International peacekeeping forces leave Orthodox Serbs unprotected in Kosovo

INTERNATIONAL PEACEKEEPING FORCES LEAVE ORTHODOX SERBS UNPROTECTED IN KOSOVO

The news service of the Raska-Prizren diocese of the Serbian Orthodox Church has reported acts of vandalism continuing in Kosovo. One such act was registered on June 22, 2002, at the Milosevo village 10 kilometers away from Pristina in Kosovo, where a Serbian cemetery was desecrated.

According to Zoran Filipovic, the priest of the village, who came to the cemetery with his parishioners for an annual commemorative service, “there is almost no whole tombstones left. We were struck most of all by the fact that the eyes of the dead on their gravestone photographs were put out. For us it is even more offending than overturned grave stones”. The priest sent a letter of protest to the UN representatives responsible for the Milosevo village.

According to the Tanug news agency in Belgrade, the press secretary of the UN Mission in Kosovo, Barry Fletcher, said “this incident has not yet been reported to the UN Mission”.

This one more barbarous action confirms the fears of Bishop that soon all the Serbian cemeteries may be destroyed or completely eradicated by extremists.

The Serbian Orthodox Church is deeply shocked by such actions and demands that the police under the UN Mission and the International Peacekeeping Forces in Kosovo protect the remaining Serbian national holy places in accordance with commitments made by these organizations under Resolution 1244 of the UN Security Council. According to Hieromonk Savva of the Serbian Orthodox Church, the tolerance that UN Mission and KFOR have shown for the desecration and destruction of shrines in Kosovo and Metochia make them, in the eyes of the Serbs, responsible for what is going on. According to Hieromonk Ioann, a representative of the Patriarchate of the Serbian Orthodox Church, monatics and pilgrims in Pec and Decani have often been insulted by extremists. Moreover, he said, “in spite of the presence of KFOR units, stones have been thrown at monks and visitors”.