Raška-Prizren Diocese strongly condemns provocation in Lipljan; "Evidence of worsening security situation"

The Eparchy recalls that two ethnic Albanians placed flags of the Kosovo Liberation Army (KLA) and the Republic of Albania on the fence of the church grounds, which contain the 14th-century medieval Church of the Presentation of the Holy Virgin and the Church of the Holy Martyrs Florus and Laurus.

The Eparchy's statement is reproduced in full:

“According to the information available to us, on the evening of August 10, 2026, members of the Kosovo Police, while patrolling this part of Lipljan, in the town center, caught two perpetrators in the act of putting up the flags, detained them and subsequently removed the flags from the church fence. Despite the police response, the authorities' actual approach to this act will be demonstrated through the subsequent proceedings, its legal classification, and the willingness of the prosecution and courts to establish the perpetrators' motives and responsibility.

This incident must not be reduced to an ordinary public-order offense, inappropriate behavior or an insignificant act of vandalism. The Eparchy has surveillance-camera footage and, as soon as the Kosovo Police officially provides it with the identities of the detained individuals, it will file a criminal complaint against both with the competent prosecution. We will demand an objective investigation into whether the act contains elements of incitement to ethnic and religious hatred, intimidation of the remaining Orthodox Serbs, and the deliberate desecration of a protected medieval religious and cultural heritage site.

Placing a KLA flag on the fence of a Serbian Orthodox church is not a neutral display of a political symbol. In the lived experience of the Serbian people in Kosovo and Metohija, and particularly the remaining Serbs in Lipljan, KLA symbols are inextricably linked to armed violence, kidnappings, killings, expulsions, the destruction of homes and the desecration of Orthodox holy sites, for which those responsible have never been brought to justice. Placing such a flag on the fence of a 14th-century church constitutes an intentional act of intimidation and a symbolic assertion of control over the property of the Serbian Orthodox Church.

At the same time, placing the flag of the Republic of Albania and the KLA flag at a Serbian Orthodox holy site cannot be interpreted as a coincidence or thoughtlessness. It is an attempt to mark an ancient Serbian Orthodox space with symbols of Albanian nationalism and an armed formation under whose symbols Serbs from this area suffered and were expelled, with 150 Serbian churches destroyed or brutally desecrated since 1999.

The small number of remaining Serbs in Lipljan gives this act particular significance. Whereas several thousand Serbs once lived in the town, only a few hundred remain today. These two churches are their spiritual center and one of the last visible testimonies to centuries of Serbian Orthodox presence. Therefore, an attack on the church grounds is not merely an attack on a fence or property, but a message to the remaining Serbs that they are not safe even in their holy sites and that even the very symbol of their existence can be subjected to humiliation.

Last night's incident is not isolated. In December 2025, a masked individual forcibly removed the flag of the Serbian Orthodox Church from the same church complex, where it had been placed for the church's patron saint's feast. A similar incident occurred in June 2023. The failure to identify and appropriately punish the perpetrators in previous cases has deepened the sense of impunity and created space for new provocations.

This incident should also be viewed in the context of other events that have seriously alarmed the Serbian Orthodox Church and the Serbian people in recent weeks. Following the peaceful conclusion of the memorial service at Gazimestan, 37 Serbs, including a minor, were detained, and several detainees made serious allegations of physical and psychological abuse, national insults and humiliation by police officers. During the patron saint's feast at the Monastery of the Holy Archangels near Prizren, worshippers, including women, children, elderly people and clergy, were subjected to actions by the Kosovo Police that the worshippers experienced as humiliating and intimidating.

At the same time, pilgrimage groups have been placed in legal uncertainty by the announced application of regulations intended for commercial tourism, creating the possibility of administrative restrictions on believers' access to holy sites, which is fundamental to freedom of religion. Extensive works have again been carried out within the Special Protective Zone of the Visoki Dečani Monastery along the route of a transit road prohibited by law, with no response from the authorities responsible for enforcing the law.

Although a police patrol responded last night, the broader pattern of selective treatment remains a cause for deep concern. When Serbs peacefully display their national symbols, sing their songs or visit their holy sites, their behavior is often treated as a security issue. By contrast, cases involving the display of KLA flags to intimidate Serbs, attacks on church property and other ethnically and religiously motivated provocations almost invariably remain without appropriate legal classification or judicial resolution. It is precisely this inequality that has brought the Serbian people's trust in the Kosovo Police to its lowest level in the past 20 years.

