Americans for Serbia

The Truth Finally Of What is Going On In Kosovo

2011-12-14T13:26:00.000-08:00

Interview with Russian Ambassador to Serbia Aleksandr Konuzin.

Russian aid needs escort?

Tags: Serbia, Kosovo , Interview, Commentary, Politics, World

John Robles

14.12.2011, 16:09

Interview with Russian Ambassador to Serbia Aleksandr Konuzin.

Can you give our listeners a little bit of information about the situation on the ground in Serbia, please?I’m standing at the administrative line between the Central Serbia and the Kosovo Province. We came here in the morning, at 9.30 a.m. and proceeded with passage from Central Serbia to Kosovo. Two trucks with humanitarian aid crossed the checkpoint, but then the procedure was disrupted and the whole convoy was blocked. We stayed for hours and only some 15 minutes ago I received a call from EULEX aide, explaining that it’s impossible for us to proceed. They insisted on escorting out convoy. I said we didn’t need any escort to go from Yarine to Kosovska Mitrovica. But he said it was impossible to go without escort or else we should go to Marbore. We didn’t go to Marbore and in this situation the whole convoy is unfortunately blocked. So, we are standing at Yarine.

Source: Voice of Russia.

Can you give our listeners a little bit of information about the situation on the ground in Serbia, please

I’m standing at the administrative line between the Central Serbia and the Kosovo Province. We came here in the morning, at 9.30 a.m. and proceeded with passage from Central Serbia to Kosovo. Two trucks with humanitarian aid crossed the checkpoint, but then the procedure was disrupted and the whole convoy was blocked. We stayed for hours and only some 15 minutes ago I received a call from EULEX aide, explaining that it’s impossible for us to proceed. They insisted on escorting out convoy. I said we didn’t need any escort to go from Yarine to Kosovska Mitrovica. But he said it was impossible to go without escort or else we should go to Marbore. We didn’t go to Marbore and in this situation the whole convoy is unfortunately blocked. So, we are standing at Yarine.

The whole convoy is stopped right now?
Yes. Two trucks are on the Kosovo side and the rest of the convoy is on the side of Central Serbia.

Is this a serious problem? Do you think it will be worked out by morning?

I don’t know. I’m in communication with my authorities. We are examining the situation. We need some more time to make a definite decision.

Interview with Daniela Dragovic, a Serbian political activist.

Can you tell us a little bit about the aid? How many trucks of aid have arrived?

25 trucks have arrived. They are still on the border with Kosovo, as I know. We have out man down there, Mr. Konuzin, who is our national hero. All people in Serbia love Konuzin more than any of our politicians.

That’s nice to hear. Are they having any problems or is everything going normally out there?
No, there is nothing normal out there. I have to say we have self-destruction politicians here, in Serbia, and we are intentionally being isolated from the media. Nobody, no television, no newspapers are actually talking about Russian help. But the ordinary people in Serbia, they know, and we are very, very happy. They are on the streets, all along the way.

I saw some pictures and it looked like there were some trees on the road and stuff. Did somebody set up road blocks or was that just some trees that fell on the road? What happened with that? Do you know anything about that?

I don’t know. Maybe out men on the border do. Can I say something about our movement?

Sure. You can say anything you want. This is a free radio.

We are gathering young, honest people who don’t care about politics and just want to save Serbia from the worst situation in its history. Our leader is in fact in Russia and you can contact him for more information. The biggest part of Serbian people don’t trust our politicians and put all their faith in Russia and God. They are grateful for all Russian help. I’m very excited, I’m sorry.

Is the Russian Orthodox Church active with the Serbian Church?
No, I’m ashamed of telling this but our patriarch is so-called “uniate.” Our patriarch wants to cooperate with the Roman Church.

I thought there were some ties being built with the Orthodox Church as well.

I’m really sorry to tell this but we are in a very dire situation. Serbia is in a so-called silent occupation. All our political parties and their leaders actually don’t have any solution because they are in a no-exit position. We don’t have any hope and we must gather people to try to solve this situation. There are many people in our movement and we really have solutions to all Serbian problems.

What about the aid? I heard there are power units. You said there are problems with media. Are you able to use the internet there?
Yes, we are very active on Facebook. We try to get more information for people who are on Facebook, on Twitter etc. that’s all. You can’t read about it in a newspaper or watch about it on TV.

Why is that? Who is responsible for that?
Our government and all our politicians because they don’t want us to get close with Russia. We are on the road to Europe. And for our politicians there is actually no other way for Serbia. But it’s not so. Most of Serbian people at this time want to be closer to Russia. Most of us want to go to the Eurasian unit with Russia and other countries. This is it.

Human Rights Group Complain About Lack of Coverage for Serbians in Serbia

2010-03-14T09:20:00.000-07:00

According to Human Rights Watch, the two years since unilateral independence in Kosovo have not brought improvement to the position of ethnic minorities in that breakaway Serbian province.

The Human Rights Watch report, circulated in New York, sounds alarm over the position of Roma minority and calls for expansion of the EU mission's mandate and a strategy to improve the situation.

The report, however, makes little mention of the position of the one hundred thousand Serbs, which is worse than that of the other minority groups. Yelena Guskova, an expert with Slav Studies Institute of the Russian Academy of Sciences, comments.

Reports of this kind are all biased, she says. Serbs are living in enclaves, in wire fenced territories. They live in dilapidated buildings, they have no churches nearby, and if they need to go somewhere, they can go escorted by NATO troops because Serb territories are still in the gun sights of Albanian militants.

The former Serb province of Kosovo is where the interests of different countries clashed. The countries in question include the United States, which in fact forced Europe to recognize the independence of Kosovo, run by Albanian authorities; Russia, which wants a fairer solution to the conflict; Belgrade, which won't part with its territory; and now non-governmental organizations have stepped in. These organizations publish reports, and those not knowledgeable in this matter cite these reports. Naturally, the rights of Roma minority are important, but the rights of Serbs should be in the limelight too as the Serb community lived in this land for centuries and clings to it as their last most valuable possession.

Appeal From Decani Monastery

2009-12-31T10:36:00.001-08:00

A Loving Appeal for the Decani Monastery Relief Fund

IC/XC
NI/KA

School Children in Kosovo Freeze

By Archimandrite Nektarios Serfes

President of the Decani Monastery Relief Fund USA

December 2009

Beloved Friends in Christ our Lord,

May the great peace and joy of our Lord God always be with you!

Once again Kosovo faces a humanitarian crisis, yet another horrific freezing winter, typically ten to twenty degrees below zero for several months.

This year is different because of an electricity problem which makes the freezing conditions even more challenging to the Serbian population in Kosovo/Metohija.

The new independent government is now charging their Serbian customers 29 Euros a month, and incredibly large percentage of their monthly income. If seventy percent of a Serbian village in Kosovo doesn’t pay their bill the whole village will have their electricity turned off.

Schools and the homes of the Serbian population therefore face a problem unlike any other year in recent memory. Putting aside of the question of a permanent solution to the energy crisis in the region of Kosovo/Metohija we offer a partial short term answer for this winters heating crisis. Many buildings and homes in the region have wood stoves, and, as we all know, wood and fire wood have been in short supply for many decades.

Here is what we can do for these suffering people! We can help provide heated school buildings for Serbian children by supplying fire wood to the four schools we support as well as the homes that these children live in.

Send a donation of your choice to the Decani Monastery Relief Fund designating your donation to: Firewood for Schools in Kosovo:

God love and bless you!

Humbly in Christ our Lord,

+Very Rev. Archimandrite Nektarios Serfes
President of the Decani Monastery Relief Fund Inc. USA

"From this day, from this hour, from this minute, let us strive to love God above all, and fulfill His holy will." -St. Herman of Alaska

http://www.serfes.org
father@serfes.org

Is Tadic's Regime Trying To Starve the Serbian Dioceses?

2009-12-15T09:25:00.000-08:00

December 15, 2009
Call For Help From Diocese in Serbia

From: info@eparhija-prizren.com

15.12.2009.
Source: Diocese of Ras-Prizren and Kosovo-Metohija

CALL FOR HELP
to the Serbian Orthodox Diocese of Ras-Prizren and Kosovo-Metohija

The Diocese of Ras-Prizren and Kosovo-Metohija is forced to turn to the Serbian people in Serbia and Serbian diaspora to ask for help.
Years of living and working under existing conditions have left the Diocese drained of resources necessary for achieving its basic goals.
Assistance sent to the Diocese in the past was sufficient to meet the many needs of the Serbian people in Kosovo and Metohija and to comfort and encourage the Diocese in the performance of its Mission in spite of the enslavement, persecution and having to face daily instances of eradication of all things Serbian.
Recently, however, the situation has seriously deteriorated, while the diocesan economic strength and its ability to respond to the constantly growing needs under increasingly complex conditions is becoming weaker day by day.
The problems with which the Diocese of Ras-Prizren and Kosovo-Metohija has to deal with on a daily basis are in many ways unique. They require undertaking specific measures, assistance of experts in various areas and formation of organizations which must be able to react appropriately to ever multiplying and unexpected challenges in increasingly difficult conditions.
We have not forgotten the assistance rendered by the Serbian Government in past years.
Today, however, all that has become totally inadequate and quite insufficient to cover effectively the needs of the Diocese in the performance of its basic activities.
For this reason, the Diocese of Ras-Prizren and Kosovo-Metohija finds itself obliged to turn to the Serbian people in Serbia and in the Diaspora and ask them for help hoping that, within the limits of their ability, which is greatly curtailed by the present financial crisis, they will make an extra effort and help the Diocese to discharge its obligations more fully and more extensively.
Assistance can be sent to the account at the Komercijalna banka and further information obtained by using the following internet address:

INSTRUCTION FOR PAYMENT ORDERS IN FAVOR OF LEGAL ENTITIES IN USD

INSTRUCTION FOR PAYMENT ORDERS IN FAVOR OF LEGAL ETITIES IN OTHER CURRENCIES

The Bishop of Ras-Prizren and Kosovo-Metohija Artemije

Power Outages Effect Monasteries--Kosovo Government Shows True Colors

2009-11-30T11:36:00.000-08:00

From: info@eparhija-prizren.com

30.11.2009.
Source: Beta

Bishop Artemije: Kosovo-Metohija's churches and monasteries
suffer two months' power disconnection

In the beginning of November, the bishop of Ras-Prizren and Kosovo-Metohija, Artemije stated that he had addressed an appeal to the authorities in Belgrade and to the Ministry for Kosovo and Metohija for three times up to now to find a solution for the problem of more than twenty churches and monasteries in Kosovo that had been suffering power disconnection for two months. However, he has not received an answer yet.
The bishop gave an interview to Beta news agency saying he has still been waiting for the answer since the churches and monasteries could not solve the problem all by themselves by signing a contract with Kosovo Energy Corporation (KEC) because that would mean their acknowledgment of the independent state of Kosovo and Kosovo institutions.
«Periodical statements regarding this matter that are issued in media, we cannot accept as an answer to our appeals,» the bishop said.
«A statement of a daily newspaper has said we must solve the problem all by ourselves. The same statement was lodged with our people when certain villages were disconnected from power supply. The people, left without any help of Belgrade authorities, were compelled to sign a contract with KEC. We are still not ready for such a solution,» the bishop set out.
His Grace also pointed out to the poor condition of Serbian sacred sites. For instance, the church in Samodreza in which the Serbian army received the Holy Communion on the eve of the Battle of Kosovo (1389) but which is today being used as a public toilet.
«Our oldest and most significant church, celebrated in folk songs fom the past, in which saint King Lazar with his army received the Holy Communion on the eve of the Battle of Kosovo (1389), is in a terrible condition beyond any words,» the bishop Artemije said and added «the church is now turned into a disposal of garbage and waste of all kinds.»
He noted that not only was the church in Samodreza desecrated but also many others he was not able to visit.
Electricity disconnection to Serbian sacred sites started on September 2. Today over twenty locations belonging to the Serbian Orthodox Church (SOC) are without any supply of electricity. Some of the mentioned locations are the monasteries of Gracanica, Holy Archangels near Prizren, St Kosmas and Damian in Zociste, Gorioc near Istok, and Devic near Srbica.

Death of Russian Priest who Preached amongst Moslems

2009-11-30T10:54:00.001-08:00

Date: Sun, 29 Nov 2009 20:57:08 +0000
From: vpotapov@comcast.net
To: vpotapov@comcast.net
Subject: Can One Consider the Death of Father Daniel Sysoev to be a Martyrdom?

Can One Consider the Death of Father Daniel Sysoev to be a Martyrdom?

Fr. Daniel Sysoev
Death is the last event in a person’s earthly life. For a missionary, death is the last homily, the last message preached, the last witness for Christ, Whom the missionary loved with complete readiness to sacrifice his or her life for the sake of the triumph of the Faith. Father Daniel Sysoev[1] had prepared himself for this sacrifice long before. Even in his younger years when studying at the Moscow Theological Seminary where this writer taught Fundamental Theology, Father Daniel was pierced through with the fiery conviction that only Orthodoxy contained the fullness of saving truth. Possessed of great talents, as a seminarian he already knew the church canons, and passionately contested with students and instructors when they allowed themselves the slightest compromise. To people who were indifferent to the spreading and deepening of the faith, his aversion to compromise seemed strange; and some of them fell into judgment and condemnation—but his death as a priest in the church which he himself had built, gave proof of his earnestness, his zeal, his single-minded commitment to Jesus Christ and His Church.

From the very beginning of his priesthood, Father Daniel chose the most difficult form of ministry—missionary outreach, which was initiated by the Apostles. In the early Church, missionary work was identical with martyrdom. “The martyrs were preachers of Christianity, continuers of the Apostolic ministry; and this mission they fulfilled precisely as martyrs*, that is, presenting themselves as witnesses.” (Bolotov V.V., Lectures on the History of the Early Church. 1. The Post-Apostolic Church and the Roman Empire. in Russian). After the Bolsheviks seized power in 1918, their first blow was directed specifically against missionaries. Murdered were the missionary Bishop Ephrem Kuznetsov, Protopriests John Kochurov, John Vostorgov, Konstantin Golubev, diocesan missionary Nicholas Varzhansky and other such missionaries. [*martyrs: the Greek root μάρτυς (martys) means “witnesss”.]

Father Daniel Sysoev carried out his missionary activity among Moslems. His Evangelical preaching was very successful: He converted and baptized many people; he received death-threats in response. His answer to such threats was to preach Christ with still greater zeal. Therefore his death is a Christian sacrifice for the sake of the great cause to which he felt called by Jesus Christ. Such a death is an open and manifest victory, because “warriors for Christ are not killed, but crowned” (St Cyprian of Carthage, hieromartyr. Epistle 66).

The early Christians referred to the day of death of their brothers and sisters in the faith as their birthday—birth into a new life. With the coming to earth of the Saviour, mankind’s relationship with death was changed forever. “If we believe in Christ, and if through faith in His word and promises we shall never die, then we ought with joyful daring to go to Christ, by Whom and with Whom we shall live and reign forever. It is through temporal death that we cross over to immortality; and eternal life can begin for us only after our departure from here. And this is not really a departure but only a crossing over or resettlement into eternity after our temporal sojourn on earth. Who would not hasten to cross over to that which is better? Who would not desire to be changed and transfigured according to the image of Christ and the sooner to partake of heavenly glory?” (St Cyprian of Carthage, hieromartyr. Book on Mortality).

To him (or her) who dedicates himself to the service of Christ are given various means to bring people to the Truth: preaching by word, and preaching by one’s life as a living example of self-sacrificing service. These earthly labors for Father Daniel have ended. There remains the brightest and most powerful preaching: the preaching of death. “From henceforth, blessed are the dead who die in the Lord: Yea, saith the Spirit, they shall rest from their labours; for their works do follow them” (Revelation 14:13).

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------

[1] Fr. Daniel Sysoev was shot dead in his church in Moscow on November 19th, 2009.

Hieromonk Job Gumerov

Western Revision for Serbia Should Be Opposed

2009-11-12T09:08:00.001-08:00

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

A SLAP ACROSS THE FACE TO CANADIAN SERBS:
COMPLIMENTS OF BRIAN MASSEY, WINDSOR NDP MP
From Canada’s Southernmost Tip to the Arctic Waters

Windsor, ON, November 11, 2009. ------ Truth-loving Canadians, especially, Windsor Serbs were shocked to learn that Windsor West’s MP Brian Masse (NDP) launched a campaign-of-deceit for a “Srebrenica Remembrance Day” in Canada, commemorating a bogus massacre that did not exist, save in the propaganda of back stage American powers whose alterior motives were only to justify themselves for their heinous bombing of the Orthodox Serbs in order to build their largest military bases in Europe on formerly Serb territory in the former Yugoslavia. Public presentation of this insidious motion of a skewed Balkan history, which mimics the lies of an American shadow agenda is to be introduced in the House of Commons of our True North Strong and Free this upcoming Fall Session. At this scathing and mind-boggling rally, Masse organized this summer in Windsor, NDP’s MP tried feverishly to impress his new “Bosniak” friends with all the buzz words they yearned to hear (i.e. “genocide”, “war crimes”, “atrocities”, etc) to conjure up as many votes as the “Bosniaks” conjured up massacred bodies in a genocide which did not take place, and which Masse cannot, and will not be able to substantiate when he is taken to task for his outlandish and hurtful propaganda.

The only atrocity committed here is an atrocity against the truth as against devout Serbian Orthodox Christians; against justice and equity; against our dignity and human rights, committed by an ironically entitled ‘honorable’ MP. Sadly enough, this ‘genocide expert’-from-nowhere evolves from the Multicultural Council of Windsor where the Serbian community is consistently recognized for its outstanding contribution and distinctive service in our proud and esteemed multi-cultural, ethnic community.

What influenced Brian Masse, NDP’s MP to choose sides in a foreign-orchestrated Balkan bloodbath the G-8 is still undecided on? And what gives him more insight, knowledge and know-how that the members of the U.N, themselves do not possess? Finally, why were Serbs referred to as only “war criminals” in this "genocide remembrance" NDP-PR stunt? The answer is as simple as it is transparent: Brian Masse, NDP MP, a local politician on the market, auctioning himself off to the highest bidder, notwithstanding any existent group of back-stage Balkan propagandists who might pay the highest price, as he is ‘up for grabs’ and the bidding has begun. Masse, NDP’s very own MP is a shrewd mathematician, who cleverly calculated that the Serb victims of that same Balkan War might not generate enough cash or votes to be figured into his equation, so they quickly became null and void - and if they existed at all, in his mind, it would not be as Christian Orthodox Serb, but they would be branded, only, as “war criminals”.

The actual truth about the Balkan War is, for such a politico, a petty nuisance that could drive a serious wedge into his voter base at large - a miscalculated phenonemon he may be wise to tend to. For, on the contrary, the truth about the Serb victims and immense Serb sufferings could only hurt and destroy a dubiously honorable NDP candidate as he finds himself in a precarious position of spreading his deceitful propaganda far and wide to collect enough votes, just not far and wide enough as his west side slums of rampant petty crime, which, on second thought, he might be able to hide behind with a wind break of muslim supporters running rampant, and quick to appease.

Brian Masse, NDP’s infamous MP, when instructed and programmed to do so, is quick and agile to remember a non-existent, unproven and yet unsubstantiated Srebrenica ‘massacre’ of an imagined 8,000 “Bosniaks” by Serbs in 1995, although it is curious to note that his amnesia walls do not allow him to remember a real and tragic genocide this 20th Century, ie. the slaughter of a mere 1.5 million Armenians by the Turks during WWI; or, perhaps his memory would better be jogged if we mentioned the slaughter, during WWII, of another 1.5 million Serbs by Croats and Muslims (or shall we say, “Bosniaks” as Spin-meister Masse thought to, conveniently, refer to them as…)?

We may not be able to change Masse's mind; that is something his handlers are more deft at, as the Serbian community can only offer him the living truth, not petty cash – which may be worth very little to any full blown (albeit, two-bit) propaganda machine. Herein, we release a record of the truth, in defence of the much-victimized Serbs, martyred in a myriad of numbers over three consecutive wars this very same

Century, whose truth, history has yet to write, much less to extend to a far off West. Herein, we appeal to all truth-seekers Canada-wide, cautioning about Masse’s outrageous initiative on behalf of the NDP in its one-sided, short-sighted, propaganda-inflicted PR stunt, target marketing his newly mapped out potential voter base before the vote is cast (as early as this Fall). In short: Don’t “Get out the vote” until you “Spread the word”!

STOP THIS BOGUS RESOLUTION BASED UPON DECEIT AND UNSUBSTANTIATED BY G-8 WORLD POWERS. HISTORY MUST NEEDS BE BASED ON TRUTH - NOT LIES AND PROPAGANDA. VOTES MUST BE CAST BASED ON TRUTH AND JUSTICE TOWARDS ALL, NOT BY ANY WHICH POLITICO PROSTITUTING HIMSELF BY SKEWING HISTORY. CANADA HAS ALWAYS BEEN KNOWN FOR ITS FRIENDLINESS, PEACE-LOVINGNESS AND NEUTRALITY WORLDWIDE – LET’S KEEP IT THAT WAY! DO NOT ALLOW THIS TO BECOME LAW – AS WHEN A LIE BECOMES LAW, ITS COUNTRY CEASES TO BECOME A CHRISTIAN NATION, AND BODES OMINOUS FOR ALL.

# # #

For more information on this topic, contact
Defender of Human Rights,
Angelina Lazar
Director of Public Relations
Worldwide Chetnik Movement “RAVNE GORE”
Windsor Chapter:
angelinalazar@gmail.com
.

Note: The Worldwide Chetnik Movement of General Draza Mihailovich “RAVNE GORE”, to which the Windsor Chapter is a member, was an Ally of Western Countries, including Canada and America, and saved over 500 U.S. Airmen during WWII - the largest operation behind enemy lines in all history. The heroic Serbian Chetnik Movement fought against Nazi-Fascism, Communism (and other evil powers), and is “founded on the principles of Christian justice and morality, on the true principles of freedom and democracy.” (Article II: Aims of the Movement’s Struggle. By-Laws, 1995).

Faithful Protest Intent of Dialogue Between Latins and the Orthodox

2009-11-10T19:15:00.000-08:00

Commission for Theological Dialogue with Roman Catholics‏
From: Diocese of Ras-Prizren and Kosovo-Metohija (info@eparhija-prizren.com)

10.11.2009.
Source: Diocese of Ras-Prizren and Kosovo-Metohija

Commission for Theological Dialogue with Roman Catholics

The very first day of the meeting of the Joint Commission for the Theological Dialogue between the Orthodox and the Roman Catholics has ended in protests.
Monastery Stavrovunio monastics, the priests of the Cyprus Church and the faithful urged the Archbishop of the Cyprus Church, Hrisostom the Second to stop the meeting that was taking place in the St George hotel in Paphos.
The faithful from Greece and Cyprus were protesting claiming the objective of the Dialogue between two Churches was the final submission of the Orthodox Church to the Pope.
Immediately undertaking all the necessary measures, Archbishop Hrisostom the Second gave the instructions for the clergymen, having been involved in the protests, to visit him in his office on Monday.

Details of the session of the Joint Commission

The Cyprus news agency ikypros has reported - «The objective of the Joint International Commission for Dialogue, having both Orthodox and Roman Catholics representatives, is to reestablish the full communion between two Churches.»
«The crowd of the faithful protesting in front of the hotel, prevented from happening a part of the program consisting of an official opening of the session by joint worship in the St George chapel», the news agency further reports.
According to the Metropolitan of Paphos «we all are aware of great differences among us, a millennium-year break has enhanced the differences among us... However, modern times we live in urges for reconciliation. Both churches have experienced mutual hatred and animosity, nevertheless, we, modern times people, are aware of the need to cooperate.»

Protesters in front of the hotel where the meeting is taking place.
One on the panels says: There are three main falls in the history of mankind:
the fall of Adam, of Judah and of the Pope. (the quotation from father Justin Popovic)

The meeting is scheduled for the period up to and including October 23, the members meet in closed sessions.

+ + +

This year's meeting of the Commission for Dialogue in Cyprus, even before its beginning, provoked a state of agitation in the public and in the pious Ecclesiastic body, it is especially the case in Greece and Cyprus. We have witnessed many letters, official addresses, appeals, analyses - issued by Hierarchs, clergymen, the faithful - to Hierarchs, Primates and the pious Ecclesiastic body in general. As the day of this new gathering of the Commission was approaching, so the concern over the Dialogue main topic was growing. Also over the documents that had been adopted at past sessions, and especially over the Document content adopted at the last session in Ravenna, 2007[1].
The self-consciousness of the Church, the infallible criterion often issued when peril threatening to endanger the purity and correctness of the Faith is looming on the horizon, has asked million of times in the history of the Church hitherto. It has always protected the Orthodox against heterodoxy menaces, the Orthodox firmly committed to the Faith of the Apostles and to the decision of the Holy Ecumenical Synods of the Church. The awareness that only the Orthodox Churches been fostering the unmarred and unchanged Faith thus presenting One, Holy, Catholic and Apostolic Church, is an unconquered bulwark against any kind of heresy.
The Patriarch of Alexandria, Meletius Pigas (lived at the end of XVI century) on the occasion of introducing the new calendar and the change of the Paschal cycle by the Pope, wrote to a hieromonk Theodosius: «you are asking me what the Orthodox Christians are to do on the occasion of the change of calendar and of the Paschal cycle, but looks to me you are scared about it. You, "the chosen one", got scared when there is no reason for that, because one should not think much about the actions of those who are outside the Church** (officially excommunicated for their own guilt)[2]. Therefore, do not hesitate to be in step with the Holy fathers...»[3]
During the last few days and weeks the conscience of the Orthodox did not remain silent on the occasion of the approaching Cyprus gathering, but also on the occasion of other similar gatherings like the recent one in Crete[4]. Therefore, We are now going to analyse the reactions of the Orthodox during the last few days before the beginning of the Cyprus meeting.
The reaction of the Metropolitan of Peiraeus, Seraphim at the session of the Holy Assembly of the Greek Orthodox Church (that is still in course) on the eve of the Joint Commission Dialogue, was quite significant. While a letter by His All Holiness Patriarch Bartholomew addressed to the Archbishop of Athens, Mr. Hieronimous was being read at the Holy Assembly session (the letter had been written on the occasion of an essay «The Creed against Ecumenism», the essay many people have got interested in), Metropolitan Seraphim got to his feet and started strongly criticizing Patriarch Bartholomew's views, not hesitating to utter «The Patriarch is telling lies about the essay "The Creed against Ecumenism"»[5]!

His Eminence the Metropolitan of Peiraeus, Seraphim

The Metropolitan of Kyrenia, Pavlos (the Cyprus Church), an extraordinary theologian firmly committed to Faith and the Holy Tradition of Orthodoxy, a participant in the official Theological Dialogue with anti-Chalcedonians (in view of what he wrote remarkable essays during the last few years), has written and published an official essay «The Christ is the One who is the Head of the Church, not the Pope». It is a precise and significant analysis of the results of the Theological Dialogue between the Orthodox and the Roman Catholics so far. Reading the essay and the facts expressed in it, we are fully clear about the justified and often severe reactions and apprehensions of the Orthodox in view of the meeting of the Joint Commission for Dialogue in Cyprus in October, 2009.
To begin with, His Eminence Metropolitan Pavlos conducts a review and evaluation of the Ravenna document in his essay: «The top failure of the Ravenna document is made by the Orthodox representatives of the Joint Commission in their considering their heterodox fellow representatives to be part of the same Church. That way they make an impression there is an ecclesiological unity between the Orthodox and the Catholics, though we do not find theological arguments for that. By trying to be silent about or neglect the doctrinal distinctions between the Orthodoxy and the heterodoxy, the Orthodox representatives are undermining the Orthodox awareness of being the only true Church, One, Holy, Catholic and Apostolic, thus also making an impression that the Roman Catholic Church is one of the local Orthodox Churches. The schism happened because the Roman Catholics wanted to and did change the original common faith of the first millennium; nevertheless, the Ravenna document says that the faith of the Orthodox and the Catholics is the same. They work on themes like the Papal primacy, the managing and organisation of the Church, while theological doctrinal themes are left to wait.»
«It is necessary», His Eminence continues, «to work on doctrinal issues first of all. Only by being persistent about the correctness of the Orthodox dogma and Orthodox doctrinal tradition, we could be certain of our working on the return of the stray sheep to the fold of the Christ.»
The Coordinating Committee of the Preliminary Joint International Commission for the Theological Dialogue between the Roman Catholic Church and the Orthodox Church met in Elounda, Crete, 27 September - 4 October 2008. They officially started their work on 29 September discussing the theme «The role of the Bishop of Rome in the communion of the Churches in the first millennium». 10 Orthodox and 10 Catholic representatives attended the meeting. Two Co-Presidents of the meeting were Metropolitan John of Pergamon (Zizioulas) and Cardinal Walter Casper. The work of the Coordinating Committee had to bee seen in continuity with the previous agreed statements of the Joint Theological Commission. On the basis of two preparatory documents, the Coordinating Committee now prepared a document draft which would be submitted to the next plenary in Cyprus, 2009[6].

The meeting of the Preliminary Joint Commission 27 September - 4 October 2008 (Elounda, Crete)

Metropolitan Pavlos, analysing the draft (saying he got and read it not until recently) specifies that explicit Roman Catholic stances be expressed in the draft document. The stance that «the motif of distinctions within the unity was explicitly accepted in the Council of Constantinople 879/80 (Crete, par. 32)... is a preparatory ground for the unity of churches.»
The Crete Document goes further on, Metropolitan Pavlos states: «The Pope, whose seat is considered to be "the principle of the Episcopal unity" (Crete, par. 10), appears to be all and everything, as the Pope Gelasy says "The first throne is judged by no one" (Ep. 4, PL 58, 28B, Ep. 13, PL 59, 64A), (v. Crete, par. 11). Beside the attempts to express the supreme power of the Pope, as the primacy of Celebration... (Crete, par. 14), serious dogmatic neglections and the wrong approach to the theme of the primacy of the Pope by Orthodox representatives, cannot be concealed.»
According to the Crete Document «the Pope is the successor of the unbreakable unity between the Christ and the apostle Peter» (Crete, par. 17). «How is that possible to accept the Pope as the unity of the Christ and Peter», His Eminence Metropolitan Pavlos wonders.
«It is clear and evident the striving of the Document composers to show the Pope as a supporter of conciliarity in order to dispel the fears of the Orthodox and so to prevent contradictions and protests», the Metropolitan of Kyrenia says.
«The Crete Document further says, "the unity of Episcopate and the Church is symbolised in Peter's personality" (Crete, par. 10) and "Peter speaks through the bishop of Rome" (Crete, par. 19). Why should the canon structure of the Church depend on its relations with the Pope? Why it is necessary for each local Church to be in accordance with the Church of Rome, instead of all of them being in accordance with each other within the same body?» the Metropolitan of Kyrenia firmly states.
However, it is not the end of surprises. «According to the Crete Document», the Metropolitan quotes «not a single Synod was ever recognised as Ecumenical without the permission of the Pope» (Crete, par. 12) The Metropolitan concludes: «The Old Church had the Ecumenical Synods, not the Pope, to be Its principle. The Ecumenical Synods were not called or presided by Popes. They were recognised by all local Churches. Nevertheless, when the pope's system was theoretically established for the first time, the Pope Gregory the Great (590-604) rejected it (v. Ἰ. Καρμίρη, Ὀρθοδοξία και Παλαιοκαθολικισμός, Β΄, Ἀθῆναι 1967, σ. 69).»
The Metropolitan of Kyrenia underlines in the end of his analysis: «Dealing with Ecclesiastical issues, especially those concerning the Orthodox faith, cannot be left to some professors, or even some Bishops, who only formally represent the local Orthodox Church, but acting self-willingly and expressing their personal views.
Evading calling a Holy Assembly meeting, or disabling the fellow Assembly members to express their opinions freely and openly, failure to timely and relevant informing the Holy Assembly members by those responsible for that - are the violations of the conciliar system of managing the Church. The trial of the theologians representing the Orthodox Church to proclaim Roman Catholicism the Church - irritates the Orthodox senses.»[7]
The reaction of the Pancyprian Union of Greek Theologians was also noted. They convened extraordinarily on the occasion of the General Assembly of the International Joint Commission yet to take place. On the eve of the Joint Commission meeting, they addressed their extraordinary session statement to the Chairman and the members of the Holy Assembly of Cyprus Church, the Orthodox Theologians and the pious Ecclesiastic body. «Having observed the historical framework of the activities of the said Commission, in which representatives of our Church (the Cyprus Church) are also participating, and bearing in mind the views and reactions that have been issued, we would like to express our valid and intense concern in the event that unfortunate stances appear during the resulting conclusions of this dialogue. We would also like to express our support to the Orthodox representatives who are called upon to correctly present the word of Truth» the Pancyprian Union of Greek Theologians said in the statement[8].
Metropolitan of Etolia, Kosmas addressed a letter to the Archbishop of Athens, Hieronymos on the occasion of the following Joint Commission Dialogue in Cyprus, expressing his fear that the Dialogue could bring us some unwanted surprise results. There are certain facts indicating that the Orthodox representatives in the Dialogue might acknowledge kind of a primacy to the Pope - for that reason Metropolitan Kosmas asks some questions in his letter: «Is that correct to consider a secular leader to be "the first" among the Bishops of the Church and in addition "infallible", as he openly and egoistically supports his heretical dogmatic teachings and his secular character? How so? No doubt about "the primacy of honour" becoming the primacy of power.»
Mentioning the Orthodox people's concern and uneasiness, Metropolitan of Etolia, Kosmas calls on the Archbishop to discuss in detail together with his fellow Hierarchs at the approaching Holy Assembly session the main theme of the Commission meeting in Cyprus, and to take a conciliar stance on the theme mentioned.
Some time before the Joint Commission for Dialogue took place in Cyprus, many people among clergymen, monastics, priests, Orthodox societies, the faithful delivered their official addresses, either individually or conciliarly, to the Primate of the Greek Church, the Primate of the Patriarchate of Constantinople, Holy Archieratical Assembly of the Greek Orthodox Church, with different purposes. Either they voiced their concern about the current developments of the Dialogue and fear for what the results of the Dialogue might be. Or appealed on the Orthodox representatives in the Dialogue to correctly present the word of Truth. Or they published essays in which they made a detailed and comprehensive analysis this complicated theme, working out each and every detail of it.
As a result, the Joint Commission meeting in Cyprus has provoked the air of tensity and suspense in the pious Ecclesiastic body, so for the time being all eyes are fixed on Paphos, awaiting the results of the Dialogue.
In that kind of an atmosphere full of tensity and disturbance dominating the Orthodox congregation, the Uniate bishop of Greece Dimitrios Salachas (a permanent member of the Joint Commission) gave an official address in view of the Catholic-Ortodox meeting in Cyprus, with a purpose to console the Orthodox congregation and assure them that «there is little intention to seek the signature of the union of Churches contract in Cyprus.»

The Uniate Bishop, Salachas dressed in Liturgical robes used in the Orthodox Church.
How to discern Filioque, recognition of the Papal primacy,
acknowledgement of created grace and all other evil teachings of Popery hiding behind this external piety?

Is there a greater reason for concern and worry the moment these voices start uttering and sending consoling messages? How the fold is to feel the moment not its shepherd comes but the one, in the robe of the shepherd, who wants to wreck it - and starts falsely assuring it that there is no need for concern, there are certain negotiations, just little patience is all you need, everything is going to be all right?
The website of the Uniate Exarchate of Greece has put an official consoling (narcotic?) address by Mr. Salachas and an interview he gave for the newspapers on the eve of the Joint Commission Dialogue in Cyprus[9].
Some of theses supported in Mr. Salachas' addresses are as following. Both the Catholic Church and the Orthodox Church have their self-consciousness that is the Church of Christ, One, Holy, Catholic and Apostolic, and the consciousness that there is separation, division, break of joint sacramental communication, schism, a millennium between their doctrinal differences. Condition of the union is the unity of faith. However, neither the Orthodox Church requires and seeks to return the Catholics to Orthodoxy and the recognition of doctrines, nor the Catholic Church requires and seeks to return the Orthodox to Catholicism and the recognition of doctrines.
How to achieve «the unity of faith»? Being in truth? Being in love? Telling the truth with love?
«I should say, as a member of the Joint Commission that the participants in the Theological Dialogue, Orthodox Archierarchs and theologians are firmly committed to Faith and the Holy Tradition of Orthodoxy. In this discussion, namely "the primacy of the Bishop of Rome".... the Orthodox members of the Joint Commission certainly remain immovably fixed in their positions on the conciliar structure of the Church...»
In common theological texts issued by the Joint Commission «is known per common knowledge they are not "decisions", but just text study, therefore, not binding the Churches represented in the Dialogue...»
There are serious concerns from various reputable Orthodox churches and theological circles for Dialogue, and Mr. Dimitrios thinks the concerns are reasonable and assures us there is little desire to sign the «union» of two Churches contract... These concerns are reasonable because the work of the Joint Commission held behind closed doors and the Minutes are not published, except for some official Press and common theological texts. «Those responsible for the Churches represented in the Dialogue (Primates and Archiepiscopal Assemblies) should disclose promptly and responsibly the christeponymo crew, clergy, monks, Orthodox Seminaries and people for what was said in the Dialogue.» Failure to timely, responsible and relevant information raises legitimate suspicions, fears about possible concessions by the Orthodox members of the Dialogue.
Asked about the problem of Unia and Uniate churches, Mr. Salachas answered the following: «These Churches owe their existence to the recognition of the existence of church by the Pope of Rome. Created after the failure of the Synod of Florence and the then the signed union (1434). Rome since developed in Eastern Europe and the countries of East unifying attachment activity of the Orthodox with the prospect of recovery in global society. With this method, it classified as proselytism, in XVI century and further on Orthodox individuals and communities came to Catholicism maintaining their Liturgical Sacred Tradition and regular canonical structures, recognising the primacy of the Pope in the Catholic Church.» Mr. Salachas mentions the Balamand Document, which official proceedings say «the Eastern Catholic Churches, which during the second millennium wanted to join the seat of Rome remained loyal to the society, have the rights and obligations arising from this Society of which they form part. They have the right to exist and the pastoral duty to act to meet the spiritual needs of the faithful.»
The existence of Eastern Catholic Churches is an ecclesiological anomaly between East and West relations, Mr. Salachas confirms, but the anomaly is more a result of another disorder i.e. of the schism of East and West. «If removal of the split, if and when achieved, the Churches will be included automatically in the East Church.»
The Uniate Churches will be embodied automatically in the Orthodox Church? How is that to be achieved? The Uniates will stop recognising the primacy of the Pope and the Pope will gladly accept that? Or rather the Orthodox Churches will recognise the primacy of the Pope since it is impossible for the Pope to accept the Uniates' rejection of the recognition of his primacy and conversion into the Orthodox faith?
Is that the method for achieving our association with the Catholics and the method for achieving joint Eucharistic Communion? Two goals are actually the main plans and goals of the Holy See. That fact has been noted for years by many pastors, theologians, and the faithful.[10]
That provokes concerns among the Orthodox while observing the flow of the Dialogue between the Orthodox and the Roman Catholics. The Orthodox self-consciousness itself is a major hindrance to the change and loss of the Orthodox faith.
However, there he is, Mr. Salachas himself, trying to console us, to tell us we should not be worried at all, and to assure us «that the participants in the Theological Dialogue, Orthodox Archierarchs and theologians are firmly committed to faith and the Holy Tradition of Orthodoxy.» Now we are left to wonder if their authorities of being firmly committed to faith and the Holy Tradition could be justified by words of a Uniate bishop.

