No Independence for Kosovo-Metohija
Petition Created on On 1 February 2007,
"Give Up Everything For Christ, But Christ, For Nothing"
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UPDATE 17 April 2007: Christ Is Risen! Indeed He Is Risen!!!Archbishop Jovan of Macedonia was freed and able to attend the Paschal Service. He had to return to prison for 9 more days, but when he is finished with that, he will be completely free.Of course, Glory To God, and many thanks to Snezana Denker and her petition, and her vigilence.Amen!!!
UPDATE 28 Mar: PLEASE TAKE THE TIME TO WRITE YOUR CONGRESSMAN. Please take a few minutes to write your Senators and Representatives in Washington D.C. Don't have time to write a letter? Go To Serbian Unity Congress or Serbianna and use one of their letters to write your congressman. Then call them and talk to a staff member in order to have them register your comments. I have found that when I mention the petition they are more likely to take me seriously. God is With You. Just click on the links on the right side and that should take you to their website
UPDATE 27 Mar: In addition to writing and calling ambassadors and representatives, we should all be praying akathists to either Mother of God, or to St. Sava, or to St. Petka or to Saint dear to your soul. A group could be praying this akathist one day a week, so that a prayer everyday reaches to God our Saviour. Asking our Spiritual Father for a blessing to do this, ofcourse, so that all our hearts desire is under the Church.Where two are more people gather in His name, He is amongst them.
UPDATE 22 Mar: We sent petition to Serbian Unity Congress, to American Council for Kosovo, as well as to relevant members of the Security Council. We've asked SUC and ACK to deliver petitions to Rep. Tom Lantos and the House Foreign Affairs Committee-specifically House Foreign Affairs Sub-Committee on Europe. We've asked them to deliver petition as well to Sen Joseph Biden, and to Daniel Fried and Secý of State Condeleeza Rice. As well as to Pres. Bush and to V.P. Dick Cheney. Total signatures sent: 52197. Currently we have almost 53,900 signatures and counting. We were attacked recently by malicious posters, but I have cleaned up the worst and and moving backward to clean up the rest. The petition sent to above listed people has been thoroughly checked and cleaned; please forgive me if I missed any. A copy of the petition was sent to the Serbian Consulate in Chicago as well.
NO INDEPENDENCE FOR KOSOVO PETITION
After signing please read moving message by Fr. Nektarios Serfes below after info section
More Petitions News:
ArchBishop Jovan is still in Prison. Good News, he may get out in May. We Hope He Gets out in time for PASCHA. Please sign the petition and support those who succor us.
Armenians Fight For Recognition of Genocide
25 April 1915 began the genocide of 1.5 million Orthodox Christian Armenians, 750,000 Orthodox Christian Assyrians, and the complete genocide of the Pontic Greeks, about 350,000 souls. The Turks have been denying this, but now there is legislation in Congress that will force them to admit what they did. Please go to Armenian National Committee of America and write a letter to Congress.
BALKAN PETITION--Wouldn't it be great if there was also a petition circulating in the Balkans, which would go to the different countries' parliaments there demanding BALKAN STATES DON'T GIVE IN TO TERRORISM?
Well there is such a petition, written in German by Dusan Nonkovic. Look on the Petitions Link and help gather 1,000,000 signatures in the Balkans.STRENGTH TO STRENGTH signature by signature:We're almost at 50,000. After we reach the goal, keep signing, keeping sharing. I've already sent part of the petition to Serbian Unity Congress and to American Council for Kosovo, two lobby groups that have been working hard on behalf of Kosovo-Metohija.
The NO INDEPENDENCE FOR KOSOVO petition will be sent to Representative Tom Lantos, co-sponsor of Petition and Senator Joseph Biden, who as you know is a supporter for U.S. position on Kosovo and is a chairman of the very powerful Foreign Relations
committee along with Senator Richard Lugar.
PLEASE DON'T FORGET TO CALL YOUR REPRESENTATIVES, AND TO WRITE LETTERS AND EMAILS
SERBIAN UNITY CONGRESS Also it is really easy to write your representative from Serbian Unity Congress website. Urge your representatives to join the Congressional Serbian Caucus. They have five letters written to choose from.
Serbianna.com have several letters for you to send as well and helped in a recent direct action against Prof. Peter French's lecture at Kent State University.
