* Quanti sono i soldati delle truppe di occupazione in Kosmet (Albanian
Daily News / AFP / Notizie Est)
* Bilancio della distruzione delle chiese cristiano-ortodosse nel Kosmet
per opera dell'UCKFOR (THE MONTREAL GAZETTE)
---
I NUMERI DELLA KFOR IN KOSOVO
("Albanian Daily News", 29 febbraio 2000)
(trad. su "Notizie Est" #307, 1/3/2000)
BRUXELLES - La KFOR, la forza multinazionale di
mantenimento della pace, ha attualmente in
Kosovo 37.200 soldati, mentre altri 5.600
forniscono supporto logistico in Macedonia,
Albania e Grecia.
Secondo le ultime cifre fornite dalla NATO, in
Kosovo gli Stati Uniti hanno il numero piu' alto
di soldati dispiegati sul campo, con 5.400
effettivi, seguiti dall'Italia (4.200), dalla
Germania (3.900), dalla Francia (3.900), dalla
Russia (3.150) e dalla Gran Bretagna (3.000).
Nel totale di 36 stati che contribuiscono alla
missione, gli altri paesi che hanno fornito
contingenti sostanziosi sono stati l'Olanda
(1.400), gli Emirati Arabi Uniti (1.300), il
Canada (1.100), la Grecia (1.100), la Norvegia
(1.000) e la Spagna (900). I paesi NATO coprono
circa i quattro quinti degli effettivi totali,
con circa 30.000 uomini.
I contingenti di supporto si trovano in
Macedonia, dove ci sono 4.000 militari KFOR, in
Albania, dove ve ne sono 1.400, e in Grecia,
dove sono 100.
Il Kosovo e' stato diviso in cinque settori,
ognuno sotto il comando di una diversa forza
partecipante: i francesi nel settore nord, gli
americani in quello est, i tedeschi in quello
sud, gli italiani in quello ovest e i britanni
in quello centrale.
La KFOR attualmente e' amministrata dal
Landcent, le forze di terra NATO nell'Europa
Centrale, con sede a Heidelberg, in Germania,
sotto il comando del generale tedesco Klaus
Reinhardt. Lo stato maggiore della KFOR e'
composto da circa 1.500 uomini di tutte le
nazionalita'.
Il Landcent verra' sostituito in aprile dallo
stato maggiore dell'Eurocorps, formato da
ufficiali di Belgio, Francia, Germania e Spagna.
La KFOR sara' a partire da allora comandata dal
generale spagnolo Juan Ortuno, che e' diventato
comandante dell'Eurocorps il 26 novembre 1999.
Eternera Mailing List - http://get.to/eternera
KFOR troop numbers in Kosovo
BRUSSELS, Feb 24 (AFP) - KFOR, the multinational peacekeeping
force in Kosovo, currently has 37,200 troops deployed in the
southern Serbian province and a further 5,600 troops providing
logistical support in Macedonia, Albania and Greece.
According to the latest figures supplied by NATO, the United
States has the largest number of soldiers deployed, with 5,400
troops in Kosovo, followed by Italy (4,200), Germany (3,900), France
(3,900), Russia (3,150) and Britain (3,000).
Among a total of 36 contributing nations, substantial
contingents have been provided by the Netherlands (1,400), the
United Arab Emirates (1,300), Canada (1,100), Greece (1,100), Norway
(1,000) and Spain (900).
NATO countries account for around four-fifths of the total,
contributing some 30,000 troops.
Support teams are based in Macedonia, where there are 4,100 KFOR
troops, Albania where there are 1,400 and Greece with 100.
The province has been divided into five sectors, each under the
command of a different contributing force: French in the northern
sector, American in the east, German in the south, Italian in the
west and British in the centre.
KFOR is currently administered from Landcent, NATO's land forces
in central Europe based at Heidelberg, in Germany, under the overall
command of German General Klaus Reinhardt.
The KFOR general staff comprises around 1,500 men of all
nationalities.
The Eurocorps general staff, comprising officers from Belgium,
France, Germany, Luxembourg and Spain, is due to take over from
Landcent in April.
KFOR will then be headed by Spanish General Juan Ortuno, who
took over as commander of Eurocorps on November 26, 1999.
---
THE MONTREAL GAZETTE, Sunday, February 27, 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 21/2 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.
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 - establishing a
secure
environment in which refugees and displaced persons can return home in
safety - (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. 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@....