+ + +

Lately, we have been witnessing many points of view, statements and reactions expressed concerning the Papal primacy theme. Among them We should mention the Patriarchate of Constantinople's views. Secretary General of the Patriarchate of Constantinople, archimandrite Elpidophoros Lambriniadis delivered a speech in the chapel of Holy Cross of the Greek Orthodox Seminary in America in March 2009. Amid many things, he spoke about the primacy topic. «The refusal to recognise primacy within the Orthodox Church, a primacy that necessarily cannot but be embodied by a primus - that is by a bishop who has a prerogative of being the first among his fellow bishops - constitutes nothing less than heresy. It cannot be accepted, as often it is said, that the unity among the Orthodox Churches is safeguarded by either a common norm of faith and worship or by the Ecumenical Council as an institution. Both of these factors are impersonal while in our Orthodox theology the principle of unity is always a person... So to in the Pan-Orthodox level, the principle of unity cannot be an idea nor an institution but it needs to be, if we are to be consistent with our theology, a person.[11]»
However, St Dositheus, a XVII century Patriarch of Jerusalem, well-known for his fight against Protestant missionaries' assaults, as well as against Catholic assaults who wanted to conquer Orthodox East, says about the primacy issue: «Since not a single mortal person can be the eternal head of the Catholic Orthodox Church, our Lord Jesus Christ is the head and He, holding the helm of guiding the Church, guides It through our Holy Fathers.[12]»

The Second Vatican Council (1962-1965)

St Meletius Pigas, the Patriarch of Alexandria teaches: «Yet, they say, one of and among bishops, should be the leader and he is to be called "the head of the Celebration". However, the Christ is the only principle and head over all the bishops.[13]»
The pious Ecclesiastic body is concerned about the meeting of the Joint International Commission for the Theological Dialogue between the Orthodox and the Roman Catholics in Cyprus, and is awaiting the results of the Dialogue hoping that our Orthodox representatives will not exceed «the limits set by our Holy Fathers.»

Protosyncellus Simeon
The Abbot of Banjska Monastery

[1] Many Orthodox theologians asked an argumentative question: How is that possible for the Orthodox representatives of the Dialogue to have signed the Ravenna document?
** Highlighted by protosyncellus Simeon
[2] In regard to the Roman Catholics and the Protestants
[3] Μελετίου του Πηγά, Επιστολή προς Σίλβεστρον Πατριάρχην περι πασχαλίου, published by του εν Καρυαίς βιβλιοπωλείου Σάββα Ιερομονάχου, Аthens 1924, p. 7.
[4] His All Holiness Patriarch Bartholomew opened the 7-14 October meeting of the Faith and Order Plenary Commission in Crete, 2009. The Commission on behalf of the World Council of Churches meets every 7 years and has 120 regular members. In his address, His All Holiness Patriarch Bartholomew mentioned, among other things, the crucial need for the unity of churches saying that «being humble means to be ready to learn from others and to learn the things that have already been experienced over time.» His All Holiness added «it is understood that trying to impose our way (of life, of thinking) upon others - is intrusive and hypocritical! Opposite to that, true humility means we should be open enough to accept the past as well as the future. In other words, like the ancient god Janos in the old times, we are called upon showing our respect toward past experiences, at the same time giving our attention to the future, to the age to come, toward the heavenly kingdom.» This «turning» both toward the past and the future must be a sign of somebody's endeavor to change the religion.
(http://www.amen.gr/index.php?mod=news&op=article&aid=728 )
[5] See the website http://www.amen.gr/index.php?mod=news&op=article&aid=769
[6] See http://www.imis.gr/iera-mhtropolh/news/epitroph-dialogou.html
[7] The analysis by the Metropolitan of Kyrenia, Pavlos, published in the newspapers Ορθόδοξος Τύπος, Аthens, 16.10.2009.
[8] http://www.theologoi.com/dialogos.htm
[9] See http://www.elcathex.com
[10] The Roman Catholic news agency CWNEWS reported a suggestion by the Patriarch Bartholomew of Constantinople in 2008: «The Orthodox leader suggests "dual unity" for Eastern Catholics!» «The Orthodox Patriarch of Constantinople has responded favorably to a suggestion by the head of the Ukrainian Catholic Church for a system of "dual unity" in which Byzantine Catholic Churches would be in full communion with both Constantinople and Rome. Patriarch Bartholomew I of Constantinople welcomed the proposal in an interview with the magazine Cyril and Methodius... Cardinal Lubomyr Husar of Kiev, the Major Archbishop of the Ukrainian Catholic Church, the largest of the Eastern Catholic churches, has offered the possibility that Byzantine Catholics might seek communion with the Ecumenical Patriarchate, without giving up their communion with the Holy See. Patriarch Bartholomew expressed distinct interest in the idea, saying "the mother Church in Constantinople holds the door open for the return of all her formal sons and daughters". Patriarch Bartholomew also said that a restoration of unity would require important differences to be overcome; yet "the major steps have already been taken to resolve the discrepancies..." While Catholic and Orthodox theologians continue their efforts to reach an agreement on doctrinal questions, Patriarch Bartholomew underlines "the ordinary people have to come together again". He pointed to the "dual unity" idea as a possible step toward practical unity.»
[11] See the magazine of the Patriarchate of Constantinople ΕΠΙΣΚΕΨΙΣ, No. 698, the date of publishing 31.3.2009.
[12] See Ι. Καρμίρη, Δογματικά και Συμβολικά μνημεία της Ορθοδόξου Καθολικής Εκκλησίας, Аthens 1953, p. 752.
[13] See Μελετίου Πηγά, Κατά της αρχής του Πάπα, у Τόμος Χαράς, Thessaloniki 1985, pp 493-497.

St. Nikolai Study Group-Expectations

2009-10-29T09:09:00.000-07:00

October 29, 2009
Expectations St. Nikolai Velimirovic Study Group

The St. Nikolia Velimirovic Study Group Commences

With Blessing of Bishop Jerome Of Synodal Cathedral of the Sign in New York

The St. Nikolai Velimirovic Study Group will begin Next Thursday, the 5th of November 2009 at the Synodal Cathedral of the Icon of the Mother of God of the Sign in New York, City. The group will begin at 7:00 pm. nThe addresss is 75 E. 93rd Street between Park and Madison Avenue. There will be an akathist to the Mother of God, and the group will begin with a short introduction by Fr. Djokan of St. Sava Cathedral of New York.

The spirit in which this group will be conducted is as a simple bible study--it is not an academic endeavour simply to increase our knowledge of things divine; Hopefully one will apply what is learned here in order to understand political history as it pertains to our Church and to our lives--how past Orthodox souls lived amongst so much distortion and attacks on the Faith without compromising their Faith and were thus able to be martyred for their Faith. And for those who were blessed by God to stay upon the earth, they were additionally blessed to attend to the needs of those still living in the world as witnesses of God.

Why was the decision of Tsar Lazar to be martyred for the Faith so pleasing to God--Why was this necessary for Serbia at that time. How will this help us to understand the demise of nations in the Old Testament? What are the roles of nations currently and the leaders of these nations. How do the people of a nation, by their actions in Faith, participate in the spiritual health of their nation before God? Do secular groups proclaiming an allegience to God have a role to play in the Church of God? These are the questions that a reading of the Mystery and Meaning of the Battle of Kosovo will address.

Participants will take turns reading,for about 25 minutes, and then there will be a discussion of what has been read for about 15 minutes, and then there will be closing prayer to the Mother of God. The group will last for only an hour.

Please there is no need for video cameras, or tape recorders. This is simply a humble group to read the writings of St. Nikolai which he left to his flock by the Grace of God, so that we may acquire a correct understanding of world events as they relate to the Church and its Salvific Mission for the Human Race.

In Christ God, all who want this understanding are welcomed to attend.

For the Glorious Cross and Glorious Freedom

struggling to be a servant of God, xenia

Ioannis Fidanakis October 20 at 1:59am Reply
For Immediate Release: October 19, 2009

Contact: Ioannis Fidanakis, New Jersey, Tel. 1-973-464-0211

The University of Utah, with the help and support of the Skopjian lobby in
Washington DC and the support of the Turkish Lobby which has facilitated Turkish
government funding of the University of Utah, is launching a conference on Nov
5th 2009 on University of Utah grounds dedicated to advancing false historical
revisionism and irredentist propaganda. Speakers will promote neo- Communist
false historical revisionism attempting to downplay the immense loss of Hellenic
life to terrorism, downplay the suffering (through the use of Child Abduction of
Hellenic children and outright war) under Communist and Skopjian occupation, and
advance a general atmosphere of anti-Hellenic hate . The fact that this
Anti-Hellenic Hate Fest is taking place in Utah, a state where unrepentant
Nordic supremacists massacred Hellenes in bloody and gruesome lynchings is particularly troubling and offensive to the Hellenic-American community.

WHAT YOU CAN DO: Telephone, email, fax and write to the Michael K. Young,
President of the University of Utah and urge him to STOP the Skopjian conference
and issue an apology to the victimized Hellenic people in his state and around
the world.

Read Full Press Release at

http://hellenicleagueofamericahla.org/action_alert_stop_the_anti-hellenic_hate_at_university_of_utah
particularly troubling and offensive

The Pope Is Actually In Heresy In Relation to Orthodox Church

2009-10-21T12:40:00.000-07:00

Date: Wed, 21 Oct 2009 16:09:45 +0100
Subject: Our Hierarchy should take a joint attitude
To: xenspirit7@msn.com
From: info@eparhija-prizren.com

21.10.2009.
Source: Diocese of Ras-Prizren and Kosovo-Metohija

Our Hierarchy should take a joint attitude

On the occasion of the meeting of the Joint International Commission for the Theological Dialogue between the Roman Catholic Church and the Orthodox Church, to be held on 16 October 2009, His Grace Dr Artemije addressed an appeal to the Holy Synod of Bishops and all the Bishops of the Serbian Orthodox Church late in September, saying that, because of the importance of the theme that is to be discussed in Cyprus gathering, our Hierarchy should take in advance a joint attitude toward the theme which ought to be defended and supported by our representatives at the forthcoming gathering.
Similar appeal was addressed in September to the Greek Orthodox Church by PhD Dimitrios Tselengidis, Professor of the Dogmatic Theology in the Faculty of Theology in Thessaloniki.

+ + +

Address by His Grace Dr Artemije to Hierarchs of Serbian Orthodox Church

The Serbian Orthodox Bishop
of the Diocese of Ras-Prizren
and Kosovo-Metohija
No. 815
28 September 2009
Prizren - Gracanica

TO HOLY SYNOD OF BISHOPS OF SERBIAN ORTHODOX CHURCH
B E L G R A D E

Fathers and brethren,
In ten days there will be the second anniversary of the Ravenna gathering that has been athe cause of many offences and confusions for a long time among the Orthodox people worldwide, and therefore among Serbian people as well. It has been much spoken, written, or discussed about Ravena (i.e. RAVENNA DOCUMENT) so far, yet many questions have remained unanswered. For instance, the question of participation and role of the Serbian Orthodox Church representatives in the work of the Joint International Commission for the Theological Dialogue between the Roman Catholic Church and the Orthodox Church.
In order to have some of these questions answered and cleared, Our humbleness put forward a PROPOSITION to the Holy Synod of Bishops on May 19, 2008 (D. No. 363) consisting of nine clear questions regarding the Ravenna document, but for the lack of due attention, the questions remained open.
The key question in the Proposition was: «How is that possible to discuss "the status of the bishop of Rome in the Church" while the Roman "bishop - pope" is not in the Church but rather outside of it, inside heresy. Don't you think that it is necessary to discuss not his status in the Church but rather his return to the Church? Wasn't the union of the Orthodox and the Roman Catholic Church prejudiced "by this Ravenna document"»?
Today, after two years, further incidents and shakes are looming on the horizon of the Orthodox world. Namely, during 16 - 23 October 2009, a new meeting of Joint International Commission for the Theological Dialogue is to be held in Cyprus, where they will continue to work on the theme they already laid the foundation for in Ravenna, the theme of «the status of the bishop of Rome in the Church». In other words, the theme of the Pope's primacy, his authority and power over the whole Church of Christ.
The theme is highly serious and decisive. It should not and must not be overlooked and let to be considered by only a couple of our representatives. It should be considered by all the Hierarchs of our Holy Church. Thus, We regard it vital to request the Holy Synod of Bishops to call a special session of the Holy Assembly of Bishops of the Serbian Orthodox Church as soon as possible, before the Cyprus meeting takes place, so as the crucial issue of our representatives' participation in Cypus meeting could be discussed and the attitude of our Church toward the issue be settled. Then, that attitude ought to be defended and supported by our representatives at the Joint International Commission for the Theological Dialogue in Cyprus.
The best example of how important is the forthcoming Cyprus gathering for other Orthodox Churches as well, is a written address by professor Dimitrios Tselengidis from Thessaloniki to the Hierarchs of the Greek Orthodoh Church. Please find enclosed the professor's text.
Having trust that our Holy Synod of Bishops will realise the gravity of the situation and accept Our humble proposition, We remain

Faithful in Christ our Lord to the Holy Synod of Bishops.

The Bishop of Ras-Prizren
and Kosovo-Metohija
+ARTEMIJE

Sent to:
All Diocesan Bishops
of the Serbian Orthodox Church

+ + +

Address by PhD Dimitrios Tselengidis to Hierarchs of Greek Orthodox Church

ARISTOTLE UNIVERSITY OF THESSALONIKI
FACULTY OF THEOLOGY
SCHOOL OF THEOLOGY
DEPARTMENT OF DOGMATIC THEOLOGY
PROFESSOR DIMITRIOS TSELENGIDIS

TO: Holy Synod of Bishops of the Greek Orthodox Church
Sent to: All Hierarchs of the Greek Orthodox Church

Your Beatitude esteemed Chairperson,
Your Graces,

Having observed with a deep sense of responsibility the current situation of the Church of our time, I would like, both as a mere believer and as a University Professor of Dogmatic Theology, to humbly address You since You are the highest Governing body of our Greek local Church.
The purpose of my sending this letter to You has come as a result of my recent discussions with some of the Metropolitans[1].
I asked them a clear question, whether the Greek Orthodox Church at the session of the Holy Assembly had considered and taken a clear attitude toward the primacy of the Pope theme that was going to be worked on at the forthcoming two-sided theology dialogue. They answered they knew nothing about it. Thus, I judge it appropriate to write to You the following.
A meeting of the Joint International Commission for the Theological Dialogue between the Roman Catholic Church and the Orthodox Church is to be held in Cyprus in October this year, a meeting possibly the most fateful so far. The resulting document of the meeting will have decisive significance for further relationship between both sides in the dialogue, therefore I consider it to be my duty to request You politely to call as soon as possible a special session of the Holy Assembly of the Bishops in order to carefully discuss the theme of the forthcoming Theological Dialogue.
The Joint International Commission will primarily be working on «the role of the Bishop of Rome in the communion of the Church» ( viz. the Ravenna document, paragraph 45). I humbly believe that if our respected Hierarchy discusses the theme on theological basis and takes a clear attitude toward it, our representatives of the Joint Commission will greatly affect the final forming of the common document that will be released at the end of the Joint International Commission gathering. That is the very way for our Hierarchy to act promptly and preventatively. If it happens to come to possible theological and ecclesiastical failures in the document, a matter that could possibly compromise our representative at the Joint Commission, our Hierarchy is dutyfull to act healingly, condemning them (the failures) afterwards.
In addition, let me express in short terms my personal theological attitude toward the issue. The planned «as more studious as possible» the theological debate over the Pope's primacy, is methodologically premature and contradictory in its very sense. Why? Because according to theological and patristic teachings, a theological dialogue about the essential dogmatic distinctions between the Orthodox and the Roman Catholics should precede. Filioque, the infallibility of the Pope, and created Grace - all wrong they continue to support. These dogmatic fallacies display the real identity of the Roman Catholicism baring it its ecclesiology and mysteriology, and depriving the Church of its primar character of «theosis» of a human.
Not until the Orthodox and Catholic dogmatic teachings become identical, can a dialogue about governing the Church follow. According to the spirit and decisions of Ecumenical Synods, the main doctrinal distinction between the Orthodox and the Catholics replaces the Catholics outside the Church, a matter that has been empirically confirmed by a millenium year time interruption of their communal sacramental communication.
The resulting question comes: how we could rationally discuss with the Roman Catholics the institutional status of somebody (the Pope) in the Church, while he is, both essentially and officially, outside the Church?
Let me remind You of the doubtless historical truth: the Church during its first millenium never acknowledged the primacy of authority and power over the whole world to the bishop of Rome. The primacy of authority and power has always belonged not to a single person but to Ecumenical Synods.
After all, the Orthodox Church has never recognised the Pope's primacy the way it was explained and recognised at the First Vatican Council whose attendants proclaimed the Pope to be the infalliable interpreter of the Church's conscience, so far as being contradictory to the decisions made at Ecumenical Synods. In other words, the Pope with his «infalliability» and demanding primacy of power over the whole Church - has self-willingly replaced the Spirit of Truth.
As a result, the Pope's primacy of power then erases not only the joint system of governing the Church but also the presence of the Holy Spirit in the Church.
Respected our Bishops, by what I has written above I wanted to tell how worried I was about the forthcoming Joint International Theological Dialogue and to express my theological judgement of the issue in short terms.
Let us hope that the Holy Spirit that guides the ship of the Church into all truth should express Itself through You because it pleased the Holy Trinity God that His Church should function both institutionally and communally.

I most respectfully
kiss Your hand
Dimitrios Tselengidis
the Professor of the Faculty of Theology
at the Aristotle University of Thessaloniki

(Translated from Greek by bishop ARTEMIJE)

[1] It is important to know that in the Greek Orthodox Church all Diocesan Bishops are titled as Metropolitans, and only Vicars are titled as Bishops.

Holbrooke and the De-Christianization of Kosovo

2009-10-20T17:22:00.000-07:00

By Vojin Joksimovich | Holbrooke supported Balkan Muslim sepratists in Bosnia and Kosovo and delivered victory to al-Qaeda in Europe. Then from Bosnia they turned on the US on 9/11. Holbrooke now heads Afghan policy for Obama.

Obama’s War

Eight-year old Bush’s Afghanistan war has become Obama’s war. Obama has declared that war was both necessary and winnable. He committed 21,000 additional troops this year, bringing the U.S. force to 68,000 and more are likely to be sent. The current expenditures amount to $2.6 billion a month. Percentage of Americans who believe that it was a mistake to send troops rose from 25% in 2007 to 42% this year. There were 51 military deaths in August and at least 732 overall compared to over 4,300 in Iraq. In addition, there are 38,000 NATO troops. Obama has been pushing NATO countries to send more troops and trying to stave off departures of Canadian, Dutch, German, British and other troops. Overall the war is going badly. The military is overhauling its operations including adding combat troops and talking about to avoiding civilian casualties, which most certainly have helped Taliban in recruitments. Despite orders to avert civilian deaths, most of the 70 killed the other day in a NATO airstrike were Afghan villagers. The State Department is similarly attempting to stem government corruption, improve security forces especially the police and reduce violence. However, there is yet another initiative-turning to Islamism or radical Islam, a traditional U.S. foreign policy ingredient and a Richard Holbrooke’s specialty.

Turning to Jihadists

President Obama’s special envoy to AfPac (Afghanistan-Pakistan), some call him the Afghanistan Czar, and former President Clinton’s Balkans fixer, Richard Holbrooke, a fixture of the Democrats’ foreign policy establishment, met recently with Liaqat Baloch, a leader of Pakistan’s Jamaat-i-Islami party or abbreviated to JI. Shortly thereafter, Baloch attended an anti-American rally across the town in Islamabad. Anti-American views of the Pakistani Islamist parties are notorious. Prior to meeting Baloch, Holbrooke met with Maulana Fazlur Rehman, a leader of the Jamiat Ulema-e-Islam party. Rehman was instrumental in Taliban’s early days and denied that Osama bin Laden was responsible for 9/11. Dealing with the Islamists is a dangerous foreign policy game, which however the U.S. has played since the 1945 Quincy Pact, between President Roosevelt and Ibn Saud, which made left both countries as the godfathers of Islamism. Dependence on Pakistan, its Islamists and Saudi Arabia, in order to defeat the Soviet Union in Central Asia, has had a troubled history for the U.S. foreign policies not only in the region but led to upheavals worldwide including creation of Al Qaeda and Taliban. A snapshot examination of this history which led to 9/11 plus Holbrooke’s track record in the Balkans implementing foreign policies of the Clintonites, now dominating the Obama administration, seems to be appropriate in particular since the compliant media is unlikely to do their job.

JI

JI ranks among the leading and most influential Islamist movements and the first of its kind to develop an ideology based on the revolutionary concept of Islam in the contemporary world. The party was founded by Moulana Abu Ala Maududi in Lahore on August 26, 1941, inspired by the Pakistani Muslim Brotherhood branch. Maududi advocated a Leninist revolutionary approach to Islamist politics in his book Jihad in Islam. With founding of Pakistan in 1947, JI was reorganized into: JI Pakistan and JI Hind. In mid-70s, JI Bangladesh was established. JI has also presence in the Indian held Kashmir. All JI organizations work for similar objectives and have identical ideological approach with no organizational link between them. JI has developed and maintained close brotherly relations with Islamist parties in the Arab world, northern Africa, Turkey, Tajikistan, Indonesia, Lebanon and Hammas in Palestine. JI is a natural ally of Saudi Wahhabists. General Muhammad Zia ul-Haqq was supported by JI.

General Zia played U.S. as Violin

In 1977 General Muhammad Zia ul-Haqq, after overthrowing and hanging Benazir Bhutto’s father, became a dictator and announced that he wanted to establish a “genuine Islamic order” in Pakistan. He imposed harsh Islamic rules and declared that “in Islam there is no provision for Western-type elections.” He played the U.S. as the violin and managed to convince the U.S. to de facto outsource its policy in Central Asia to Pakistan.

Zia’s goal was to use the U.S. power to carve out a new Mogul empire extending from Pakistan to the Soviet republics of Central Asia. Original Mogul Empire (1526-1857) covered most of the Indian subcontinent and parts of Afghanistan. Afghanistan was at the center of that policy, with Pakistan determined to install a compliant government in Kabul. It was Zia who encouraged Islamists in Afghanistan, both domestic such as Gulbuddin Hekmatyar or Abdurrab Rasul Sayyaf as well as imported Arabs like Osama bin Laden, to fight the Soviets while convincing Washington that the mujahideen were the best bet to defeat the Soviets in the 1980-89 U.S. Afghan proxy war against the USSR, which invaded Afghanistan to gain control over the threat of Islamism in it’s Asian republics (the “Stans”0). 70% of the U.S./Saudi multi billion dollar funding went to ultra-Islamist anti-American Afghan parties. He supported the madrassas along the Afghan-Pakistan border to serve as recruiting grounds. Saudi/Pakistani complex produced Al Qaeda, Afghan Arabs and Taliban. The Taliban took over. In the name of the War on Terror, the U.S. invaded Afghanistan to defeat the Taliban. The Islamists were pushed into Pakistan, destabilizing this nuclear weapons country.

Zia authorized a Pakistani program to develop the nuclear weapons capability. The program was overlooked by Washington in order to further jihad in Afghanistan. Zia’s policies amounted to: screw India, deceive the U.S., spread Islamism, develop Islamic bomb and spread nuclear weapons technology. Pakistan has now an arsenal of Islamic bombs in the range 60-100, which presents a headache to all of those concerned about nuclear proliferation. Existence of this nuclear arsenal presents much greater threat to the world than the threat Iran might pose if they ever succeed in developing a nuclear weapons capability.

Bosnian Jihad

Rise to power of Bosnian Islamist Alija Izetbegovic and his Party of Democratic Action (SDA) in Bosnia in 1990 provided a unique opportunity for the Iran-led Islamist coalition to move into the heart of Europe. Iran’s clerics had attempted since the 1979 Khomeini revolution to find a foothold outside the Middle East and Central Asia in order to win territories, infrastructure and structures of government as a base for terrorist and political operations in order to gain leverage against the West. The ultimate target was the Great Satan. Only 15 days lapsed upon 1992 conclusion of the war in Afghanistan when the civil war in Bosnia broke out between the Bosnian Islamists and the Bosnian Christian Serbs. Compatible with the Prophet’s saying “Indeed Jihad will continue till the day of Judgment,” bin Laden’s Afghan Arabs became available and subsequently moved into a number of world hotspots. The Bosnian jihad became the overseas conflict with the greatest importance to Al Qaeda. It was considered a favored laboratory and a springboard for strategic-level operations against Maghreb countries, Algeria in particular, Western Europe and the U.S. The Bosnian jihad appears to be the first time Shiite and Sunni jihadists cooperated closely together in what could be termed the Joint Islamist Terrorist Enterprise.

Holbrooke In The Balkans

Holbrooke secretly visited Bosnian towns of Travnik and Vitez in December 1992 and in a memorandum informed the U.S. Government about the illegal transportation of arms to the Bosnian Muslims and about volunteers and mercenaries arriving from Islamic countries.
Holbrooke wrote: “There is now clear evidence that few ‘freedom fighters’ or mujahideen, and there are more and more of them, join the Bosnian forces.” Later on, Holbrooke was lionized with brokering the Dayton Peace Accords, which terminated the 42 months civil/religious war caused predominantly by the U.S. via encouragement of Izetbegovic to pull out from the Lisbon agreement brokered by the EU (EC then) and signed by all three parties to the conflict– the Serbs, Croats and Bosnian Muslims. Once the war was in progress, the Clinton administration sabotaged four peace agreements, endorsed by Serbian President Milosevic, thus unnecessarily prolonging the war and sufferings. Nonetheless, incessant western propaganda blamed Milosevic for all Balkan ills. Holbrooke, aided by compliant media, became the champion of Serbophobia and demonization of the Serbs, in order to appease the radical Islam including bombing of Bosnian Serbs allegedly to get them to the negotiation table although their behinds were hurting from sitting at numerous negotiations. This partnership with radical Islam included Al Qaeda. During the insurrection of the Albanian terrorists from Albania into Kosovo, Holbrooke visited with the Kosovo Liberation Army (KLA) terrorists but called them the ‘freedom fighters.” This led to the U.S. embracing the Albanian Muslim narco-terrorists in order to insert NATO troops into Kosovo and thus amputate Serbia from the cradle of their Serbian Christian heritage.

Clinton Administration Provided Invaluable Service to Al Qaeda in Bosnia

President Clinton sided with the Bosnian and Iran-led Islamists against the Christian Serbs in the civil/religious war in Bosnia. The Clinton administration not only turned a blind eye to radical Islam but also actively supported the Islamists, including the Al Qaeda terrorists. This commitment to actively support an Islamist agenda in the Balkans offers a plausible explanation why bin Laden and Al Qaeda did not show up on the radar screen in Washington until late 1995. By then, Al Qaeda fully established its base for operations in Europe against Al Qaeda’s true enemy, the U.S. Bosnia, serving as the recruiting sergeant, provided a big surge in growth of several terrorist groups on Clinton’s watch.

In the conduct of this deeply flawed policy the Clinton administration opted for an Iran-Contra style operation in flagrant violation of the UN Security Council arms embargo against all combatants in the former Yugoslavia. Despite Iran’s responsibility for the deaths of over 1500 Americans (according to the State Department) and being the world’s most active state sponsor of terrorism, the Clinton administration chose Iran to be a partner in Bosnia. By virtue of making Iran-led Islamists and Al Qaeda allies of convenience in the Balkans, the Clinton administration had provided an invaluable service to terrorism. Iran and Al Qaeda established a beachhead in the center of Europe. Al Qaeda formed a terrorist brigade called Al Mujahid, whose members played the pivotal part in 9/11, the Madrid train bombings and other terrorist acts.

Brendan O’Neill wrote that the Bosnian war “taught Islamic terrorists to operate abroad. For all the millions of words written about Al Qaeda since the 9/11 attacks two years ago, one phenomenon is consistently overlooked—the role of the Bosnian war in transforming the mujahideen of the 1980s into the roving Islamist terrorists of today.” This was tragic for almost 3,000 victims of 9/11. O’Neill further wrote that the Bosnia venture led to the emergence of today’s cross-border Islamist terrorists who think nothing of moving from state to state in search of outlets for their jihadists missions. The Pentagon transported thousands of mujahideen from “the ghettos of Afghanistan and the Middle East into Europe; from an outdated battleground of the Cold War to the major world conflict of the day; from being yesterday’s men to fighting alongside the West’s favored side in the clash of the Balkans. If the U.S. intervention in Afghanistan created mujahideen, Western intervention in Bosnia appears to have globalized it. According to Tomazi, an Italian author, some 20,000 mujahideen had been transported by American planes.

Dismemberments of Yugoslavia and Serbia

It has become apparent that the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan had broader objectives than fighting terrorism against Al Qaeda and Taliban. So called “war on terror” was an excuse for the Pax Americana in the Middle East and Central Asia. In this context, dismemberment of Yugoslavia into a series of “banana” republics could be interpreted as a creation of Western vassals in the Balkans through wars, but with the blame falling, not on the NATO as the naked aggressor, but on Serbs and Milosevic, former communist, who opposed dismemberment of Yugoslavia and then Serbia. It is now seen by many that NATO’s intervention in Kosovo in 1999 was an important precursor for the invasion of Iraq in 2003. Similar to what had happened during WWII, the Great Powers, this time U.S.-led NATO, exploited and aggravated the Serb-Albanian ethnic conflict for their own purposes to strengthen their position in the Balkans at the expense of Serb Orthodox Christians. NATO, supported by the compliant media, sided with the interests of pan-Islamists, bin Laden and his Al Qaeda included, in echoing and even amplifying the chauvinist Albanian propaganda.

Serbs, characterized as junior Russians sharing the Orthodox religion and the Slavic background, have traditionally enjoyed the reputation of being rebellious people unwilling to accept foreign occupations and dictates, had to be demolished as the historical entity. Strobe Talbott, former U.S. deputy secretary of state, has written: “It was Yugoslavia’s resistance to the broader terms of political and economic reform—not the plight of Kosovar Albanians—that best explains NATO’s war.”

Holbrooke Played Key Role in Amputation of Kosovo from Serbia

The Clinton administration was determined to deliver the Serbian provinces of Kosovo and Metohija to Albanian Muslim narco-terrorists and thus to supplant a radical Muslim culture over an ancient Christian one. Madeleine Albright and Richard Holbrooke were assigned to implement this “noble” objective. As a first step, on June 24, 1998, Holbrooke met with a KLA commander Gani Shehu in Junik, near the Yugoslav-Albanian border, which served as a supply line for the KLA insurrection from Northern Albania into Kosovo. It didn’t matter that in February of the same year the KLA was characterized as a terrorist organization by then Clinton’s Balkans envoy Robert Gelbard. Despite this, Holbrooke recommended that the KLA, better name should be the “National Front for a Greater Albania,” participate in negotiations which indeed took place at Rambouillet, near Paris, in February 1999 amounting to legitimization of violence.

In August 1998 the Serbian forces defeated the KLA and pushed them back into Northern Albania. Milosevic offered Albanian separatists an interim agreement for a 3-5 year period that would grant the province self-government using South Tirol as a model. This, however, wasn’t good enough for the Clinton administration in their zeal to advance radical Islam in the Balkans. On September 23, 1998 the UN Security Council passed a resolution #1199 threatening Yugoslavia a military action. Holbrooke arrived in Belgrade on October 5 for a 50 hour negotiating session with Milosevic hoping to convince Milosevic to allow NATO presence in Kosovo. The Western diplomacy had one apparent goal: to force, one way or the other, troops into Kosovo in order to establish a NATO protectorate. After 50 hours of face-to-face negotiations, involving many whiskey drinking sessions, Holbrooke and Milosevic reached a cease-fire deal in compliance with the UN Resolution #1199 to be verified by an international team of 2,000 OSCE “compliance verifiers.” The KLA never honored the deal but that didn’t matter as the U.S./NATO interest was to force NATO troops into Kosovo as a part of Pax Americana. In order to accomplish this objective the KLA terrorist actions were right on the mark. The subsequent Rambouillet conference was nothing more than a setup for the war.

Shortly before March 24, 1999, when 78-day bombing of Serbia began, which I call 78 days of infamy, Holbrooke delivered the final ultimatum to Milosevic: if Yugoslavia (Serbia and Montenegro then) doesn’t agree with the Rambouillet conference text, calling for a de facto occupation of Yugoslavia, NATO would strike. Subsequent to initiation of bombing Holbrooke claimed that it wasn’t the occupation which was threatened. Several weeks later, confronted by a journalist, Holbrooke said: “I never said that.” This was a lie and a tacit admission that the Rambouillet text called for occupation of Yugoslavia. Holbrooke is a liar. He promised to Dr. Karadzic, a former Bosnian Serb president, that he wouldn’t face indictment from the $2 billion International Criminal Tribunal for Former Yugoslavia (ICTY) if he agreed to step down from presidency of the Bosnian Serb Republic. Karadzic indeed stepped down and recently told the Hague Tribunal judges about the Holbrooke’s promise. Holbrooke denied despite the fact that several eye-witnesses have confirmed that the promise was delivered in their presence.

A detailed account of what transpired in Kosovo during the UN/NATO protectorate phase (June 1999-todate) is offered in my book Kosovo is Serbia: The Amputation of a Sovereign Country by U.S,-Sponsored Muslim Terrorists. Essentially it boiled to mayhem for the Serbs, Roma and other minorities including massive ethnic cleansing of some 250,000 Serbs and mostly Roma. 151 Serbian churches and monasteries have been demolished but over 400 Wahhabi style mosques have been built or are under construction. One of them was initially named after Osama bin Laden, but subsequently renamed Medina. Upon arrival of NATO forces, a silent genocide took place in Kosovo. In March 2004, Kosovo Kristallnacht took place; a 60,000 strong Albanian mob drove 4,500 Serbs from their homes causing 19 deaths and some 900 injuries. The human rights organizations slammed UN/NATO but there were apologists for the Albanian thugs including Holbrooke, who wasn’t in the government then since the republican administration was in. On the sidelines Holbrooke continued to support the Albanian separatists and terrorists and continued to be a major force for the 2008 unilateral declaration of independence (UDI) in violation of all international laws on the books.

Kosovo Experiment: A Grand Failure

An Austrian historian, journalist and publicist, Hannes Hofbauer, published a book Kosovo Experiment: Return to Colonialism. He characterized the Kosovo UDI as the fatal blow to the post WWII world order and a return to colonialism. The beneficiaries are NATO, EU and others, who have practiced imperialism in the Balkans, but not the Albanians. The goal of imperial powers is to establish non-Slavic centers in the Slavic lands, to exert control over natural resources, and at the same to experiment with countries at the EU margins in addition to pleasing the radical Islam. Kosovo is an experiment intended to redefine the international law using economic and military might. The unemployment rate in Kosovo as well as in Bosnia runs at ~50%. Kosovo ranks at one of the world’s most corrupt places with 67% of the population reporting that they have to pay a bribe to get a service. In addition it is called by some the Black Hole of Europe and by others the Republic of Heroin.

Despite all of this, the Clintonites in the Obama administration, delusional and disingenuous, continue to maintain that Kosovo has been a great success instead of an ugly experiment and a fiasco. The U.S. has become an international law pariah. It has created a model Russia used to declare Abkhazia and South Ossetia independence: KosovOssetia. Needless to say, while Holbrooke was passed over for the Secretary of State position in the Obama administration he continued to advocate together with Hillary Clinton that there is unfinished business in the Balkans. The primary target would be abolition of the Republika Srpska in Bosnia and even greater pressure on Serbia to recognize the illegitimate Kosovo Republic. This despite the Obama administration’s effort to restore America’s reputation and leadership in the world.

Media Silence and Complicity Regarding Kosovo “Success”

Lee Jay Walker wrote recently the following in The Seoul Times: “The ongoing de-Christianization of Kosovo continues and unlike the past frenzy of the anti-Serbian mass media in the West, we mainly have a deadly silence about the reality of Kosovo and continuing Albanization of this land. However, how is it ‘just’ and ‘moral’ to persecute minorities and to alienate them from mainstream society, and then to illegally recognize the land without the consensus of the international community? How ironic it is that the sane Unites States of America and the United Kingdom, two nations who were in the forefront of covertly manipulating the mass media; remain mainly silent about the destruction of Orthodox Christian churches, Serbian architecture, and of course the past killings of Serbians and other minorities in Kosovo.” The U.S./NATO had portrayed the Serb-Albanian conflict about human rights, democracy and liberty. However, these “noble” goals applied to Muslims but not to the Christians. It should be noted that de-Christianization took place in Iraq as well, which was also all but ignored by the media.

It appears that in order to get informed the American public needs to read The Seoul Times and other similar sources of information based on facts rather than the propaganda. Not only that the American mainstream media has not been reporting ugly events in now decade old UN/NATO protectorate of Kosovo but they are hiding identity of Albanian and Bosnian Muslims criminals for the crimes committed in the U.S. As an example, there is the case of “Fort Dix Six,” sentenced for plotting to blow up U.S. Army base in New Jersey in order “to kill as many soldiers as possible.” Four of them are Albanians, but the media reported that they were Yugoslavs. Second example, Bosnian Muslim Sulejman Talovic went on a shooting spree at a Utah shopping mall, killing five and wounding four. He was identified as a “Bosnian.” On the other hand media has never failed to report that Dr. Karadzic or General Mladic are Bosnian Serbs. Third, one of seven recently arrested terrorists, charged with plotting to wage jihad, is a Bosnian Muslim (Anes Subasic) and another is Kosovo Albanian (Hysen Sherifi). The media reported that they were naturalized American citizens.

A Conclusion

Obama has committed the country to yet another unwinnable war despite the biggest economic downturn since the Great Depression including the mushrooming deficit. The Brits and the Soviets were defeated in Afghanistan, so why would the U.S. do any better? Can Obama convince the nation that additional hundreds of billions of dollars should be spent and additional hundreds of young American lives sacrificed? As was the case with Lyndon Johnston in Vietnam and George Bush in Iraq, the Afghan war will likely hold his administration hostage.

To make already bad things worse, Obama has surrounded himself with Clintonites with their foreign policy disasters claimed to be successes. One of the worst is the partnership with radical Islam in the Balkans used by Islamists as a staging ground for jihad against the rest of Europe as well as the U.S. including 9/11.

