Please pray for the Serbs of Kosovo and Metohija

[Ana S]

Dear Fathers, brothers and sisters in Christ,

I am a new member of the Monachos community from Toronto, Canada. I wanted to introduce myself and to begin to take part in your very interesting discussions, but unfortunately I must make my entrance with very sad news.

I am sure most of you are aware of "ethnic clashes" in the Serbian province of Kosovo and Metohija. At least, this is what the media call it. Actually, what is happening down there at this very moment is nothing short of genocide. It is a pogrom of the remaining Serbian population in the province, carried out by the Albaninas in full view of about 18.000 UNMIK and K-FOR troops.

Here are some facts you will not hear in the media.

Yesterday the Albanians burned to the ground every Serb house and church in the city of Prizren: the monastery of the Holy Archangels in , the theological seminary, the church of the "Ljeviska" Mother of God, the church of St. George and the church of Christ the Savior. Some of these churches were very old.

Most, if not all Serbian homes were burned down in the towns of Lipljan, Obilic, Caglavica and other enclaves guarded by K-For and UNMIK police. They were evacuated today, but there were many casualties as the Albanians started torching their homes with the elderly and sick still in them.

The Serbian population in Gnjilane spent the night in their church which was later torched. The UNMIK forces managed to evacuate them, it is unknown whether there are casualties.

Today the Church of St. Nicholas in the capital, Prishtina, was burned. THe priest, father Miroslav, escaped the flaming building and is currently in hte K-FOR refugee center in Prishtina together with the families from Obilic.

No one knows what the night will bring. The Serbs in Northern Mitrovica and the larger towns are relatively safe (although gunfire was reported tonight from the southern Albanian section of the city), but those in the smaller enclaves are in great danger. The UNMIK police do not have everything under control yet and yesterday in the street fights in Pristina they were powerless against the maddened crowds of Albanians who pushed forward with the intention of taking over the Serbian houses and enclaves.

I am sure that all of you know that since 1999 most of the Serbian population was forced to flee Kosovo nad the remaining Serbs were confined into enclaves. An enclave could be an apartment building, a street, a small village, or part of a village, or a monastery in "Albanian" territory. The enclaves were guarded by international peacekeepers and if any Serbs wanted to venture out of their enclave (i.e, for the kids to go to school or to buy food) they would have to travel with armed escort. That is also how I, being a Serb, had to travel in Kosovo and Metohija last summer when I visited our holy monasteries Decani and the Patriarchate of Pech.

I really apologize for the length of my post, but I wanted to let you know that what you see in the news is not what is really happening: a planned and organized pogrom of Serbs in Kosovo and Metohija and the destruction of every trace of Serbian existence in the province, all with the pretext of revenge for the drowning of two Albanian boys in the Ibar river two days ago. The story behind this is that the boys were pushed into the river by Serbs but was later refuted by the UNMIK spokesperson in Kosovo.

Dear Fathers, my brothers and sisters in Christ, all I ask is that you remember the Serbian people in Kosovo and Metohija in you prayers tonight and in the following days.

For more information visit www.kosovo.com (http://www.kosovo.com) which is the official site of the Decani monastery in English.

Your sorrowed sister in Christ,
Ana

[Fr Raphael Vereshack]

Dear Ana,
Yes I can corroborate what you are saying. All day emails have been coming via my clergy list which show the shocking scale of this on-going tragedy.
Sadly Ana (I also live in Canada) our national media had this covered in the most minimal and distorted way; so many even of our Orthodox people in the West do not know what is occuring except through internet perhaps. As of this point in time 22 Orthodox churches have been burnt down many dating to the Middle Ages.
Pray for these suffering people.
In Christ- Fr Raphael

[Maximos Darnley]

Dear Fr Raphael and Ana,

I try to keep up to date with news broadcasts. So I have been watching our national media as well as BBC. Both of these areas reveal a similar minimalist and filtered coverage. This would seem to reveal some of the different standards and some of the inconsistencies that are evident in the world at the moment.

Phone contact with Serbian - Australian friends confirms the reports of widespread and organised attacks on Orthodox Christians.

I will pray for these suffering people as well.

Maximos

[Andrew M]

There seems to be very little attention being paid to this in the U.S. media as well right now. What's especially disconcerting to me is that so much has been made recently of the ability of the "international community" to resolve conflicts, yet it seems these fives years on Kosovo still smolders. Sad business indeed.

My prayers for all who are suffering.