--------- COORDINAMENTO ROMANO PER LA JUGOSLAVIA -----------
RIMSKI SAVEZ ZA JUGOSLAVIJU
e-mail: crj@... - URL: http://marx2001.org/crj
http://www.egroups.com/group/crj-mailinglist/
------------------------------------------------------------
Daily News / AFP / Notizie Est)
* Bilancio della distruzione delle chiese cristiano-ortodosse nel Kosmet
per opera dell'UCKFOR (THE MONTREAL GAZETTE)
---
I NUMERI DELLA KFOR IN KOSOVO
("Albanian Daily News", 29 febbraio 2000)
(trad. su "Notizie Est" #307, 1/3/2000)
BRUXELLES - La KFOR, la forza multinazionale di
mantenimento della pace, ha attualmente in
Kosovo 37.200 soldati, mentre altri 5.600
forniscono supporto logistico in Macedonia,
Albania e Grecia.
Secondo le ultime cifre fornite dalla NATO, in
Kosovo gli Stati Uniti hanno il numero piu' alto
di soldati dispiegati sul campo, con 5.400
effettivi, seguiti dall'Italia (4.200), dalla
Germania (3.900), dalla Francia (3.900), dalla
Russia (3.150) e dalla Gran Bretagna (3.000).
Nel totale di 36 stati che contribuiscono alla
missione, gli altri paesi che hanno fornito
contingenti sostanziosi sono stati l'Olanda
(1.400), gli Emirati Arabi Uniti (1.300), il
Canada (1.100), la Grecia (1.100), la Norvegia
(1.000) e la Spagna (900). I paesi NATO coprono
circa i quattro quinti degli effettivi totali,
con circa 30.000 uomini.
I contingenti di supporto si trovano in
Macedonia, dove ci sono 4.000 militari KFOR, in
Albania, dove ve ne sono 1.400, e in Grecia,
dove sono 100.
Il Kosovo e' stato diviso in cinque settori,
ognuno sotto il comando di una diversa forza
partecipante: i francesi nel settore nord, gli
americani in quello est, i tedeschi in quello
sud, gli italiani in quello ovest e i britanni
in quello centrale.
La KFOR attualmente e' amministrata dal
Landcent, le forze di terra NATO nell'Europa
Centrale, con sede a Heidelberg, in Germania,
sotto il comando del generale tedesco Klaus
Reinhardt. Lo stato maggiore della KFOR e'
composto da circa 1.500 uomini di tutte le
nazionalita'.
Il Landcent verra' sostituito in aprile dallo
stato maggiore dell'Eurocorps, formato da
ufficiali di Belgio, Francia, Germania e Spagna.
La KFOR sara' a partire da allora comandata dal
generale spagnolo Juan Ortuno, che e' diventato
comandante dell'Eurocorps il 26 novembre 1999.
Eternera Mailing List - http://get.to/eternera
KFOR troop numbers in Kosovo
BRUSSELS, Feb 24 (AFP) - KFOR, the multinational peacekeeping
force in Kosovo, currently has 37,200 troops deployed in the
southern Serbian province and a further 5,600 troops providing
logistical support in Macedonia, Albania and Greece.
According to the latest figures supplied by NATO, the United
States has the largest number of soldiers deployed, with 5,400
troops in Kosovo, followed by Italy (4,200), Germany (3,900), France
(3,900), Russia (3,150) and Britain (3,000).
Among a total of 36 contributing nations, substantial
contingents have been provided by the Netherlands (1,400), the
United Arab Emirates (1,300), Canada (1,100), Greece (1,100), Norway
(1,000) and Spain (900).
NATO countries account for around four-fifths of the total,
contributing some 30,000 troops.
Support teams are based in Macedonia, where there are 4,100 KFOR
troops, Albania where there are 1,400 and Greece with 100.
The province has been divided into five sectors, each under the
command of a different contributing force: French in the northern
sector, American in the east, German in the south, Italian in the
west and British in the centre.
KFOR is currently administered from Landcent, NATO's land forces
in central Europe based at Heidelberg, in Germany, under the overall
command of German General Klaus Reinhardt.
The KFOR general staff comprises around 1,500 men of all
nationalities.
The Eurocorps general staff, comprising officers from Belgium,
France, Germany, Luxembourg and Spain, is due to take over from
Landcent in April.
KFOR will then be headed by Spanish General Juan Ortuno, who
took over as commander of Eurocorps on November 26, 1999.
---
THE MONTREAL GAZETTE, Sunday, February 27, 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 21/2 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.
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 - establishing a
secure
environment in which refugees and displaced persons can return home in
safety - (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. 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@....
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