Vojin Joksimovich, Ph.D is a nuclear physicist and an author of a new book called Kosovo is Serbia.

Tags: Vojin Joksimovich

Albania wants to consolidate Balkan conquests

2009-10-08T01:41:00.000-07:00

Albania seeks consolidation of Balkan conquests
Oct 6, 2009
Albanian Prime Minister Sali Berisha said Monday that the time has come to consolidate territorial acquisitions that ethnic Albanian extremists made throughout the Balkans, although in a statement today Berisha is denying he said that and instead claims that Albania and the Kosovo Albanian separatists seek EU membership.

Berisha now says the “national ideal of the Albanians is the European ideal.”

Ethnic Albanian separatist extremists are in control of the Serbian Kosovo province and the western portion of the FYRO Macedonia whose renaming into Iliria is being delayed.

In both regions, ethnic Albanians are settlers that have since 1980s taken up to the struggle to acquire the territory for themselves. Many of them are illegal migrants.

Kosovo Albanian separatists have protested to the FYRO Macedonia for pointing to the history of their presence in those regions and told the Macedonia government that they should not “seek to make enemies”.

Fragile peace persists in FYRO Macedonia.

Russia’s Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov expressed great concern on Monday over the recent statement by Albanian Prime Minister Sali Berisha about a need for a unification of all Albanians.

At the press conference after his meeting with Serbia’s Foreign Minister Vuk Jeremic, Lavrov pointed out Belgrade’s consistently constructive position and a non-constructive attitude of the authorities in Pristina concerning the situation in Kosovo reports Tanjug.

October 6, 2009
SERBIANNA

Tags: Albania

Decani Monastery Threatened!!!

2009-09-29T20:42:00.000-07:00

Kosovo Albanians threaten Serb monastery
Sep 28, 2009
A veteran of the Kosovo Albanian terrorist group, the KLA, has warned that his group will not be held responsible for vandalism that they may inflict on the thousands year old Dechani Monastery because, says the veteran Abdia Muskoljay, the church has allegedly usurped the property that belongs to the Albanians.

“The monastery is functioning normally, but our position that threats should not be tolerated,” said Father Sava of the Dechani monastery.

Visoki Dechani

He notes that the Italian NATO troops in the Kosovo province have taken Muskoljay’s threats seriously and strengthened the security around the Monastery.

Father Sava urged the international community to pressure the ethnic Albanian separatist government in Kosovo to put an end to the threats and violence of Albanian extremists.

Muskoljay wants that the Monastery end the construction of a wall near the monastery and that that the remains be demolished otherwise “the veterans of the KLA will not be held responsible for the escalation of the situation.”

On the web site www.albaniapress.com Muskoljay has accused the Monastery for usurping the Monastery’s land and that, Muskoljay says, the monastery’s property allegedly belongs to an ethnic Albanian called Haka Kuchi.

Father Sava said that such statements incite the spirit of hate and ethnic and religious intolerance.

Kosovo ethnic Albanians are nearly all Muslim and Afghanistan was the first country to recognize the illegal declaration of independence.

Father Sava says that the construction of the wall will continue once the EU mission convinces the separatist government to stop the threats of violence against the Monastery.

EU is in Serbia’s Kosovo province to provide law and order and some ethnic Albanian separatist groups have violently attacked the EU mission because of that.

September 28, 2009
SERBIANNA

Tags: Islamic terror, Kosovo, Serbia

2009-08-28T06:13:00.001-07:00

August 28, 2009
A Miracle in Washington D.C.

August 27, 2009
Washington D.C.: "Hawaiian" Myrrh-Streaming Icon of the Mother of God visits St. John the Baptist Cathedral

By the Grace of God on August 22 & 23, 2009 the Russian Orthodox Cathedral of St. John the Baptist was blessed by the presence of a new great Sacred Image – the “Hawaiian” Myrrh-Streaming Icon of the Theotokos. This icon is a copy of the Montreal Iveron Myrrh-Streaming Icon of the Mother of God which for 15 years was safeguarded by Brother Jose (Joseph) Munos-Cortes. Brother Jose suffered a martyric death in 1997 in Athens, Greece and his remains were found to be incorrupt during his burial 15 days later in Holy Trinity Monastery in Jordanville, New York.

The “Hawaiian” Myrrh-Streaming Icon of the Theotokos is much smaller than the original Iveron icon. Made in Russia the Hawaiian icon is a 7” x 9” paper reproduction laminated on a board one inch thick. Fr. Anatole Levin, the rector of the ROCOR mission in Honolulu purchased this icon in a church bookstore in Toronto, Canada a few years ago and gave it as a gift to his parishioner Reader Nectarios Yangson.

In the fall of 2007 Nectarios’ Icon began to copiously stream myrrh. A more detailed account of this miracle can be found on the site of the ROCOR in Honolulu http://orthodoxhawaii.org/icons.html

On August 22, 2009 the parishioners of St. John the Baptist Cathedral, Washington DC, piously awaited the arrival of the Icon in time for the English Vigil service. However the flight from New York was delayed due to inclement weather, allowing time for the church to be filled up with the faithful from other parishes in Washington and the environs, all of whom were waiting patiently to see and pray before the icon.

Many faithful went to confession desiring to meet the Most Holy Image of the Mother of God with a cleaned conscience. The Holy Icon finally arrived during the reading of the Six Psalms during the Slavonic Vigil. Many of those who attended the English Vigil remained for the Slavonic service in order to get a chance to venerate the Icon and be anointed with its Holy Myrrh, which poured forth from many spots on the Icon throughout the service.

After the service Matushka and I spent hours conversing with Nectarios, inquiring about the Miracle, his life, about Orthodoxy in Hawaii and answered many of his questions about Brother Jose Munos-Cortes, with whom Nectarios was not acquainted personally, but whose memory he deeply honors. Nectarios is convinced that the new Iveron Icon is in some mysterious way associated with Brother Jose and his selfless service to the Mother of God and his guardianship of the Montreal Icon.

On Sunday, August 23rd the Icon was present at both liturgies in an overflowing church. At each liturgy we communed the faithful from two chalices, as is our usual practice, but on this day the number of communicants had swollen to fill the entire Church, it was reminiscent of Holy Pascha.

At the early English Liturgy, Fr. John Johnson in his homily outlined the foundations Orthodox veneration of the Theotokos. At the Slavonic liturgy Fr. Victor Potapov reminded the faithful the words of the martyred Br. Jose Munos-Cortes who always said that the “greatest miracle of the Myrrh-Streaming Icon is not so much the manifestation of the physical myrrh, so much as the grace that it gives people to change their lives for the better.”

After both Liturgies commemorative molebens were served and all those present were anointed with the Holy Myrrh and given a piece of cotton dipped in the heavenly oil.

Many of the faithful did not want to leave the church; others came to our cathedral after Divine services in their own parishes in order to glorify the Theotokos in their native languages, including a group of local Georgians who read the Akathist in the Georgian language. Despite the fact that we were behind schedule Fr. Alexander Resnikoff was able to take the Icon to visit a number of gravely ill parishioners in Maryland.

At 5:00 PM the faithful gathered at our Iveron Icon Chapel in Rock Creek Cemetery. Here we served a moleben and Akathist to the Mother of God in three languages: English, Slavonic and Greek. The prayer service ended with a solemn procession with the icon around the perimeter of the large Orthodox section of the cemetery.

After prayers at the cemetery Fr. John Johnson took the icon to Virginia to bring comfort to a number of seriously ill parishioners. On Monday, August 24 the new myrrh-streaming icon and its custodian Reader Nectarios Yangston departed for Hawaii via California.

A Miracle at a Distance

On Sunday, August 23rd, after the English liturgy, it occurred to me that there might not be enough myrrh-soaked cotton to distribute to the large number of people gathered in church. I called my Matushka and asked her to bring more cotton to put into the icon kiot to soak up the myrrh pouring from the icon. Matushka remembered that in our attic we had a large role of cotton which belonged to Brother Jose which he never had a chance to use. When she arrived in church, Matushka and Nectarios went into the ponomarka (the room at the side of the altar) to cut off a portion of the dry cotton with the intent of exchanging it with the soaked cotton. They put the new cotton on a silver tray and were about to approach the Icon in the center of the church. At this time the epistle was being read. They stopped on the right kliros to await the end of the Scriptural readings before continuing with their task. The tray with the dry cotton was placed on a small table on the right kliros. When the reading concluded they looked at the cotton which they were preparing to take to the icon and were awe stricken to see that the cotton was filled with Holy Myrrh!

Nectarios and Matushka looked at each other with pious amazement. They came back into the ponomarka and asked an acolyte to call me so that I too could witness to this wondrous sign which was wrought during the Divine Liturgy. In truth, the Mother of God reminded us in a very real and dramatic way that during the Eucharist She, the Heavenly Hosts and the entire Church Triumphant come together in prayer with us, members of the Church Militant to offer the Bloodless Sacrifice.

This large piece of cotton which filled with myrrh at a distance from the Miraculous Icon is now kept in our cathedral as sacred relic. In truth, Great art Thou o Lord, and marvelous art Thy works and there is no word which suffices to hymn Thy wonders!

Miraculous Healings

I was told of at least three healings in our parish which occurred after anointing with the Holy Myrrh from the “Hawaiian” Icon of the Theotokos. The names of all three persons who received these healings are known to me.

Acute eye pain that an elderly Serbian woman was experiencing for days went away after she was anointed with the myrrh. Another woman, a Georgian, was instantly relieved of a toothache.

A member of our Parish Council was experiencing acute pain as a result of kidney stones. The pain was so great that he had to miss the Sunday Divine Liturgy and was ready to call an ambulance. After church his wife brought him some myrrh-soaked cotton from the Icon and anointed him. The pain immediately subsided.

A New Riza for the Icon Parishioner Irina Pradhan-DelCastillo is presently working on the embellishment of our iconostasis with silver basma and produced in the same style a silver frame for the reliquary of St. John of Shanghai and San Francisco (the founder of our community in Washington, DC). Irina was asked by Reader Nectarios and a group of believers to make a silver riza for the Hawaiian Icon. As a personal gift to the Mother of God, Irina obliged and made a beautiful silver riza from the silver material, supplied by our cathedral and covered it with pearls and a number of semi-precious stones. She made the riza in Mexico, where she spends part of the year with her Mexican husband. When she heard that the Hawaiian Icon was coming to Washington DC she sent the riza to our Cathedral via UPS hoping that it would arrive in time to put it on the Icon. Unfortunately the riza arrived after Nectarios had left for home. The new riza will be blessed in our Cathedral on the feast of the Dormition of the Mother of God and will be sent to Hawaii next week. *** Parishioners of the Russian Orthodox Cathedral of St. John the Baptist and other Orthodox Christians in Washington will remember the grace-filled days of August 22 and 23 for a long, long time. Glory and thanks be to God for all things! May the Holy Theotokos protect the servant of God Nectarios from all harm and grant him many years.

Unfinished Business In Kosovo

2009-08-25T18:11:00.000-07:00

Unfinished Business in the Balkans
Aug 12, 2009
By D. HUNTER HAYNES | For the past several years, the unresolved issues in Bosnia-Herzegovina and Kosovo have, in large part, been delegated to Europe, while the US busied itself with more pressing matters in Afghanistan and Iraq. That is about to change and the American people should be very concerned.

During his recent trip to Bosnia and Serbia, Vice-President Biden made it clear that the Obama administration is about to reclaim the leading role in the implementation of the Balkan’s European assimilation. The new guard in Washington is not pleased with the failure of Balkan integration into the Western political scene, so—once again—the US is about to delve into the inter-ethnic complexities of the Powder Keg of Europe.

U.S. Vice President Joe Biden, left, hands with Serbia's President Boris Tadic, in Belgrade, Serbia, Wednesday, May 20, 2009.

According to Mr. Biden, the greatest obstacle to a secure and prosperous future in Bosnia and Kosovo appears to be the nationalistic tendencies of certain people. For some strange reason, they will not “forget the past and embrace the future.” Joe Biden has no tolerance for independent-minded holdouts—who he derisively labels “nationalists.”

According to the plan of liberals and neocons alike, those who refuse to consign themselves to the relativistic, multiculturalism of the West must be identified, marginalized, and eventually removed from the political process altogether. Simply stated, there is no room for patriotism, ethnic identity, culture, and traditional Christianity in today’s US-EU fraternity. Unfortunately for Washington and Brussels, not everyone in Bosnia, Serbia, and Kosovo has resigned himself to abject humanism and the betrayal of God and country.

Mr. Biden believes that Kosovo independence is irreversible and critically important to the region’s stability and progress. He is wrong on all counts. Kosovo independence is fully reversible and until that happens there will be no lasting stability or progress anywhere in the Balkans. The familiar saying, “It all began in Kosovo and it will end in Kosovo,” still holds true. By no means is the new, pseudo-state of Kosovo an end—it is only a temporary and unfortunate distraction on the path towards a lasting and just solution.

Kosovo is a land where local myth negates the historical facts and strategic plans of Western scholars and policy makers, and forms a higher reality for the people—a reality that creates heroes and martyrs, and propels a seemingly peaceful land into violence overnight. Only the Serbs and the ethnic Albanians can shape a new myth, a new “believable” history that will allow them to exist in the same country yet retain their own identities. Imposed cultural amalgamation and other outside manipulations will only end in resentment—first for the Serbs and later for the Albanians.

If this resentment leads to violence—and the winds are shifting in that direction—the US will not have the diplomatic, military or economic means to deal with the crisis. The 16,000 NATO troops in Kosovo, including 1,600 US military personnel, will find themselves bogged down in yet another drawn-out conflict, fraught with the explosive ingredients of ethnicity and faith, which have been needlessly and recklessly polarized by the West.

Our nation, the European Union, and other NATO member countries have made—and continue to make—grievous errors in Balkan policy. We are not, however, past the point of no return. It is possible to halt this decent into perdition and repair the damage done, but we must do so without the “excessive partiality for one foreign nation, and excessive dislike of another”—which, unfortunately, has defined our policy to date.

It is in the American interest to reconsider the matter of Kosovo independence and our foreign policy in the region. There is a tremendous opportunity before us as a nation to restore our diplomatic standing in the international community, repair damaged relations with the Russian Federation, and at the same time prove to our own citizenry that we have not completely abandoned the traditional values of our country.

D. Hunter Haynes is the Founder & President of the Orthodox Christian Advocacy Institute (OCAI). He served as a Police Commander in southern Serbia, as part of the United Nations Mission in Kosovo in 2001.

Tags: D. Hunter Haynes

Believe With Faith and Express Faith in Your Life

2009-08-13T04:09:00.000-07:00

13.08.2009.
Source: Diocese of Ras-Prizren and Kosovo-Metohija

Bishop Artemije: "Yes, Lord, we believe!"

In distant times God heard the prayer of the prophet Elijah to punish his people for their idolatry. Today God still hears the prayers of His faithful servants and often brings punishment to our people. He does so not because He does not love us, nor because He wants to destroy us, or consume us, but because He wants us to return to His presence. The whole Serbian people, brothers and sisters, had gone astray and swerved from the real devotion. For more than fifty years, our people had been wandering about the desert of this world disregarding the practice of their Orthodox faith and the celebration of their Slava (a feast day) and gradually losing their previous honorability and heroism. Thus, God wanted to bring us back to His presence. For the last ten years or so we have experienced sufferings wherever we lived, primarily in Kosovo and Metohija. God did not make us suffer because He does not love us, but because He loves us very much and awaits our correction. Our Father wants us to follow St. Prophet Elijah in his strong faith and fervor, and be true sons of St. Sava and St. Knez Lazar. It is that kind of life that leads to Heavenly Kingdom, our heavenly homeland. It is important for us to understand the purpose of our generation’s suffering, so as to direct our ways to God. As once Elijah's people corrected their ways and God sent them rain from the sky, thus God can send us His mercy if we direct our ways to Him. He is willing to hear our prayers. For our Father knows what things we have need of before we ask Him. Yet, it is necessary that we should display our faith in God since Christ during His earth life-time did many miracles and healed all sorts of sicknesses and diseases among people, but He would always ask people: "Believe you that I am able to do this?" (Mt 9:28). Not until they confessed their faith did the miracles occur. God is asking us today, "Do you believe you may be set free in Kosovo and Metohija? Do you believe that Kosovo and Metohija will remain to be what it has been for centuries?" Our answer should be, "Yes, Lord, we do." But not mere tongue confession, rather life, faith and deed confession. At that very moment we will hear the Lord saying, "According to your faith be it to you." (Mt 9:29) As miracles occurred in the past they may reoccur today. Just have faith and trust in God and you will witness His miracles.

The address of His Grace (an extract)
St. prophet Elijah holiday in Leshak, 2009

Bishop Artemije Withholds Blessing For Biden's Visit to Decani

2009-05-20T07:56:00.000-07:00

May 20, 2009.

Source: Diocese of Ras-Prizren and Kosovo-Metohija

DEÈANI AND BONDSTEEL

First Tadiæ, now Biden

The American Vice President Joseph Biden is planning to visit Monastery Deèani on May 21, 2009, as reported by the US Embassy in Priština.

His Grace Artemije, Ruling Bishop of the Diocese of Ras and Prizren, has decided not to give his permission for this visit to take place.

The American Vice President comes to visit Kosovo as an independent state and so confirm the forcible separation of a part of the territory of the sovereign state of Serbia and handing it over to Albanian terrorists, who have committed with impunity numberless crimes against the Serbian people, Serbian property and Serbian religious and cultural heritage.

By doing so, does Joseph Biden wish to confirm also that Monastery Deèani in Kosovo-Metohija is an American base like Bondsteel?

Unfortunately, under its present administration Monastery Deèani has become known for activities detrimental to Serbian interests which have, in a sense, transformed it into a bastion of anti Serbian activities in Kosovo-Metohija, as is confirmed by this visit.

In order to put an end to, and refute, activities such as these on the part of Monastery Deèani, Bishop Artemije has adopted the decision mentioned above.

Press Department Diocese of Ras and Prizren

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Sacred and Secular History of Kosovo Rewritten?

2009-05-02T15:41:00.000-07:00

History books for Kosovo Serbs to be rewritten
Apr 28, 2009
Kosovo Serbs will soon be forced to learn history that is rewritten according to the so-called Ahtisaari Plan which Serbia did not accept nor has that plan passed the UN Security Council.

The so-called ministry for education of the ethnic Albanian separatist government plans to re-examine history textbooks written in Serbian and come up with suggestion on how to rewrite them.

“The purpose, function and mandate of the commission has been foreseen by the Ahtisaari Plan. According to it, it is the task of the commission to review the educational program in Serbian language and to change it in line with the constitution of Kosovo,” said Enver Hodzaj who was placed in charge of the commission.

The so-called constitution of Kosovo believes that they are an independent sovereign country while the separatist ethnic Albanian government has widely disseminated historical myths that Albanians are allegedly the original Illyrian inhabitants while Serbs, whom separatists consider to be intruders, have allegedly built their churches on top of the ancient Illyrian temples. Some ethnic Albanian separatists, on the other hand, believe that they allegedly predate even the Illyrians and believe that they are the descendants of Dardanians.

Hundreds of Serbian churches have been demolished by the ethnic Albanian separatists since 1999 while the province has been emptied out of ethnic Serbs.

EU representative in Kosovo, Pieter Feith said that people have a right to education in their own language and expressed support for the ethnic Albanian separatist commission to rewrite the history books for the Serbs.

“This allows the communities to develop and save their tradition as well as their history,” said Feith.

EU also supports the initiative to rewrite history for Serbs.

Members of the commission are Agim Hiseni, Nehat Mustafa, Armend Tahisuljaj, Ivan Cukalovic, Bratisav Zrzevic, Ljubisa Sipic and Kristoff Predier.

April 28, 2009
SERBIANNA

Tags: Kosovo

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Bishop Artemije Demands Excavation at Monastery Be Stopped

2009-04-29T12:33:00.000-07:00

Bishop Artemije demands that excavation works be stopped‏
From: Diocese of Ras-Prizren and Kosovo-Metohija (info@eparhija-prizren.com)

April 28, 2009.

Source: Diocese of Ras-Prizren and Kosovo-Metohija

COMMUNIQUE

BISHOP ARTEMIJE DEMANDS THAT EXCAVATION WORKS BE STOPPED

Usurpation of property rights at Monastery Graèanica

Without knowledge or permission of His Grace Artemije, Bishop of Raška-Prizren and Kosovo-Metohija, work is in progress on the excavation for pylons of the aerial power distribution network on the property of Monastery Graèanica. The work is being carried out by illegal institutions in Kosovo-Metohija.

In addition to violating internationally recognized property rights and threatening the safety of a religious and cultural site of exceptional significance for the Republic of Serbia, a site, moreover, included in the List of cultural monuments and natural heritage of the world, this act shows the extent of lawlessness which weighs heavily on Kosovo-Metohija.

Bishop Artemije has written to the Special Representative of the UN Secretary General, Mr. Zanier, demanding the immediate stoppage of works and initiating proceedings against person or persons responsible for the usurpation of the Monastery property.

Bishop Artemije has also written to the Minister of Mining and Power of the Republic of Serbia, Dr. Škundriæ expecting urgent intervention on the part of that Ministry.

Patriarch Pavle's Paschal Epistle

2009-04-17T06:09:00.000-07:00

Patriarchal Paschal Encyclical 2009 p. 1 of 5
The Serbian Orthodox Church to her spiritual children at Pascha, 2009
P A V L E
By the grace of God
Orthodox Archbishop of Pec, Metropolitan of Belgrade-Karlovci and Serbian Patriarch, with the all the Hierarchs of the Serbian Orthodox Church – to all the clergy, monastics, and all the sons and daughters of our Holy Church: grace, mercy and peace from God the Father, and our Lord Jesus Christ, and the Holy Spirit, with the joyous Paschal greeting:
CHRIST IS RISEN!
INDEED HE IS RISEN!
“Let us call ‘Brothers’ even those who hate us’
and forgive all by the resurrection.”
(Paschal hymn)
This year as well during these spring days, dear brothers and sisters, with the same joy we celebrate the greatest Feast Day of God’s Church, the Resurrection of Christ the Savior. Every year at this time, when the mysterious force of life awakens deadened nature, the glory of the Resurrected Lord awakens even in us a brighter, more holy and happier life. Today exalted thoughts spring forth, wonderful feelings are born, and a holy and extraordinary disposition overcomes us. With the resurrected Lord we also are raised up into a higher and more meaningful life. The victorious bliss of eternal life given to us by our Resurrected Redeemer and Savior shines forth in our hearts. Just as in that mysterious beginning at God’s Word the world was called into existence, and in the world life, so in like manner by His Divine power the Son of God, Jesus Christ, resurrected from the dead. This great event is mystical as is the creation of the world; it is miraculous and exalted as a real song of joy resounding throughout all God’s creation. Moreover, as the fulfillment of the first creation and as a new creation, it is even more miraculous and greater than the first creation and than all historical events.
Many centuries separate us from that bright Jerusalem dawn, when the holy Myrrhbearing women beheld the empty tomb. They came to anoint the dead body of their Teacher; to pour their tears upon it and to warm up the cold stones of the grave with their love, their faithfulness and devotion. They were at the cross of the Crucified Savior when all, except His Mother and one of the disciples, forsook Him. Even from a distance they followed the last moments of the greatest Teacher.
Patriarchal Paschal Encyclical 2009 p. 2 of 5
They did not forsake Him even when He died. That is why they were made worthy to be the first witnesses and the first messengers of the Resurrection; the first celebrants of the new life in the Resurrected Lord. Today the tender admonition uttered to the women by the Lord’s angel from the stone at the tomb resonates in our ears: “Why do you seek the living among the dead? He is not here, He is risen!” (Luke 24:5-6) And the frightened women, there in the garden where the tomb was, were the first ones to meet the Resurrected Lord. He sent them to Galilee to tell the disciples and to gladden them with the joyous news that they too would see Him (cf. Mark 16:7). And behold, dear children of God, this Resurrectional joy of ours today comes from that meeting with the Resurrected Lord, Who resurrected for us and instilled the joy of new life in all His followers and all the confessors of His Divine knowledge.
In the same way, the centuries separate us from the twilight of that Jerusalem day when the Resurrected Lord appeared to His followers, Cleopas and the other disciple. Frightened, they were hurrying from Jerusalem to Emmaus, so as to hide because of fear of the Jews. Even though they were not as courageous as the myrrhbearing women, they were made worthy of meeting with the Resurrected Lord. He hid His former image so that they could not recognize Him. But when He left them after a conversation about that which had taken place in Jerusalem and after the breaking of the bread, they confessed to one another how “their hearts were burning” while He was with them (cf. Luke 24:13-32). That same holy flame that burned in the hearts of Christ’s two disciples on the road to Emmaus burns even today in us as we celebrate this Feast of Feasts, as we too experience a spiritual meeting with the invisible Vanquisher of death. That same fire warmed and warms God’s Church in every period of her history. Did He not Himself say: “I have come to send fire upon the earth” (Luke 12: 49). That same holy fire warmed our ancestors and enlightened their lives in the dungeons of other centuries. They lived without homes for a long time, without homesteads, without freedom, in extreme insecurity, without possessions and property, as do many today who have been forced to leave their homesteads, but always with faith in the resurrected Lord, with the faith in the victory of justice and truth and with faith in the resurrection.
Furthermore, long centuries separate us from that first resurrectional evening, when the Resurrected Lord for the first time appeared to His frightened and disappointed disciples, and uttered a greeting of encouragement: “Peace be unto you!” (John 20:19). In an instant He returned peace to them, resurrecting their faith in Him and in His Divine dispensation. If the Son of God did not rise again, the history of Christianity would have been finished with His last words on the Cross: “It is finished!” (John 20:30). But He did rise again, and in the name of that truth His disciples joyfully gave up their lives for Him. Bearing this great truth, His
Patriarchal Paschal Encyclical 2009 p. 3 of 5
Church has gone into victorious battle throughout the world, that without shedding blood she may conquer her numerous armed-to-the-teeth enemies.
“Why do you seek the living among the dead?” (Luke 24:5), the angel of the Lord admonished the holy Myrrhbearing Women who came to the tomb, as you have heard. They came to the tomb thirsty for truth and eternal life. And today millions and millions of spiritually impoverished and morally ravaged people, enthralled with the grandeur of passing things, live in this world as in a cold tomb. Is the world not becoming a factory and a market place of false brilliance and passing values? Is it not often said today that a man can walk peacefully upon this earth without heaven? It is as if contemporary man has climbed the heights of his Babylonian tower, confident in his own knowledge, but he is often petty, selfish, aggressive, and full of evil intentions that threaten his tower and his survival. We are afraid that this our civilization will too late remember Christ’s words: “Without me you can do nothing” (John 15:5).
Our Savior became man so that we might become divine. He was willing to die on the cross in order to save mankind from their sins. He rose again from the dead in order to give us eternal life. He made death just another event in life – a life that knows no end. When Pilate judged the Savior, he had neither the spiritual strength nor the elevated mind to recognize in Him the Son of God. Despite all of this, the beauty of the human image of the suffering Savior could not be hidden before his eyes as he pronounced his sentence: “Behold, the man!” –to Jesus’ accusers (John 19:5). With this he attempted to influence, as much as possible, the conscience of the insensible murderers of Christ. He believed that His human brilliance would waver some of them.
We pray to our Resurrected Lord that in us may be resurrected the image of the original human nature, which today oftentimes is distorted, masked and smeared with numerous faults and sins. We pray that in us everyone may recognize people enlightened with His eternal life, be they wealthy or poor, be they in a great or small position or place. Our time is currently faced with a material crisis, but we currently face a greater crisis, that of morals and character. We will rejoice if everyone who looks upon us can say: Here is a man! – so that everyone, friend or enemy, judge or accuser, may identify in us a true and authentic human being. Let us, dear brothers and sisters, preserve our human dignity, which was so exalted by our Resurrected Son of God. Let us preserve faith in the Resurrected Lord, love towards our neighbors, and truth and justice; a love towards everything good for which people yearn, but which without the help of the Resurrected Lord and His Gospel is not achievable. Let us pray to the Resurrected Lord and let us implore Him, as did the two disciples who traveled on the road to Emmaus, to stay with us. Let us pray that we may rejoice in Him; that we may draw strength from Him; that
Patriarchal Paschal Encyclical 2009 p. 4 of 5
we may be spiritually raised on high, so that we may not be overcome and carried away by the muddy floodwaters of our times.
Conveying this our message to all of our brothers and sisters, and most especially remembering today our faithful in Kosovo and Metohija, as well as our faithful worldwide, on all continents where Serbian Orthodox and all Orthodox Christians today celebrate the Resurrection of Christ, we, your Patriarch and all the Hierarchs of the Serbian Church, greet you with the greeting of Joy and New Life,
Christ Is Risen!
Indeed He Is Risen!
Given at the Serbian Patriarchate in Belgrade at Pascha 2009.
Your prayerful intercessors before the Risen Lord:
Archbishop of Pec, Metropolitan of Belgrade-Karlovci and Serbian Patriarch PAVLE with all the hierarchs of the Serbian Orthodox Church.
Metropolitan of Zagreb and Ljubljana JOVAN Metropolitan of Montenegro and the Coastlands AMPHILOHIJE Metropolitan of Midwestern America CHRISTOPHER Metropolitan of Dabro-Bosna NIKOLAJ
Bishop of Sabac-Valjevo LAVRENTIJE Bishop of Nis IRINEJ Bishop of Zvornik-Tuzla VASILIJE Bishop of Srem VASILIJE Bishop of Banja Luka JEFREM Bishop of Budim LUKIJAN Bishop of Canada GEORGIJE Bishop of Banat NIKANOR Bishop for America and Canada of the New Gracanica Metropolitanate LONGIN Bishop of Eastern America MITROPHAN Bishop of Zica CHRYSOSTOM Bishop of Backa IRINEJ Bishop of Great Britain and Scandinavia DOSITEJ Bishop of Ras and Prizren ARTEMIJE Bishop of Bihac and Petrovac CHRYSOSTOM Bishop of Osijek and Baranja LUKIJAN Bishop of Central Europe CONSTANTINE Bishop of Western Europe LUKA Bishop of Timok JUSTIN Bishop of Vranje PAHOMIJE Bishop of Sumadija JOVAN Bishop of Slavonia SAVA
Patriarchal Paschal Encyclical 2009 p. 5 of 5
Bishop of Branicevo IGNATIJE Bishop of Milesevo FILARET Bishop of Dalmatia FOTIJE Bishop of Budimlje and Niksic JOANIKIJE Bishop of Zahumlje and Hercegovina GRIGORIJE Bishop of Valjevo MILUTIN
Bishop of Western America MAXIM Bishop of Gornji Karlovac GERASIM
Bishop of Australia and New Zealand IRINEJ
Retired Bishop of Zahumlje and Hercegovina ATANASIJE Vicar Bishop of Hvostno ATANASIJE Vicar Bishop of Jegar PORFIRIJE Vicar Bishop of Lipljan TEODOSIJE Vicar Bishop of Dioclea JOVAN Vicar Bishop of Moravica ANTONIJE
THE ARCHDIOCESE OF OCHRID Archbishop of Ochrid and Metropolitan of Skoplje JOVAN Bishop of Polos and Kumanovo JOAKIM Bishop of Bregal and locum tenens of the Diocese of Bitolj MARKO
Vicar Bishop of Stobija David
[Path of Orthodoxy translation

Serb Organs Taken By Albanians

2009-04-16T18:08:00.000-07:00

Kosovo Albanians tortured Serb civilians
Apr 10, 2009
Former camp prisoner said that the military wing of the Kosovo Albanian separatist government that has been recognized by some western states was involved in torturing civilians in order to sell their organs, reports BBC.

An ethnic Albanian, the former prisoner of the camp at Kukes, in northeastern Albania close to the border with the Serbian province of Kosovo, told the BBC that he witnessed the ethnic Albanian forces torture Serbs to extract their organs while they were claiming to the western press to be victims of an alleged genocide by Serbia.

The man’s testimony was made to the BBC under condition he remained unidentified because he fears that he and his family will be killed by other Albanians.

“His family are terrified for his life,” wrote the BBC of the ethnic Albanian witness who saw the organized separatist Albanian torture of Serbs.

This is the first testimony that the western media has directly linked the current Kosovo Albanian separatist government in this Serbian province with vice such as organ trade that ethnic Albanian separatist have been implicated in.

“Sources told the BBC that Kosovo Serbs… were among an estimated 2,000 who went missing,” wrote the BBC.

BBC wrote that the so-called prime minister of Kosovo, Hashim Thaci, has denied the evidence of involvement in the organized organ trade of Serb bodies.

“Kosovo Prime Minister Hashim Thaci, the former KLA political director, has rejected the allegations,” wrote the BBC.

Most Western powers have recognized the proclamation of independence that these allegedly organ trading ethnic Albanian leaders in Kosovo have made.

The Finnish diplomat Martti Ahtisaari wrote a UN-rejected plan that was seeking to force Serbia to accept a loss of its sovereignty and its territorial integrity.

“When a person is mistreated… he cries out ‘oh mother’ in his own language,” said the Albanian source who heard Serbs being tortured by the Kosovo separatist government forces.

The beatings of Serbs were done in the night.

“The nights were very quiet, so you could hear them crying out… while they were being beaten, or afterwards.” told the witness to the BBC.

Separatists in Kosovo have said that they will assist the EU investigation into the organ trade claiming that they are in no way implicated.

April 10, 2009
SERBIANNA

Tags: Kosovo

No Surrender

2009-04-14T16:20:00.000-07:00

NEMA PREDAJE

Omladina Cikaga , sa sajtom "Cikaski Srbi", organizuje Vaskrsnju humanitarnu akciju za pomoc Srbima na Kosmetu pod nazivom Nema predaje uz blagoslov Srpske pravoslavne crkve. Planira se da akcija krene 10-og aprila 2009 .

Cilj akcije je sakupljanje novca za pomoc Srbima na Kosmetu, kao i budjenje nacionalne svesti kod Srba u Americi.

Plan ove humanitarne akcije je da se na jednostavan i efikasan nacin prikupi novac distribucijom silikonskih narukvica u bojama srpske trobojke sa natpisom : KOSOVO IS SERBIA ! www.NemaPredaje.net . Za to nam treba hiljadu pojedinaca koji bi svojom donacijom od 10 dolara podrzali ovu akciju i time pomogli one kojima je pomoc najpotrebnija – nasim Srbima na Kosmetu. Narukvice bi trebalo da se distribuiraju uz pomoc crkve, srpskih biznisa u Americi i internet prezentacija. Rezultati akcije ce biti objavljeni na internet stranici nase akcije “ Nema predaje” kao i fotografije sa Kosmeta kada se novac bude predavao.

Za vise informacija pogledajte sajt www.NemaPredaje.Net i www.CikaskiSrbi.com ,
kontakt E-Mail: info@NemaPredaje.net

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------

NO SURRENDER

Serbian youth of Chicago, together with the website "Cikaski Srbi" (Chicago Serbs) is starting Easter Charity action to help the Serbs in Kosovo and Metohija under the title " No Surrender-Nema Predaje" with blessing of the Serbian Orthodox Church. This action begins on 10th of April 2009.

The Purpose of action is to collect money to help the Serbs in Kosovo and Metohija,and a revival of national consciousness of the Serbs in America.

The humanitarian plan of this action is a simple and effective way to collect money by distribution of silicone bracelets in colors of Serbian flag with the inscription: KOSOVO IS SERBIA! www.NemaPredaje.net . For this action we need thousand of individuals with their donation of 10 dollars to support this action and help those who help need the most - our Serbs in Kosovo. Bracelets should be distributed with the help of the church, the Serbian businesses in the United States and Website presentations. Results of action will be published on the web page of our actions, "No Surrender" as well as photos from Kosovo when the money is donated.

For more information, see the website www.NemaPredaje.Net and www.ChicagoSerbs.info ,
E-Mail: info@NemaPredaje.net

Serbs in Kosovo Not Allowed to Worship In Reconstructed Churches?

2009-04-14T03:37:00.000-07:00

April 14, 2009.

Source: Diocese of Ras-Prizren and Kosovo-Metohija

The Diocese of Ras-Prizren On the reconstruction of holy sites in accordance with the Memorandum

Reconstruction under the Memorandum gives no legal rights

participating factors

In the pogrom which the Albanians carried out against the Serbian people and Serbian cultural patrimony on March 17 and 18, 2004 Serbian Orthodox sites, churches and monasteries owned by the Diocese of Ras-Prizren were either damaged or destroyed at thirty four separate locations all over Kosovo and Metohija.

In 2005, in accordance with the Memorandum of understanding, signed by the Patriarch of Serbia and so-called the Minister of Culture from Prishtina, the process of reconstruction of these holy places began and is still in progress.

In view of the fact that, as foreseen by the Memorandum, a number of heterogeneous factors are participating in this reconstruction, that the sources of financing are also heterogeneous and that the Holy Synod of Bishops of the Serbian Orthodox Church has accepted several of the sites as completed, the Diocese of Ras-Prizren finds it imperative to make the following facts known to the public.

All the sites included in the process of reconstruction according to the Memorandum were so included without the permission of the Diocese of Ras-Prizren, which is the rightful owner of said sites.

Work on the reconstruction of the Episcopal Palace in Prizren, done without the permission of the Diocese, rightful owner of the sites, has permanently prevented all investors in the reconstruction of the structure from exercising their right to use the sites or any part thereof. All other entities engaged in reconstruction pursuant to the Memorandum are equally prevented from exercising said rights.

The reconstruction of said sites, carried out without the permission of the Diocese, cannot be used by financiers, or other entities engaged in reconstruction according to the Memorandum, as the basis for entering these sites, or any part thereof, in any court register or any property/land register in regard to the funds invested by them for purposes of said reconstruction.

Since the day of the signing of the Memorandum, the fact presented above, namely that reconstruction work was being done without the permission of the rightful owner of the sites together with the implications thereof, has been repeatedly brought to the notice of church and state institutions, as well as institutions of the international community.

A commission appointed by Bishop Artemije in February 2009 has inspected the holy places, which the Holy Synod of Bishops had accepted on September 15, 2008 as reconstructed, and has subimtted a detailed report on them.

Press Department of the Diocese of Ras-Prizren

U.S.A Propaganda?

2009-03-30T13:31:00.000-07:00

Mystery Flash and Big Boom Rattles Virginia
Buzz Up Send
They don't know what did it, but they're pretty sure it is from Russia?

Play Video 13 News, WVEC Hampton Roads – Unknown light and loud boom over Hampton Roads SPACE.com staff

SPACE.com Space.com Staff

space.com – 1 hr 23 mins ago
Editor's Note: This article has been updated. The flash and boom was likely a Russian space rocket. Click here for the update.

A mysterious flash of light and loud boom occurred over the skies of Norfolk and Virginia Beach, Va., on Sunday night, but just what caused the phenomenon is still unknown.

