"Serbs still threatened in Kosovo"

Vicar Bishop Teodosije of Lipljan said that the Serbian people in Kosovo are still discriminated and vulnerable. He expressed particular concern over the insistence on transferring the protection of the most important monastery of the Serbian Orthodox Church (SPC) in the hands of the Kosovo police in his Friday talk with German Foreign Minister Guido Westerwelle. "Serbs still threatened in Kosovo" According to a statement by the Diocese of Raska and Prizren, Westerwelle promised that the German government would remain actively involved in efforts to resolve problems in Kosovo and that it would do everything it can to ensure a normal and peaceful life for all people and a full protection of religious sites. The SPC is particularly concerned about NATO insisting on the hasty transfer of protection of the SPC’s most important monasteries to the Kosovo Police in these difficult conditions, Bishop Teodosije said. The issue needs to be approached with particular caution, given the existing security problems, the bishop said, recalling the March 2004 violence, when a total of 30 churches and two monasteries were destroyed in only two days. Therefore, the bishop said, the NATO decision is seen as a kind of political pressure, which could have a negative impact on the future of the Serb people and the Church in this region, which is in nobody's interest. Teodosije told Westerwelle that now, 11 years after the armed conflict, two-thirds of the Serb population of Kosovo are still displaced, adding that as a result of years of violence and ethnic discrimination, the Serb villages are now inhabited mainly by older persons whose number can be counted in the tens. At the meeting in Gracanica, Bishop Teodosije said that the process of the return of displaced persons has been almost stopped and that many Serbs are under pressure to sell their property and leave their homes in Kosovo. Bishop Teodosije called on the solving all the existing disputes through dialogue, and not by imposing a unilateral solution.

"Serbs still threatened in Kosovo"

According to a statement by the Diocese of Raška and Prizren, Westerwelle promised that the German government would remain actively involved in efforts to resolve problems in Kosovo and that it would do everything it can to ensure a normal and peaceful life for all people and a full protection of religious sites.

The SPC is particularly concerned about NATO insisting on the hasty transfer of protection of the SPC’s most important monasteries to the Kosovo Police in these difficult conditions, Bishop Teodosije said.

The issue needs to be approached with particular caution, given the existing security problems, the bishop said, recalling the March 2004 violence, when a total of 30 churches and two monasteries were destroyed in only two days.

Therefore, the bishop said, the NATO decision is seen as a kind of political pressure, which could have a negative impact on the future of the Serb people and the Church in this region, which is in nobody's interest.

Teodosije told Westerwelle that now, 11 years after the armed conflict, two-thirds of the Serb population of Kosovo are still displaced, adding that as a result of years of violence and ethnic discrimination, the Serb villages are now inhabited mainly by older persons whose number can be counted in the tens.

At the meeting in Gračanica, Bishop Teodosije said that the process of the return of displaced persons has been almost stopped and that many Serbs are under pressure to sell their property and leave their homes in Kosovo.

Bishop Teodosije called on the solving all the existing disputes through dialogue, and not by imposing a unilateral solution.