American Council for Kosovo regular radio broadcast and more information
Your Representatives
Senate Committee Foreign Relations
Chairman Senator Joseph Biden
In Delaware: 302 473 6345
In Washington: 202 224 5042
Senator Richard Lugar
In Indiana 260 422 1505
In Washington 202 224 4814
Majority phone 202 224 4651
Minority Phone 202 224 3497
Committee Members of Note
Person of Note: Senator George V. Voinovich http://voinovich.senate.gov/contact/index.cfm
National Person of note: Barack Obama Wash DC 202 224 2854 Chicago 312 886 3506
House Committee Foreign Affairs
Chairman: Rep Tom Lantos sponsor of HRES 36; referred to Foreign Relations Committee
co-sponsor of HSRES 36 Illeana Ros-Lehtinen
Phone: Rep. Tom Lantos: Wash D.C. 202 225 5021
California San Francisco 415 566 5257
Phone: Rep. Illeana Ros-Lehtinen Wash D.C. 202 225 5620
Miami 305 275 1801
In Oregon Rep David Wu of Portland is on House Foreign Affairs Committee
His Portland Number 503 326 2901
His Washington D.C. Number 202 225 0855
Oregon Senators: Senator Ron Wyden Democrat http://www.wyden.senate.gov/webform.htm
Senator Gordon Smith Republican http://gsmith.senate.gov/contact.html
Other Influential Oregon Representatives:
Earl Blumenauer, on Committee For International Relations
http://www.blumenauer.house.gov/about/Contact.shtml
Peter DeFazio (writes back, sometimes personally and long letters) Eugene 541 465 6732
www.house.gov/formdefazio/contact.html
Darlene Hooley::Portland-503 588 9100 Wash D.C. 202 225 5711
PROVERB
My friend told me about a russian proverb many words the meaning is lost.
Please sign the petition. You are supporting Kosovo and giving PM Kostunica a stronger voice in Washington when we back him by our names and signatures. This is one powerful way that we can support the leaders who support principled solutions to KOSOVO.
5 February 2007
Fr. Nektarios Serfes
Greetings in our Lord,
May the great peace and love of our Lord God always be with you!
At the 9th hour each of us more then any other time need to humbly offer our humble prayers for Kosovo/Metohija, Serbia!
Politics for many of us in the region especially those who are currently seeking Independence in the region simply give many a head-ache! At the same time all of us should have grievous concerns for every ethnic background that exist in this vast region -so many people are at stake at this hour, and especially our Holy Orthodox Church and it's Serbian citizens. The Serbian population is not being highly considered and that is the lost of their farms, their homes, their businesses, their churches, their monasteries, or their cultural centers -all taken away from them simply because they are Serbians!
If the tanks, the peace keeping troops, and the barbed wire where to come down that surrounds almost every Serbian Orthodox monastery and many churches it will be the last hour for these sacred and holy places. What we will then have then is martyrdom of it's inhabitants of these Serbian Orthodox holy monasteries and holy churches! We will then have New Martyrs of Kosovo, Serbia to commemorate! Doesn't anyone care or care to understand?
If the barbed wire of the Serbian villages and schools are to come down and the peace keeping troops where to leave the region -it will be the end of these villages and schools! Doesn't anyone care or care to understand?
Promises that they will be protected will go unnoticed after awhile and protest will begin that the property of these holy monasteries, churches, villages, and schools do not belong to them but to the Independent people of Kosovo!
Is this what we do then to create or have independence is first destroy that which is around you and then say it's theirs -as tomorrow will be your last hour!
What we will experience in the days ahead is the hour of betrayal and constant false promises shall be at our door step all because power and glory is sought in the region among those who will do anything to gain more land that which is not theirs but of all the citizens in the region.
What we will also experience shall be the ideals on paper will mean nothing to those who are in power because those who support these ideals will continue onward with their destruction of human life, and it's religious heritage!
What can we do at the 9th hour?
Pray, pray, pray, pray, and cry for Kosovo, Serbia that Kosovo is Serbia (all 15% of Serbia) and that every human being has the right to exist and live as human beings and to be free citizens!
What we can also do is to allow those who have been forced out of Serbia especially thousands upon thousands (estimated close to 250,000) have been forced to leave Kosovo, now have the right to return back home.
These matters should be on the table of discussion and sadly they are not!
We have no discussions about peace and good will among all men and the only discussions are that Kosovo should be independent?
What we can also do is to remind others that more then 150 destroyed Serbian Orthodox Churches and Monasteries be rebuilt by those who destroyed them in the first place.
What we can also do is to remind others that the constant destruction of Serbian Orthodox cemeteries be repaired, and that the bodies that have been pulled from their graves be honorably respected and that these cemeteries be repaired by those who destroyed them at this hour.