Calls from local residents to 911 began coming in at around 9:45 p.m. EDT, with some people reporting their doors and windows rattled when the boom went off, according to reports from WVEC-TV.

Similar reports in the past often have turned out to involve meteors, which can explode in the atmosphere to create a loud noise and bright flash of light that streaks across the sky. However, often times the source of events like this are not determined.

In a recent scientific first, meteorite fragments of an asteroid that was spotted in space before it exploded over the African desert in October were recently recovered and examined by scientists.

The jury is still out as to what caused Sunday's event.

Local National Weather Service meteorologists have been in touch with the U.S. Navy, Air Force and NASA, but have not heard back these sources and don't know whether they are actively investigating the cause of the boom, said Wakefield NWS forecaster Jeff Lewitsky.

"The only thing we know for sure at this point is that it wasn't meteorologically related," Lewitsky told SPACE.com.

Lewitsky said meteorologists have looked back at their radar and lightning strike data during the time period and didn't find anything that could explain the event. He also said they had received no more reports on the incident and no photos of the light streak have come in.

Officials at Norfolk International Airport had received reports of the light and explosion, but hadn't observed anything out of the ordinary at the airport, according to WVEC-TV.

The National Weather Service told WVEC-TV that the reports of the light and the bang were coming in from Maryland to North Carolina.

The National Weather Service released a statement at 11:17 p.m. Sunday:

"Numerous reports have been called in to this office and into local law enforcement concerning what appeared to be flashes of light in the sky over the Suffolk/Virginia Beach area. We are confident in saying that this was not lightning ... and have been in contact with military and other government agencies to determine the cause. So far ... we have not seen or heard of any damage from this and will continue to inquire as to the cause."

Video: A Meteoric Tale
Meteors and Meteor Showers: The Science
Images: Perseid Meteor Shower
Original Story: Mystery Flash and Big Boom Rattles Virginia

2009-03-30T04:10:00.000-07:00

Explosion blows up Kosovo Serb house
Mar 27, 2009
An explosion went off in the house owned by an ethnic Kosovo Serb woman in which she was not killed but her home suffered substantial damage.

House of Dobrila Aksic was blown up early in the morning in the village of Donja Budriga near city of Gnjilane.

Municipality president Predrag Stojkovic confirmed that her house was bombed in early morning hours and that the ethnic Albanian dominated Kosovo Police Service is investigating.

“Dobrila Aksic lives alone in the house that isolated at the entrance of the village in the direction of the Albanian village called Zegra. Fortunately, no one was injured during the explosion, but the old woman is traumatized and damage to her house was made,” said Stojkovic.

Spokesman for the ethnic Albanian separatist police, Arber Beka, said that the explosion occurred around 3 a.m. on Friday morning.

Dobrila Aksic was likely asleep.

Beka said that criminal unit is investigating.

Police has no evidence of the type of explosive used nor does it have any suspects or a motive.

March 27, 2009
SERBIANNA

Tags: Kosovo

Western Paternalism in Kosovo

2009-03-27T03:00:00.001-07:00

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This article does not take into accounts Holy Russia's acts of humanitarian and spiritual aide to countries in the Balkans, including Greece since before 1389. Please read with care, as it continues to try and bias people against the current goverment leaders of Holy Russia.

Tuesday 24 March 2009
The legacy of Kosovo? International paternalism
The transformation of Kosovo into a colonial-style protectorate exposes the authoritarianism behind Western governments’ ‘ethical’ foreign policies.
Philip Cunliffe

Ten years ago today, the powers of the North Atlantic Treaty Organisation (NATO) launched an 11-week bombing campaign against the then-Yugoslavia, made up of today’s republics of Serbia, Kosovo and Montenegro.

‘Operation Allied Force’ was waged to eject Yugoslav security forces from the breakaway province of Kosovo and thereby protect Kosovo’s Albanian population from a military crackdown. Kosovo declared independence from Serbia just over 13 months ago (17 February 2008), after being administered as a United Nations (UN) protectorate for nearly a decade. What is it that still makes this tiny, impoverished and isolated statelet of two million people important for international affairs today?

If Kosovo is talked about today, it is usually in terms of the problems posed by drug- and people-trafficking in the region, ethnic unrest and the international precedent that Kosovo’s secession may set for other volatile regions. But more important and more insidious than any of these problems is the political legacy of NATO’s 1999 crusade.

Liberals nostalgically hark back to NATO’s 1999 campaign as exemplifying a more innocent era of human rights, before the dastardly American neocons subverted cosmopolitan human rights with their schemes to dominate the Middle East. At the time, NATO’s violation of Yugoslav sovereignty was defended as a just war that transcended national defence and strategic necessity in favour of the moral goal of halting genocide against the Kosovo Albanians. Those who opposed the NATO campaign were tarred as apologists for Serbian nationalism more concerned with the legal niceties of states’ rights rather than the needs of suffering humanity.

As things turned out, the ‘genocide’ proved to be as bogus as Saddam Hussein’s weapons of mass destruction, a fabrication of NATO propaganda (see The rise of the laptop bombardier, by Philip Hammond). While Serbia was subjected to a devastating bombing campaign, and eventually dismembered as a country, the post-1999 history of Kosovo makes it apparent that the Western alliance is no ally of the Kosovo Albanians either. The Western alliance placed Kosovo under a UN protectorate, which has since metamorphosed into a European Union (EU) protectorate to ‘supervise’ Kosovo’s independence since last year. The conclusion of these developments can only be that dictatorship did not disappear from Europe with the fall of the Berlin Wall: NATO, the UN and the EU have re-established autocracy as a legitimate form of government in Europe by imposing internationally appointed governor-generals to rule over protectorates in the Balkans.

As I have discussed previously on spiked, the EU-managed system of ‘supervised independence’ undermines the idea of self-determination more thoroughly than outright national oppression. The very premise of ‘supervised independence’ is to concede that true national independence is an unworkable and undesirable goal that must be renounced in favour of petty freedoms to be enjoyed under EU oversight. What is more, ‘supervised independence’ establishes Kosovo’s dependence on the international community in perpetuity.

Under the system of old-style colonialism and trusteeship, imperialist powers staved off criticism by holding independence aloft as a distant but desirable goal for the colonised peoples. The new type of trusteeship on display in Kosovo is more insidious: Kosovo’s declaration of independence and its simultaneous embrace of EU oversight effectively denies that trusteeship and independence are mutually exclusive conditions. The consignment of Kosovo to the political limbo of trusteeship is consistent with the NATO campaign 10 years ago. For it was ultimately not a campaign waged for freedom and justice, but to defend the most minimal and basic rights of Kosovo’s Albanian population as victims of oppression. Victims by their nature lack the capacity to control their fate; denying self-determination to them is entirely consistent with rescuing them from their victimisers.

This new strain of international paternalism has been consolidated since the Kosovo War. Two examples serve to illustrate some of the most worrying trends to emerge from the conflict. The first is the international redefinition of the legitimacy and authority of state power. It was in response to the Kosovo conflict that the Canadian government sponsored the acclaimed International Commission on Intervention and State Sovereignty, which promoted the doctrine of the ‘responsibility to protect’ (often known as ‘R2P’). This doctrine was offered as a way of reconciling the function of states with the human rights of individuals. The doctrine maintains that if a state is unable or unwilling to uphold its duty of protection to its people, then this duty falls upon the international community.

Having been unanimously endorsed by the UN World Summit of 2005, the embrace of this doctrine by states the world over shows that states are happy to put themselves forward as protectors of their peoples. By elevating the provision of security as the ultimate end of politics, the R2P doctrine provides states with a convenient means of diluting the idea that the will of the people is the supreme justification for state power. While claiming to scale back the excesses of humanitarian intervention, the R2P doctrine solidifies its basic premise: people are redefined as the passive recipients of security provided by external agencies over which they have little control. The people’s sovereignty is sacrificed in favour of boosting state power.

The legacy of Kosovo was also in display in the Russian-Georgian war of 2008. The Russian invasion of Georgia and its subsequent recognition of the breakaway enclaves of South Ossetia and Abkhazia was met with outrage in the West. But Russia only defended its war effort along the lines adopted by the Western alliance back in 1999. Russian protection of the two enclaves was justified as a humanitarian intervention against a Georgian campaign of ethnic cleansing. Russia’s subsequent recognition of the two breakaway enclaves has made them much like Kosovo – diplomatically isolated statelets dependent on foreign largesse for their political survival.

Given Russia’s opposition to the NATO campaign in 1999, its belated and opportunistic embrace of humanitarian intervention illustrates just how widespread the legacy of Kosovo is – in particular, the idea that great powers can legitimately pose as the protectors of small and weak nations. Russia’s claim to have a greater moral authority in these matters than the Western alliance has been exposed: it is not the principled defence of sovereignty that interests the Russian government, but only Russian sovereignty.

These two examples show that, through humanitarian intervention, the promotion of cosmopolitan human rights has come full circle. From a credo for the protection of oppressed minorities and suffering humanity against the depredations of states, human rights have become a justification for imperialism and the paternalistic exercise of states’ power over their own populations. The cynical response to this – that all idealism inevitably becomes a cover for the extension of state power – would miss the mark here. Such a cynical response would only let the liberal interventionists off the hook, allowing them to fall back on the position of being starry-eyed but impractical cosmopolitans. But to grant the liberal cosmopolitans even this is to grant them too much: the legacy of Kosovo shows us not that cosmopolitan human rights are unfeasible, but rather that they are undesirable.

The revival of protectorates can be logically deduced from the structure of cosmopolitan human rights themselves. Severed from a collective vision of politics and national rights, military humanitarianism inevitably reduces people to the status of victims: victims of both their oppressors and their benefactors.

Philip Cunliffe is co-editor of Politics without Sovereignty: A Critique of Contemporary International Relations. (UCL Press, 2007). Read more about it here, and buy the book here.

The rise of the laptop bombardier, by Philip Hammond

When is a war crime not a war crime?, by Tim Black

Read more at spiked issue: Former Yugoslavia.

reprinted from: http://www.spiked-online.com/index.php?/site/article/6388/

Joint Statement From Synod

2009-03-16T13:50:00.000-07:00

Participants in meeting of Orthodox churches in Sofia release joint statement
Posted on Fri Mar 13 2009

Focus News
Sofia. The participants in the working meeting between the representatives of the Orthodox Churches have united around a joint statement concerning the issues raised in the European Court of Human Rights decision of January 22nd 2009 in relation to complaints № 412/03 and № 35677/04 about the people who separated from the unity of Bulgarian Orthodox Church, the Holy Synod of the Orthodox Church told Focus News Agency.

In the statement the participants say that the Bulgarian Orthodox Church is one and the disunity issue, which existed in it between 1992 and 1998, was resolved at a convocation on September 30th and October 1st 1998. The convocation decisions were made in compliance with the Orthodox Church cannons.

The participants in the meeting ask why European Court of Human Rights did not discuss and take into account these decisions. They say that according to the Court’s principles and practice religious freedom includes respect to autonomous right of every religion. In the case of the Orthodox Church it is about a cannon right.

The Court’s conclusion that the state has to be neutral about its traditional religion, Eastern Orthodox, is not an obligation included in the European Convention on Human Rights and Fundamental Freedoms. The Religion Act adopted in 2002 by Bulgaria’s National Assembly expresses Bulgarian national self-awareness and does not contradict European practice. The participants call on the Bulgarian government to protect the legal interest of Bulgarian Orthodox Church, taking the necessary measures to appeal against the Court’s decision.

Patriarch Aleksy, R.I.P.

2009-03-15T13:13:00.000-07:00

Patriarch Aleksy, R.I.P.
Posted in: 2009, February 2009, In Print, News & Views

Aleksy II, Patriarch of Moscow and head of the Russian Orthodox Church, died of heart failure on December 5, 2008, at the age of 79.

Born in Estonia in 1929 into a pious family of Russian émigrés of German extraction, Aleksei Mikhailovich Ridiger was ordained a priest in 1950, completed his theological studies in St. Petersburg (then Leningrad) three years later, and was tonsured in 1961. His subsequent rise through the ranks of the Russian Orthodox Church—allegedly facilitated by a KGB connection, which he always denied—culminated in his election as Patriarch in 1990.

Aleksy II came to the throne just as the Soviet state was beginning to disintegrate. The early years of his tenure were dominated by the tremendous task of restoring the moral authority of the Church in a nation devastated by seven decades of lethal anti-Christian rule.

The scale of that devastation defies imagination. Persecution of the Russian Orthodox Church and other denominations under the communists is one of the greatest crimes in history. Its death toll was several times greater than that of the holocaust. It had killed more Christians than all other persecutions in all ages put together, with Islam a distant second. In 20 interwar years (1918-38), the number of churches that remained open in Russia was reduced from 54,000 to under 500—less than one percent of the pre-Bolshevik total. Some 600 Orthodox bishops, 40,000 priests, 120,000 monks and nuns, and millions of laymen were murdered.

Even in the late Soviet period the Orthodox Church was at best grudgingly tolerated, hindered from playing any role in a society that was drowning in despair, vodka, and cynicism. Yet Aleksy II’s considerable diplomatic tact and organizational ability were already evident during the 1980’s, when he secured the Soviet authorities’ acquiescence in the return of Holy Danilov Monastery, which has been restored to its old status as the official headquarters of the patriarchate. In 1988 he used the celebration of the “Millennium of Faith” in Russia to raise the profile of his Church in a manner unimaginable under Mikhail Gorbachev’s predecessors.

The end of communism enabled the Russian Orthodox Church to assume her old role of moral leader amid the collapse of all secular institutions. A major test of Aleksy’s political savvy came in the summer of 1991, when old Soviet loyalists tried to stage a coup. The Patriarch contributed to its failure by sternly condemning the shedding of civil blood: “May God protect you from the terrible sin of fratricide . . . Cease at once!” The army obeyed. This remarkable fact was a testimony to Aleksy’s steady cultivation of the military and security apparat well before his rise to the patriarchate.

During the ensuing decade the number of self-identified believers in Russia was to grow threefold, and the number of parishes fiftyfold, to 30,000. But Aleksy’s greatest accomplishment was his role in the 2007 reunion of the branches of the Russian Church abroad and at home. The reunification, together with the glorification of the Royal Martyrs Nicholas II and his family, the return to Sarov of the relics of Saint Seraphim, and the veneration of warrior saints such as Aleksandr Nevsky and Prince Dmitry Donsky, “signaled the reconsolidation of what had been ripped apart in 1917,” says foreign-affairs analyst James Jatras. Jatras notes that its counterpart in the civil sphere is “Putin’s careful and deliberate amalgamation of White and Red symbolism.” This synthesis lends itself to the vision articulated by the late Gen. Aleksandr Lebed: “The Church strengthens the army; the army defends the Church. And on this restored spiritual axis—the two pillars of our power—we can begin to feel like Russians again.”

While routinely accused in the West of excessively close links to the secular authorities, Patriarch Aleksy took pains to define what is permissible and what is not in the relationship between Church and state. He rejected any absolutization of governmental authority and insisted that the temporal powers of the state should be recognized as imperative only to the degree that they are used to support good and limit evil. Aleksy’s position was codified in 2000 by the Jubilee Council of Bishops. Its “Basic Social Concept”—drafted with his blessing—stated that, “in everything that concerns the exclusively earthly order of things, the Orthodox Christian is obliged to obey the law.” However, when compliance “threatens his eternal salvation and involves an apostasy or commitment of another doubtless sin before God and his neighbor, the Christian is called to perform the feat of confession. . . . If this lawful action is impossible or ineffective, he must take up the position of civil disobedience. The Church is loyal to the state, but God’s commandment to fulfill the task of salvation in any situation and under any circumstances is above this loyalty. . . . If the authority forces Orthodox believers to apostatise from Christ and His Church and to commit sinful and spiritually harmful actions, the Church should refuse to obey the state . . . [it] must resist evil, immorality and harmful social phenomena and always firmly confess the Truth, and when persecutions commence, to continue to openly witness the faith and be prepared to follow the path of confessors and martyrs for Christ.”

Christians everywhere would be well advised to reflect on the meaning and implications of those words.

This article first appeared in the February 2009 issue of Chronicles: A Magazine of American Culture.

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Return to: Patriarch Aleksy, R.I.P.

UNESCO in Kosovo-Metohija

2009-03-12T11:14:00.000-07:00

March 11, 2009.

Source: Diocese of Ras-Prizren and Kosovo-Metohija

UNESCO in Kosovo-Metohija

Meeting between Bishop Artemije and the representative of UNESCO

Bishop Artemije urges UNESCO to begin reconstruction works

as soon as possible

In Graèanica, His Grace Bishop Artemije received Ms. M-P. Roudil, Head, Section for Culture, UNESCO, Venice Office, and talked with her about the beginning of works on the reconstruction of Serbian holy places in Kosovo-Metohija.

The Bishop was informed of the activities of the UNESCO Mission of Experts which took place in January 2009.

Special attention was paid to the participation of the Russian Federation in the reconstruction of Serbian holy places and to the preliminary list of priorities which will be finalized in agreement with the Diocese of Ras-Prizren.

Bishop Artemije urged UNESCO to begin reconstruction works as soon as possible and expressed his concern regarding the extension of agreed deadlines for said reconstruction.

The Bishop pointed out that reconstruction in cooperation with UNESCO would be a contribution towards the preservation of the Serbian cultural heritage in Kosovo-Metohija and would give comfort to the Serbian people in the region.

Agreement was reached also on the attitude to the reconstruction of Serbian holy places envisaged by the Memorandum on Understanding. That is to say, according to Ms. Roudil, the representatives of UNESCO expressed their reservations about the reconstruction conducted by the Commission for the implementation of reconstruction.

Press department

Diocese of Ras-Prizren

March 11, 2009 – 9:27 am
Serbia’s police patrol at the administrative line with the Kosovo province was engaged in a shooting incident with two armed Albanians that were attempting to infiltrate illegally through the border.

The shooting occurred on Monday around 5 pm when an armed ethnic Albanian opened fire from an automatic weapon.

The incident occurred in Kursumlija municipality.

The two entered inside the property line of the Tacevac village.

After the shooting, both ran away towards Podujevo.

KFOR troops inside Kosovo were informed about the incident.

Meanwhile, a hospital in the Kosovska Kamenica municipality was set on fire.

The hospital is the only health facility that services 5,000 ethnic Serbs in that region.

Doctor Jelica Krcmarevic confirmed that he hospital burned down and said that efforts are on the way to “secure space in which Serbs from this municipality could obtain health services”.

The hospital was burglarized few days ago.

The hospital served the nearby village of Silovo that was cut off from electrical supplies by the ethnic Albanian separatist government for 9 days.

Over the weekend, Serbs from Silovo were beaten by the separatist police because they were protesting the denial of electricity.

Ministry representative for Kosovo Pomoravlje Predrag Stojkovic said yesterday that the separatist government has reinstated the electricity to the villagers.

President of the reagon’s municipality in Priluzje, Sasa Andric, warned that some Serb families are fleeing the region and added that the denial of electricity by the Albanian separatists is achieving their desired end which is ethnic cleansing of Serbs.

“Yesterday and today two Serb families left for Nis and three moved to Kosovska Mitrovica,” Andric said.

March 11, 2009
SERBIANNA

Foreign Minister of Serbia Vuk Jeremic To Represent Serbian Church

2009-03-12T03:38:00.000-07:00

Jeremic meets Serbian Orthodox Church’s Holy Synod
11. March 2009. | 10:26

Source: EMportal

Serbian Foreign Minister Vuk Jeremic today talked with members of the Holy Synod of the Serbian Orthodox Church about next week’s meeting at the UNESCO headquarters in Paris.

Serbian Foreign Minister Vuk Jeremic today talked with members of the Holy Synod of the Serbian Orthodox Church about next week’s meeting at the UNESCO headquarters in Paris.

According to a statement issued by the Foreign Ministry, Jeremic will also participate in the 2nd international forum on the 5th anniversary of the demolishing of Serbian Orthodox Churches in Kosovo-Metohija, where 35 sacred Orthodox sites were burned down and destroyed.

The government and the Serbian Orthodox Church expressed their strong will to continue repairing Serbian churches and monasteries in Kosovo-Metohija, according to the UN Security Council’s Resolution 1244, concludes the statement.

Top Official Admits to Intended Ethnic Cleansing of Serbs

2009-03-11T05:09:00.000-07:00

Republican Riot

Saying it, so you don’t have to.March 09th 2009 03:22:43 AM
Even Croatia Admits it Now: The Serbs Didn’t Start the War
Posted by Julia Gorin

Well not exactly Croatia, which isn’t capable of admitting anything, but a single Croatian voice — as usual. From De-Construct.net:

Tudjman’s Police Minister Admits Croatia Started the War by Attacking Serbs
Feb 13th, 2009 | By De-Construct.net | In Croatia, Former Yugoslavia, Interview

“According to Tudjman’s concept, Serbs had to disappear from Croatia”, Josip Boljkovac, Franjo Tudjman’s minister of police

Serbs and Yugoslavia were Under Attack, Not Croatia

In the exclusive interview, Franjo Tudjman’s Internal Affairs Minister Josip Boljkovac admitted Croat leadership carried out planned attacks on Croatia Serbs in 1991, in order to start a war. “Tudjman wanted the war at any cost, following the concept according to which Serbs must disappear from Croatia,” Boljkovac said.

Croat media censored reports from Boljkovac’s testimony at the trial against former Osijek mayor Branimir Glavaš, war criminal responsible for horrific crimes against the local Serbs, concealing parts of his testimony which charge Croatia with instigating the war.

“During the testimony, Glavaš accused me of persecuting him because he destroyed the bridge on river Drava in Osijek [Croatia]. He claimed he had destroyed the bridge to protect the town from JNA [Yugoslav National Army] tanks, and I responded that, at the time, JNA was a regular army of an internationally recognized state, while Croatia, which was not recognized, was part of Yugoslavia. Then I explained who started armed conflicts in that part of Slavonija,” Boljkovac told Frankfurt-based daily Vesti.

In a sensational interview published on February 12 and carried by the several media outlets in Serbia, Croatia’s war-time minister of police said it was the Serbs and Yugoslavia who were being attacked in 1991, and not Croatia.

“Back then, in 1991, Serbs and Yugoslavia were under attack, not Croatia. Gojko Šušak, Branimir Glavaš and Vice Vukojević launched antitank rockets on Borovo Selo in order to provoke a war. The bridge in Osijek was destroyed for the same reason,” Boljkovac said.

He explained Croat war-time leader Franjo Tudjman “wanted the war at any cost”:

“The war was not a necessity — it was an intention. According to Tudjman’s concept, Serbs had to disappear from Croatia,” Boljkovac stressed, adding he was against the war and didn’t allow Serbs who were serving in the police in Croatia to be fired which, in turn, made him a target for assassination by Croat [diaspora].
…
Boljkovac Confirmed What Serbia has been Saying for the Past Two Decades

No one was particularly surprised in Serbia by Boljkovac’s admission that Croat leadership instigated a civil war by launching planned attacks against Serbs in Croatia and Yugoslav Army.

Vladislav Jovanović, Yugoslav Minister of Foreign Affairs from 1991-1995, told Glas Javnosti Boljkovac’s statement about Croatia bearing the exclusive responsibility for the war is absolutely correct.

“[Boljkovac’s] testimony only further confirms what was known from day one and what Serbia has been pointing out for nearly two decades — that there was no ‘Serbian aggression’ against Croatia; instead, Croatia Serbs were forced to defend themselves. That is Boljkovac’s hindsight for the factual state of affairs. After the ‘Storm’ and ‘Lightning’ [ethnic cleansing operations], even Tudjman admitted the war was imperative for Croatia to secede, Jovanović reminded.
…
Asked why Serbia stood by during the Krajina pogrom (Operation Storm, August 4-7, 1995), the single biggest act of ethnic cleansing during the civil wars in 1990s, when over 250,000 Serbs were expelled from Croatia, Jovanović said he believes late President Milošević was issued an ultimatum by [the] United States.

“The day before the attack on Krajina, Milošević was visited by an American ambassador in Zagreb [Croatian capital], Peter Galbraith. I did not attend the meeting, but I believe Galbraith had put a knife under Milošević’s throat, warning him against Serbia’s involvement. I’m sure a direct threat of bombardment of Serbia was also issued, in order to prevent any Serbian military reaction,” Jovanović said.

Mixture of Facts and Fiction

Former head of Counter-Intelligence Service [Kontra-obavestajna sluzba, KOS], general Aca Vasiljević [said]…”When he was in power, Boljkovac was a loyal and obedient servant, he was always eager to please….Tudjman had stated long time ago: ‘If we didn’t want the war, there wouldn’t have been any,’ while Boljkovac was a proponent of the idea of an independent Croatia at any cost already back in the 1970s…. In the 1990s, he participated in the war, surrounded by the extremists, people who came from the terrorist wing of Ustasha organization, like Gojko Šušak,” Vasiljević said.

Živadin Jovanović, Federal Republic of Yugoslavia’s last foreign affairs minister, said it was good there is at least someone in Croatia who speaks “partial truth.”

“It is absolutely correct that was a civil war and there is no basis for charges of ‘aggression on Croatia’. I don’t know Boljkovac personally, but this wouldn’t be the first time former government members become wise after the fact. Hindsight wisdom is a trait of impaired politicians, even though it can be useful to historians….[T]he essential fact [is] that Croatia’s strategy was secession, separatism and, as such, it enjoyed support of Germany, Austria, Hungary and Vatican,” Živadin Jovanović said.

Albanians Identified

2009-03-10T12:41:00.000-07:00

Feb 25th, 2009 | By De-Construct.net | In Current, Kosovo-Metohija Crisis

One of the photos Kosovo Albanian terrorists took in Albania, after NATO aggression against Serbia, posing with the Serb who had just been shot in the head from the close range.
Kosovo Albanian Butchers Posed with Their Mutilated Victims
On Monday, Serbia’s War Crimes Prosecution positively identified eight members of Kosovo Albanian terrorist organization KLA (UCK), who were photographed with their victims, Kosovo and Metohija Serbs, kidnapped during and after NATO aggression against Serbia who, prior to being killed or left to die in agony, had their vital organs extracted for sale.

Serbian media reported that Prosecution on Monday identified eight KLA terrorists who committed war crimes against the Kosovo Serbs kidnapped and transported to northern Albania, near the border with Serbian Kosovo and Metohija province, during and after NATO aggression against Federal Republic of Yugoslavia. According to the War Crimes Prosecutor Vladimir Vukčević, KLA war criminals were identified from the photos prosecution recently came in possession.

- Eight KLA terrorists were identified on Monday, and we expect this number to grow in the following days. As soon as we published the photos which, beside the KLA members, also show the killed and mutilated Serbs, a number of Serbia and Montenegro citizens contacted us. Members of the families of Kosovo Serbs kidnapped since the summer of 1999 believe among the photographed Serbian victims are individuals still listed as missing, - Vukčević told Belgrade media.

In the interest of investigation, Vukčević refused to give the names of the freshly identified criminals, pointing out “some of the identified have been known by their crimes for quite a while”. He added the Prosecution is working on the case classified as “Human Organ Trafficking”, which involves identification of the criminal chain of Albanian terrorists who have been kidnapping Kosovo Serbs and other non-Albanians in southern Serbian province of Kosovo and Metohija, and transporting them to private prisons and death camps on the territory of state of Albania during and after 1999, for the purpose of extracting their vital organs for sale.

Kosovo Albanian terrorists posing with the kidnapped Serb, holding the knife above the victim’s throat. Summer of 1999, Albania.
- New evidence and testimonies shedding light on these gruesome crimes will help us complete the report which will be submitted to the Council of Europe’s special rapporteur on the KLA organ trafficking, Dick Marty, expected to visit Belgrade, Priština and Tirana [Albanian capital] by the end of April this year, - Vukčević said.

Serbian War Crimes Prosecution believes the set of photos which shows KLA war criminals and some of their victims was taken in the place called Padese, in May 1999, by the terrorists themselves. Caption on the back of one photo, written with the blue marker, reads “Košare, N. Albania, 22. 5. 99″ [Košare is an outpost on the border between Serbia and Albania]. Kosovo Albanian terrorists have also taken two of the photos where some of their victims can be seen: on one, Albanian wearing paramilitary uniform is holding a knife over the victim’s throat, and on the other, KLA terrorists are standing above the victim which was just shot in the head from close range.

Indisputable Evidence About the KLA-Run Death Camps in Albania, where Vital Organs were Harvested from Kidnapped Serbs
- These, as well as other photographs we have in our possession — one of which shows the destroyed Yugoslav Army barracks Košare, taken from the Albanian side of the border, confirm KLA terrorists were stationed in this region, near the border with Serbia. For the first time, the Prosecution has testimonies of Albanians who were imprisoned in the death camps in northern Albania, where the kidnapped Kosovo Serbs were tortured, butchered and killed. According to their testimonies, one of these camps was situated in the house near Durres [seaport in western Albania], and the other in the village Kukes [northern Albania], - Prosecutor said.

Spokesman of the Serbian Prosecution Bruno Vekarić said Serbia will request additional information from the officials in Tirana, about the trafficking of organs extracted from the kidnapped Kosovo Serbs on the territory of Albania during and after the 1998-1999 Kosovo war.

- New evidence confirms these crimes took place in northern Albania and we shall send an official request to the Tirana prosecution, seeking additional information about the facts we uncovered thus far, - Vekarić said, stressing the latest evidence is only additional confirmation of the previously established data.

- This is only in addition to what we already knew, that the KLA had training camps, logistic basis, prisons and death camps, as well as temporary medical facilities where they were harvesting the vital organs for sale, on the territory of Albania, - said Vekarić.

KLA terrorists who were running a death camp for kidnapped Kosovo province Serbs in Albania, near the border with Serbia. Summer 1999
Based on the new evidence, the Prosecution now has a much clearer picture of the tragic events and macabre war crimes that took place in Albania. Among else, three indisputable facts were thus confirmed: that the KLA-run death camps in northern Albania existed, that kidnapped Kosovo Serbs were being transported over the border, to Albania, and that the provisional medical facilities where the kidnapped had their organs extracted for sale were also situated in Albania.

UN-Established Locations of the Mass Graves with Remains of Mutilated Serbs in Albania
Earlier, Serbian War Crimes Prosecution established the location of three mass graves, all in northern Albania, which contain remains of Serbs, victims of the organ harvesting and trafficking — two in the swamps in the vicinity of the village Burrel and third, 1.6 kilometers from the infamous yellow house, where the kidnapped Serbs had their organs extracted.

According to the report by the UN investigators, these mass graves contain mainly the remains of kidnapped Serbs, but there are also the bodies of Roma and “disloyal” Albanians, whom KLA, in cooperation with Albanian state officials, was transporting to the psychiatric hospital in Burrel, where their organs were extracted and sold to rich patients in the West and Middle East.

The location of the mass graves was marked in the March 2004 UN report, and Serbian Prosecution came in possession of the copies of these documents and maps, along with the photos taken by the UNMIK forensic experts back in 4 February 2004, which someone kept hidden from the public for almost five years.

Those photos show incriminating evidence found in the yellow house and around it, including muscle relaxants used for surgical interventions, surgical instruments, syringes, containers for medical refuse, gauze leftovers, surgical scissors and blades, scalpels…

Caption on the back of one of the photos in possession of Serbian Prosecution, establishing the place and time of Kosovo Albanian atrocity. The caption reads “Kosare, N. Albania, 22. 5. 99″
Representatives of Belgrade War Crimes Prosecution forwarded to the Association of the Families of Killed, Kidnapped and Missing Kosovo Serbs a list containing the names of 11 individuals cited by Albanian witnesses as the known victims of KLA organ trafficking chain in northern Albania. Bruno Vekarić said that families of the kidnapped Serbs are helping the Prosecution in the process of identification of the victims and their kidnappers and executors.

Gordana Tomanović, one of the representatives of the Association of the Families of Killed, Kidnapped and Missing Kosovo Serbs, said the families are eager to find out what happened to their loved ones.

- The families are constantly calling us, hoping this breakthrough in the investigation will help them find out what happened to their loved ones. We are in contact with the War Crimes Prosecution and we shall soon receive the latest evidence they uncovered, - Tomanović said.

This Association has its own documentation and material gathered during the past decade, including video footage which shows that among the columns of Kosovo Albanians who, during NATO aggression against Yugoslavia, at the request of KLA leaders, were leaving Serbia and crossing over the border into Albania and FYR of Macedonia, were also the kidnapped Kosovo and Metohija Serbs.

Guilty: KLA Leaders, in Cooperation with Albanian State Officials
After the latest wave of testimonies, documentation and material evidence recovered, the Prosecution contends that the key organizers of this chain of most horrific crimes since Josef Mengele’s experiments on live death camp inmates, are former leaders of Kosovo Albanian paramilitaries, headed by the former “commander of the KLA Western front”, Ramush Haradinaj, who controlled the KLA units on the border with Albania.

In addition to Haradinaj, witnesses have also named former KLA spokesman, currently head of Kosovo Albanian provisional “parliament”, Jakup Krasniqi, former chief of KLA paramilitary police Sabit Geci and Jevdet (Gjevdet) Krasniqi.

In the past month, testimonies by the former KLA members revealed KLA transported two waste disposal trucks from Kosovo province through Paštrik, one with corpses of killed Serbs, and the other carrying the kidnapped Kosovo Serbs, who were subsequently tortured and killed in Kosovo Albanian-run death camps in Tropoje and Peshkopi, in Albania.

The main individuals responsible for transfer of victims from southern Serbian province of Kosovo and Metohija, according to the witnesses, are Daut Haradinaj (Ramush Haradinaj’s brother), Sami Lushtaku and Jakup Krasniqi.

16 comments

Mass Graves Found Links to PM Berisha of Albania and PM Haradinaj of Kosovo

2009-03-10T11:09:00.000-07:00

Mass grave of Serbs found in Albania
December 24, 2008 – 7:25 am
A mass grave with bodies of Serbs has been found in a village of Burelj in Albania says the sources close to the war crimes prosecution office in Belgrade.

“The location of the mass grave has been marked in a part of the UN report from March 2004 that still has not been officially forwarded to Serbia prosecution for war crimes,” says a source from the prosecution office.

Serbian war crimes prosecution office requested the UN report several times but the requests were ignored.

The prosecution has found that the top Kosovo Albanian separatist leadership ran a kidnapping network via tunnels and border crossings at Cafa, Prshit and Vrbnica to the psychiatric hospital in Burelj that was registered as Prison 320.

Kosovo Serbs were brought to this facility from several other concentration camps in Albania such as Tropoja, Kuks, Bajram Curi and Koljsh.

The body parts and organs were then extracted in the psychiatric hospital.

When the person whose organs were taken out died, the body was then buried in the grave that was just found.

Serbian war crimes prosecution says that it has evidence that the organ extraction network was ran by a former Kosovo Albanian so-called prime minister Ramush Haradinaj who was pronounced innocent at the war crimes trial in the Hague.

Additional documents exist linking Haradinaj with the current Prime Minister of Albania Sali Berisha but no specific description of the link has been provided to the media.

Albanian authorities rejected cooperation requests made by Serbia.

The Council of Europe envoy Dick Marty is set to go Albanian capital Tirana in January to investigate the organ trade.

December 24, 2008
SERBIANNA

The Church of Serbia Threatened By Supporter of Controversial Law

2009-03-09T05:35:00.000-07:00

Serbian Church attacked over controversial law
March 6, 2009 – 11:52 am
Officials in the Serbian government and the Western press have singled out the Serbian Orthodox Church, the largest denomination in Serbia, for an attack because of its opposition to a controversial law that is, critics say, misnamed as a “law against discrimination” but whose ambiguity on the issue of homosexuality and religious sects would expose all religious faiths in Serbia to legal badgering and government sponsored mandate to ban religion.

“A Serbian official says that opposition from Serbia’s Orthodox Church is stalling the approval of a key law against discrimination… The law is part of pro-EU reform,” reported Associated Press and thus, critics say, passed to the world an erroneous cliché that the Serbian Orthodox Church (SPC) is a backward, anti-European discriminatory institution.

A pro European leader in the Serbian Parliament, Dragan Markovic Palma, said that he will vote against the bill.

“If homosexuals have to lead Serbia into Europe, then we’ll stay in Serbia,” Palma said.

In Serbia, the opposition to the law has fostered a remarkable and cohesive inter-denominational and interfaith solidarity.

Catholic Church, Evangelicals and other Christian groups have banded together with the Serbian Orthodox Church to oppose the law because of the ambiguities.

Serbia’s Islamic Community has also joined the coalition, as did Serbia’s chief Rabbi.

The secretary of the Islamic Community of Serbia, Eldin Asceric, confirmed that the Islamic Community has been in consultations with the Serbian Orthodox Church.

“From SPC we got some complaints and, as they explained it, it is a question of some double meanings from two amendments, that can affect the SPC, but also all other religious organizations, and that we seek extra time so that those issues could be precisely defined,” said Asceric.

Asceric said that, along with Serbia’s Rabbi Isaac Isiel, they will respond verbally.

Catholic Church in Belgrade, report the media, has confirmed that they agree with the complaints of other churches and religious communities on the issue.

“Catholic Church is not against the law against discrimination but only that it needs to be refined because it has many unclearities that would bring this Church in a situation to be discriminated against because of its position,” said Milutin Novakovic, spokesman for the Catholic Church in Belgrade.

Leader of Serbia’s homosexual Queer Movement, Predrag Azdejkovic attacked the Church as being discriminatory.

“The SPC rests on that discrimination and it wants to keep its privileges,” said Azdejkovic.

Azdejkovic accuses Serbia of being an “instrument of the church”.

“If we look at Serbia, where on every corner pops out some church, where almost every hospital has a name of some saint, religious studies in schools, icons in government institutions, rosaries are the greatest modern hit, where there are massive fasts and atheists are viewed from aside, we realize that we live in an Orthodox Serbia,” said Azdejkovic.

Azdejkovic then issued the warning to the church that they are in line to be dealt with.

“But don’t worry, soon you will come up in the line,” warned Azdejkovic.

March 6, 2009
SERBIANNA

St. Simeon of Russia

2009-02-27T07:57:00.000-08:00

1. THE VENERABLE SIMEON [MIROTOCIVI], FROM WHOSE RELICS FLOWED MYRRH - CHRISM

Stefan Nemanja [Nehemiah], the great ruler [Great Zupan] of the Serbian people, the consolidator of Serbian lands, creator of the independent Serbian state, defender of Orthodoxy and exterminator of heresy. At first, he was baptized in the Latin Church but later left this Church and embraced the Orthodox Church. In the beginning, he was dependent on the Greeks with regard to the State, but later he freed himself from this dependence and became completely autonomous. When Stefan consolidated the State and the Orthodox Faith in the State, then, following the example of his son Sava, received the monastic tonsure in Studenica Monastery in the year 1195 A.D., and received the name Simeon. His wife Anna withdrew to a convent, embraced the monastic tonsure and received the name Anastasia. After two years as a monk in Studenica, Simeon traveled to Athos, the Holy Mountain. There he took up residence in the Monastery Vatopedi together with his son Sava. Father and son spend their days and nights in prayer. There, they built six chapels dedicated to: the Savior, The Unmercenary Saints, St. George, St. Theodore, The Forerunner and St. Nicholas. They purchased the ruins of Hilendar and erected a glorious monastery in which Simeon lived only eight months and then died. When Simeon was on his deathbed, Sava, according to his father's wishes, placed him on a simple mat. With eyes directed toward the icon of the Mother of God and the Savior, the blessed elder spoke these last words: "Let everything that has breath praise the Lord." (Psalm 150:6), and took up habitation with the Lord on February 13, 1200 A.D.

