrines to motivate, justify and
implement 'ethnic cleansing' and annihilation of centuries of non-Serb
artistic and religious monuments.
"In exploiting Serbian monasteries and the heritage they represented to
foment hate and violence, they desecrated a great Serbian heritage that
deserves better."
It must also be said that if the KLA is behind the devastation, it's
following a path already trod by Serbs themselves. In Sarajevo, Banja
Luka
and other Bosnian cities, the Serbs blew up historic mosques and Islamic
shrines, as well as burning the Oriental Institute and the National
Library.
Moreover, between March and June last year, while NATO was bombing
Serbia
and hundreds of thousands of Albanian-speaking Kosovars were seeking
foreign refuge, many buildings in Kosovo were subject to deliberate
Serbian
attack.
The main targets, however, do not seem to have been mosques. Serbian
forces
aimed most of their destruction at Albanian houses and marketplaces.
Now the Serbs are reaping the whirlwind. Since the Kosovars poured back
into their ravaged homeland, any buildings where Serbs lived or prayed
have
been vulnerable - even if they were homes built in Ottoman style during
the
long centuries of Turkish rule.
Another of the recently damaged buildings is the Kosovo Battle Memorial,
built on the famous battleground of 1389. That losing fight against the
invading Turks became a cornerstone of Serbian memory and folk history.
It
also became a useful symbol for Milosevic when he wanted to stir up
nationalist fervour in the 1980s.
In recent months, the Yugoslav government has bitterly protested against
the desecration of Orthodox buildings in Kosovo. But the protests have
fallen on deaf ears.
"I don't know how many times we have said this already," complained
Ljiljana Milojevic Borovcanin, first counselor at the Yugoslav embassy
in
Ottawa. "We have raised the issue at the United Nations and also
bilaterally, with the countries participating in KFOR."
Those countries include Canada. About 1,450 Canadian troops are now in
Kosovo, serving mostly in the central and northern areas alongside
soldiers
from Britain, Finland, Norway, Sweden and the Czech Republic. The
international community has a lot at stake in the peacekeepers' success.
Under KFOR, Kosovo has been divided into five sectors, each run by a
NATO-led brigade. The peacekeeping force is made up of 42,500 soldiers
from
28 countries, in addition to a further 7,500 troops based in
neighbouring
countries. For each soldier in the KFOR mission, only about two Serbs
remain in Kosovo.
Borovcanin says she has spoken to Canadian officials about the
continuing
destruction of Orthodox churches, "and the response was always
diplomatic.
The Canadian government says it regrets all the damage, but at no time
will
it take any action.
"Yet it's the non-implementation of the UN resolution that has enabled
this
barbarism to occur."
She was alluding to Security Council Resolution 1244. Under its terms,
the
mandate of the KFOR troops involves "demilitarizing the Kosovo
Liberation
Army (KLA) and other armed Kosovo Albanian groups S establishing a
secure
environment in which refugees and displaced persons can return home in
safety S (and) ensuring public safety and order."
UNESCO has been in touch with KFOR leaders, Kaiser told The Gazette.
"We provided them with lists of heritage sites that were much longer
than
what they could actually handle. We were told that they have many
responsibilities, and can't possibly station soldiers in front of every
monastery."
Speaking from Pristina last week, KFOR spokesman Lt.-Commander Philip
Anido
said that "KFOR and its soldiers have static guards on the sites that
are
active. Some of the churches are guarded by moving patrols, and it's up
to
the brigade commander to decide on the level of sensitivity and the
level
of risk."
About 800,000 Albanian refugees are thought to have fled Kosovo before
and
during the war last spring. Perhaps it's not surprising that Canada - a
full participant in the NATO bombing campaign - should be reluctant to
speak out publicly against the Kosovo Albanians whom it spent so much
time,
effort and money in helping.
Canada even contributed $200,000 to help pay for a cultural festival in
Kosovo last September. On hand along with international stars like
Mikhail
Baryshnikov, Meryl Streep and Elton John was the Cape Breton choir Men
of
the Deeps, flown in to sing coal-mining songs.