[Larry Kloth]

Hi.

I'm relatively new to the list, but this is my first post. I'll concur -- there is coverage on this in the U.S., but you have to dig deep to find it. I got my first news of this via messages from a mailing list run by an OCA priest in South Carolina. There is also an informative article on National Review Online today. The latest news is that President Bush has dispatched 1,000 more American troops to shore up K-FOR's day-late-and-a-dollar-short efforts. I'm not Serbian, but I married into a Serbian family, and I'm a (convert) member of an Albanian church. I, too, pray for all the innocent there on both sides and that the cultural and religious sites might be preserved. I would encourage all Americans on the list, as well as those who are from other countries that have troops in Kosovo, to write to their elected officials. It can't hurt.

Larry Kloth
Chicago

[Alex Haig]

Let us pray for all the suffering, but let us also publicise the plight of the Orthodox in Kosovo. It is no use us complaining that the media do not cover it: we should ask ourselves 'What can I do?'. This may be telling others about what is happening or asking our representatives in the Parliaments around the world what they are going to do about it.

With love in Christ

Alex

[Melissa]

For all of them, and for all of us -
"Ye victorious martyrs who endured torments gladly for the sake of the God and Savior, ye who have boldness of speech toward the Lord Himself, ye saints, intercede for us who are timid and sinful men, full of sloth, that the grace of Christ may come upon us, and enlighten the hearts of all of us that so we may love Him."
St. Ephraim

And so that we may show our love for Him, to all.

[John Wilson]

See also ERP KIM Info-service (http://www.kosovo.net/)

This one is particularly disturbing.
Germans prohibit Archangels monks from return; Prizren refugees forcibly converted (http://www.kosovo.net/?q=node/view/20)

What disturbs me most about media coverage is that the false report that Kosovar-Serbs had caused the drowning of three Kosovar-Albanian children continues to be aired, thus somehow "justifying" the reaction of Kosovar-Albanians.

Kyrie Eleison, Kyrie Eleison, Kyrie Eleison.

John.

[Effie Ganatsios]

The Kosovo Albanians will continue to cause trouble until they achieve their goal – which is, of course, an independent nation as a first step in their plan for their “Greater Albania” idea. Their lobby in the USA (the AACL founded in 1989 (note the date) by former Congressman Joseph DioGuardi and a board of Albanian Americans) is a strong one. They want the United States to declare its support for the independence of Kosova. This is in direct opposition to all the statements made at the time of the bombing of Yugoslavia.

The Greek people (NOT it’s government due to its membership in NATO) objected strongly to the US/NATO bombing of Yugoslavia and I think our instincts in this matter have been proved right if we look at the present situation in Kosovo.

A people such as the American people cannot conceive of the thousands of years of history in regions such as the Balkans because they have such a short history themselves. It’s easy to refer to “Balkan troubles” etc. after you have interfered in the internal political situation in this area and here I am not speaking just of recent events but those of the last 200 years.

If someone … anyone… of those geniuses responsible for this most recent interference had just once taken the trouble to read up on some history they would have been aware of just what kind of Pandora’s box they were opening by giving the Kosovian Albanians and Albania itself just what they wanted when Yugoslavia was attacked.
The paragraphs below are from a history of the Ottoman empire :

“The escalation of violence in the Balkans that has taken place throughout the 20th century, and especially since the break up of Yugoslavia in the last 10 years, has led to atrocities committed by all sides. Historical angers continue to erupt into present day bloodshed. Atrocity breeds atrocity. To even begin to understand hatreds between Serbs and Muslim Albanians in Kosovo,…….. you must understand the effects of the 14th century and Ottoman invasion and control of this region.”

“Complicating the violence that resulted from these competing goals was the
historical importance of Kosovo itself. This is the region where the battle of
Kosovo took place in 1389, and it is thus historically cherished ground for all
involved. “

“A primary consequence of Ottoman expansion was that in the Balkans and
territories around the Caspian Sea, Islam took root Thus, while there was some religious tolerance, the repressive policies of the Ottoman rulers in the Balkans led to the build up of historic hatreds and antagonisms on the part of Christian subject peoples that are very much evident today. Christians were not allowed to be armed, and they paid high taxes for not being Muslim. In addition, there was a much hated policy of the Ottomans in which male children were taken from Christian families to be brought up as Muslims and to serve in the janissaries (an elite military order.) This was referred to as the "child tax" or "blood levy."