2. THE VENERABLE MARTINIAN

The glorious and most wonderful life of Martinian is worthwhile to read in its entirety. What did he not endure just to fulfill the commandments of the Lord! At age eighteen, Martinian retreated to a mountain in Cappadocia called "The Place of the Ark" where he lived for twenty-five years in fasting, vigils, prayer and struggling with many temptations. When a woman came to tempt him and, he perceiving that he will succumb to sin with her, Martinian leaped into the fire barefooted and remained in the fire until the pain brought tears to his eyes and subdued any lust within himself. When another temptation erupted, Martinian fled to an isolated rock in the sea and there he lived. During a shipwreck a young woman swam to this rock. Martinian jumped into the sea to avoid any further temptation, but a dolphin rescued him on its back and by God's Providence brought him ashore. Martinian then decided never to make any place his permanent home but to continually travel. In two years, Martinian passed through one hundred and sixty-four towns correcting and counseling people. He finally reached Athens where he died in the year 422 A.D.

3. THE FEMALE SAINTS ZOE AND PHOTINA

At first Zoe was a prostitute and a temptress of St. Martinian. When she saw this ascetic leap into the fire in order to subdue in himself all lust, she bitterly repented, retreated to a convent in Bethlehem where, as an ascetic and recluse, heroically lived a life of mortification. Repenting of all her sins, she received from God the gift of working miracles. By the winds of the sea St. Photina was cast on the island where St. Martinian had isolated himself. Martinian immediately fled the island and Photina remained there in fasting and prayer where she died.

HYMN OF PRAISE

SAINT ZOE

The monk in the fire, Zoe looked at with horror

How he burns without complaint, fear and sighing!

With horror and with shame, Zoe repented:

Just to save his soul, O what this man does!

Bowed and begged forgiveness, she began to weep,

To resist evil, asked, what to do,

To save the soul, to resist evil in the flesh.

The man of God, from joy, he too began to weep.

To Bethlehem, to the blessed Paula he sent her:

Depart woman, save yourself; go and do not perish,

Blessed Paula, all else will tell you.

Over the turquoise sea, completely humbled, Zoe departed,

Like a little sister, Paula received and instructed her.

Zoe cries, Zoe listens; endures and remains silent.

So twelve summers passed; twelve years,

As an ascetic, Sister Zoe became known.

Bathes her face with tears and before her death asks God,

Has God forgiven her? Did He or did He not?

At that moment, before the door of Zoe, a blind woman was led

That she may see; You pray, pray, pray!

In tears, Zoe prayed and the woman saw;

Zoe recognized, thus recognized that she is forgiven

Through sinners, when they repent, God is glorified,

Then, they on earth, with miracles shine like the stars.

REFLECTION

The great Stefan Nemanja, whose authorative words everyone unconditionally heeded to and at whom people and emperors trembled, became a monk and served the monks of the Holy Mountain [Athos] as an ideal example of meekness, humility, goodness and piety. Even his death was the death of a truly godly-man and spiritual director. He became bedridden on February 7. He summoned St. Sava, placed his hands on him and blessed him saying: "My beloved child, the light of my eyes, comfort and protector in my old age! Behold the time of our separation has arrived. Behold the Lord is releasing me in peace. But you, my child, do not mourn because of our separation. For parting is the common cup of all and everyone; here we part from one another but we will meet there where there is no separation." On February 12, St. Simeon asked Sava to clothe him in a burial cassock, to spread a mat on the ground, lay him there and place a stone under his head. He then summoned all the monks and asked their forgiveness. At dawn, on February 13, while the monks were chanting the Office of Matins in church and the voices were reaching the cell of the dying one, St. Simeon, once more his face radiated and he gave up his soul to his God.

CONTEMPLATION

To contemplate the Lord Jesus as the Lamb of God:

1. As a Lamb born in the dwelling place of lambs;

2. As a Lamb persecuted by men of lupine temper such as Herod and others;

3. As the Sacrificial Lamb Who patiently endured pain and death;

4. As the Victorious Lamb of God on the Heavenly Throne.

HOMILY

About love above every other love

" Whoever loves father ormother more than Me is not worthy of Me" (St. Matthew 10:37).

The entire Gospel teaches that we should leave the lesser for the sake of the greater; the transient for the intransient; the worst for the sake of the best; the less valuable for the sake of the more valuable. If the Good News [Gospel] would not promise greater value, who would leave the lesser? If the Gospel would not reveal the glow of the precious goods, who would leave the less valuable goods? Who would leave honey and milk if he did not find something sweeter? Who would leave father and mother if he did not find someone closer in kinship? Who would leave children and friends if he did not recognize someone more dear? Who would willingly give up his life to suffering and death if he did not perceive immortal life? The Lord Christ is sweeter than honey and milk; He is a closer kin to us than our father and mother; more dear to us than our own children and friends; more precious than all visible treasures; more costly than this life for He gives life eternal. Everything in the world compared to Him [Christ] is inferior, trivial, bitter, weak, less valuable and transitory. Whoever receives Him [Christ] it is easier for him to leave everything; everything, because he has received the best and Him Who is the very best.

O Lord Jesus, the Treasury of all eternal riches, help us to unbind ourselves from everything and to cling to You, our Good and our Life.

Archbishop Artemije's Christmas Serman

2009-01-12T13:02:00.000-08:00

Sorry for the belated posting.

Source: Diocese of Ras-Prizren and Kosovo-Metohija

The Christmas Epistle of Bishop Artemije

CHRISTMAS IN GHETTO

A View from Kosovo and Metohija

We all await Christmas, we all rejoice, both old and young, both ill and healthy, both free and those who are not. Christmas – an overall joy. And what Christmas is, in fact? Do we all know that, do we understand and comprehend? To give answer to that question is easy as much as hard. That answer can be in one sentence or one whole doctoral dissertation. Our answer is none of those, but something in the middle, adjusted to every human age, to all the God-loving soul.

Hence Christmas, the earthly Birth of the Son of God, our Lord Jesus Christ, as God-child, represents for Man and for Mankind, for the Earth and the ecumene, the only “New under the Sun”, the most important event since the creation of the World. In fact, it is exactly what Lord said for Himself – the Beginning; the beginning of all good, progressive and salvific within Man and for Man, within the Mankind and for the Mankind. By his earthly birth Lord Jesus Christ began the most magnificent deed, the most earth-shattering revolution ever carried out in the history of Mankind, the revolution and rebellion of Man against every sin, first within himself, and then around himself, against every evil and every devil. Surely this conscious struggle is the mere struggle for Man’s salvation. Thus, the feast of Christ’s birth – Christmas, is the most joyful Christian feast, woven most intricately in the life of every human soul, every family, and every Christian nation. It is the feast most decorated and ornamented with popular customs and practices, differing in their details from place to place, but always symbolizing and expressing the mere essence of the celebrated event – that is, that the newly-born Bethlehem God-child represents the Bread of Life, the Light of Truth, the Life-giving Warmth, the eternal Youth and the never-ending Joy to every man. That is why Christmas has been joyfully celebrated in our people under slavery and in freedom, in abundance and poverty, in royal castles and among those taking refuge. This joy brought by “Father Christmas” is mostly felt and utmost experienced by children, since they feel that He, that was born that night on Christmas Eve in the Cave of Bethlehem, is nearest to them. And He later showed and radiated so much love to children, setting them even as example to the adults: “Unless you change and become like children, you will never enter the kingdom of heaven”.

The Christmas, like all other Christian feasts, a part from the all-over and common spiritual joy, is being awaited and spent with certain differences and practices that decorate and ornament them. Hence the saying: Hundred villages, hundred different customs. But there is no crucial difference, anyhow. On the other hand, great difference is present in the circumstances under which we await and celebrate Christmas today in Kosovo and Metohija, great difference indeed from Lelic or any other place in Serbia outside Kosovo and Metohija. It is the infamous security situation and the ghetto-like way of our life, depriving us of many opportunities, basic human rights, freedom of movement (even to go freely in the woods to cut the Christmas Yule-log). Even in such troublesome conditions, nothing can take away the inner joy, brought by the Christmas feast itself, so the Birth of Christ is awaited and celebrated in Kosovo and Metohija also according to the traditional Serbian customs. And here, too, it is children who find most delight in the joy of Christmas.

A particular ornament of the “Serbian” Christmas, and what children enjoy mostly is the Christmas Yule-log and all the accompanying customs. Unfortunately, there are opinions that the yule-log is some pagan heritage. Instead of “Father Christmas” we await the “Father Frost”. How to comment that? Which wrong turn did we take and where will we arrive? Nothing much, a part that it is point of view and opinion of those who have nothing sacred, who did not still meet the newborn God-child Christ. Hence, they find paganism everywhere. Not only concerning yule-log and Christmas, but the Slava-feast, too, an impressive characteristic of the Orthodox Serbs. To such people, as our Christmas present we send our prayerful wish to experience their Meeting with the Lord in order to understand Christmas itself.

The place of oak yule-log is taken by fir-tree at many Orthodox nations (Greeks, Russians etc.). It entered not only homes, but also the churches. It is known that Greeks had oak yule log once. Was it so by Russians, too? It is a question that awaits examinations, the thing we did not particularly deal with. It is known that Russians (and later on many other Orthodox nations through their influence) experienced huge influence of the Western scholastic theology, of which was not spared in some segments even our own people. Such influence (pressure) is being carried out even today, maybe more than before. Isn’t the Christmas fir tree a part of that influence? It entered many Serbian homes, sometimes, though, together with oak yule-log.

More than sixty years under communism, Serb people were exposed to a planned and systematic secularization, to trials to separate it from its Holy Predecessors and its Orthodox foundations. The beginning of the 21st century is the beginning of disenchantment of the Serbs from the communist ideology. It is similar to the recovery of a man after long and hard infirmity. After a few decades of the atheist and godless destruction of our people, when all the spiritual values were being questioned, when many a generation was brought up with no religious education, today it is time of a gradual, spontaneous return to God, the Church to ourselves. When it comes to Serb people, there is no particular difference between those living in Kosovo and Metohija and the Serbs in other parts of Serbia, the territories of ex-Yugoslavia or anywhere in the world. We are, unfortunately, always, “ornamented” by not knowing our own faith and life according to the faith. Yet, we believe in the recovery of our people in the spiritual sense, as much as that process is hard and painstaking.

The troubles and sufferings of Serbs and their sanctuaries in Kosovo and Metohija, for almost ten years now, and growing into horrifying dimensions, contribute much to the sobering of our people. It is the pain and care of Our everyday life. We often hear a question: “What are we to do as people when it comes to Kosovo and Metohija?” It is a difficult question for Us. Yet, now, on the Eve of Christmas, we think that it is most necessary that we all, both representatives of authority as well as the whole nation, come back to God and to ourselves, that we start thinking of nation and of the State as the whole, that mutual separations and oppressions cease, that the spirit and moral in us become healthy again. In a word, as Saint Nicholas of Zhicha used to say, that we renew biologically, that we multiply, deify and unify. Then a solution to all our questions and problems will be found, even for the problem of Kosovo and Metohija. At the same time, regardless the unilateral, lawless and illegitimate proclamation of independence of Kosovo and Metohija by the Albanians, and the international attitude to that issue, it is our duty that we tend to and develop the awareness in our people what Kosovo and Metohija are for us, from kindergarten to University, and old people’s homes. We must finally realize that it is the holiest and the most important part of our Fatherland, that it is the cradle of our spirituality, our culture and our statehood; that to Serbia and the Serbian people Kosovo is what a heart is to a man. When you extract a heart, there is no more man; and if, God forbid, we lost Kosovo, there would be no more Serbs as a nation. Kosovo is our inalienable identity, our identity document, without which we would be unrecognizable. Hence we expect that the process of the spiritual renewal continues, that these authorities manage what the previous ones failed to do, that is, to create and clearly define the state and national interest when it comes to Kosovo and Metohija; that they approach to that matter in a unified responsible and statesman-like way, not in party-like, divided and selfish way, as it has been done so far. From the international community we expect a more consistent commitment to implementation of the UNSC 1244 Resolution, and the impartial relationship to all the residents of Kosovo and Metohija, especially when it comes to returns of refugees and the respect of basic human rights.

With such thoughts and prayerful wishes, we greet all the brothers and sisters, all the faithful children of the Serbian Orthodox Church, all the readers and all the Orthodox Christians, with the traditional greeting of peace and joy

PEACE OF GOD! CHRIST IS BORN! INDEED HE IS BORN!

HAPPY NEW YEAR 2009!

On the Eve of Christmas, 2008

Bishop ARTEMIJE

_____________________________________________________

KLA Albanians Sold Serbian Organs

2008-12-27T12:13:00.001-08:00

News
Send to friend | Print version December 26, 2008, 9:12
Serbs murdered for their organs in Kosovo – new evidence
Serbian war crime prosecutors have received new evidence that hundreds of Serbs had their internal organs removed and sold by ethnic Albanians during the Kosovo war. The UN document obtained through unofficial channels contains photographs of what are believed to be mass graves of the victims.

Film-maker Ninoslav has put his life on the line to show the suffering of the Serbian population in Kosovo, but fewer and fewer people want to listen. Until now the West has ignored him completely and the Serbian government would also prefer he kept quiet.

“We see that they were killed and dumped. Now there’s legitimate concern that some of them had been used to take organs and killed later on. Now we can only reconstruct this. But what do we do today to make sure that a civilised solution to the Kosovo crisis will be achieved?” says Randjelovic.

However now that everybody wants to close the files, new evidence has emerged of what happened in Kosovo in 1999. Reports suggest Serb prisoners of war were taken by the Kosovo Liberation Army to the Kosovo-Albanian border.

In a place called ‘the yellow house’ their vital organs were cut out and sold on the black market. The Serbian war crimes prosecution has through its own means obtained photographs purported to show a nearby mass grave and a report on the fate of these kidnapped Serbs.

“We have evidence that there was an operating room in that yellow house. A UN Mission in Kosovo [UNMIK] report, which we got through our own channels, said they found a couple of bottles of penicillin there. There’s not enough proof to say there was an operating room. From the report you can see that there were some other medicines and containers for transporting the organs. There are nine pages missing. The investigation is now on and we are trying to find out what really happened,” said Bruno Vekaric, prosecution spokesperson for Serbia’s War Crimes Court.

The UN, though, denies knowing about any of this. UNMIK spokesperson Russell Geekie said he has no information about this report.

“It may very well be an internal report. You have to go to the UN headquarters to ask about it, but they won't necessarily be able to divulge anything about an internal report,” he said.

RT contacted the UN but they referred us back to Geekie.

The story first came to light when former UN Chief Prosecutor Carla del Ponte published her book earlier this year. For Russian journalist Evgeny Baranov it’s not surprising. He’s been working on this story since the war and the latest information just confirms what he suspected all along.

“The first serious information came in 2006. There is a town called Merderi at the administrative border between Kosovo and Serbia, and at that time the international forces were handing over remains of exhumed Serbs to Kosovo. Among the relatives was this woman who hysterically tried to tell the journalists gathered there that her husband had been gutted and his organs had been taken to a hospital in Gnjilane in Kosovo. His organs had been sold and his remains buried in the courtyard of the hospital. Everybody thought she was insane until April this year,” Baranov recalls.

In November Kosovo police arrested two people, one Israeli and one Turk, for illegal organ trafficking. They are currently under investigation.

Related links:

UNESCO Discussion with Bishop to Define Serbian Heritage Criteria

2008-11-15T09:57:00.000-08:00

From: Diocese of Ras-Prizren and Kosovo-Metohija (info@eparhija-prizren.com)
Sent: Fri 11/14/08 1:55 AM
To: xenspirit7@msn.com

www.eparhija-prizren.com

UNESCO IN KOSOVO AND METOHIJA

Bishop of Raska-Prizren and Kosovo-Metohija and the Head of the Culture section of UNESCO in Venice held a meeting on October 15, 2008, with the goal of commencing UNESCO activities on the rehabilitation of the Serbian sanctuaries in Kosovo and Metohija.
Discussions in the meeting concerned the up-to-date UNESCO attempts to start rehabilitation of some Serbian sanctuaries in Kosovo and Metohija, after the Donours’ conference organized in May 2005. Especially emphasized was the disagreement of Bishop with the registration of the Serbian sanctuaries in the World’s cultural and natural heritage list, without the determining it a Serbian heritage. A point of view was conformed that the mechanisms of reconstruction carried out by the Council of Europe according to the Memorandum are unacceptable.
UNESCO representative was acquainted with the existence of experts’ bodies within the Diocese, and it was agreed that the existing principles of action of the Diocese and UNESCO be harmonized as a precondition to start the cooperation.
Further correspondence and closer definition of all the agreements from the meeting held in Gracanica is in course.

Press service of Raska and Prizren Diocese

Italy--U.S. Plans to Put Missiles in Poland is a Provocation to Russia-Just as Kosovo was

2008-11-13T12:05:00.000-08:00

News
Send to friend | Print version
AFP Photo / Sven NackstrandNovember 13, 2008, 20:11
Italy criticises US over E.Europe missiles plan
Senior Italian politicians have called on Russia and the U.S. to end a row over planned missile deployments. Italy's Foreign Minister, Franco Frattini, has appealed to Washington to shelve proposals for an anti-missile system in Eastern Europe. Meanwhile, PM Silvio Berlusconi has likened the proposed missile shield to the recognition of Kosovo: an act of "provocation against Russia."

In an interview with Italy’s Repubblica newspaper, Frattini said Russia should also show restraint and resist putting missiles in Kaliningrad.

"There is a need to advance the perspective of creating a new world order jointly with Europe, Russia and America," he said.

Frattini says the incoming American administration will be more focused on Asia than the current one, and it will not want a new Cold War with the Russian Federation. That is why, Frattini says, there should be no deployment of the ABM system in Poland and the Czech Republic.

He suggested that Washington should "change the approach" to relations with Russia.

And it wasn’t just the Italian Foreign Minister joining the debate. Speaking during a visit to Turkey, Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi said he believed Russia had a number of reasons to be unhappy.

“Let's speak frankly, Russia was provoked by America's plans to deploy missile defence elements in the Czech Republic and Poland, the recognition of Kosovo and the possibility of Georgian and Ukrainian membership in NATO,” Berlusconi said.

He also called on U.S. president-elect Barack Obama to avoid stepping up confrontation with Russia.

Berlusconi also said confrontations like this could lead to nuclear war.

Poland sticks to its guns

However, Poland says it won't give up its plans to deploy anti-missile elements on its territory even if Russia stations Iskander missiles in its westernmost region of Kaliningrad, according to Polish sources.

Poland’s Senate speaker Bogdan Borusiewicz slammed the Italian Prime Minister for describing the U.S. missile plan as provocative and said Berlusconi's words might further aggravate Russian-American friction over the plan.

Borusiewicz added that, on the whole, Polish-Russian relations are good: trade between the two countries is worth $14 billion a year, there are regular high-level governmental visits between them, and Poland supports a proposal for resuming talks on a new partnership accord between the European Union and Russia, he said.

Poland reached an agreement with the U.S. on an anti-missile base in July this year. However, Obama’s Foreign policy advisor, Dennis McDonough, failed to give any guarantees that it would be built under the new administration.

Related links:

Kostunica saids Tadic-lead Government of Serbia should Fall

2008-11-08T12:23:00.000-08:00

Government should fall, Kostunica
November 7, 2008 – 1:43 pm
Former Prime Minister of Serbia, Vojislav Kostunica, said that it is time for the current government to fall because it seeks to allow EULEX mission and by doing that to secretly recognize Kosovo as an independent state.

“The Parliament has not debated Kosovo in last 3 months. That is a forbidden topic for this government. At the same time, additional steps by the government could bring an imminent and secret recognition of Kosovo, and the EULEX mission is the gravest danger,” said Kostunica.

Kostunica says that the government is “secretly and behind the backs of representatives and citizens of Serbia, negotiating reconfiguration of UNMIK and installation of EULEX on the entire territory of Kosovo.”

Kostunica says that the only way to stop that is the Parliamentary initiative that will give the government a no confidence vote.

November 7, 2008
SERBIANNA

Please Help Advert the Crisis in Kosovo

2008-08-26T12:51:00.001-07:00

Continuing Crisis in Kosovo/Metohija

By Archimandrite Nektarios Serfes

“Whoever gives a hand to help his neighbor is helped by God’s own hand.”

–St. Isaac of Syria

Fr. Nektarios blessing the people of the village of Osojane.

I have now visited Kosovo/Metohija four times in my role as president of the Dečani Monastery Relief Fund (DMRF). Following my most recent trip in July, 2008, I returned to America very conscious of the many blessings God has bestowed on me. The people I met and the conditions I saw on my travels had impressed on me the contrast between my own circumstances as an American and the great struggles and hardships still being endured by Serbian Orthodox Christians who remain living in that region. Indeed, my reflections on what I had witnessed there still bring tears to my eyes, especially the memory of the many people I met who also wept in expressing their deep appreciation for our assistance.

Accompanied by two monks from the Dečani Monastery, my mission of humanitarian aid was facilitated by Italian soldiers who escorted us in a three-truck convoy provided by the UN Peace-keeping Force. It is still impossible to travel within the region without an armed military escort and armored transportation since this remains very much a war zone. Orthodox clergy and Serbian civilians, despite being easily recognizable as unarmed non-combatants, continue to be in danger of ambush and attack.

Our convoy stopped at twelve villages. Six soldiers guarded us with their machine guns in hand as the village children and their families excitedly ran to greet us. Each received our blessing and an icon. Then the two monks and I distributed cash to these desperately needy people-- this financial assistance made possible by the DMRF.

Peace-keeping troops are currently still protecting the monasteries, churches and villages occupied by remaining Serbs but now the tanks that also used to patrol these areas have been recalled. Many fear that even more of the peace keepers will leave over the coming months. If this happens, the remnant Serbian families will lose what little safety they now enjoy in those parts of Kosovo they still occupy. These regions of course include their beloved historic sites and cultural treasures such as the Dečani Monastery and other monasteries and churches as well.

Fr. Nektarios with Italian UN Peace Keeping troops in Banja.

In addition to the twelve villages, I was also able to visit several historically significant monasteries-- Gračanica[1], Holy Archangels[2], Dević[3], and Sopoćani[4].

At Dečani, the monks are preparing to erect a new wall on the north end of the property to create a protective enclosure for their crops and livestock. The monks are appealing for financial assistance to pay for this new wall’s construction and of course, any contribution you can make toward building the monastery’s new northern wall would be greatly appreciated. Simply send your donation to the Fund and designate it to be used for the new wall.

Dečani is a World Heritage site. Its loss would be a tragedy not only for Kosovo, but for all mankind. But, quite frankly, salvaging this little corner of civilization and history will be possible only if enough people worldwide care about preserving our shared human heritage and will make the financial effort and the moral commitment. It will not be an easy project. In the past the Dečani Fund helped to build a southern wall to protect the monastery. Even so, Dečani has been attacked six times.

Fr. Nektarios at the new wall being built at Dečani Monastery.

In the twelve villages I visited, I saw more then 1,000 families. Most of these villages are in mountainous regions where Serbs relocated after fleeing their original homes in the cities and towns. In the remote areas where they now live, there are few opportunities for paid employment or farming. Food is scarce and conditions are harsh. The aid the Fund enables us to give them is the only lifeline for many.

On behalf of the diocese of His Grace, Bishop Artemije and His Grace, Bishop Teodosije, the monks of Dečani have expanded their assistance efforts by opening two additional soup kitchens so that now the DMRF supports three altogether in Kosovo/Metohija. These are located in the towns of Prekovce (Novo Brdo), Rečane (Kamenica) and Vrbovac (Vitina).

During this last trip, I accompanied Bishop Teodosije to a meeting with Bishop Artemije. We assured his Grace that the Fund will continue to assist his efforts to aid the people of his suffering and struggling diocese by supporting the three soup kitchens established by the diocese. After our meeting, Bishop Artemije invited me to serve together with him and Bishop Athanasios at the feast day liturgy at Holy Archangels Monastery. The bishop further expressed his gratitude by presenting me with an icon of St. John of Kronstadt.

The hardships endured by remaining Serbian citizens continue in Kosovo as the region goes through its most recent transition from a province of Serbia to an independent Albanian state. The ultimate outcome of these political and national realignments, which have been evolving since the break-up of the old Yugoslavia, is not a matter we feel we should express opinions about. As Christians, we must never doubt that God loves all His children equally. Ultimately, He holds Kosovo in His mighty hand, just as He holds America and the rest of the world. Our Christian concern in this situation is only for the casualties of the recent wars and strife in the Balkans, especially for those most vulnerable victims of the conflict— the very young and the frail elderly. Our Fund was instituted to alleviate the suffering of individuals and families whose basic human needs are great. It is our intention only to carry out the singular commission Jesus gave to all Christians: to serve God by serving our neighbors.

In this spirit, we must concentrate on addressing the practical aspects of assisting those persons who have been left desperately poor, hungry, or homeless as a result of the ongoing strife in Kosovo/Metohija. One of the soup kitchens now needs a new oven and two bread machines to achieve their goal of providing at least 600 loaves of bread for daily distribution. We need your donations to enable them to obtain this necessary equipment.

You can view a short video, “If we only had a little more bread”, that shows the soup kitchens serving their hungry patrons by going to http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hX7rUmT5h04.

The DMRF also has a goal of providing shoes for the impoverished children of Kosovo. The region’s winters are cold and harsh. Yet many families cannot afford appropriate clothing or school supplies for their children. The Fund has in the past served as a life line for these families and we want to continue in this role. We have also been providing heating fuel for four schools, as well as assisting individual families to pay to heat their homes. We hope to be able to continue to provide this commodity so long as there is still so great a need for it.

We are now considering the possibility of setting up a scholarship program for the region’s youth. There are many bright, talented young people living in the impoverished villages of the region. Their future opportunities to cultivate and utilize the potential God has given them are quite limited due to the present circumstances. We would like to offer them hope through an academic scholarship program funded by the DMRF.

Fr. Nektarios visiting with the youth of the village of Goraždevac.

Before leaving the Dečani Monastery, the monks gave me, with the blessing of Bishop Teodosije, a hand painted icon of St. Basil of Ostrog. Bishop Teodosije and Fr. Andreji took me to the airport in Belgrade and the Bishop also presented to me there a medal from the Patriarchate of the Serbian Orthodox Church.

And so we continue to turn to you, our brothers and sisters in Christ, to ask you to stay with us in carrying out our Lord’s commission, given to His entire Christian family. In this material world, material resources are needed to ease suffering and fulfill needs. Along with our minds and souls and bodies, we must also commit our own resources to the mission. Jesus Himself asks no less of us; He Himself gave no less for us.

Please send your donation to:

Dečani Monastery Relief Fund

+Very Rev. Archimandrite Nektarios Serfes

2618 West Bannock Street

Boise, Idaho 83702

USA

Be assured we shall remember you in prayer, as we ask also for your prayers.

Thank you!

Peace to your soul!

Your brothers and sisters in Christ our Lord,

+Very Rev. Archimandrite Nektarios Serfes, President

+His Grace, Bishop Teodosije, First Vice President

+Hieromonk (Father) Sava , Second Vice President

Lois Fletcher, Secretary

Gioia Maria Frahm, Treasurer

Georgia and Russian Peoples To Remain Friends

2008-08-21T12:56:00.000-07:00

The Moscow Patriarchate warns against anti-Georgian kindling in RussiaMoscow, August 20, Interfax - The Russian Orthodox Church urges peoples of Russia and Georgia to remain friends and warns against kindling hatred to each other. "Russian and Georgian people have always been together. We know that Russians have saved Georgians from enslavement and extermination more than once. We know, how we helped each other in our shared trials whether it was the Great Patriotic War or hardships of the Soviet period when faith and Church were persecuted," deputy chair of the Moscow Patriarchate Department for External Church Relations Archpriest Vsevolod Chaplin said on air of the Soyuz Orthodox TV channel. "We know how rich are our Orthodox Christian cultures, how many Russian-Georgian families live in Russia and Georgia, how many Georgians live in our country and make their worthy contribution in its economics, culture, science, and other spheres of life. Today it's very important not to waste the potential of our friendship and our mutual help," the priest stressed. According to him, "only a madman can declare all Georgians are enemies and kindle anti-Georgian moods in the country." "Politicians come and go, conflicts are always crowned with peace, but nations keep on living and we have to show wisdom, good will, patience and love so that our Orthodox peoples could always feel their connection to one God's affair, to one Church of Christ and always prefer peace to hostility and love to hatred," Fr. Vsevolod believes.

WCC Involvement Makes Wary Faithful of Putin's Position

2008-08-20T09:43:00.000-07:00

August 20, 2008
Russian and Serbian Church Needs To Leave the World Council of Churches and All Ecumenical Affiliations

There are calls from within the Orthodox Church to work with heretical organizations to safe guard the family and to fight against the rapid rate of degradation of Christian Morals that is afflicting Western Civilization.

When has ever the Church, whose head is Christ, the Allpowerful, need the help of heretical organizations to fight off that which has already been defeated by Christ? It all comes down to choice, whether we choose to heed these calls, or to stay true to our Faith. I believe that the best witness of the Orthodox Church to such calls and participations is to not be a participant, but to work in the traditional spheres troddened by the Holy Church Fathers of the True Ecumenical Councils to resolve these issues. We do not need to be participants in worldy organization with pseudo-spiritual claims, to solve worldy problems. Jesus Christ our Lord has already saved the World, it is for the participants of the world to accept this salvation and to surrender by sincere participation within the True Church to its salvific medicine, the sacraments of the Church, which heals the body politic as it heals the individuals. The Church has already done this, and it can do this again without the help of deceitful wolves singing siren songs to join them in their unholy war against the current decline into degradation.

Further more, I believe that the Moscow Patriarchate continued involvement with the WCC is actually making it very difficult for the Faithful, many whom are very aware of the propaganda that is spewing forth from the West to try and discredit the current leadership of Russia, to fully support Putin's and Medevev's actions in Georgia, which is not against the Georgian people at all, and especially not against the True Faith of Christ, but against the unlawful, unethical, encroachment of Western hegemony on the borders of what is naturally Russia's sphere of influence. A U.S. Military presence on the Borders of the Holy Russia, is unacceptable, and Putin has down the right thing to remove those bases and influences. He needs to do this, much in the same way that Constantine the Great protected the Church as directed by God Himself.

What does Western hegemony in the area of the Caucasus and the Balkans mean? What does it mean for the former soviet Bloc countries? It means exposure to a civilization that minimizes the importance of the Salvation of Mankind in pursuit of a life here on the Earth. It means exposure to a civilization that promotes a democracy that minimizes God's influence in all spheres of life, the private as well as the public: it is not just about money or capitilization. It is about infecting one civilization struggling to openly embrace the True Church with the diseases of another civilization simmering in the decay of its failed philosophies and economic excesses.

We are being forced to choose between the rewards here on earth and the rewards in heaven, not understanding that the roles of the leaders of Orthodox countries are to limit the influence of intentions of civilizations in the West and in the Middle East destroy the nascent re-emergence of Orthodoxy in the Caucasus and in the Balkans with their poisoness godless democratic ideals. Orthodox countries can make democracy work, but under the theology of an Orthodox perspective...and that is the only way that Democracy will work for Orthodox Christians.

Please don't be fooled by the propaganda.

In Christ,

xenia

Desecrations of Churches Sanctioned by Kosovar Goverment

2008-08-20T09:09:00.001-07:00

August 18, 2008.

Source: Diocese of Ras-Prizren and Kosovo -Metohija

Communiqué of His Grace, Bishop of Raska-Prizren and Kosovo-Metohija, Artemije regarding the latest desecration of the Holy Trinity Church in Djakovica

A text, “Sharp Protest by Bishop Teodosije to the chairwoman of the Commission for the reconstruction of the Council of Europe and to the SRSG” appeared on the Serbian Orthodox Church website (written in Visoki Decani Monastery on July 12th 2008). Being mentioned in the text, in the sense of competence and authority, we issue, in the light of facts, a following assessment of such a “sharp protest” of vicar Bishop Teodosije.

In regard to annihilation of the foundations of Holy Trinity Church in Djakovica, the presented protest consists of information that “last year, within the preparatory works for the conservation of the foundations and fencing them off, garbage from the site was taken away, since the site was turned into an illegal garbage dump”.

We remind that exactly then, in September 2007, we made a reaction, as construction machines appeared on the site (Public communiqué of the Raska and Prizren Diocese from September 26th 2007 – Eradication of Serbian traces in Kosovo and Metohija continues).

We pointed out then that “last few days, construction machines clear away the remains of the devotional church of Liberty”, we warned that “voices are heard, claiming that Djakovica municipal structures intend to alienate the plot of land, where the temple was erected, from the Diocese of Raska and Prizren, and make it a cadastral register of Djakovica Municipality”. Particularly, we indicated that “under the auspices of the international community in the last eight years, the Albanians perpetrate spiritual and national genocide against the Serb people”.

We also remind on the reaction of the Council for church reconstruction and construction of Raska and Prizren Diocese, which, under our chairmanship, warned: “It is an alarming fact that on one of the locations in Djakovica, which is under reconstruction according to the Memorandum, last traces of Holy Trinity Church undergo their final destruction by the Albanian terrorists. This church was destroyed in 1999, devastated again in March 2004, and desecrated today, in the “reconstruction” process (Council’s Media communiqué – Disagreement with the Memorandum, from October 3rd, 2007).

We remind, too, on previous statements, untrue and harmful, made by Commission for reconstruction, concerning the ownership of this site: “the location is politically disputed and the ownership is under dispute” (Commission for the reconstruction report, 2006), as well as on our reaction: “through its report, the Commission officially misinforms about the ownership dispute, the site is in the ownership of the Serbian Orthodox Church”. (The Truth about reconstruction – a report presented to the Ambassadors of Security Council, in April 2007).

Hence, on numerous occasions, we lodged, as the Diocesan Bishop, a sharp protest over the treatment of this site, both to the representatives of The Church and The State.

A year later, Minister of culture in the role of arbiter

The then Minister of Culture in the Government of Republic of Serbia, Vojislav Brajovic, sent us a letter regarding the church in Djakovica, informing on the oral agreement between Bishop Teodosije and UNMIK, concerning garbage cleaning from the site (the letter No. 06-00-163/207-01 from October 9th 2007).

“In the period between 2004 and 2007, the local Albanians were disposing garbage on the place of previous church location, which additionally desecrated the place where the church was situated. Commission for reconstruction of churches destroyed in the March pogrom in Kosovo and Metohija inserted this church in the list of churches planned for reconstruction… The UNMIK representatives also complained to the Commission’s representative of the Serbian Orthodox Church about the impossible state in which the site of the previous church was, and therefore the Serbian Orthodox Church representative, Bishop Teodosije, orally agreed with UNMIK proposal that the garbage be cleared away from the site, without carrying out any other works at the same time, or clearing away the church foundations. UNMIK representative, Mr. Reiner, vouched to stick to the agreement on garbage disposal and that nothing else would be done apart. Simultaneously, an initiative was started within the Commission for reconstruction, that, as the first phase of reconstruction of the destroyed church, the site of the church be protected by fencing it off by high panels, in order to stop further garbage disposal on the same place.

Unfortunately, a construction machine (caterpillar) used during garbage disposal from the site where the church was, also cleared off the debris from the destroyed temple. As far as we know, the machines were not used to dig out the remains of the church foundations. UNMIK representatives did not completely stick to the framework of the agreed work, since they used construction machine without any particular need. Bishop Teodosije immediately demanded from UNMIK to stop any further works, which was done momentarily. At the same time, it was requested that the experts from the Commission for reconstruction visit the site as soon as possible to determine the state of facts”.

Which questions were opened by the arbiter?

How is it possible that the works according to the Memorandum start and are carried out on the site merely upon the oral agreement (vicar Bishop Teodosije “orally agreed” with clearing off the garbage upon UNMIK suggestion, he orally communicated “without carrying on any other works at the same time, or clearing away the church foundations”)?

If Bishop Teodosije, as member of the Commission orally agreed the works, who, on behalf of the Commission, monitored these works, especially having in mind that it is church foundations that are on the site?

We learn that UNMIK representatives “did not completely stick to the framework of the agreed work”, but we do not understand who established “the framework”, according to which procedure, under which conditions, when?

Who demanded, and on whose behalf “it was requested that the experts from the Commission for reconstruction visit the site as soon as possible to determine the state of facts” (Minister’s letter)?

Did the experts from the Commission for reconstruction visit the location?

Did the Commission experts determine the state of facts?

Which activities did the Commission carry out on the site, ten months since clearing away garbage (September 2007-July 2008)?

Why the official Report in 2007 from the Commission for Reconstruction noticed no activities on church site in Djakovica – “last year, within preparatory works for the foundation conservation and fencing the site off, garbage disposal from the site was carried out” (Serbian Orthodox Church web site), but it is only made public in July 2008?

Did the Commission’s inactivity on the site had as a goal further elongation of the reconstruction of the Church in Djakovica?

Continual elongation of the reconstruction of Holy Trinity Church in Djakovica
Bishop Teodosije formed the attitude of prolonging the reconstruction of the church already in the beginning of Memorandum implementation, accepting the UNMIK and Interim Kosovo Government’s point of view:

“The Church of Holy Trinity in Djakovica, because of an extremely complicated security situation in Djakovica, is perceived, not only by Kosovo Government, but also by UNMIK as a serious political issue. Our opinion is that priority is reconstruction of Dormition of the Theotokos church in Djakovica, as well as of churches in Bistrazhin and Piskote, while the site in the centre of the town could be fenced off and protected until more favourable conditions are met for the reconstruction of Holy Trinity Church”. (Report on the first trimester work of the Commission for Reconstruction, August 21st 2005, vicar Bishop Teodosije).

Agreement on the elongation was expressed in 2006, too:

“Three objects in the zone of Djakovica Municipality (The Holy Trinity Cathedral, completely destroyed, its ruins taken away, the church of St. Elias in Bistrazhin and the chapel of St. Lazarus in Piskote) are enlisted in a special category of objects whose reconstruction will start only when necessary security conditions, which at the time are very bad in the municipality, are created” (The Report on the works of the Commission for reconstruction, 2006, Bishop Teodosije).