What we can also do is to remind others and ask the simple question: where are the abundance of missing Serbian citizens in particular the men, women, and children in Kosovo/Metohija? Where is the head of Hieromartyr Hariton, and where is the body of Father Stefan?
We must cry and appeal that Kosovo/Metohija, Serbia remains intact and that we begin to understand one another by working together and helping one another as honorable citizens living as a free people no matter what their ethnic background!
Let Kosovo, Serbia be and let those who do not love Serbia finally realize that the hour before us can only bring further pain and sufferings to the region when it's told that it would be better if it was independent or taken away to those which it belongs to in the first place: Serbia!
Pray for Serbia!
Be strong Serbia!
Cry for Serbia!
Let Serbia be free!
Please now take the time to read the attached!
Pray!
Peace to your soul!
Humbly in Christ our Lord,
+Very Reverend Archimandrite Nektarios Serfes
Who prays for you!
USA
The Holy Hierarchical Synod of
the Serbian Orthodox Church
February 3, 2007--Belgrade
PUBLIC COMMUNIQUE
For over more than a thousand years Kosovo and Metohija have been inhabited by Serbs, and in its day, until the great migrations of the Serbian people, it was exclusively inhabited by Serbs. Everyone knows – if they want to – that it was the center of the medieval Serbian state and the cradle of Serbian culture, and that it is there, in the Patriarchate of Pec, to this day that the first and central see of the Serbian Orthodox Church stands. In the sense of statehood, Kosovo and Metohija are validly, under international law, an integral part of Serbia. The valid Treaty of Bucharest from August 10, 1913 attests to this as well as the dozens of resolutions of the General Assembly and Security Council of the United Nations, the Paris Agreement from 1995 and various other legal acts of the European Union, Russia, USA, Great Britain, Germany, France…
Everyone knows all of this, but a politician by the name of Marti Ahtisaari does not know this, or it will probably be that he does not want to know it. Without a single word of explanation, even deceitful, he suggests that, contrary to all the norms of international procedure, Kosovo be usurped from Serbia. Actually, he suggests that Serbia, an internationally recognized sovereign state, be legally assaulted. He does not recognize the power of law but the right of power. What unequalled breadth of democracy, not to mention justice!
Contrary to this, the Serbian Orthodox Church has always clearly and vociferously held that justice keeps countries and cities and that everything that is taken away is cursed. Would Mr. Altihaarsi adapt “his” ingenious plan of resolving a crisis on his own country? The Serbian Orthodox Church has no objection that he gives to whomever he desires that which is his but it cautions him that no one ever authorized him – nor could they have authorized him – to give anyone Kosovo and Metohija. In keeping with the legal process in effect in the world, the status of Kosovo and Metohija is set forth: The Province is an integral part of Serbia. This status can only be altered with the approval of Serbia and insofar as it’s constitutional system were changed. Altihaarsi, assuredly, is neither authorized nor indebted for such a role.
The Holy Hierarchical Synod appeals to those responsible individuals who lead the international community in deterring Altihaarsi from his dangerous intentions of forcefully seizing, in someone’s name, from Serbia, one of the oldest European countries, the most precious part of its territory. The peaceful future is not built on the right of the more powerful, on the dictate of might, but on validating principles so that each side has an equal honor and opportunities. Granted, power does not pray to God but that is why God does not like power. Thereby, God is eternal while all power is in time.
Holy Hierarchical Synod
of the Serbian Orthodox Church
BISHOP ARTEMIJE'S APPEAL
The Testimony of Bishop Artemije During His Visit to USA in July 2006
Bishop Artemije
Thank you for your kind attention.
As the archpastor of the Christian of Kosovo and Metohija, I have come to America, once again, to bear witness to the agony that has befallen the Christian people of Kosovo and to warn against the path that lies before us. I have also come to ask you to help change the current direction of American policy, which, if left as it is, will condemn my Christian people to extinction and create a new rogue state -- this time in Europe.
As you may remember, since the 1999 war Kosovo has been under United Nations and NATO control. Here in America, it appears almost everyone assumes there has been a big success, and Kosovo has been forgotten. But under the nose of the U.N. and NATO, Kosovo has become a black hole of corruption and organized crime, including trafficking in drugs, weapons, and slaves. The local Muslim Albanian administration is controlled by members of a terrorist organization, the so-called Kosovo Liberation Army (KLA), which is closely tied to the Muslim Albanian mafia, which runs drug and slave rackets across Europe.