It is particularly concerning that last night's incident occurred just hours after KFOR, citing an ‘improved security situation in Kosovo,’ announced that it was beginning the gradual integration of members of the Kosovo Police into its security system around the Visoki Dečani Monastery, as part of a broader ‘optimization process’ of its presence. The same day, a change in KFOR's previous deployment at the main bridge over the Ibar River in Kosovska Mitrovica was also announced, causing additional concern among the city's Serbian residents.

Precisely because the Eparchy highly values KFOR's role to date in protecting our holy sites and people, we are obliged to state clearly that the assessment of an improved security situation does not reflect the reality in which Serbs and the Serbian Orthodox Church live. The events of recent weeks show that a security assessment based primarily on the absence of major armed incidents remains incomplete.

A community is not safe if its members live in fear of police searches, detentions, entry bans, administrative restrictions, the desecration of holy sites and the public display of symbols that are associated in their experience with persecution and suffering. The absence of mass violence is not evidence of normalization if people are discouraged from visiting their churches through daily pressure, encouraged to leave and gradually removed from public life. At the same time, public trust in the police is based on the impartial enforcement of the law.

The Eparchy takes note of KFOR's assurance that it will retain its role as the primary security actor responsible for the Visoki Dečani Monastery. However, current circumstances provide no objective basis for reducing direct international protection or transferring primary and immediate responsibility for the security of Visoki Dečani to the Kosovo Police.

Any further involvement of the Kosovo Police around the monastery can be based only on a visible improvement in Kosovo institutions' approach toward the monastery, respect for the agreement reached by the Implementation and Monitoring Council (IMC) in November 2020 concerning the construction of a bypass road, and must be reversible in the event of a deterioration in the situation and implemented in full coordination with KFOR, the Eparchy and the monastery. Maintaining KFOR's direct responsibility is not a request for Church privilege, but a necessary preventive measure at a site of exceptional religious, cultural and security sensitivity.

The Eparchy is also deeply concerned by the absence of sufficiently clear and timely reactions from international representatives to the worsening position of Serbs and the Serbian Orthodox Church in recent times. In an atmosphere where attacks often go without an effective judicial outcome, while the public glorification of the KLA and insults against Serbs pass without appropriate condemnation, restrained or delayed reactions create a sense of impunity and risk encouraging further provocations.

Numerous insulting, threatening and dehumanizing messages in certain media and on social networks, increasingly open denial of the Serbian identity of Orthodox holy sites and public justification of attacks further worsen the atmosphere and create an environment of collective blame against all Serbs, encouraging new provocations and acts of violence. Amid the ongoing political and institutional crisis, the authorities in Pristina have a particular responsibility to prevent anti-Serbian rhetoric and selective institutional treatment from being used as tools of political mobilization and populism.

The Raška-Prizren Eparchy will demand that the competent prosecution urgently take over this case, investigate the perpetrators' motives and legally classify the incident in accordance with its actual gravity. We demand that the Kosovo Police immediately provide official information on the detained individuals and ensure the preservation of all evidence. We expect KFOR, EULEX, OSCE, the European Union and diplomatic missions to issue a clear public condemnation, closely monitor the subsequent proceedings and take concrete action to prevent similar incidents.

We call on our faithful people, especially the remaining Serbs in Lipljan and the surrounding area, to remain calm, composed, dignified and determined. We must not fall for the provocations of extremists, nor allow anyone's threats to lead us into reckless actions that could be used against our people.

We will defend our homes, holy sites and graves through peaceful and steadfast presence, lawful means, bearing witness to the truth and unwavering faith in Christ. We will not respond to hatred with hatred, but neither will we remain silent in the face of injustice. Christian endurance does not mean accepting humiliation, and peacemaking does not mean that those under threat must give up the truth and their right to remain.

The Serbian Orthodox Church remains with its people in Kosovo and Metohija. Our holy sites are not abandoned monuments on which our centuries-old history and identity can be denied. They are living houses of God and places where our people have prayed for centuries. We will remain with them, bear witness to the truth and demand accountability, knowing that true peace is not built by concealing dangers, but by acknowledging them and resolutely opposing every form of hatred, discrimination and violence.”