In March 2007, vicar Bishop Teodosije comes forth with a proposal:

“As far as Holy Trinity Cathedral in Djakovica is concerned, it is an object which should be completely reconstructed, most probably within the framework of wider and more comprising programme of reconstruction of all other objects of the Serbian Orthodox Church destroyed in 1999. This programme should be established after the completion of reconstruction of the objects destroyed in March 2004 pogrom”. (The overview of programme for objects planned for reconstruction, March 2007).

Aren’t all the presented statements a direct contradiction to the information which Bishop Teodosije gave in beginning of May 2008 to the Holy Archieratical Synod:

“During reconstruction process the Commission for the reconstruction came to a conclusion that only through constant motivation of all sides included in reconstruction and in expert cooperation on multiethnic basis, the best results can be achieved. The reconstruction process is a process which does not have political character, and has as a goal reconstruction of Serbian cultural heritage, destroyed or damaged, primarily in the parts of Kosovo inhabited mainly by Albanians, in experts’ cooperation, feasible, as a very important segment in stimulating returns and renewal of liturgical life” (Report on the works of Commission for reconstruction, 2007, Bishop Teodosije).

Did the information on “expert cooperation on multiethnic basis”, on “reconstruction process is a process which does not have political character”, on the fact that Serb heritage is durable and feasible “primarily in the parts of Kosovo inhabited mainly by Albanians” misinform both the Holy Archieratical Synod and the Holy Archieratical Council of the Serbian Orthodox Church as well as the public, just as Djakovica example confirms it?

It is clear who prolongs the reconstruction of the church in Djakovica!

It is clear who supports the prolongation of the activities on the location!

Until when the reconstruction is prolonged? “…Until necessary favourable conditions for the reconstruction of the church are met”.

Who is the arbiter that assesses that these “favourable conditions” are met?

According to which procedure this assessment will be made?

According to which procedure and who will appoint the arbiter?

Why the reconstruction of the church is prolonged for the programme “which yet has to be established”?

Why the reconstruction of the church is suggested “after the completion of reconstruction of the objects destroyed in March pogrom 2004?

Does it mean that the location is exempted from the Memorandum?

Why Vicar Bishop Teodosije engages so much in prolongation and in whose favour?

The Question of Responsibility

Who, after all, bears the responsibility for shortcomings in regard to the preservation of the Serbian cultural heritage in Kosovo and Metohija? Surely those who, contrary to canonical regulations, interfering in our competence and authority, forcefully maintained the implementation of the Memorandum. A disastrous activity on annihilation of the location by the Albanians and the prolongation of the reconstruction of the Serb temple in Djakovica, above all with consent of Serbian side (as well as prolongation and exempting other location from Memorandum) are just a few from the bitter fruits of such a reconstruction process.

Thus, we pose a question about the responsibility for lawlessly insisting on the continuation of the reconstruction process according to Memorandum;

The responsibility for taking away from us, as lawful diocesan Bishop, the right to decide on the matters of reconstruction of sanctuaries in our Diocese;

The responsibility for not accepting our request, as the diocesan Bishop on determining new principles of reconstruction, i.e. the responsibility for the consequences of continuation of such a reconstruction, even after an argument-based and official indication on numerous flaws and inconceivable consequences;

The responsibility for enabling the Interim institution of self-government in Kosovo to fulfill the standard set for this area, standard VI;

The responsibility for supporting Council of Europe and Albanian institutions in their efforts to make the mechanism of “cooperation”, which came out of the Memorandum, grow into permanent model of institutional framework for protection of Serbian cultural heritage in Kosovo and Metohija;

The responsibility for enabling Albanian side to achieve references to work on the reconstruction of Serbian cultural heritage. Such references they could not have achieved without approval of the Serbian church, what UNMIK representative reminds us on, too: “The Albanian companies work on the restoration of the Serbian Church. It was decided by the Serbian Orthodox Church and hence I believe that everything is possible” (statement made by Fedor Klimchuk, Public debate on the work of Ministry for Culture, Youth and Sport, November 30th 2007);

The responsibility for entering into reconstruction process before assessment of damage inflicted during vandalisms, i.e. responsibility for annihilation of proofs on the inflicted damage;

The responsibility for destruction of the Serbian cultural heritage fund in the process of reconstruction by leaving out the indispensable construction phases and drifting from established regulations and standards;

The responsibility for stability of the objects, especially in case of earthquakes, due to disrespect of construction regulation in seismic zones and the responsibility for the people using those objects;

The responsibility for accepting the archaeological strategy as directive coming from the session of UNESCO and Council of Europe working group, held in 2005 in Paris;

The responsibility of turning the reconstruction into “mediation between differences”, for turning Serbian land into multiethnic Kosovo with no Serbs (250 000 expelled, out of which 207 000 internally displaced persons who still wait to return to their homes; violation of human rights and limited liberty of movement for members of ethnically discriminated communities; low profile terror directed towards members of ethnically discriminated communities, their property, cultural and religious heritage);

The responsibility for depriving Serb institutions of full responsibility for the care over Serbian cultural heritage in Kosovo and Metohija;

The responsibility for alienating the Serbian people as a whole from its spiritual and cultural heritage;

On and on, endlessly…

Bishop of Raska-Prizren
And Kosovo-Metohija
+ARTEMIJE

Fr. Andrew Speaks Out Against US Propaganda

2008-08-18T13:55:00.000-07:00

The End of US and EU Hegemony and Hubris?

After the fall of the Berlin Wall in November 1989, the ensuing self-liberation of Stalin’s Eastern Europe and the collapse of the Soviet Union in 1991, the United States of America came to dominate the world. US-led Capitalism, the ‘democratic freedom’ to be rich or poor, had triumphed over ‘the evil empire’. ‘The end of history’ had arrived and Mr Bush’s ‘new world order’, that is, the imperial diktat of the USA, was to be enforced globally.

So thought triumphalist Western imperialists, especially after the first victorious war to free Kuwait from Iraq. However, pride always goes before the fall and the fall always comes after pride. Within a few years of 1991, US hegemony was challenged by Islam. On the feast of the Beheading of St John the Baptist came the ous attacks of the CIA-trained Bin Laden. And later, on the feast of the Nativity of St John the Baptist, would come a ous attack in London on President Bush’s most loyal ally, Mr Blair.

The USA decided to attack the CIA-installed Saddam Hussein and capture oil-rich Iraq. Then came further irony. The USA and some of its NATO allies tried through a puppet government to control Afghanistan, where in the nineteenth century the British Empire and in the twentieth century the Soviet Empire had already been defeated. Ignoring these clear warnings, so the leaderships of the USA and its allies fell of their own free will into the traps of the disastrous invasions and lost wars of Afghanistan and Iraq, its new Vietnams. (What are ‘North Atlantic’ forces doing on the borders of the Himalayas?). Thus Baghdad, which means ‘God-given’, became the scene of the fall of Babylon once more.

These hopeless wars have cost the US over 4,000 American lives and, so say the experts, three trillion dollars. Now the heavily-indebted US economy is collapsing into recession, sustained only by huge amounts of Chinese money. EU economies, dominated by irresponsibly greedy banking corporations, are falling together with the US. The final curtain on US (and EU) hubris and its hegemonistic illusion of a unipolar world is now perhaps being lowered. The fall of this ‘new world order’ is taking place in Georgia, whose pipelines, on which the EU is partially dependent, are coveted by the US.

With the same hubris as Washington, the pro-NATO puppet government of the US-educated and orchestrated President of Georgia foolishly dared to invade South Ossetia. All this has been carried out by this Georgian warlord, with his very dubious human rights record and who is much disliked by his own people, so that his country could become a member of NATO. His forces, as reported even by the heavily-biased Western media, killed over 1,600 citizens with Russian passports. Little wonder that there have been calls for the Georgian leader to be tried for war crimes. The inevitable has happened. After making abundantly clear what would happen in the Caucasus if the US, aided by its puppet, the EU, invaded and took over the Kosovo and Metochia regions of southern Serbia, Russia has reacted. It has now used the provocation of allowing a part of the sovereign State of Serbia to declare independence and that of the Georgian invasion to retaliate against the American puppet in Tiflis. A Russian takeover is under way.

The US administration has been led into decline for eight years by the disastrously unpopular George Bush. His mandate, moreover, was only ever dubious, unlike that of the youthful and democratically-elected Russian Presidents Putin and now Medvedev. Sadly, the puppet President Bush and his neocon string-pullers have yet to understand that the twentieth century is over. Just as the eighteenth century was that of Imperial France, the nineteenth century that of Imperial Great Britain and the twentieth century that of the Imperial United States, so the twenty-first century belongs to others. Every Empire has its day, but it is no more than a day. Yesterday, Great Britain, today the USA, but tomorrow, the Lord knows. We fully expect resurgent Russia to oust the US puppets who have in the last fifteen years attempted to take over countries which have been in the Russian sphere of influence for centuries.

Georgia is only one country where nationalistic sentiments have been manipulated by the US administration with its twin propaganda myths of ‘democracy’ and ‘prosperity’. For democracy only means the freedom to choose between two products of the same political mafia, and prosperity only means the possibility of enslaving oneself to Mammon. After the warning given to Georgia, we expect the Ukraine, with its remote-controlled Russophobe President and his American spouse, to be the next to be liberated by Russian forces. Certainly for seven-eighths of the Ukraine and Carpatho-Russia (‘Transcarpathia’ as Ukrainian chauvinism calls it) a Russian takeover would indeed be liberation. Carpatho-Russia’s spiritual leader, Fr Dimitry Sidor, arrested, interrogated and harrassed by the Ukarinian secret police, would be freed. Only the heavily-Polonised far west Ukraine around Lvov would resent a Russian takeover. Perhaps that small area of Galicia, confiscated by Stalin in 1945, should be returned to Poland. In that case the Ukrainian problem would largely be solved at a stroke.

After this, we might also see Russian solutions to the problems of ex-Yugoslavia, which have most certainly not been provided by US and EU meddling. What has been triggered by the hypocritically American-organised provocation in South Ossetia is only a beginning. In an Eastern Europe saddled by borders fixed in the aftermaths of 1918 and 1945, we have already seen the disappearance of Czechoslovakia and the first round in the disappearance of ex-Yugoslavia. The borders fixed by the disastrous Treaty of Versailles in 1919 and those fixed in 1945 mean that irredentist minorities can be found all over Europe, East and West.

Even the break-up of the utterly artificial Belgium, a failed nineteenth-century invention of the Treaty of London, seems ever more likely: it is now considering separating into its component parts of Holland (Flanders) and France (Wallonia). And what of absurd borders in Western Europe, where a small area of Austria was long ago occupied by Italy and areas of Germany taken over by Belgium and France? Then there is Spain, where Basques, Catalans and Galicians want independence or at least a full federal constitution. Italians might well follow. That would surely also trigger further regionalisation in centralist France.

As for the absurd ‘United Kingdom’, a compromise-invention in the aftermath of the First World War, it is time that its component peoples were finally allowed self-determination and freedom. At last, long-suffering Ireland will be united and Wales, Scotland and England freed from the machinations of the foreign Establishment elite which has controlled them for centuries. As regards most of Western and Central Europe and parts of Eastern Europe, we would also expect great changes to the absurdly-named ‘European Union’, another elitist Tower of Babel, which its Brussels headquarters resembles. The EU has been rejected time and time again by its peoples, whenever, rarely, they have actually been allowed to express themselves freely. For the moment only Denmark, Ireland, France, Holland have been allowed to say an unrecognised No.

August 1914 marked the end of Europe as a world power. Twenty-five years and a month later, September 1939 marked the beginning of the Second European , become truly worldwide. Twenty-five years and a month later, October 1964 marked the first large-scale US involvement in Vietnam and an onslaught on the remaining spiritual and moral values of the Western world. Twenty-five years and a month later, November 1989 marked the fall of the Berlin Wall. Its consequences are still being played out on the world scene today. If the generational sequence continues, twenty-five years and a month from November 1989, December 2014 will mark further changes, perhaps connected with the reshaping of Europe, as outlined above. The first present events in Georgia must be seen in the light of greater forthcoming geopolitical movements.

Many are disturbed by the fact that two ‘Orthodox countries’, Russia and Georgia, are at war. Both their spiritual leaders, the Patriarch of Moscow and the Catholicos of Georgia, have called for peace and negotiations, ‘jaw not war’. But they are unlikely to be heeded by war-mongering Washington. Symbolically, one town reportedly visited yesterday by Russian troops is that of Gori, the birthplace of the of the Caucasus, Stalin. Indeed, until a few days ago his statue still stood on the main square of the town. Perhaps this war will at last exorcise the demons released by this evil monster, born in Gori in 1879 and these fifty-five years. For his ghost still haunts some Georgian politicians as well as the war-mongers of the West. Stalin is , but his spirit has not yet everywhere gone down to hell.

We are all disturbed by the events now taking place in the Caucasus. But those who have Faith are not ists. We know that although man proposes, God disposes. Everything remains possible, if only we pray for all the innocent victims, past, present and future, Ossetian, Georgian and Russian, of the political intriguers and powerbrokers of this world.

Fr Andrew
29 July/11 August 2008
St Eustathius of Mtskhet in Georgia

Pray and Understand What is Really Happening Between Russia and Georgia--a war clandestinely provoked by U.S. and other Western interests

2008-08-16T11:47:00.000-07:00

It seems that it is open season on President Medevev and Prime Minister Putin. Even Russians here are wanting to distance themselves from their former country. Everyday the newspapers denounce Russia's move to protect the citizens of Ossetia, who have made it very clear that they want to be with Russia.

The United States is actually using language such as the Russian's have trangressed the sovereignty of Georgia. Although I am just a plebian, I was raised never to trust the media, and that has always panned out. So here is my un-expert take on things, and it comes from the school of you don't need a weather man to know which way the wind is blowing.

What about the Sovereignty of Serbia? Bush uses the Sovereignty card it seems whenever it serves his purposes.

First of all President Michael Saakavashvili is a puppet of the United States, and the operations going on there on behalf of military and economic aid given to the Georgia have been too long tolerated by Russia, longer than actually necessary. The cowardly attack by Georgia, most likely with the backing of the United States--in my opinion, was timed to attempt to show Putin in his worse light. However, what shines forth with people with an Orthodox worldview, is a man who is undaunted in adversary and is able to act decisively and pro-actively. The might given his country by God he is able to use wisely. He is right to try and forestall the U.S. and other Western Countries from trying to isolate his country and bring it to ruin so that they can rape it again as they did when the Russian Oligarchs sold out to Western corporations at the expense of their peoples.

Here in the U.S., Certain people are trying to smear his name by saying that he is being uncivil to monasteries in Georgia. I'm positive that when the Truth comes out we will see that these operatives will be eating crow, and the U.S. expression goes. And they will be expose as what they are: plants to sow dissent amongst the emerging Orthodox peoples of the former soviet republics. We must fight this attempt and pray for our Georgian and Russian brothers and sisters, that the Mother of God herself will intercede for them, their Churches, Monasteries and their Countries and that the Truth will come out. The arrogance of certain Western countries must be checked, whether they promulagate their ungodly acts through puppet intermediaries such as Saakavashvili, or more directly such as the acts against Kosovo through the democratic parties leaders such as Clinton and Albright.

Please don't be fooled by this latest round of propaganda. Instead work so that all the Orthodox Churches reach out to each other here and in the Balkans and in Russia to beg God to guide us through this latest crisis.

In Christ,
xenia

Decani Monastery in Danger

2008-08-15T13:26:00.001-07:00

Asked what he would do to stop the municipal authorities’ attempts to expropriate the monastery’s assets by forging the property deeds, the UNMIK chief said that he had visited Dečani and told the municipal president that everything would have to be carried out in accordance with the law.

“This must be carried out in accordance with the law, while taking into account executive decisions that refer to cadastral registers," Zannier told Kontakt Plus Radio in Kosovska Mitrovica, adding that he had signed the executive decision extending the protected zone around the monastery by another three months on Wednesday.

In late 2005, then UNMIK Chief Soren Jessen Petersen signed an executive decision giving the High Dečani Monastery the status of a protected zone.

The decision signed by Zannier's predecessor Joachim Ruecker in May instructed the municipal authorities in Dečani to return the cadastral data for the monastery to its status as it was in 1998.

Following an investigation, the UNMIK Justice Department established that the municipal authorities in Dečani had illegally changed the register without any court ruling in 2001, when the monastery was deprived of 24 hectares of land.

Speaking about the Serbian Orthodox Church’s problems in Đakovica, where a city park is being built on the foundations of the local church, Zannier said that he had sent a letter to Kosovo Premier Hashim Thaci, informing him that such initiatives were completely inappropriate.

On Radovan Karadzic's (if indeed they did find him) betrayal by current Government of Serbia

2008-07-24T10:07:00.001-07:00

Karadzic’s Arrest: Bosnian Myths Rehashed

by Srdja Trifkovic

July 22, 2008

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The spirit of the media frenzy surrounding the arrest of the former Bosnian Serb leader Radovan Karadzic on July 21 is based entirely on the doctrine of non-equivalence inaugurated in 1992: Serbs willed the war, Muslims wanted peace; Serb crimes are bad and justly exaggerated, Muslim crimes are understandable.
This doctrine was spectacularly reiterated a month before Karadzic’s capture, when the Muslim wartime commander of Srebrenica, Nasir Oric, was found not guilty by The Hague Tribunal of any responsibility for the killing of thousands of Serb civilians by the forces under his command in the three years before the fall of the enclave in July 1995. It is also apparent today, in the endless media repetition of Karadzic’s alleged bellicose intransigence before and during the Bosnian war.

UNRESOLVED ISSUE OF WAR GUILT

The imbalance is more than merely unfair. The talking heads gloating over Karadzic’s capture no longer need to suppress the thought that different U.S. policies could have prevented the horror of “Bosnia,” because no such thought—however pertinent in this case—ever occurs to them. Yet the fact remains that in the spring of 1992 the late Warren Zimmermann, the last U.S. ambassador to Yugoslavia before its breakup and civil war, materially contributed—probably more than any other single man—to the outbreak of the war in Bosnia-Herzegovina. The facts of the case have been established beyond reasonable doubt and are no longer dosputed by experts.

Nine months earlier, in June 1991, Slovenia and Croatia declared independence, a move that triggered off a short war in Slovenia and a sustained conflict in Croatia where the Serbs refused to accept Tudjman’s fait accompli. These events had profound consequences on Bosnia and Herzegovina, that “Yugoslavia in miniature.” The Serbs (34%) adamantly opposed the idea of Bosnian independence. The Croats (17%) predictably rejected any suggestion that Bosnia and Herzegovina remains within a Serb-dominated rump Yugoslavia.

Alija Izetbegovic, the leader of the Muslim community (43%), had decided as early as September 1990 that Bosnia should also declare independence if Slovenia and Croatia secede. On 27 February 1991 he went a step further: “I would sacrifice peace for a sovereign Bosnia-Herzegovina, but for that peace in Bosnia-Herzegovina I would not sacrifice sovereignty.” The process culminated with the referendum on independence (29 February 1992). The Serbs duly boycotted it. In the end just over 62 percent of voters opted for independence, overwhelmingly Muslims and Croats; but even this figure was short of the two-thirds majority required by the constitution. This did not stop the rump government of Izetbegovic from declaring independence on 3 March.

Simultaneously one last attempt was under way to save peace. The Portuguese foreign minister Jose Cutileiro organized a conference in Lisbon attended by the three communities’ leaders, Izetbegovic, Radovan Karadzic, and the Croat leader Mate Boban. The EU mediators persuaded the three sides that Bosnia-Herzegovina should be independent but internally organized on the basis of ethnic regions or “cantons.”

The breakthrough was due to the Bosnian Serbs’ acceptance of an independent Bosnia, provided that the Muslims give up their ambition of a centralized, unitary one. Izetbegovic appeared to accept that this was the best deal he could make—but soon he was to change his mind. When he returned from Lisbon, Zimmermann flew post haste from Belgrade to Sarajevo to tell him that the U.S. did not stand behind the Cutileiro plan. He said it was a means to “a Serbian power grab” that could be prevented by internationalizing the problem. When Izetbegovic said that he did not like the Lisbon agreement, Zimmerrmann encouraged him to renege. State Department subsequently admitted that the US policy “was to encourage Izetbegovic to break with the partition plan.” The New York Times (August 29, 1993) brought a revealing quote from the key player himself:

The embassy [in Belgrade] was for recognition of Bosnia and Herzegovina from sometime in February on,” Mr. Zimmermann said of his policy recommendation from Belgrade. “Meaning me.” … Immediately after Mr. Izetbegovic returned from Lisbon, Mr. Zimmermann called on him in Sarajevo… “He said he didn’t like it; I told him, if he didn’t like it, why sign it?”

After that moment Izetbegovic had no motive to take the ongoing EC-brokered talks seriously., just as the Albanians had no motive to negotiate with Belgrade in 2007, after President Bush declared in Tirana that it would become independent. After his encounter with Zimmermann Izetbegovic felt authorized to renege on tripartite accord, and he knew that the U.S. administration would come to his assistance to enforce the independence of a unitary Bosnian state.

The motives of Zimmermann and his political bosses in Washington were not rooted in the concern for the Muslims of Bosnia as such, or indeed any higher moral principle. Their policy had no basis in the law of nations, or in the notions of truth or justice. It was the end-result of the interaction of pressure groups within the American power structure: Saudis and other Muslims, neocons, Turks, One-World Nation Builders, Russophobes… all had their field day. Thus the war in the Balkans evolved from a Yugoslav disaster and a European inconvenience into a major test of “U.S. leadership.” This was made possible by a bogus consensus which passed for Europe’s Balkan policy. This consensus, amplified in the media, limited the scope for meningful debate.

Zimmermann’s ploy heralded a virulently anti-Serb, agenda-driven form of Realpolitik that was to dominate America’s Bosnian policy. Just as Germany sought to paint its Maastricht Diktat on Croatia’s recognition in December 1991 as an expression of the “European consensus,” after Zimmermann’s intervention in Sarajevo Washington’s fait accomplis were straightfacedly labeled as “the will of the international community.” Europe was resentful but helpless when the United States resorted to covert action to smuggle arms into Croatia and Bosnia in violation of U.N. resolutions. Zimmermann’s torpedoing of the EU Lisbon formula in 1992 started a trend that frustrated the Europeans, but they were helpless.

Cutileiro was embittered by the US action and accused Izetbegovic of reneging on the agreement. Had the Muslims not done so, he recalled in 1995, “the Bosnian question might have been settled earlier, with less loss of life and land.” Cutileiro also noted that the decision to renege on the signed agreement was not only Izetbegovic’s, as he was encouraged to scupper that deal and to fight for a unitary Bosnian state by foreign mediators.”

THE SETTING

Over the past two centuries Balkan lands were bargaining chips for alliance construction. The Bosnian war of 1992-95 confirmed this trend. It was the most destructive segment of the War of Yugoslav Dissolution that began when the Yugoslav republics of Slovenia and Croatia seceded in the summer of 1991. With no ethnic majority and no “Bosnian” nation, of all six republics of the old Yugoslav federation the Republic of Bosnia-Herzegovina had most to fear from violent secession. Yet once reunited Germany was committed to the recognition of Croatia and Slovenia, the Muslim leadership in Sarajevo knew both that the old Yugoslavia was dead and that historic opportunities beckoned.

At the outset of the present crisis most inhabitants of Bosnia-Herzegovina did not want to become “Bosnians” in any political sense; but they were unaware of the extent to which their future depended on events beyond their republic’s boundaries. The ruling League of Communists of Yugoslavia literally disintegrated in the first months of 1990, setting the stage for multi-party elections in all six federal republics. The resulting power vacuum was felt in Bosnia-Herzegovina more keenly than in other republics because the Party rule there was more rigidly doctrinaire than in other federal units. When the first multi-party election since 1938 finally took place in November 1990, the voters overwhelmingly acted in accordance with their ethnic loyalties that proved more enduring than any ideological differences between them.

The weakness or even non-existence of non-nationalist opposition to the old communist establishment was at least partly due to the deliberate Western policy of appeasement of Tito’s dictatorship following his break with Moscow in 1948. Contrary to the situation in Poland (“Solidarity”) or Czechoslovakia (“Charter 77”), in Tito’s lifetime and even in the decade following his death in 1980 there had been no serious attempt by the United States to develop or cultivate alternative political teams in Yugoslavia among the narrow stratum of the intellectual establishment which could have been considered friendly to “Western democracy.” In accordance with the Kennan Doctrine, Tito’s dictatorship enjoyed America’s cheque blanche to do as it pleased domestically, for as long as it shunned full rapprochement with Moscow.

When the system unravelled the Muslims were the first to organize, founding their Stranka Demokratske Akcije, SDA (Party of Democratic Action) in March 1990. The Croats followed two months later with the creation of Hrvatska Demokratska Zajednica Bosne i Hercegovine—HDZ BiH (Croatian Democratic Union); in reality theirs was but a local subsidiary of the retired YPA General Franjo Tudjman’s HDZ in Zagreb. Finally, in July the Serbs established the Srpska Demokratska Stranka Bosne i Hercegovine, SDS (Serb Democratic Party of Bosnia-Herzegovina). The pattern of the Muslims and Croats acting proactively, and the Serbs reacting, was thus established very early on.

When the Bosnian election results were tallied, they effectively read like a census plain and simple. The overwhelming share of the vote—80 percent—went to the three parties that had grounded their appeal in the ethnic-national identity and issues. In the National Assembly of 240 seats (Chamber of Citizens and Chamber of Municipalities), the SDA won 86 seats, the SDS took 72 seats, and the HDZ 44. The three winning parties soon reached a power-sharing agreement. Although the maverick businessman-politician Fikret Abdic from the region of Velika Kladusa polled more votes, due to the constitutional vagaries of the late-Yugoslav Bosnia Alija Izetbegović was elected President of a seven-member multi-ethnic rotating presidency. The prime ministry of the Republic went to the HDZ, and the presidency of the Assembly to the SDS.

The tripartite coalition agreement was applicable not only to the distribution of posts at the level of the Republic, but also at the regional and municipal level. The ruling SDA-SDS-HDZ coalition, contrary to some dark predictions by the defeated communists, started functioning without major difficulties in the early months of the new regime. The notion of such cooperation was counter-intuitive to the outside observers of the Bosnian scene, but it made perfect sense in the context of the common desire by all three groups to purge the body-politic of the decades-long layers of communist lies and distortions.

In Bosnia-Herzegovina in 1990 three tiers of government authority were in existence, those of the Republic itself, of the regions, and of municipalities. Depending on the level of participation among the coalition partners, the distribution of political power was accordingly carried out at all levels. The apparent ability of the three “nationalist” parties to cooperate in the immediate aftermath of the election was based on one thing they all had in common: the desire to break free from the Titoist straightjacket. During Tito’s lifetime the three constituent nations of Bosnia-Herzegovina found themselves under steady pressure to “Bosnify” their identities. (Bosnian Serb writing, to take a little known but drastic example, was not to be classed as Serbian literature but as Bosnian literature.)

The SDA, the HDZ, and the SDS, all sought to recreate long-established identities, to represent real, traditional national diversity as against a new, synthetic (“modern”) composite identity. This was a blast of fresh air; it was not the precursor of war as one can see from the simple fact of amicable co-operation. It was, in any case, a natural response to the decay of communist authority. But the SDS were in no sense “anti-Yugoslav” in the political sense: what they were against was the communist cultivation of false nationality (“Yugoslav,” “Bosnian”), as against the spontaneous, natural identities of the historic nationalities of Yugoslavia.

Had Yugoslavia not been breaking up in 1991-92, this emphasis on traditional identities would have passed as a perfectly natural democratic readjustment to reality. The “Left Bloc” was finished, defeated even in the municipality of Prijedor where it confidently expected to be victorious thanks to the area’s “Partisan” tradition and strong “Yugoslav” spirit. The old CPY apparat was simply irrelevant: the pampered friends and clients of the old bureaucracy, who could not explain why their version of Yugoslavia had needed a police state to keep together. The truth is that there was no internal, Bosnian threat to peace at the beginning of 1991: when it came the threat was from outside. The SDS and the SDA were not simply in coalition: they were natural allies while Bosnia remained at peace, although they would become just as natural enemies if Yugoslavia fell apart.

KARADZIC’S EARLY POSITION

Karadzic headed the party representing the Serbs of Bosnia-Herzegovina, and they wanted, overwhelmingly, to preserve the status quo. Since they had no desire for the destruction of Yugoslavia, they were forced into reactive posture vis-à-vis those who willed the Federation’s disintegration. It is important to dispose of the idea that the Serbs of Bosnia in 1991 were simply fanaticized by Belgrade propaganda: they were still gasping for air after the Titoist era and composing a revisionist history of ethnic civil war and Serbian suffering, a history which may have contained new exaggerations, but which corrected the evasions and lies in the old story.

At the outset of the last Yugoslav crisis, the Serbs’ basic argument—even if seldom stated with simplicity and coherence—was clear when freed from rhetoric: they had lived in one state since 1918, when Yugoslavia came into being. They reluctantly accepted Tito’s arbitrarily determined internal boundaries between the six federal republics—which left one third of them outside Serbia-proper—on the grounds that the Yugoslav framework afforded them a measure of security from the repetition of the nightmare of 1941-1945; but they could not swallow an illegal ruse that aimed to turn them into minorities, overnight and by unconstitutional means, in their own land.

Even without the vividly remembered trauma of the Second World War, they reacted in 1991-1992 just as the Anglophone citizens of Texas or Arizona might do if they are outvoted, one day, in a referendum demanding those states’ incorporation into Mexico. They demanded the right that the territories, which the Serbs have inhabited as compact majorities long before the voyage of the Mayflower, not be subjected to the rule of their rivals. In the same vein the Protestant Ulstermen demanded - and were given - the right to stay apart from united Ireland when the nationalists in Dublin opted for secession in 1921. In the same vein the state of West Virginia was created in 1863, incorporating those counties of the Commonwealth of Virginia that refused to be forced into secession. The Loyalists of Ulster and the Unionists of West Virginia were just as guilty of a “Joint Criminal Enterprise” to break up Ireland, or the Old Dominion, as were the Serbs of Bosnia-Herzegovina who did not want to be dragged into secession against their will.

Yugoslavia was admittedly a deeply flawed polity, and there could have been no rational objection to the striving of Croats, and even Bosnian Muslims, to create their own nation-states. But equally there could have been no justification for forcing over two million Serbs west of the Drina to be incorporated into those states against their will, and without any guarantees of their rights. Yugoslavia came together in 1918 as a union of South Slav peoples, and not of states, or territorial units. Its divorce should have been effected on the same basis; the boundaries of the republics should have been altered accordingly.

This is, and has been, the real foundation of the Yugoslav conflict ever since the first shots were fired in the summer of 1991. Even someone as unsympathetic to the Serb point of view as Lord David Owen conceded that Josip Broz Tito’s internal administrative boundaries between Yugoslavia’s republics were grossly arbitrary, and that their redrawing should have been countenanced at the time of Yugoslavia’s disintegration:

Incomprehensibly, the proposal to redraw the republics’ boundaries had been rejected by all eleven EC countries… [T]o rule out any discussion or opportunity for compromise in order to head off war was an extraordinary decision. My view has always been that to have stuck unyieldingly to the internal boundaries of the six republics within the former Yugoslavia… as being the boundaries for independent states, was a folly far greater than that of premature recognition itself.

THE MUSLIM STRATEGY

Of the three ethnic-religious parties in Bosnia-Herzegovina, the Muslim party—the SDA—was perhaps the most radical, in that it alone advocated a fundamental restructuring of the Bosnian society in accordance with divine revelation. It attempted to do so not on Bosnia’s own terms, not within the Republic’s own local paradigm, but within the terms of the global-historical process—as its leaders saw it—of the global Islamic renaissance. Many commentators in the West have been in a state of denial for years about the true nature of Alija Izetbegovic’s long-term program. To put it simply, they preferred to believe their own assurances that Izetbegovic’s blueprint is not “Islamist” but “multicultural.”

Not unlike Islamist parties elsewhere—notably the ruling Justice and Development Party (AKP) in Turkey—the SDA had a public, “secular” front, and an inner core of Islamic cadres that remained semi-conspiratorial in the early days. This is vividly described by one of the party’s founders who had previously made a successful business career in the West, Adil Zulfikarpašić. He was appalled by the “fascist” methods of the SDA and by its “conservative, religious, populist” orientation, Adil Zulfikarpašić founded his own party, the MBO (Muslim Bosniak Organization). It fared badly in the elections of 1990 but it nevertheless left an important mark by charting the potential for a genuinely secular, “post-Islamic” political force of the Bosniaks.

In the early stages of the Bosnian crisis numerous Western reporters and commentators have claimed that the SDS sought to scare Bosnian Serbs with exaggerated and untrue claims of the militantly Islamic character of the SDA ideology and policy. It is a matter of record, however, that Izetbegovic was an advocate of Sharia law and a theorist of the Islamic Republic long before the first shots were fired. Already as a young man during World War II, Izetbegovic was a member of the Young Muslims organization (Mladi Muslimani). His was a radical Islamic political organization inspired by the teaching of the Grand Mufti of Jerusalem, Al Husseini, who toured the German-occupied Europe preaching that the Third Reich and the Muslim world had a natural community of interests that demanded personal commitment of every able-bodied Muslim. Izetbegovic’s ideas subsequently matured into a comprehensive, programmatic statement in the Islamic Declaration (1970), the document that led to his imprisonment by the communist authorities in 1983.

The Declaration became Izetbegovic’s de facto political platform. Reprinted in Sarajevo at a key moment in 1990, it startled the public. In the language familiar to the students of militant jihad everywhere, it called for Islamic moral and religious regeneration, and for the strengthening of different types of Islamic unity—up to, and including, armed struggle for the creation of an Islamic polity in countries where Muslims represent the majority of the population.

As Izetbegovic put it,

The Islamic movement must, and can, take over power as soon as it is morally and numerically so strong that it can not only destroy the existing non-Islamic power, but also build up a new Islamic one… There is no peace or coexistence between the Islamic faith and non-Islamic social and political institutions.

This was a political program par excellence that non-Islamic groups in Bosnia could not accept; for the Serbs “it confirmed their suspicions that Izetbegović wished to transform Bosnia-Herzegovina into an Islamic state.” The author’s contempt for Western values is evident in his dismissal of the Kemalist tradition: “Turkey as an Islamic country used to rule the world. Turkey as an imitation of Europe represents a third-rate country the like of which there is a hundred in the world.” Elsewhere, he accepts the “achievements of Euro-American civilization” but only in the area of “science and technology… we shall have to accept them if we wish to survive.” In a revealing sentence, Izetbegović discusses the status of non-Muslims in countries with Muslim majorities: “The non-Muslim minorities within an Islamic state, on condition that they are loyal [emphasis added], enjoy religious freedom and all protection.” He advocates “the creation of a united Islamic community from Morocco to Indonesia.”

It should be stressed that Izetbegovic’s views are unremarkable from a traditional Islamic point of view. The final objective is Dar al Islam, where Muslims dominate and infidelssubmit. That is the meaning of Izetbegovic’s apparent generosity to the non-Muslims, “provided that they are loyal”: the non-Muslims can be “protected persons” only if they submitted to Islamic domination.

In his daily political discourse Izetbegovic behaved throughout the 1990s as a de facto nationalist, fostering narrowly-defined Bosniak (i.e., Muslim) nationalist feeling and seeking to equate the emerging “Bosniak” identity with an imaginary supra-ethnic “Bosnia.” He was juxtaposing the construct with the two traditionally Christian communities—Serbs and Croats—whose loyalties were alleged to lie elsewhere, with Belgrade and Zagreb respectively. The two sides of Izetbegovic’s personality—the deeply committed Islamist on one hand and the functional nationalist on another—were not at odds, since within his terms of reference the Bosniak ethnicity was defined by religion, the Muslim religion.

Izetbegovic should not be blamed for being what he is, nor should his followers be condemned for subscribing to his outlook: Luther would say that he and they kann nicht anders. But to have Alija Izetbegovic, with his record and his vision, as the head of a democratic, pluralist state anywhere in the world, is simply unthinkable. But for his peculiar vision to be applied in practice, Bosnia-Herzegovina had to be taken out of Yugoslavia and proclaimed independent and sovereign.

THE ROAD TO WAR

As the fateful year of 1991 approached, the Serbs would have preferred an all-Yugoslav referendum based on the principle of “one man-one vote,” with a simple question—“Yugoslavia, Yes or No?”—and with the result binding for all. While in theory this same principle should have appealed to the Western democracies, in practice the “international community” appeared to be too deeply committed to the quasi-federal Titoist framework to question the assumptions of the secessionist-minded leaders in Croatia and Slovenia—assumptions that paved the way for disintegration. The separatists preferred the model of localized, republic-by-republic elections. Once they were in power, those elections would be followed by ambiguously worded referenda on independence with de facto preordained outcomes. This strategy had little to do with “democracy,” but it proved effective in radicalizing political discourse and escalating Yugoslavia’s crisis.

In early 1990 separatist parties had already triumphed in Slovenia and Croatia. In December of that year Slobodan Milošević’s authoritarian Socialist Party of Serbia gained a convincing victory in Serbia’s elections. The media in all republics had been busy pursuing openly nationalist themes, and the politicians followed suit. In December 1990 the Slovenes voted for an “independent and sovereign state,” and within months Slovenia stopped sending conscripts to serve in the federal armed forces. That same month the Assembly of the Republic of Croatia adopted the new Constitution—the so-called Christmas Constitution—that defined the Republic of Croatia as the “nation-state of the Croatian people.” The constituent status of the Serbian people in Croatia was thus abrogated and the Serbs in Croatia were reduced to the status of a national minority.

Unlike Slovenia, however, Croatia had within its boundaries a large Serb population that resented being stripped of its status as a constituent nation. The Serbs had initially favoured the preservation of Yugoslavia, but in the light of Slovene and Croat moves towards independence they raised the issue of self-determination. This was specifically related to the question of adjusting borders between the Yugoslav federal units in such a way as to allow various Serb communities outside Serbia to remain attached to it.

Separatist republics are free to go, the Serb argument essentially went, but they should not be allowed to take areas with a Serb plurality along with them. Slovenia’s and Croatia’s declarations of independence (June 25, 1991) were accordingly followed by rather different responses. There was a short conflict in Slovenia involving the Yugoslav Army, and a sustained and much bloodier war in Croatia involving local Serbs. Inevitably these events were bound to have profound consequences on Bosnia.