Some subject peoples in the Balkans did convert to Islam - either due to the
power of the religion or simply to avoid the penalties discussed above . Not
surprisingly, there was bitter hostility on the part of those who remained
Christian towards those who converted. There was also very real hatred on the
part of subjects towards their Turkish Muslim conquerors. This is extremely important in understanding current violence and division in the Balkans.”

As a result of the US/NATO interference the Balkans now have an arrogant Muslim population intent on achieving through powerful friends what they have always wanted - eradication of the Orthodox faith and expansion into countries that have Muslim minorities and so are rich prey for their ambitions.


And we wonder why the Orthodox people and their churches have been targeted in Kosovo??? Thousands of churches have been destroyed by the Muslims – who can stop them? And who wants to? Not the Christian countries that bombed an Orthodox country on the Orthodox Good Friday nor the ones that continued the bombing on their own Good Friday….

The words “ethnic cleansing” are words that the Kosovo Muslims (and their supporters) used repeatedly in an attempt to convince the world of the rightness of their cause.

Perhaps the below statements make better sense now that the bombing is in the past and we can see things are little more clearly :


"The Serbian population in Kosovo should be removed as soon as possible.
Serbian settlers should be killed." (Albanian fascist leader Mustafa
Kroja, June 1942.)

"He, like many KLA officers, says openly that he dreams of a Kosovo
without Serbs." (Description of KLA death squad commander "the Teacher",
Agence France Presse, August 19, 1999)

During the second World War the Italians stationed in Albania were horrified by the Albanian slaughter of the Serbs and Italian soldiers had to be stationed in Kosovo to protect them….. compare this with today’s KFOR troops who have stood by while not just the Serbs but many other minorities have been killed or have been forced to leave. Apparently international law applies only to those who have strong lobbies in Washington.

What can we do? I think that all Orthodox should make an effort to study the history of this area and to let others know what is really happening, because in the last 10 years there has been such a flood of disinformation concerning the conflict in this area that most people are thoroughly confused. Unfortunately 90% of the populations of the western countries are too lazy to read history books but are content to be informed or misinformed by TV reporters – most if not all of whom are working for corporations that might have vested interests in spreading their own version of the “facts”.

Effie

Sorry, for the long post, but this is a subject that I feel strongly about.

[Dova Nisavic]

Marijo, bela kumrijo - Serbian traditional song

This is an old Serbian song from Kosovo:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JqjJAGzFeD4

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KjZDghOBSIk

[Evan]

Wow, this is an old thread. But it's worth pointing out that the legacy of the NATO-spearheaded intervention in Kosovo on behalf of "ethnic Albanians," at least in the West, continues to be something along the lines of "Innocent Muslims were being forced into concentration camps by evil Serbs who hate Muslims for no reason and we saved them."

This despite the fact that the current president of Bosnia has openly boasted about staging at least one "massacre" of "innocent civilians" (the Racek incident) using the corpses of dead KLA members. Oh, and the KLA was funded in part by a fairly well-known member of a well-known terrorist group that perpetrated a well-known attack on well-known American skyscrapers. Who shall remain nameless.

Just something I've been coming across in poli-sci discourse at my law school.

Let us pray that those in power come to see the threats that are posed by evil men, whatever creed or cause they profess, and act vigilantly to protect those who cannot protect themselves.

[Dova Nisavic]

Wow, this is an old thread. But it's worth pointing out that the legacy of the NATO-spearheaded intervention in Kosovo on behalf of "ethnic Albanians," at least in the West, continues to be something along the lines of "Innocent Muslims were being forced into concentration camps by evil Serbs who hate Muslims for no reason and we saved them."

This despite the fact that the current president of Bosnia has openly boasted about staging at least one "massacre" of "innocent civilians" (the Racek incident) using the corpses of dead KLA members. Oh, and the KLA was funded in part by a fairly well-known member of a well-known terrorist group that perpetrated a well-known attack on well-known American skyscrapers. Who shall remain nameless.

Just something I've been coming across in poli-sci discourse at my law school.

Let us pray that those in power come to see the threats that are posed by evil men, whatever creed or cause they profess, and act vigilantly to protect those who cannot protect themselves.


Dear Evan,

WHAT YOU SAID IS TOTALLY TRUE.

[Father David Moser]

Here (http://www.srpskilist.net/gledista/kosovo-i-metohija-u-danasnjoj-srbiji-eng) is a very saddening and sobering assessment of the current situation for the Church in Serbia.

Fr David Moser