"Canada is helping rebuild Kosovo," Foreign Affairs Minister Lloyd
Axworthy
said at the time. "That rebuilding effort must not only focus on bricks
and
mortar; we must also help rebuild the human spirit."
But as elements of the KLA were quick to realize, the best way to crush
the
spirit of Kosovo's remaining Serbs was to destroy significant chunks of
their bricks and mortar. The day after the cultural festival ended, the
14th-century church of Saints Cosma and Damian in the village of Zociste
was razed. The church was noted for its frescoes of Old Testament
prophets.
On the same day, near the town of Vitina, the remnants of the
14th-century
monastery of the Holy Archangel Gabriel were destroyed by explosives.
The
monastery had already been looted and burned.
So much for the human spirit.
- - -
What is surprising, if not downright shocking, is that the destruction
of
churches and monasteries in Kosovo has aroused so little attention from
international groups that are supposedly dedicated to the preservation
of
cultural treasures.
To an outsider, it looks very much as though the ancient buildings and
artworks are somehow tainted by their association with present-day
Serbia.
When it comes to the monasteries and churches of Kosovo, silence has
become
an unofficial policy.
Consider the following:
- The World Monuments Fund (a private, non-profit group based in New
York
and funded extensively by American Express) placed no Kosovo buildings
on
its recent list of the 100 most endangered sites around the world.
The fund has given money for architectural restoration and preservation
to
165 projects in 51 countries - not including Kosovo. Its Web site
includes
no mention of Kosovo, and a request for an interview with its president,
Bonnie Burnham, was turned down.
- If you believe the Web site of the International Centre for the Study
of
the Preservation and Restoration of Cultural Property, this awkwardly
named
group is a "catalyst for action." But it has remained silent about the
dangers to cultural property in Kosovo. An E-mail asking for an
explanation
went unanswered.
- At UNESCO's headquarters in Paris last July, a six-day official
meeting
took place under the auspices of the Convention Concerning the
Protection
of the World Cultural and Natural Heritage. Member nations debated the
threats to heritage sites in no fewer than 55 countries, including
Canada
(a proposed open-pit mine near Jasper National Park came under
scrutiny);
but Kosovo received only a brief general mention.
UNESCO did sponsor two missions of inquiry to Kosovo in July and
November.
Yet Colin Kaiser, who led one of them, admitted that "UNESCO is not
tooled
to work quickly for emergencies."
Part of the problem, he said, is that proper documentation is not
available
for Kosovo. The agency intends to resume work there in co-operation with
a
Swedish group called Cultural Heritage Without Borders.
"But we can't become involved in saying who did what," Kaiser
emphasized.
"UNESCO cannot take sides."
- Last April, at the height of the war in Kosovo, a statement went out
from
the International Committee of the Blue Shield (a joint endeavour that
unites librarians, archivists, museum curators and preservation
officials).
The statement expressed a generalized "concern about all damage to the
cultural heritage of the peoples of Yugoslavia." Once the war was over,
the
Blue Shield Committee had nothing more to say.
Last week, Manus Brinkman, the secretary-general of the International
Council of Museums, told The Gazette that "ICBS has not issued any new
appeals, because the first one is still as valuable as ever."
Asked about the response to the April statement, Brinkman said that
"there
have been a lot of positive reactions and the appeal invoked much
discussion. S Sadly enough, there was no reaction from the parties
involved
in the fighting in Kosovo, neither from the official Serbian or Albanian
side, nor from NATO."
- Canada is one of many nations represented on ICOMOS, the International
Council on Monuments and Sites, whose aim is "the conservation of the
world's historic monuments and sites." The Web site of ICOMOS Canada
includes statements from 1997 onward. None mentions Kosovo.
The Canadian group's administrative secretary, Victoria Angel, said that
ICOMOS Greece has tried to raise awareness about the cultural monuments
in
Kosovo. But Greece was not one of the NATO members that bombed
Yugoslavia;
and anyway, a little-known non-profit group based in Athens can scarcely
be
expected to kindle public attention in other countries.