Izetbegovic’s chief concern was to find a pretext for the intended separation from Yugoslavia—any Yugoslavia—and to use the Croat tactical alliance in pursuit of that goal; the day of reckoning with the HDZ could come later. The decision by Izetbegovic to treat Tudjman’s bid for independence as the cue for Bosnia’s repeat act was fateful: the moment that the SDA made it clear that it would not remain in any Yugoslavia without Croatia, war was inevitable in Bosnia. Izetbegović was willing to risk that war. In the 1990 election campaign he said that the Muslims would “defend Bosnia with arms.” In February 1991 he declared in the Assembly: “I would sacrifice peace for a sovereign Bosnia-Herzegovina, but for that peace in Bosnia-Herzegovina I would not sacrifice sovereignty.” To the Serbs this was a war cry. By May Izetbegovic went even further, saying that the war in Bosnia-Herzegovina probably could not be avoided because “for a state to be created, for a nation to be forged, it has to endure this, it is some kind of fate, destiny.” This statement echoed his Islamic fatalism.

KARADZIC AND MILOSEVIC

Over the past two centuries Balkan lands were bargaining chips for alliance construction. The Bosnian war of 1992-95 confirmed this trend. It was the most destructive segment of the War of Yugoslav Dissolution. With no ethnic majority and no “Bosnian” nation, of all six republics of the old Yugoslav federation the Republic of Bosnia-Herzegovina had most to fear from violent secession. Yet once reunited Germany was committed to the recognition of Croatia and Slovenia, the Muslim leadership in Sarajevo knew both that the old Yugoslavia was dead and that historic opportunities beckoned.

President Slobodan Milosevic of Serbia, however, played the Bosnian crisis primarily as a means of consolidating his power in Serbia proper and extending his influence without committing himself to any clearly defined strategic objective, such as a “Greater Serbia.” By contrast, President Franjo Tudjman of Croatia did not shed Marxist crocodile tears at the passing of the old Titoist certainties. Unlike Milosevic he was a true nationalist. In April 1992 he brought Croatian troops into western Herzegovina just as Milosevic withdrew the Yugoslav National Army (JNA) from Bosnia. Furthermore, in a twisted re-enactment of the chetnik-partisan divide, Milosevic had constantly sought to deepen the divide between the civilian leadership in Pale headed by Karadzic, and the military HQ at Han Pijesak led by General Ratko Mladic.

When the Bosnian Serbs took control of the Serb-majority areas and connecting corridors in 1992, they were well equipped and officered. But the numerical advantage lay with the Muslims, who hoped to win in the end with international help. Radavan Karadzic never understood that this was, indeed, Izetbegovic’s grand strategy, and that time was not on the side of the Serbs.

In addition Karadzic personally and the Serbs collectively were severely damaged by the western media handling of their mistreatment of Muslim prisoners and by their expulsion of non-Serb civilians in the summer of 1992. Similar atrocities by Croats and Muslims against Serbs and against each other, while no less common, were less conspicuous and deemed unworthy of attention. The Western elite class chose its sympathies at the start and kept up an agitation in favor of military intervention against the Serbs.

Of several peace plans offered or mediated by the Europeans, Karadzic was under particular pressure—especially from Milosevic in Belgrade—to accept the Vance-Owen Plan (May 1993) that would have divided Bosnia into ten “cantons.” He initialled its acceptance, but subsequently it was rejected by the Republika Srpska national assembly. Only months later Muslims rejected the Owen-Stoltenberg Plan that provided for a confederal model of three sovereign national entities (December 1993). A vague yet “non-negotiable” plan presented by the “Contact Group” in 1994 was refused by the Serbs. It was quietly discarded in early 1995, by which time the Clinton Administration decided to intervene directly on the Muslim side.

KARADZIC’S COSTLY MISCALCULATIONS

The media call for intervention, launched in its early stage, made the Bosnian war the subject of international debate to an extent unknown since Vietnam. Many Europeans were inclined to support a compromise peace, a federalized Bosnia, and a real arms embargo; whereas the United States disliked European peace plans, broke the arms embargo starting in late 1993, and overtly supported the Muslims.

In 1992-1993 Karadzic made a fundamental miscalculation that made the war unwinnable for the Serbs. Ever obsessed with maps, square miles and territorial percentages to the detriment of strategic planning, he sat on his advantages and hoped that in the fulness of time the world would recognize the Serbs’ apparent victory. His often repeated adage, “we don’t want to defeat them [Muslims], we want to separate from them,” was absurd, however: the latter could not be effected without securing the former.

Blinkered by his flawed assumptions, Karadzic failed to grasp the tectonic shift that took place in January 1994, when the U.S. sponsored a Croat-Muslim alliance and the Europeans realized that there would be no settlement unless they surrendered political leadership to Washington. This new stage was inaugurated in February 1994, when a mortar shell fell on the crowded Markale market in Sarajevo. The Serbs were duly blamed, and evidence that the shell could not have been fired from Serbian lines became available too late to affect the subsequent crisis.

From this point the war became a matter of Muslim attempts to exploit the “safe areas”—in Sarajevo, Gorazde, Tuzla, Bihac, and Srebrenica—which had been declared by the UN but never demilitarized. In short the Muslims were allowed to attack out of these areas, but the Serbs were not allowed to pursue them back in. From spring 1994 on the Muslims could no loger lose the war, which, in view of their weak starting position, was tantamount to winning it.

Once treated as a key interlocutor in London, New York, or Geneva, by early 1995 Karadzic was no longer a player in the big game. In Washington Bosnia was seen as an opportunity to transform NATO from a purely defensive alliance into an “out-of-area” enforcement agency, thus paving the way for the Kosovo intervention four years later. The success of the pro-intervention lobby in the media must be seen in the context of strong support for their agitation from parts of the U.S. administration.

Russia was the source of Karadzic’s constant hopes and repeated disappointments. Often puzzled by Moscow’s supine posture, he kept hoping that it would “shake itself up.” Yet Yeltsin’s Russia was weak, eager to appease the West, and reluctant to exert itself in the Balkan area. Russian policy began with an almost ideological commitment to accepting Western good faith, and Russia was slow to grasp that Washington wanted a peace settlement based on the defeat of the Serbs. By 1995 informed Russian opinion was getting alarmed at the direction events were taking, but it was too late, and too difficult, for the Yeltsin presidency to devise a new policy.

In the summer of 1995 London and Paris reluctantly agreed to allow NATO to bomb the Serbs, while the United States reluctantly accepted the sort of settlement the Europeans had wanted in 1992-3. But the bombing of the Bosnian Serb army in August 1995, which appeared to end the war, was less important militarily than the entry of the Croatian Army into Bosnia, now trained and extensively re-equipped by the U.S. Even this Croatian intervention was only possible because the Yugoslav army refused to intervene to save its clients west of the Drina. The war ended because Milosevic of Serbia wanted it to end.

The chief outcome of the war was a transformed NATO, and the renewal of American leadership in Europe to an extent not seen since Kennedy. It established that America wanted to lead, and to be indispensable, in the process of European reorganization after 1989. Bosnia itself was not much affected by international intervention. The war took longer than it would have done and the Serbian position is more uncertain, but the settlement that followed Dayton is not unlike a plausible compromise that seemed within reach in Lisbon in April 1992.

Richard Holbrooke, the chief U.S. negotiator in 1995, boasted a year later: “We are re-engaged in the world, and Bosnia was the test.” This “we” meant the United States, not “the West” or “the international community.” Indeed, no nation-state started and finished the Bosnian story as a political actor with an unchanged diplomatic personality. Each great power became a forum for the global debate for and against intervention, the debate for and against a certain kind NATO, and an associated, media-led international political process. The interventionists prevailed then, and their narrative dominates the public commentary on Karadzic’s arrest now.

VAE VICTIS…

Far from bringing the Bosnian episode to a close, Karadzic’s transfer to The Hague raises an old question that remains unanswered by the interventionists: If the old Yugoslavia was untenable and eventually collapsed under the weight of the supposedly insurmountable differences among its constituent nations, how can Bosnia—the Yugoslav microcosm par excellence—develop and sustain the dynamics of a viable polity? The answer will become known only when the outside powers lose their present interest in upholding the constitutional edifice made in Dayton.

As for the specific charges against Karadzic, we need not hypothesize a pre-war “joint criminal enterprise” to ethnically cleanse and murder, to explain the events of 1992-5. The crimes and violations of human rights that followed were not the direct result of anyone’s nationalist project. These crime, as Susan Woodward notes, “were the results of the wars and their particular characteristics, not the causes.”

The effect of the legal intervention of the “international community” with its act of recognition was that a Yugoslav loyalty was made to look like a conspiratorial disloyalty to “Bosnia”—largely in the eyes of people who supposed ex hypothesi that if there is a “Bosnia” there must be a nation of “Bosnians.” In 1943-4 Tito was able to force the Anglo-Americans to pretend that his struggle was not communist revolution. In 1992-5 Izetbegovic forced the West to pretend that his jihad was the defense of “multi-ethnicity.” Both pretenses were absurd.

How do they do it, these Balkan political impresarios? The Hague Tribunal does not recognize the question as legitimate and therefore does not seek answers. The strange truth is that then, like now, great powers pay a fee for entering the Balkan casino. They consent to someone’s story, not “the Truth.”

Radovan Karadzic will be duly convicted of genocide and crimes against humanity, and he will not come out of jail alive. The verdict is already written, but it reflects a fundamental imbalance. It ignores the essence of the Bosnian war—the Serbs’ striving not to be forced into secession—while remaining mute about the culpability of the other two sides for a series of unconstitutional, illegitimate and illegal political decisions that caused the war.

The judgment against Karadzic at the U.S.-sponsored and largely U.S.-funded tribunal at The Hague will be built on this flawed foundation. It will be neither fair or just, and therefore it will be detrimental to what America should stand for in the world. It will also give further credence to the myth of Muslim blameless victimhood, Serb viciousness, and Western indifference, and therefore weaken our resolve in the global struggle euphemistically known as “war on terrorism.” The former is a crime; the latter, a mistake.

Christian Serb Organs In Illicit Trade/ Bush Visit Sanctions

2008-07-22T10:13:00.000-07:00

Bishop ARTEMIJE of Kosovo

Protests Bush Meeting with Thaci

Bishop ARTEMIJE of Kosovo Protests Bush Meeting with 'Terrorist, War Criminal, and Racketeer' Hashim Thaci; Demands Accountability for Harvest of Organs from Living Serb Christians

The following statement was issued today by His Grace ARTEMIJE, Bishop of Ras and Prizren, and pastor of Orthodox Christians in the Serbian province of Kosovo and Metohija:

"On July 21, President George W. Bush is scheduled to meet with Hashim Thaci, styled by some 'Prime Minister' of the separatist Albanian Muslim administration in the Serbian province of Kosovo and Metohija. As pastor of the Orthodox Christian people of Kosovo, I protest to the fullest possible degree the fact that President Bush would bring dishonor on his office and sully the good name of the American nation by receiving such an infamous terrorist, war criminal, and organized crime chieftain.

"Such a meeting is particularly disturbing in light of President Bush's aspiration to leadership in the struggle of decent people everywhere against global jihad terrorism. In another context, he likened association with terrorists to seeking accord with the Nazis before World War II. Has he now changed his mind?

"Mr. Thaci's criminal record is well-known. Under his alias 'the Snake,' Mr. Thaci is one of the three principal kingpins in the Albanian Mafia, which is based in Kosovo and operates drug, sexual slavery, and weapons rackets across Europe. According to the German intelligence service BND, he meets regularly in Pristina's Grand Hotel with his chief accomplices, Ramush Haradinaj and Agim Ceku, to manage their joint criminal enterprises. To protect his criminal 'turf,' Mr. Thaci has not hesitated to eliminate rivals through physical means. As stated by one Albanian former leader in Kosovo, 'Cadavers have never been an obstacle to Thaci's career.'

"His record as a terrorist and war criminal is no less notorious. As a former commander of the so-called 'Kosovo Liberation Army (KLA),' Mr. Thaci bears primary responsibility for the terror campaign that has killed thousands of my flock and forced a quarter of a million to flee their homes in the province. Thousands of Serbian houses have been burned or forcibly taken over by Albanians, many of them illegal immigrants from Albania. Mr. Thaci's henchmen have demolished or desecrated over 150 of the churches and monasteries in my diocese. Particularly targeted for destruction have been crosses and icons of Our Lord Jesus Christ and the saints, giving proof to the Islamic jihad ferocity that motivates these attacks.

"It is known that in 1995 Mr. Thaci, together with his crony Mr. Haradinaj, met in Tirana with Osama bin-Laden to plan the jihad against Serbs in Kosovo. Americans should keep in mind that the terrorist reach of the KLA is not confined to Serbia but already has reached American shores with the barely averted plot by jihad terrorists, four of whom are Albanian Muslims from the Kosovo region, to attack Fort Dix in New Jersey and kill American servicemen.

"Perhaps most appalling is Mr. Thaci's role with respect to horrifying reports that organs destined for the illegal trade in organs for transplant were torn from live Serbian prisoners of the KLA. Some of the Serbian victims, after having one kidney cut out, were returned to confinement with fellow captives pending the lethal surgical removal of their other organs, waiting in knowing dread of the fate prepared for them! As documented by U.N. former war crimes prosecutor Carla Del Ponte -- someone who hardly can be accused of having a pro-Serb bias -- these reports are specific and credible and cry out for immediate investigation. The U.S.-based advocacy organization Human Rights Watch has written to Mr. Thaci with their concerns about this matter, which he has dismissed with cavalier indifference. This is hardly surprising, given that these atrocities were committed by his KLA minions, for whose actions he bears command responsibility. Indeed, in light of Mr. Thaci's criminal proclivities, is it not more than likely he himself profited from this gruesome trade?

"This is the man with whom the leader of the world's foremost democracy now intends to meet! In doing so, President Bush would be committing a grave transgression against morality and decency, as well as an offense against any standard of civilized behavior. I call on President Bush, as a professing Christian and as an international leader, to cancel this iniquitous meeting. I call on U.S. authorities to demand that those responsible for the harvesting of organs from live Serbian victims be made to face justice."

Bishop of Diocese of Ras-Prizren and Kosovo-Metohija

+ ARTEMIJE

Ireland Says No To No To Foreign Rule

2008-06-13T10:01:00.002-07:00

Ireland rejects EU reform treaty with 53.4 percent "no" vote 44 minutes ago

DUBLIN, Ireland - Electoral officials say Irish voters have rejected the European Union reform treaty with a national "No" vote of 53.4 percent.

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The blueprint for modernizing the 27-nation bloc cannot become law without Irish approval and its defeat is a major blow to the EU.

Rural and working-class voters heavily rejected the treaty to modernize the EU's powers and institutions in line with its rapid expansion since 2004.

Ireland was the only EU member to seek to ratify the Lisbon Treaty through a national referendum. All others are doing so only through their national governments.

Irish Prime Minister Brian Cowen will join other EU leaders at a summit next week to try to negotiate a new way forward.

THIS IS A BREAKING NEWS UPDATE. Check back soon for further information. AP's earlier story is below.

DUBLIN, Ireland (AP) — Substantial election returns showed Friday that Ireland's voters have rejected the European Union reform treaty, a blueprint for modernizing the 27-nation bloc that cannot become law without Irish approval.

Several senior Irish government figures conceded defeat for the treaty, which would be a major blow to the EU.

An EU constitution failed after French and Dutch voters rejected it in 2005. Ireland was the only member that subjected its would-be successor, the Lisbon Treaty, to a national vote. The Irish constitution requires all EU treaties to be ratified by referendum.

Justice Minister Dermot Ahern said he expected all other 26 EU members to ratify the Lisbon Treaty through their national parliaments by the end of this year.

This would leave Ireland diplomatically isolated but nonetheless wielding the power to prevent the treaty from becoming law and forcing a period of renewed negotiations.

"Obviously it's disappointing. It's quite clear there's a very substantial `no' vote," said Ahern, who noted that 58 percent of voters rejected the treaty in his home district.

"If we're left as the only country that has not ratified the treaty, it will obviously raise questions. We're in uncharted waters," he said.

National vote tallies compiled by election observers and backed by early official returns from Thursday's vote showed the "no" camp winning the vast majority of Ireland's 43 electoral constituencies.

"This is a huge rebuff to the political establishment. It shows there is massive distrust among ordinary working people," said Joe Higgins, the sole Socialist Party member in the Irish parliament.

At the major ballot-counting center in Dublin, Finance Minister Brian Lenihan struggled to speak to reporters as anti-treaty activists jubilantly drowned him out with songs and chants of "No!" He eventually gave up and walked out, as one activist waved a sign reading "No to foreign rule" over his head.

The pro-treaty vote was ahead in only half a dozen constituencies.

Rural and working-class areas were almost universally anti-treaty. Better-off parts of Dublin registered stronger support for the EU. In suburban south Dublin, a largely wealthy and highly educated district, the "yes" camp triumphed with 63 percent of the vote. But a neighboring, scruffier district voted 65 percent "no."

Electoral officials expected to announce the total results later Friday. The euro common currency fell to a one-month low on the news.

The Lisbon Treaty and the failed constitution before it sought to reshape EU powers and institutions in line with the bloc's rapid growth in size and population since 2004.

Both documents proposed to strengthen the roles of the EU's president and foreign policy chief, reduce the areas where individual nations could veto policy changes and increase the powers of the European Parliament to scrutinize EU laws.

Ireland views itself as a pro-EU state that has broadly benefited from 35 years of membership. Yet even here, a majority of voters appeared determined to register their opposition to the growth of a continental government that would erode Ireland's sense of independence.

Anti-treaty pressure groups warned that the EU would use treaty powers to reduce Ireland's ability to control its own tax rates and maintain a ban on abortion. Such claims were vociferously rejected by the government and major opposition parties, all of whom campaigned for the treaty's ratification.

"People felt a convincing case for the treaty had not been made, and they felt hectored and bullied into supporting it while the wool was being pulled over their eyes," said Richard Boyd Barrett, leader of a hard-left pressure group called People Before Profit.

Do Not Despair, My Friends

2008-05-12T07:22:00.000-07:00

May 12, 2008
My Friends Do Not Despair

My friends, do not despair. The trials we undergo and the trials of our brethren in Christ all over the the world, are not for vain, for our Lord died on the Cross, and was Resurrected Again on the day when the enemies were sure that they had conquered. For The "death" was for them the proof of their supremacy over our Lord, it was the proof of their supremacy of their heretical and worldly wisdoms over the simple and True Wisdom of our Lord, Jesus Christ, the Creator of all, the Creator, even of those who had the audacity to crucify Him.

So it is with Kosovo. All of us are undergoing a purification stage. A dear friend wrote me a letter stating essentially that life here on this earth will be full of trials, this he has come to accept, and no less than Christ, Himself has told us this.

Through many tricks and soothsayings of our enemies, the Serbians have been beguiled, and I fear in many cases disenfranchised from speaking with their true Orthodox Heart, and being allowed to let that guide them in how they relate to God, to themselves and to the world.

But I know that when we are in our darkest hour, the Lord God, is there right beside us, waiting for us to call upon Him, and also I feel strongly that He will use this apparent defeat of Orthodox Serbia, to prove to the world that He Has Overcome. Christ Is Risen, and enemies of the Church shall not prevail...what seems to all to be an appearance of defeat, is but the seeds of a quiet, yet incorruptible outrage. Was not all creation trembling when our Lord died on the cross, and yet did not all creation exalt Him and exult in the secret places of their beings and outwardly, the Triumph of our Lord on the Day of Resurrection.

We are here being tempered, and do not despair...this earth is boastful of its transient and apparent victories. Let us not be fooled...we have the witness of the Martyrs, of Christ Himself.

Christ is Risen From the Dead Trampling Down Death by Death, and Upon Those in the Tomb Bestowing Life. Serbia has been transformed into a tomb, but the seed of its Church is with God, and shall Resurrect.

In Christ, my Brethren.

Serbs Must Remember The Message of Kosovo

2008-03-21T10:29:00.000-07:00

Glas Javnosti: Interview with Bishop Artemije

By Hadži Petar Pašiæ

GLAS JAVNOSTI

INTERVIEW: GLAS is researching the question: How to chose between the two historical formulas presented to the voters at the elections slated for May 11, namely „Both Europe and Kosovo“ and „To Europe only together with Kosovo?“

1. QUESTION: Which platform would you favor on May 11 „Both Europe (EU) and Kosovo“, or “To Europe (EU) only together with Kosovo?“

ANSWER: The first platform „Both Europe and Kosovo“ is a very well contrived trap designed to mislead and deceive people. The proponents and supporters of that proposition have so far failed to show in any way how Kosovo could be retained within Serbia with the help of those countries from EU which have done their utmost to bring about the secession of Kosovo from Serbia and could hardly wait to recognize the unilateral proclamation of Kosovo’s independence while completely disregarding all principles of international law.The other platform: “To Europe (EU) only together with Kosovo” is in itself both understandable and logical. Its proponents are not against Serbia’s working closer with or joining the European Union. They simply insist on joining the union as a complete state with her borders intact as recognized by numerous existing international legal documents. It is for the European Union to say whether it wants that kind of Serbia or whether it wants the corpse of Serbia without her natural heart which is Kosovo and Metohija. It is on the answer to that question that Serbia’s next move will depend.

2. QUESTION: Those who until yesterday were President Boris Tadiæ’s coalition partners reproach him today that in his formula “Both Europe and Kosovo” he undeniably favors Serbia’s membership in the European Union. And Tadiæ’s response is that he gives equal priority to EU and Kosovo. What do you think is Tadiæ’s true position, and what is good and what is bad in it for Serbia?

ANSWER: Everything in it is bad. As a member of the Socialist International (SI), which has always wholeheartedly supported Marti Ahtisaari’s plan and now supports the independence of Kosovo, the Democratic Party (DS) and its president, who is also the President of Serbia, Boris Tadiæ, can obviously do nothing for the good of Serbia and Kosovo which is not in accordance with the program of that international organization. For all the members of the Socialist International, including DS and its president, obligations to that organization are binding and supersede all others. Whatever happens, DS will carry out orders of SI, even when they are in opposition to our national interests. These “orders” stand far above all those “primitive” feelings, such as patriotism, religion, feeling for human dignity etc. One must point out that membership of DS in SI is in fact against our Constitution because SI is bent on destroying our state — a fact which is not known to our public. We must imperatively demand that DS leave the Socialist International and declare clearly that it will either respect the Constitution of Serbia or be a member of the Socialist International, because these two things are absolutely incompatible.

3. QUESTION: Are Tadiæ’s opponents right when they say that “Both Kosovo and Europe” will, in fact, be reduced to nothing more than the simultaneous repetition of the mantra that Belgrade does not and never will recognize “the state of Kosovo” and constant retreat before the actual growth of the second Albanian state while missing every opportunity to parry even those attacks which this weak Serbia could and must parry?

ANSWER: Yes, obviously. Because Tadiæ will continue to do what he has been doing and to behave as if nothing had happened at all, as if Kosovo and Metohija had not been taken from us by force. The old rhetoric will be of no significance, because by doing nothing which might show active and factual disagreement with the fait accompli, he will, in fact, make it clear that he tacitly accepts the newly-created situation as a reality, and that would be tantamount to recognizing the independence of Kosovo. Serbia must not allow that to happen.

4. QUESTION: Do you think that Tadiæ is realistic when he says that, unless the “anti Europe bloc” spoils Serbia’s chances after May 11, Serbia will be in the European Union in five or six years’ time, which is for Serbia the necessary condition for get economically strong enough and preserving Kosovo?

ANSWER: No, I don’t think so. On the contrary, that is a tall story with which to deceive the Serbian people in order to achieve some purely party or personal goals. Because it is simply not possible that our President with all his numerous counselors, is not aware of the letter which Mr. Willie Wimmer, who at the time was the Vice President of the Parliamentary Assembly of OSCE wrote to Mr. Gerhard Schroeder, Chancellor of Germany, in May 2000 on the occasion of the conference held in Bratislava regarding the expansion of NATO. The Conference was attended by very highly placed political representatives, such as a large number of prime ministers, ministers of foreign affairs and ministers of defense from that region. Of the numerous important topics discussed, for us at this time the most important is section 8 which literally states that: „Serbia must be excluded from European development for a long time.” At this point we must point out that during the past eight years EU has kept Serbia in a very uncomfortable position, insisting on conditions of “further integrations,” which tallies exactly with Wimmer’s letter. One should be honest with one’s own people and tell them openly that, judging by all available evidence, “the European option” does not exist and, therefore, we must turn to another source for possibilities of survival. That such possibilities exist must be obvious to those who have political wisdom and honesty.

5. QUESTION: If Serbia joins EU even in 2013, would that make it possible to regain Kosovo? In real terms, by how much would the membership in EU improve Serbian chances in view of the fact that she may also be asked to recognize the “state of Kosovo,” and that, having recognized Priština, Germany, Great Britain, France and Italy would certainly not draw back before Serbia who no matter how much stronger would at that moment still be a third-rate power?

ANSWER: Even if that “miracle” were to happen, even if EU were to embrace Serbia albeit no earlier than 2013, it certainly would not be enough to make it possible for Serbia to get Kosovo and Metohija back under her jurisdiction. EU will never be Serbia’s ally in the question of Kosovo. It would be far more likely that, having met all humiliating conditions which will be imposed upon her, Serbia will have to face the final condition, namely the recognition of the “state of Kosovo” before she could join EU. Serbia, or rather her leadership after May 11, will have to find another path to regaining Kosovo and Metohija of which she was so brazenly robbed. This objective will have to be worked on in a consistent manner and realized when geopolitical conditions are ripe.

6. QUESTION: Are you worried that Priština’s and Tirana’s ratings in Washington and Brussels are much higher than that of Belgrade. This also means that Priština may very well join EU before Belgrade and that democratic Serbia will be a dollar short and a day late even if Tadiæ and his platform „Both Kosovo and Europe” win the elections on May 11?

ANSWER: One shouldn’t worry but it could easily happen. Not because of the great quality and wisdom of Priština and its leaders, but because it is in the interests of Brussels and Washington. Tadiæ’s victory on May 11 may bring Serbia a notch nearer to EU, but it would move her very much further away from herself. It would alienated her from her historical and spiritual roots which would be the greatest tragedy for the Serbian people. A little more food on one’s plate will not solve all problems.

7. QUESTION: The critics and political competitors of Vojislav Koštunica are already ringing alarm bells saying that his historical electoral campaign motto “To Europe only together with Kosovo,“ will only aggravate his quarrel with EU and USA, that he will lose his chance to strengthen Serbia’s economic position and improve her international standing and make it impossible for Serbia, thus strengthened, to bring back Kosovo under her jurisdiction from within the European Union. What do you consider to be the strengths and the weaknesses of the prime minister’s stand?

ANSWER: The platform of Mr. Koštunica is not a quarrel with EU and the USA. He is not doing anything to spite them. His platform is a clear presentation of what Serbia can accept. The story about a strengthened Serbia being able to regain Kosovo „from within Europe“ is a fairytale for little children. The strengths and weaknesses of the Prime Minister’s stand can be seen in answers already given.

8. QUESTION: In spite of the fact that the Prime Minister’s stand might aggravate the relations with Brussels and Washington now and in the next few years, does it improve Serbia’s chances of regaining Kosovo and Metohija in the near future? Does that stand, as DSS claims, offer better protection for Serbia’s historically legitimate claims on Kosovo and Metohija because it would enable her to reclaim it if the balance of powers were to change and be more favorable to Serbia?

ANSWER: This response of the Prime Minister does not worsen our relations with Brussels. Our relations with Brussels simply could not be worse. Therefore, Serbia’s chances of reclaiming Kosovo with the aid of Brussels and Washington are non-existent. But it is both possible and realistic to expect to regain Kosovo if the balance of powers changes. As to trying to predict the timing of events, that is a thankless job. But hope never dies.

9. QUESTION: What, if anything, has Serbia got to lose with the motto “To Europe only together with Kosovo,” considering that the former German ambassador to Belgrade was so indiscreetly frank and well-meaning when he revealed to the Serbs the precious truth, which was not intended for their ears, that they would not join EU before 2025?

10. ANSWER: There is no doubt that the mighty of this world do not tolerate opposition well, particularly when it is offered by someone much weaker than they are. Therefore, new attempts at blackmail, new pressures on Serbia, new humiliations, perhaps even more territorial reductions are bound to come. As for Cobel, it would appear that he, too, was ignorant of the decision taken at the conference in Bratislava. He evidently hadn’t read the letter of Mr. Wimmer when he so generously promised that the Serbs would join EU in 2025. Short of some great disturbances in the international community, if EU is still in existence in 2025, it would still be a forbidden fruit for the Serbs. Always on condition that Serbia herself still exists as an independent state.

11. QUESTION: Given the Prime Minister’s stand, is Serbia in danger of being again diplomatically and economically isolated and punished, even without formal sanctions?

ANSWER: That also is possible in view of the current attitude of EU towards Serbia and all Serbs. To avoid this Serbia must, with great political, wisdom find for herself other partners to whom she will turn and who will understand and value her. And these are not few in the world. I don’t have only Russia in mind. If Serbia wants to cease being continually rejected by Europe, she herself must turn her back on it.

12. QUESTION: Are fears — and warnings — that with Koštunica as her leader Serbia risks to be left without either Kosovo or Europe justified?

ANSWER: It is simply a bit of psychological blackmail. Serbia cannot and must not ever give up Kosovo, but give up Europe and the conditions it is imposing it can and it must give up. To EU without Kosovo? Wild horses would not drag us there. EU could never be a compensation for losing Kosovo and Metohija. Accepting the membership in EU without Kosovo is tantamount to renouncing Kosovo and recognizing its independence. Serbia must never do that. It would be like committing suicide for Serbia to do that. If she did, she would lose her spirit and her soul. She would, in fact, be a rotting corpse.

13. QUESTION: Are the Serbs choosing between the formula “To Europe at all cost” and the formula “Kosovo is Serbia at all cost?” Is there a way to avoid this either or choice? Is Kosovo and Metohija worth more suffering for the entire nation? Have the Serbs of today the right to renounce the most valuable part of their spiritual and national identity for the sake of “a better life?”?

ANSWER: Kosovo is not and has never been the cause of the suffering of “the entire nation.” Rather it has been, it has signified the salvation of the entire nation. And so it is today. Those who recognize only the criteria of this world say that Kosovo has led us into five centuries of slavery under the Turks and therefore caused the suffering of “the entire nation.” The others who recognize also other criteria, spiritual criteria, say that Kosovo has made us strong, it has given us the power to withstand the five centuries of Turkish occupation and to live long enough to see the sun of freedom rise again. And the sun rose in Kosovo. These two visions of Kosovo exist even today. There is no price we can put on Kosovo. Never. It is for this reason that not only “the Serbs of today,” but also the Serbs of future generations have no right to renounce their Kosovo for the sake of “a better life.” The generation which could do that, instead of finding “a better life,” will find spiritual death after which there is no resurrection.

14. QUESTION: On whom will the curse fall of our coming generations and our history — on those who say we should go with Europe at any cost, or on those who are for Kosovo at any cost?

ANSWER: The answer to that question was given a long time ago, on the feast of Saint Vitus, on Vidovdan.

His Grace Artemije

Bishop of Raška - Prizren and Kosovo - Metohija

SERBS MUST PRESERVE THEIR GOD GIVEN DIGNITY

2008-03-16T13:11:00.000-07:00

Sermon of Metropolitan Amfilohije
following the Moleban in front of St. Sava Cathedral (Vracar)

Belgrade, February 21

"Kosovo and Metohija must not be a word forgotten for us nor for anyone else in the world. Today we have been told by those who want to cross us out from history and erase us by taking Kosovo and Metohija from us that it is a unique case. That is true, Kosovo and Metohija is a unique case, in its fate and in what the powerful leaders of this world seek to make of it at the beginning of the 21st century.

We stand before the face of the living God and His justice, and before the face of our holy ancestors, before the face of the Great-martyr Lazarus of Kosovo and the Great-martyr Stefan of Dečani. We stand here at this decisive moment in history, called upon to witness before God and humanity, before all the peoples of the world, to repeat and confirm once again who we are and what we are.

We know once again now that we are all Kosovans, that our cradle and the cradle of our people, the place of our birth is Kosovo and Metohija. We attest that it is in Kosovo and Metohija that we joined the ranks of mature, historical peoples, and that it is through Kosovo and by Kosovo that we have built ourselves into the foundations of a respectable Europe and the entire respectable world of God and all its peoples.

When we say this here, before the face of the living God and before the face of St. Sava, our spiritual father, in whom our soul encountered and committed itself to the Lord God and God’s eternal justice, then that means that for us Kosovo and Metohija is not the geography of a territory but the topography of our life purpose and commitment. Be our witnesses once again, o Christ God, Great-martyr Lazarus of Kosovo and St. Sava, that we must not under any circumstances renounce the Peć Patriarchate nor the relics of the holy Archbishops of Serbia who are the holiest, most powerful deeds of title of our people and continuity. That we cannot renounce, as a people with its own place under the sun given us by God, the holy reliquary of the Holy King and Great-martyr Stefan of Dečani. May the head of Lazarus attest for us now and for always that our faith is strong before God and before humanity.

Now the mother of the Jugović brothers* (*heroes from Kosovo Battle) is mother to all of us: “Do not, my son, speak falsely, no matter what say your father and your uncles.” Do not, o powerful leader of the modern world, repeat what say your father and your uncles but speak in accordance with the justice of the true God.

Metropolitan Amfilohije with the clergy at the Moleban (supplicatory prayer)

And sister to all of us is the maiden of Kosovo. And still our hero Obilić asks us who is loyal and who is disloyal. Here before us we also have the Great Leader Karadjordje and his descendant, (king) Alexander Karadjordjević, to confirm that a person, that a people, is nothing without freedom and without dignity.

We also hear the Kosovo covenant of Kosovo oath-taker Njegoš* from Lovćen (*famous Serbian poet from Montenegro): “O Kosovo, site of Judgment Day”. And today still we are being judged in Kosovo as are the Albanians, the Americans, the English and the French, who today renounced their Victor Hugo, Franchet d'Espérey and de Gaulle.

Before witnesses such as these we must unite our hearts and the will of the people so that we can speak with one voice and with one heart, not just now but tomorrow and the day after tomorrow and for as long as we exist and for as long a single descendant of our people exists in this world, so we can tell them that Kosovo and Metohija is the apple of our eye, the heart of our hearts, our holy city of Jerusalem and that we can renounce it neither in this worldly life nor in God’s eternal one any more than we can renounce our soul and our destiny.

The only thing that is lost is what we ourselves renounce. That is why we are a historical people. Merely because we are few in number and because we cannot control the general circumstances of historical events in the modern world should we give up on the fact that we are great by our nature and historical calling and summons.

The prayer was attended by the highest state and Church dignitaries,
members of the Royal family and hundreds of thousands of people

Kosovo and Metohija must not be a word forgotten for us nor for anyone else in the world. Today we have been told by those who want to cross us out from history and erase us by taking Kosovo and Metohija from us that it is a unique case. That is true, Kosovo and Metohija is a unique case, in its fate and in what the powerful leaders of this world seek to make of it at the beginning of the 21st century. What is being attempted in Kosovo and Metohija today can occur only during times of occupation, tyranny and aggression.

How to explain that in a period of mature humanity which has its United Nations, Security Council, international law and conventions, swears by human rights, how to explain that these rights and this justice is valid for every corner of the earth, every people, every country but is not valid for Kosovo and Metohija.

Massive and peaceful rally at the National Assembly Square followed
the Moleban service in front of St. Sava’s Cathedral

Yes, Kosovo and Metohija is unique and every country of our modern age is being judged there. Simple and coerced solutions are a sign of moral debility and weakness, not of strength, a sign of trust in the use of force as the ultimate method for resolving human disagreements and conflicts, not in God, God’s justice and the human justice upon which the world rests.

Both America and Europe know this but their rulers do not.

(photo: peaceful protest-walk between the National
Assembly and St. Sava’s Cathedral)

We have belonged to this Europe from the very start of our self-knowledge, historical maturity and we desire community with its people in dignity and equality.

If the price that the EU, as a community of interests, asks is that we renounce ourselves, our historical memory, the Kosovo covenant that is by its nature a New Testament sealed not with ink but with the blood of our people – we cannot accept. As a people we have never accepted, neither before Prince Lazarus nor after him until 1941 nor today, such blackmail and such calls to trample on our dignity but on the justice that upholds states and cities. To trample on the dignity of all the countries and peoples of this world is something we cannot allow ourselves.

Today we are here for the same holy purpose: to defend not only our own honor and reputation, our freedom and dignity but also the dignity of a humiliated Europe. For Europe has never been more humiliated than it is today. The USA has never been more humiliated that it has humiliated itself today with such injustice against an honorable people and its dignity.

As we stand before God, before this holy shrine, let us stand upright and as it was resolved in 1941 and as it is written in our Kosovo choice: if we are to live, let us live in freedom and if we are to die, let us die for freedom, not just our own freedom and the freedom of our Kosovo and Metohija but for the freedom of every honorable person and people on the face of this earth.

May God return reason to the powerful leaders who today by their decisions are casting shame on their peoples, trampling justice and honesty. And may God grant us loyalty to our Kosovo covenant, our human and national dignity, loyalty to the holy reliquaries of the Archbishops of Peć, the Holy King Stefan of Dečani and the holy Great-martyr Lazarus of Kosovo.

Through their prayers, o Lord, strengthen this people in its sense of justice and everything that is good and enlighten all persons and people that they may live in justice, peace and God’s compassion.