Since 1999, -- AFTER the end of the war -- , 220,000 Christian Serbs and non-Albanians have been forced to leave Kosovo, and more than a thousand Christians have been killed. Centuries-old churches and monasteries, more 150 of them, have been destroyed.
I cannot emphasize enough that the key element in all this is violence. A crime happens in Kosovo and Metohija every day. There is no end to it. Recently the church in Obilic was desecrated. When churches are attacked, particular targets for demonic rage are the crosses on top of the church, and images of our Lord Jesus Christ and His Most Holy Mother.
The Muslim Albanians and their defenders like to claim that the security situation is improving -- but in fact, any improvement in the crime numbers simply means there are fewer targets.
Murders continue. Just a few days ago there was a murder in Klina of a 68-year-old Christian who had returned to Kosovo on promises that the international community was going to be serious about security. So, now he too is dead.
But in Kosovo, even Christian dead to not rest. Recently the Christian cemetery in Staro Gracko was destroyed while the gentlemen representing Kosovo provisional institutions were touring Washington -- and being received with honors at the White House and State Department -- and telling everybody how the situation in Kosovo and Metohija has improved and how everything is just fine now. This is unprecedented and unbelievable hypocrisy on the part of the world toward everything that is happening in Kosovo and Metohija.
One of the men received in Washington was the so-called "prime minister" for the Kosovo Muslim Albanians, the man who would lead the government of a new state if Kosovo is detached from Serbia. This is a man who is an indicted war criminal in Serbia. According to the indictment, he bears command responsibility for the murders by KLA islamic terrorists of 669 Christians Serbs and 18 members of other ethnic groups, 518 counts of inflicting serious bodily harm (including torture) and wounding, and 584 counts of abduction, many of the victims of which are presumed dead. He was named military commander of the KLA in May 1999. The following month, after the end of hostilities between Serbia and NATO forces, KLA terrorists under his command intensified their attacks on civilian Christian Serbs, driving two-thirds of them from the province, as well as against Roma (Gypsies), Croats, Jews, Ashkalis, Gorani, and other non-Muslim or non-Albanians in Kosovo. This is the man who now comes to Washington to meet with Secretary Rice and have his picture taken. This is war on terror?
Among the characteristic jihad terror practices of the KLA is the beheading of victims, as seen in other countries with active jihad terror movements, such as Iraq (American soldiers and Iraqis alike), Indonesia (including some little girls), Israel, and Pakistan (American reporter Daniel Pearl), India (Kashmir), and Russia (Chechnya). On the Internet you can see photographs of uniformed KLA islamic terrorists -- whose identities are known but who have never been brought to justice -- with heads of their Christian Serb victims. In 1999, soon after the beginning of the international administration in Kosovo, the KLA kidnapped Hieromonk Hariton of the Holy Archangels monastery. His body, showing signs of torture, was found, but not his head. Why are jihad beheadings an outrage in the rest of the world, but not in Kosovo? This is jihad in Kosovo, which officially was launched in 1995 at a meeting in Tirana, Albania, between Osama bin Laden and two leaders of the KLA.
Every day, Kosovo more and more loses the aspect of a Christian land full of churches and monasteries and comes to look like a Muslim land full of mosques. This transformation is the direct result of violence and threat of violence. Meanwhile, hundreds of Wahhabi mosques have been built and continue to be built, mostly funded by Saudi Arabia and nations of the Persian Gulf. And now, carrying on a policy inherited from the past Administration, some officials in the American government demand, with more and more pressure, that my country, Serbia, must hand over part of its territory to this violent Islamic movement. Detaching Kosovo from democratic Serbia, of which it is an integral part, would mean a virtual sentence of extinction for my Christian people in the province and create a rogue state in which the terrorists are the government.
I can't understand why American officials want this. Maybe they think they will impress the Muslim countries. This is not just our problem -- it is your problem. At a time when America is leading the Free World in a global struggle against jihad terror, Kosovo must not continue to be an exception, where, for reasons we do not understand, American officials have taken the side of the criminal and jihadists. Sacrificing our land and our blood cannot buy protection from jihad.
The fact is, my country will say No to the demand that we give up Kosovo, whatever the pressure from Washington, or London, or Brussels. All politicians and parties say: not one Serbian hand will sign away Kosovo.
What I ask of you today, is that you raise your voice with your government to reassess this policy, which is bad for both America and Serbia. Please tell President Bush, and Secretary Rice -- this is a policy that needs to be reconsidered.
The Bishop of Raska-Prizren and Kosovo-Metohija+ARTEMIJE
26.08.2006.