"North America is still stuck with the message that there's a good guy
and
a bad guy in Kosovo," said Dinu Bumbaru, the head of Heritage Montreal
and
a vice-president of ICOMOS Canada. "And what the good guy does at the
end
of the movie is fine with us."
Bumbaru noted that while a great deal of information is available about
the
Kosovo destruction, especially on the Internet, "there's no
communications
campaign. Frankly I just wonder if, in the West, this is of interest."
In 1992, following Yugoslavian attacks on the magnificent Croatian city
Dubrovnik during a previous Balkan war, Bumbaru led a UNESCO-sponsored
mission to assess the damage. International funds were provided to help
Croatia, and Dubrovnik has largely been rebuilt.
But Croatia was widely seen as a victim, so, in the case of Dubrovnik,
it
was politically easy for other countries to do the right thing.
The Serbs, on the other hand, were widely seen as aggressors. Now
they're
outnumbered in Kosovo nearly 20 to 1; and in Kaiser's words, "the
problem
is that ultimately, the defence of anything depends upon local people.
"Ideally, both Albanians and Serbs in Kosovo will realize that the loss
of
the monasteries and churches, like the loss of the mosques and Ottoman
houses, will impoverish the whole area."
But that's a remote ideal. In the meantime, there appears to be no
political will outside Kosovo to stand up for an Orthodox heritage so
fraught with beauty, so redolent of pain.
- Reporter Mark Abley can be reached at (514) 987-2555 or by E-mail at
mabley@....
---
http://www.ewtn.com/vnews/getstory.asp?number=2958
19-May-2000 -- EWTN News Brief
KOSOVO PENTECOSTAL CHURCH ATTACKED BY ISLAMIC
MILITANTS
PRISTINA, Kosovo (CWNews.com/Keston) - The Fellowship
of the Lord's People, an Assemblies of God Church in
the Kosovo capital Pristina, was raided by
self-proclaimed Islamic militants in the early hours
of April 29.
The robbers, who claimed to represent the Kosovo
branch of an organization linked to Saudi terrorist
Osama bin Laden, threatened the occupants with guns
during a two-hour raid and stole a considerable sum of
money, a computer, and other valuable items of
equipment. They daubed the door and the walls of the
church building with Islamic slogans.
The United Nations Mission in Kosovo (UNMIK) police
force has primary responsibility for law and order in
the Pristina region and its officers visited the
incident, but an UNMIK representative said so far they
are only looking at the raid "from a criminal aspect."
However, he promised that all three raids the church
has endured over the past year would be reviewed.
The overwhelming majority of Kosovo's Albanian
population is of Muslim background, though some
Albanians are Christians (mostly Catholic, with a
small number of Protestants). The vast majority of the
Serbs that remain in Kosovo are of Serbian Orthodox
background.
The Rev. Artur Krasniqi and his brother Driton
reported the bandits entered the church in the early
morning and tied up the two men and two others,
including an American and a 14-year-old boy, pointing
guns at them and ordering them to renounce
Christianity.
Krasniqi reported that UNMIK police arrived an hour
after the intruders had left and, according to
Krasniqi, did little to help them. However,
representatives from the peacekeeping Kosovo Force
(KFOR) have shown interest, and KFOR representatives
attended a meeting at the church on May 9. "The
British KFOR is trying to do something investigating
this crime," Artur Krasniqi declared. "There have been
no results yet, even though they have some information
already. From UN so far nothing. 'Defend yourself' was
the reply of some UNMIK policemen."
A spokesman for the UNMIK police in Pristina region,
Charley Johnson, confirmed that UNMIK had gone to the
church in the wake of the raid. "The incident has been
listed not as an ethnic crime, but one of robbery and
vandalism," Johnson said this week. "The UNMIK police
are looking at it from a criminal aspect. We have not
developed any suspects as yet."
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