The entire plateau at the St. Sava’s Cathedral and the National Library
was filled with many faithful who participated in the Prayer

I would just like to conclude by asking you to depart in the same peace of God in which we gathered around this holy shrine. Let us part in peace and let me ask all those who gathered today in this capital to demonstrate that we are a dignified people, that we are not a people that destroys and devastates but a people that for centuries has built and to this day continues to build its soul with dignity and its future. Therefore, in God’s peace with a prayer to God that He intercede with us and among us and with the people of this world and accomplish what we mere mortals cannot that we may show that we are truly the descendants of the Great-martyr Lazarus of Kosovo and all those who gave their lives for their dear ones and their fatherland.
May God bless you and bestow upon you every form of divine and worldly advancement. Amen, God grant that it be so!"

translation Snezana de Berthet

Mp3 recording of the Sermon in Serbian is available at Svetigora web-site:
http://www.svetigora.com/node/3241

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------

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Write Your Representativies, Sign Petition

2008-02-19T16:04:00.000-08:00

President George W. Bush: comments@whitehouse.gov Vice President Richard B. Cheney: vice_president@whitehouse.gov ==

Special Appeal from the *American Council for Kosovo(www.savekosovo.org)

“We are all expecting something difficult and horrible. Our message to you, all Serbs in Kosovo, is to remain in your homes and around your monasteries, regardless of what God allows or our enemies do.” Bishop Artemije of Ras and Prizren, archpastor of Orthodox Christians in Kosovo.The American Council for Kosovo today issued this Special Appeal to all Americans and citizens of other countries in the aftermath of the illegal and void unilateral “declaration of independence” by Albanian Muslims in the Serbian province of Kosovo and Metohija and their recognition by some countries, led, regrettably, by the United States:The struggle for the Serbian province of Kosovo and Metohija has entered a new phase, one likely to extend far into the future. With an illegal and void "declaration" by Kosovo's UN-supervised Albanian Muslim administration, which is dominated by the criminal leadership of a terrorist organization, the so-called "Kosovo Liberation Army (KLA)," followed by recognition of Kosovo's independence by a number of countries -- shamefully, led by the United States -- an unprecedented violation of the international order and global stability has been committed. Countries claiming to be paragons of democracy and the rule of law proudly assert that they have forcibly amputated, without its consent, the territory of a sovereign state and member of the United Nations.But despite any declaration, despite any foreign recognitions, Kosovo is no more independent now than it was before. Legally, it remains part of the sovereign territory of the Republic of Serbia, and will remain so. What has changed is the status of the international mission in Kosovo. Since 1999, the United Nations and NATO have been present in Kosovo as unwelcome guests with Serbia's agreement, pursuant to UN Security Council Resolution 1244, which affirms Kosovo as part of Serbia and provides for its "essential autonomy" within Serbia. Despite corrupt reinterpretations by the recognizing countries, not one syllable of Resolution 1244 provides for Kosovo's separation from Serbia. In addition, Serbia specifically has rejected the illegal deployment on its territory of a mission of the European Union (EU) tasked, ironically, with legal reform.Through their support of what Serbian Prime Minister Vojislav Kostunica has called a "puppet entity" on Serbia's territory, the recognizing states and the EU have inflicted a grave act of political violence on the international legal system. Their actions undermine the most basic principal of international peace: guarantees of the territorial integrity of sovereign states in the UN Charter, the Helsinki Final Act, and other universally binding commitments. Every multiethnic country, especially those with violent separatist movements, is now placed at risk. Americans should take note that what our government seeks to inflict on Serbia today may be the fate of the southwest United States tomorrow.Even worse than the act of political violence, the declared establishment and recognition of an illegal, separatist entity on Serbian territory presents the threat of stepped-up physical violence.

As the archpastor of Kosovo's endangered Orthodox Christians, His Grace ARTEMIJE, Bishop of Ras and Prizren, warned during his most recent visit to Washington:"Threats have already been issued that after an independence declaration and recognition, force would be used to shut down so-called 'parallel structures' in Serbian enclaves -- in reality the legitimate institutions of our state -- including the Mitrovica office of the Ministry for Kosovo and Metohija. Such actions, with expected attacks on Serbian citizens, would constitute a direct assault on the Serbian state and the Serbian nation. While it would be inappropriate to disclose Serbia’s specific response, we will defend our territory and our people as would any other democratic country. Russia and other friendly countries are prepared to assist us. . . . We Serbs have suffered many occupations in the past and triumphed over them. If necessary we would survive this one as well. Despite any intensification of the terror to which we Christians have been subjected since 1999, my flock in Kosovo has no intention of leaving their homes."It would be up to the KLA and their supporters to decide whether to kick off a new cycle of violence by attacking Serbs, who live in fear that the remaining third of their pre-war population would be eradicated and the rest of their churches destroyed. While advocates of Kosovo's amputation from Serbia have taken comfort from the expectation that Serbia would not respond appropriately to attacks on its citizens, that expectation is a miscalculation. The Kosovo Albanians' terrorist leadership and the recognizing states have needlessly created a volatile ixture: shattering the international legal system, US-Russia confrontation, violence on the ground, criminality, human rights violations, and a new frozen conflict.Purported justifications for Kosovo’s independence based on the supposed “humanitarian intervention” by NATO in 1999 are misplaced. Far from the usual claims that NATO stopped a humanitarian catastrophe in Kosovo, the past nine years have seen a slow-motion genocide in progress against the province’s Christian Serbian population under the nose of the UN and NATO, and at times with their assent. Two-thirds of the Serbian population already has been expelled and have not been able to return safely to their homes. Over 150 churches and monasteries have been destroyed. Hundreds of new Saudi-funded mosques fomenting the extreme Wahhabi doctrine have sprung up.The American Council for Kosovo asks all Americans and citizens of other countries to contact your government to demand:

* No diplomatic ties should be established with the illegal, criminal, separatist, KLA regime in Pristina! Any ambassador nominated to Pristina must be denied confirmation!
* No foreign assistance to the illegal, criminal, separatist, KLA regime in Pristina!
* No support by the foreign mission in Kosovo should given to KLA terrorist efforts to expand their “authority” into Serb-controlled areas!
* The EU “rule of law” occupation force must be withdrawn! * The illegal “puppet entity” on Serbian soil must be dissolved!
* New negotiations, without preconceived results, must be started between Serbia and responsible representatives of the Albanian community to reach a lasting settle consistent with international law!Americans immediately should contact their Senators and Congressmen with these demands. They should call the White House (202-456-1111) to protest U.S. recognition and demand the above measures, or email to:President George W. Bush: comments@whitehouse.gov mailto: comments@whitehouse.govVice President Richard B. Cheney: vice_president@whitehouse.gov
&src=&type=x&to=vice_president@whitehouse.gov&cc=&bcc=&subject=&body=&curmbox=00000000-0000-0000-0000-000000000001&a=deb44805b83d4a1a3b4d68859c8a704782cc4f8987044b51fcdd8146e4e0424b">vice_president@whitehouse.gov>James George JatrasDirector, American Council for Kosovo (www.savekosovo.org <http://www.savekosovo.org/>)The American Council for Kosovo is an activity of Squire Sanders Public Advocacy, LLC, and Global Strategic Communications Group, which are registered under the Foreign Agents Registration Act as agents for the Serbian National Council of Kosovo and Metohija, under the spiritual guidance of His Grace, Bishop ARTEMIJE of Ras and Prizren. Additional information with respect to this matter is on file with the Foreign Agents Registration Unit of the Department of Justice in Washington DC

What to Expect Once Kosovo PM Agim Ceku declares iillegal independence!

2008-02-16T17:31:00.000-08:00

IC/XC
NI/KA

We love you Serbia, and we are praying for you Serbia!

Dear Stella Jatras and all beloved Orthodox Christians,

May the great peace and the love of our Lord God always be with you!

I am in constant prayer and fasting for the love of our beloved Brothers and Sisters in our Lord in Kosovo/Metohija.

Can we imagine an Albanian flag for Kosovo? My goodness! God be merciful to us all! The flag of Kosovo/Metohija, Serbia is the Serbian Flag!

The concern all of us have to be aware of is after independence is declared in Kosovo/Metohija with our without the UN approval this is what shall happen thereafter....

1). The celebration of independence shall go for about two weeks!

2). Once these celebrations are over the people who believe in this independence then will start to go from home to home and tell the Serbian population 'you owe us tax for you to live in this home and if you do not pay this tax then you must leave this property within twenty-four hours!' This as well will be the same for the those who own farms and local business as a heavy tax will be imposed. If these tax's are not paid then the property becomes the new Independent States land!

3). Thousands of individuals who are a part of this independence shall march towards our Serbian Orthodox Churches, and local monasteries and declare that their property no longer belongs to them but to the new Independent State. Monks, and nuns, including priest will be slaughtered if they do not approve or desire to leave their churches or monasteries. Orthodox monks and nuns, as well as priest will perish and be known missing! The media will pay no attention to these matters!

4). An increase of destruction of our Serbian Orthodox Churches and Holy Monasteries will rise and once one or two more churches and monasteries are destroyed and the Western media will pay no intention as well as the local police -then more churches and monasteries will perish week by week and month by month.

5). Local towns and cities with the Serbian population will be attacked and more citizens will seek to flee for their lives as no one shows interest or concern for the lives of these men, women, and children either by the peace-keeping troops who must themselves defend their own lives, however some peace-keeping troops will remain loyal!

6). Their will be an increase of Serbian missing men, women, and children!

7). Serbian citizens will perish on a daily basis, and the children will be in fear to come out of their homes or even go to school!

8). Dishonor and the lack of respect for the ideals of it's culture or it's religious heritage this will indeed be on the increase to seek to destroy the ideals and teachings of the Holy Orthodox Faith throughout the region!

9). The Holy Orthodox faith within the region of Kosovo/Metohija will decrease and the persecution of it's loving Christian shall perish and we shall see more martyrdoms! Blood will be spilled everywhere!

10). Talk will be that the new Independent State will say that they somewhat desire to see the restoration of the local Serbian Orthodox Churches and Monasteries but only for tourist reasons and to attract others to visit their region. Lies about the destruction of more then 150 Serbian Orthodox Churches shall go unnoticed and it will be indicated that these churches and monasteries where all destroyed during the war in spite of the fact that 99% of these churches and monasteries where destroyed after the war was over!

11). An abundance of abandoned Serbian Orthodox Churches and monasteries will be on the increase!

12). Rumors of war will increase throughout the region, and throughout the world as the debate of this independence will be that it's not acceptable!

13). The UN peace-keeping troops will leave the region or a decrease of these troops will take place and then the Independent State shall wait to then make their move to destroy or take over local towns, cities, and the Serbian Orthodox Churches, Monasteries and local cemeteries!

14). A humanitarian crisis!

15). Starvation and fear will be on the rise!

16). God weeps!

This independence is and always will be null!

Kosovo/Metohija, Serbia and always will be Serbia forever!

Pray and fast for all of Serbia, pray, pray, pray, pray, pray, pray, pray, pray, pray, pray, pray, pray, pray, pray, pray, pray, pray, pray, pray, pray and pray, pray, pray, pray, pray, pray, pray, pray, pray, pray, pray, pray, pray, pray, pray, pray, pray, pray, pray, pray, pray, pray, pray, pray, pray, pray, pray, pray and pray!

May our Gracious God be Merciful!

Pray and fast for Serbia!

A Time to Pray and Fast for Kosovo-Metohija and Serbia

2008-02-14T18:24:00.000-08:00

Sent: Thursday, February 14, 2008 3:49 PM
Subject: Please pray and remember to fast for Kosovo/Metohija,
IC/XC
NI/KA

Please share this with others on behalf of the Serbian Orthodox Christians in Kosovo/Metohija...

A time to pray and to fast for Kosovo/Metohija....

Beloved In Christ our Lord,

May the great peace and love of our Lord God always be with you!

All of us have heard the news that either this Sunday or within a few weeks independence will be declared in Kosovo/Metohija with or without UN approval.

What is important for us all is indeed that we should offer our humble prayers and remember to fast when the church calls us to fast on Wednesday and Fridays. Several pious Orthodox Christians on their own are fasting at this time on a four day fast as well as offering prayers. Let us indeed fast and pray for Kosovo/Metohija! Please do so with faith for the love our God and His Church the Holy Orthodox Faith we all love!

Every afternoon at 2 pm I offer what we call in our Orthodox Church "The Supplication Service" as since I receive many request for prayers for general needs for both the living and the newly departed in the Lord. I again daily offer this supplication service for our beloved brothers and sisters in Kosovo/Metohija.

I would suggest that we all as well can do either an Akathist to Christ our Lord, or to the Mother of God on behalf of our brothers and sisters in Kosovo/Metohija. To find the Akathist to the Mother of God, and or an Akathist to our Sweetest Lord Jesus Christ do a search on the internet. Then again we can also pray to the Great Martyr Tsar Lazar, the Great Saint Sava, and St. Nektarios of Aegina for their loving intercessions.

Lets all face it beloved in Christ our Lord we know that their are those who do not love us and yet we are going to give our Christian love right back to those who continue to try to destroy or disrupt our pious pilgrimage to Paradise. We are of course in tears that peace and good will among all men within the region of Kosovo/Metohija has not been fully understood and that all people have not lived as brothers and sisters with love and concern for each other.

We as pious Orthodox Christians do not have the right to judge no one, but all we are simply asking is every living human being has the right to live as a free person, and to follow their faith even as Orthodox Christians in the region of Kosovo/Metohija do so on a daily basis within their homes, churches, and monasteries...they pray and they pray and they pray -they pray for you and those who do not love us!

It is crucially important that not one of us should have, spiritually, a heart of stone, let us then stop throwing stones! Stone hearts have no life, and are useless in the loving service of our Saviour Jesus Christ. We know well that there is no place for a hard heart in the Kingdom of God. We love all people even those who simply hate us and do not love us. In the Kingdom, in His paradise, is gentleness and humility and the love of Christ, who pities all mankind. We are after all a Christian faith and a religion that our love for you grows from day to day deep within our hearts and poor souls! We do not at one moment think of you as our enemies but as our dear friends who have lived together in throughout the region of Kosovo/Metohija in the past and desire this in the present.

We believe that Kosovo/Metohija is Serbia and Serbia it shall be at this time and forever more!

We simply desire that as Orthodox Christians to live in the same land you love Kosovo/Metohija and we desire that you enjoy the same beauty of the mountains and hills of this region. We desire to pray in our churches, and in our monasteries, as well as in our homes. We humbly ask you to stop destroying these places of our prayers for you and for the whole world, and we ask you to allow us to as well as rest in peace within our Orthodox cemeteries. Then again we want to walk the streets you walk and grow our crops you do to and finally we want to protect and preserve our families like you.

All Orthodox Christians also love Serbia and we love you who we stand with and walk together throughout this vast land that can be truly be a place of the creation of our God of true peace and good will among all men! Let us then begin the road of understanding that Kosovo/Metohija is your land and our land together! Stop the destruction before our eyes, and stop the hate in your hearts because we still love you as we to remind ourselves as Christians we judge no one, nor desire punishment or torments of no one, but only love!

It then is my earnest prayer the peace keeping troops within the region of Kosovo/Metohija do not abandon the Serbian population. Walk not away!

It then is my earnest prayer that the reconstruction of the countless destroyed Serbian Orthodox Churches and Monasteries be repaired and that further destruction in this regards cease at this hour! This well includes Serbian Orthodox Cemeteries also be repaired.

It then is my earnest prayer that all children be protected as well as their families and every living Serbian soul has the right to live in their own land!

It then is my earnest prayer that all Serbian citizens have the right to return back to their homeland all 250,000 of them who are Serbian!

It then is my earnest prayer that all missing Serbian men, women, and children be returned back to their families!

It then is my earnest prayer that we stop throwing stones at us even the children of the region who ride in buses or any Serbian citizen. Stop this hatred and put down your stones!

Peace begins with love and understanding one another.

Kosovo/Metohija is Serbia and will be forever!

Peace to your soul!

Humbly in Christ our Lord,
+Very Rev. Archimandrite Nektarios Serfes
Who prays for you!

http://www.serfes.org
father@serfes.org

Serbia will Declare Unilateral Independence of Kosovo Null and Void

2008-02-13T13:29:00.000-08:00

Only Serbia can lay claim to Kosovo-Metohija
Belgrade, Feb 13, 2008 – Serbian Prime Minister Vojislav Kostunica has called on Serbs in Kosovo-Metohija to remain in their houses, in their province and in their Serbia, noting that the decision of the Serbian government to annul the unilateral independence of Kosovo will be Serbia’s decision to, once and for all, reject a phoney state on its territory.
Kostunica told news agency Tanjug that the government’s decision to annul the unilateral independence of Kosovo is of historic importance, as it is Serbia’s decision to reject the existence of a phoney state on its territory once and for all. He noted that the Serbian government, immediately upon adopting this decision, will inform the UN Security Council and the UN Secretary-General that all illegal acts on the proclamation of unilateral independence have been annulled. The final word of our common state and national policy is that no one but Serbia can lay claim to the territory of Kosovo-Metohija. No policy of force can deprive Serbia of that right, nor can Serbia be forced by threats and blackmail to renounce Kosovo-Metohija, the Prime Minister stressed.According to Kostunica, in a situation where Serbia is jeopardised with threats that, under the leadership of convicted terrorists and under the patronage of the United States and the EU, the province will unilaterally declare independence, we must focus all our strength to constantly show at every step that Kosovo-Metohija is an inseparable part of Serbia. Our people in Kosovo-Metohija should remain in their houses, in their province and in their Serbia. For the government of Serbia, each man in Kosovo is an equal citizen of Serbia enjoying full rights and it is our obligation to do absolutely everything to provide normal living conditions for our people in the province, the Prime Minister said.

Orthodox Won't Acknowledge Kosovo Independence

2008-02-11T12:01:00.000-08:00

http://www.focus-fen.net/index.php?id=n133380

Orthodox church won’t acknowledge Kosovo independence

10 February 2008 11:12 FOCUS News AgencyWashington.

The Orthodox Church of Kosovo wouldn’t acknowledge the independence of the province if it was declared unilaterally by Pristina and would remain loyal to Belgrade, Head of the Orthodox Church of the Serbian Province Bishop Rastko Artemije said in Washington, ITAR – TASS informs.‘Independence is not the only option for resolving the problem. The West appealed for a compromise to be found but capitulation was what was left to us to choose,’ Bishop Artemije declared.This is not the first visit of the cleric in the US, his purpose being to try to change American position on Kosovo. During his visits he said many times that the Serbians could not adopt the plan of Marti Ahtisaari which was supported by Washington. According to the bishop the independence declaration by Kosovo could lead to outburst of violence.© 2008 All rights reserved.

Let's Avoid Another Kosovo Crisis

2008-02-10T17:43:00.000-08:00

February 11, 2008.Source: The Wall Street Journal
Let's Avoid Another Kosovo Crisis
By RUTH WEDGWOODFebruary 9, 2008; Page A9

Small events in the Balkans have a way of getting out of hand, as Emperor Franz Joseph might once have remarked.
Thus, it is good news that Serbian voters defeated ultra-nationalist presidential candidate Tomislav Nikolic in last weekend's election, instead approving incumbent Boris Tadic for a second term. Mr. Tadic wants to link Serbia's future to the European Union.
But now it is the turn of the West to act with prudence and responsibility -- in particular on the incendiary issue of Kosovo, the southern province of Serbia that is home to Serb Orthodox Christians and ethnic Albanian Muslims.
In a strongly worded essay recently published in the Washington Times, former U.S. Secretary of State Lawrence Eagleburger, former Assistant Defense Secretary Peter Rodman and former U.N. Ambassador John Bolton expressed grave concern about the haste of the current Bush foreign policy team in encouraging Kosovo to declare unilateral independence. Their storm warning -- that such a declaration could cause violence in the province and lead to a crisis with Russia -- is worth heeding.
Kosovo has been part of the territory of Serbia since before the First World War, and its ancient monasteries are iconic to the Serbs. Belgrade's government coalition is already in crisis on the issue.
It is a dangerous precedent to tear apart the territory of a member state of the United Nations. And the timing could not be worse. No one needs a Kosovo crisis, while NATO remains short of troops in Afghanistan and maintains 16,000 troops in this autonomous province of Serbia. A Kosovo blowup would provide an easy excuse for gun-shy European allies to reduce their Afghanistan contingents.
Kosovo secessionists ignore economic realities. Kosovo has coal, lead and people, but it is stuck in a corner of Europe few tourists wander through. Some might visit its surviving Serbian Orthodox monasteries, but not while the place is in turmoil. Since Europe has proclaimed without grace that the European economic union is limited to Christian countries, Kosovo's best (and perhaps only) chance to join Europe's economy is to ride in as a part of Serbia.
Instead, Kosovo's secessionist leadership may well join the 57-member Organization of the Islamic Conference, as Albania already has done. This may bring financial assistance from the OIC, but the West should worry -- with aid comes political influence.
Kosovo's proclamation of independence would destabilize America's other friends in the Balkans. Bosnia will face a new attempt by the self-styled "Serbian republic" to leave the Dayton structure. Macedonia's restive ethnic Albanian minority may again ask why it is stuck in a state with Orthodox Slavs.
The effect in Central Europe would also not be benign. Hungary, Romania, Ukraine and Greece are home to irredentist minorities whose radical elements dream of redrawing maps. Nicosia faces a self-proclaimed "independent" Turkish republic of northern Cyprus. The Black Sea republic of Georgia, which we seek to bolster against Russian ambition, faces the claims of Abkhazia, a breakaway Muslim region in the north.
To be sure, one can appreciate why Kosovo Albanians are leery of Belgrade. From 1997 to 1999, Serbian president Slobodan Milosevic met the militant tactics of the Kosovo Liberation Army with a brutal police and military campaign, and after NATO intervened, he embarked on a bizarre and criminal exercise in ethnic cleansing, forcing tens of thousands of Muslim citizens out of their homes. The former Serbian president was tried for this crime and other outrages in the U.N. war crimes tribunal in The Hague.
But Milosevic is now dead, and Western policy should recognize the difference. Human rights activists in Serbia -- who stood up to Milosevic when it was dangerous to do so -- act with consistent principle in reporting the difficulties and dangers that will be imposed on Kosovo's substantial Serb minority.
There should be no false optimism or halcyon view of the province following the events of March 2004. Three ethnic Albanian children were killed in the northern town of Mitrovica, and afterwards anti-Serb rioting spread across the entire province, leading to the death of 19 civilians, another thousand civilians injured, and widespread burning of Serb houses, churches and monasteries. Independence will not cure this antipathy. It is hard to see how the NATO humanitarian intervention in 1999, designed to combat ethnic cleansing, is morally consistent with a new indifference to predictable counter-cleansing.
Smaller ethnic communities in Kosovo are also at risk, in the face of a recrudescent Albanian nationalism. The minority Muslim communities of Bosniaks, Gorani, Turks and Egyptians, along with the Ashkali and Roma, have faced violence and discrimination from the Albanian majority.
In negotiations on Kosovo's future, former Finnish president Martti Ahtisaari -- a respected international statesman -- has proposed an internationally-supervised government for Kosovo that would be akin to the Dayton Framework Agreement for Bosnia.
Kosovo's national political institutions would include representatives from each ethnic community. International officials would cast a deciding vote on the constitutional court and supervisory educational boards. Kosovo's Serbian communities could maintain relationships with the government of Serbia. There would be a continuing international military presence. And most tellingly, as in Bosnia, an "international civilian representative" could nullify local legislative and administrative decisions and remove non-compliant public officials. Only if conditions of stability were obtained would these guarantees be lifted.
But such a plan, as in Bosnia, requires a Chapter 7 resolution from the U.N. Security Council. It is unlikely, in the heat of independence, that a new state will willingly yield decisionmaking authority to an international auditor. And any Council resolution requires Russian acquiescence.
That leaves few options. Democratic states could demand that Kosovo adopt constitutional guarantees, in order to obtain international recognition. But there is no simple way of enforcing the promise. U.N. Security Council resolution 1244, dating from the NATO military campaign, does not address itself to a post-independence situation.
Sometimes a crisis focuses the mind. The president and the Secretary of State should consider a more practical option. America and its allies, acting through the Security Council, can provide a permanent international guarantee of Kosovo's political autonomy within the formal territory of Serbia. Combined with the Ahtisaari conditions, even Belgrade and Moscow are likely to accept such a guarantee.
This will give Kosovo as much, or more, than it would achieve through nominal independence. Autonomy can include the right to enter into certain types of international agreements. It can include the right to have international observer missions. Autonomy can entail more real power than is available to a neutered state, unable even to join the U.N. in the face of a Russian veto.
Even if Kosovo independence is ultimately unavoidable, there is much to be gained in securing the result in a way that Serbia and Russia can live with.
Ms. Wedgwood is a professor of international law and diplomacy at Johns Hopkins University

Unites States Should Leave Kosovo Alone

2008-02-08T13:49:00.000-08:00

Outside View: Kosovo issue best left alone

February 06, 2008.

Source: United Press International
Outside View: Kosovo issue best left alone
By JAMES GEORGE JATRASUPI Outside View Commentator
During its final year in office, the Bush administration has a full plate on the foreign front: intractable war in Iraq, Taliban resurgence in Afghanistan, concerns about Iran's nuclear program, nuclear uncertainty in North Korea, increasingly unstable nuclear-armed Pakistan, and hopes for an ever-elusive settlement between Israel and the Palestinians.
With all that to juggle, one might think Washington would hesitate to trigger a blowup on a seemingly unimportant matter that could transform into a full-blown global crisis. Yet that is exactly what the administration intends to do with respect to the Serbian province of Kosovo.
Since the 1999 NATO war against what was then Slobodan Milosevic's Yugoslavia, Kosovo has been under U.N. administration. The province remains legally part of Serbia as Albanian Muslims escalate their demands to create an independent country. Despite pious assurances of protection, the remaining Christian Serbs know that Kosovo's independence would mean curtains for them. With a quarter of a million Serbs (and other non-Albanians: Roma (Gypsies), Croats, Gorani, all the Jews) terrorized from the province during the past nine years of "peacetime" when the rest of the world had turned it eyes elsewhere, the Serbs' fears are well-founded. Since 1999, some 150 Christian shrines have been destroyed or desecrated. At the same time, hundreds of mosques have been built, mainly with Saudi money and propagating the intolerant Wahhabi brand of Islam.
The effective authority in the Albanian Muslim community is an organized crime network trafficking in drugs, women and weapons. The legitimate economy is virtually nonexistent. Independent or not, it's hard to see how Kosovo ceases to be an economic basket case and black hole of terror, crime and corruption, despite billions of aid dollars and euros dumped into the place.
In short, Kosovo is a mess, and it's not obvious how or when that can be changed. Left alone, it might remain one of the worlds simmering sore spots, like Kashmir or Cyprus, until the parties manage to come to some agreement -- or don't.
However, for reasons that are hard to understand, the Bush administration -- joined, oddly enough, by Hillary Clinton -- demands that immediate independence for Kosovo's Albanians is the only possible solution. The fact that democratic Serbia refuses to concede amputation of 15 percent of its territory, and has offered the Albanians the fullest autonomy enjoyed by any minority group anywhere in the world, is ignored. Likewise dismissed is the fact that the relevant U.N. Security Council Resolution affirms Serbia's sovereignty, which Russia insists must be respected.
If, as now planned, Kosovo's Albanians declare independence after a green light from Washington, a bad situation would get much worse. Violence would flare as Muslim Albanians step up their attacks on Christian Serbs. Belgrade would be forced to consider how to respond as its citizens are targeted under the eyes of an illegal occupying force. Moscow, livid at the prospect of an end-run of the Security Council, has said it stands ready to aid Serbia if asked. Countries around the world would be forced to take sides on whether to recognize Kosovo's independence. Most probably would not, as separatist groups in dozens of countries cite Kosovo as reason to demand carving out their own states. Washington might find itself isolated, along with a few countries that had followed our lead.Setting all this in motion might be justified if there were some obvious U.S. benefit. But the opposite is the case. Why should we provoke a needless fight with a newly muscular Russia? Especially after Sept. 11, why should America want to be midwife to the birth of a new Islamic country in Europe? Already having experienced "blowback" in the form of the jihad terror plot against Fort Dix, N.J., where four of the six indictees are Albanian Muslims from the Kosovo region, why give the Albanian mafia a consolidated base from which to extend its operations?
The United States has no interest in creating an independent Kosovo, even if it were easy to achieve. The fact that trying to separate Kosovo from Serbia would be anything but easy would just add one more headache to our list. If the Bush administration has any sense, it will leave Kosovo to the next president, whoever that might be.
(James George Jatras is director of the American Council for Kosovo (www.savekosovo.org) and principal, Squire Sanders Public Advocacy in Washington. He previously served as senior foreign policy adviser to the Republican leadership of the U.S. Senate.) –

Serbia's Step Forward is To Defend Her Sovereign, Civil, International and Territorial Rights

2008-02-05T18:24:00.000-08:00

February 05, 2008.Source: The Washington Post

The Diocese of Ras-Prizen and Kosovo-Metohija is bringing the article '' Serbia's step forward'' published in '' The Washington post'' and reaction of His Grace Bishop Artemije on it.
Serbia's Step Forward
Reelected President Boris Tadic has a mandate to move toward Europe.
Tuesday, February 5, 2008; Page A18

The outcome of a presidential election in Serbia on Sunday has opened the possibility that the United States and its European allies might be able to take some long-delayed steps toward stabilizing the volatile Balkan region, site of a decade of bloody wars during the 1990s. The vote was partly a referendum on how Serbia should respond to the imminent declaration of independence by the province of Kosovo, which was freed from Serbia nine years ago by a U.S.-led NATO military campaign. Incumbent President Boris Tadic said that Serbia should continue to move toward integration with the European Union even if leading European governments recognize Kosovo, as they are planning to do. His opponent said Serbia should turn its back on the West and cast its lot with Russia, which has been aggressively nurturing Serbia's poisonous nationalism.
Luckily for the Balkans and for Europe, Serbs chose the path of Western integration; Mr. Tadic won. The president hopes to sign an agreement on expanded cooperation with the European Union, allowing more trade, visa-free travel and the prospect of eventual E.U. membership for Serbia. Though Mr. Tadic and the Serbian government will loudly protest Kosovo's independence declaration, that long-overdue event is now less likely to lead to violence.
That doesn't mean Serbia's path will be easy: Every step the former Yugoslav republic takes toward joining the liberal democracies is tortured. Mr. Tadic still must overcome the resistance of his party's coalition partner in parliament, Prime Minister Vojislav Kostunica, a nationalist hard-liner who has also called for a rupture with Europe over Kosovo. Moscow will surely continue its effort to detach Serbia from Europe and make it a vassal state; last month, the Russian state energy monopoly Gazprom bought a controlling interest in Serbia's entire oil and gas industry.
Mr. Tadic and his liberal allies have a tendency to ask Western leaders to appease the nationalists, such as by putting off Kosovo's independence or by dropping demands for the extradition of war criminals. Now that he has a clear mandate from voters, Mr. Tadic ought to insist on his own agenda -- for example, by demanding that Mr. Kostunica either support an agreement with the European Union or resign and face the voters himself. The West can help by working to ensure that the ethnic Serbian minority in Kosovo is secure and treated fairly once independence is declared. Both the European Union and NATO should aim to integrate Serbia as well as Kosovo and their neighbors - Albania, Crotatia, Macedonia and Montenegro -- as quickly as possible. When Serbia chooses the West over nationalist isolation, it should receive a favorable response.
AND HERE IS REACTION OF BISHOP ARTEMIJE
As archpastor of the Orthodox Christian people of the Serbian province of Kosovo and Metohija, I feel compelled to respond to any false impressions that may be created by the recent editorial "Serbia's Step Forward," February 5. In particular, it would be inaccurate to suggest that the recent presidential election between Boris Tadic and Tomislav Nikolic was a choice between the European Union and Russia, or that it was in any way a referendum on separation of Kosovo from Serbia.

With regard to the first, Serbia will maintain its evenhanded and moderate policy based, to the extent possible, on friendly relations with both West and East. During the campaign, Mr. Nikolic made a point of keeping open Serbia's eventual orientation toward the EU, though of course any recognition of Kosovo's independence by EU countries would have a negative impact on our relationship. By the same token, Mr. Tadic recently was in Moscow for the signing of a major Serbian-Russian energy agreement.

With respect to Kosovo, there should be no mistake that both candidates categorically maintained that Kosovo is Serbia and will remain so. While Serbs may be disagree as to the exact response should some governments, including the United States, continue with the reckless course of encouraging an illegal independence declaration and recognition, there should be no mistake that we will defend our people and our national territory with all means available to any democratic country. If the Albanian separatists, with U.S. support, make good on their threats to compel my flock to submit to their illegitimate authority, and use force against the lawful institutions of the Serbian government in Kosovo, a cycle of stepped-up violence, not of our choosing, will result. We hope that before such an unnecessary crisis is unleashed, a crisis that may become uncontrollable by anybody, prudence will suggest that continued dialogue, not aggressive impositions, are the better path to peace and reconciliation.
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President Boris Tadic Wins Election-Manufactured Consent?

2008-02-04T09:29:00.000-08:00

Vojvodin Hungarian and Croats in Northern Serbia and Albanians and Muslims in the Raskic Region of Serbia rallied to defeat Tomislav Nikolic by a slim margin on Sunday. Incumbent President Tadic won the election, and his election is seen as a victory for those forces wishing to join the European Union. However the presence of foreign Non Governmental Organizations and a plurality of political parties supported by Western Interests-both state and individual- throws a shadow of doubt on the legitamacy of Tadic's victory. One wonders if the apparant consent of the people was not in fact manufactured.
British Ambassador Breaks Serbia's Rule of Election Silence
Many Western governments were not only watching this election but were trying to influence voters as exemplified by the British Ambassador Stephen Wordsworth to Serbia who went so far as to make an public appeal to Albanians and Muslims to vote on Sunday to defeat Nikolic. According to Svetlana Novko, an Canadian Serbian Orthodox iconographer who writes the blog Byzantine Blog, Glas Javnosti, a Serbian newspaper, reports that the British has also financed CESID as a parallel structure to Serbia's Republic's Electoral Commission to count the votes at the election runoffs. Novko states that CESID results were published in all the media (backed by Western Media concerns) without waiting for the states legal body to count and announce the results of the votes.

There are many parallel political parties being fronted by Westerners, including the United States to undermine the authentic democratic process in Serbia. One such group headed by former Secretary of State Madeline Albright is called the National Democratic Institute for International Affairs and it is based here in the United States. Former President Carter is associated with this group.

Under this group are three organizations, the Centrist Democratic Institute (co-presidents are Pier Ferdinando Cassini of Italy and Former President of Mexico Vincente Fox), the Liberalist International and the Socialist Internationale. The Serbian party Christian Democratic Party Internationale is an observer member of the Centrist Democratic Institute and openly advocates the succession of Kosovo from Serbia. There are over one hundred members countries of the CDI, including the United States and Albania.

Other parties, NGOs, media outlets and other non-profits are fronted by such people as George Soros, who is in particular known amongst Serbians who want to preserve their cultural hegemony as an individual who is anti-Serbian.

This group CESID has therefore has made an uncivil, and pre-emptive attempt to list its numbers as official over those numbers of the governing institutions of Serbia. The presence of these groups in Serbia, and their ability to influence elections by disseminating mis-information in order to influence the Serbian peoples against their best interest is very questionable, and needs to be investigated and challenged by those members of the International Community that want sincerely to uphold the rights of sovereign states, and the right to the integrity of borders. It also calls into question the legitamacy of the election results--and this needs to be challenged and investigated. The results of such illegitamacy can have quite a destabilizing effect as we have seen with the recent events in Kenya.

Although Tadic's victory is seen as a victory for those wanting Serbia to join the E.U., the presence of the organizations in this country, their sources of income, manpower, and other material support, and the way they operate in nation-states against a viable, authentic democratic process needs to be examined and needs to be challenged so that the true voice of the people can be heard. Until this investigation is carried out, Tadic's election will forever be seen, by this writer at least, as under a cloud of suspician.

CESID is the acronym for the Centar za Slobodne Izbore i Demokratiju (Center for Free Elections and Democracy; Belgrade, Yugoslavia)

Bishop Artemije's Statement to Washington

2008-02-01T09:21:00.000-08:00

01. february 2008.Source: PRNewswire-USNewswire
Bishop Artemije issued the statement
prior to his visit to Washington

Following today's publication of a Washington Times commentary(http://www.washingtontimes.com/article/20080131/COMMENTARY/288472699/1012)
written by former Secretary of State Lawrence Eagleburger, former UN Ambassador John Bolton and former Assistant Secretary of Defense Peter Rodman urging the Bush Administration to withhold recognition of a unilateral declaration of Kosovo independence, His Grace, Bishop Artemije of Ras and Prizren issued the following statement prior to his visit to Washington to meet with Administration and Congressional officials andpolicymakers:

As I begin my latest mission to Washington, my country is being subjected to heightened threats from the government of the United States with respect to the future of the Serbian province of Kosovo and Metohija. Having just returned from Berlin and consultations with Members of the Bundestag, the Administration, and think tanks, NGOs, and media, it is clear that America's European allies are increasingly concerned about theconsequences of the course Washington is trying to impose on them. The U.S. response has been to step up the pressure.
For example, the press in Slovenia, currently chairing the European Union, recently revealed American officials' diktat to supposedly independent countries. In an account confirmed by Slovenian official sources, we hear American diplomats commanding the timing of a planned unilateral declaration of independence by the Albanian Muslimadministration in Pristina and its recognition by the U.S. and some other governments. Even exposed is the shameful intention to trigger the crisis on the Lord's Day to thwart Russia in convening an emergency session of the Security Council.
Threats have already been issued that after an independence declaration and recognition, force would be used to shut down so-called "parallel structures" in Serbian enclaves -- in reality the legitimate institutions of our state -- including the Mitrovica office of the Ministry for Kosovo and Metohija. Such actions, with expected attacks on Serbian citizens, would constitute a direct assault on the Serbian state and the Serbian nation. While it would be inappropriate to disclose Serbia's specific response, we will defend our territory and our people as would any other democratic country. Russia and other friendly countries are prepared to assist us.
Should Washington and its followers make good on their current threats to recognize Kosovo, Serbia would never accept it. Not only Russia but many other countries, especially those outside of Europe, would reject recognition. Kosovo would never become a member of the United Nations. We would regard the international presence in Kosovo, including the mission now being considered by the EU, as an occupation force. We Serbs have suffered many occupations in the past and triumphed over them. If necessary we would survive this one as well. Despite any intensification of the terror to which we Christians have been subjected since 1999, my flock in Kosovo has no intention of leaving their homes.
I do not welcome having to direct these critical words at the United States. Serbs have always regarded America as a friend and continue to do so. Americans and Serbs were allies in both World Wars. We are not the ones who are pursuing a confrontation today. But it is impossible for America to profess friendship with Serbia while demanding the amputation of the most precious part of our homeland.
Despite the mistakes made so far, I am convinced that there is still a chance reason will prevail and the disastrous path laid before us will be averted. Today three highly respected former U.S. officials published a thoughtful and constructive analysis of the looming injury to American national interests:
"We believe that an imposed settlement of the Kosovo question and seeking to partition Serbia's sovereign territory without its consent is not in the interest of the United States. The blithe assumption of American policy -- that the mere passage of nine years of relative quiet would be enough to lull Serbia and Russia into reversing their positions on aconflict that goes back centuries -- has proven to be naive in the extreme. We believe that American policy on Kosovo must be reexamined without delay, and we urge the Bush Administration to make it clear that pending the results of such reexamination it would withhold recognition of a Kosovo independence declaration and discourage Kosovo's Albanians from taking that step."
Secretary Lawrence Eagleburger, Ambassador John Bolton, and Assistant Secretary Peter Rodman conclude: "As with thorny questions elsewhere, viable and enduring settlements should result from negotiation and compromise. Such an outcome has been undermined by an American promise to the Kosovo Albanians that their demands will be satisfied if they remain adamant and no agreement is reached with Belgrade." I believe that negotiations must continue until a mutually acceptable solution can be found to allow us and our Albanian neighbors to live together in peace. Honest talks, without ultimatums or guaranteed results for either side, with no outcome barred from discussion, can still bear fruit. I ask all Americans of good will to ask their leaders in Washington to choose this path.

For more information, please visit the American Council for Kosovo's Web site at http://www.savekosovo.org.
Please American Orthodox Sign Petition: NO INDEPENDENCE FOR KOSOVO
Call the numbers I gave and tell them Please Do not Slaughter Kovoso Christians in Kosovo--white house (Pres. Bush 202 456 1111 TTY 202 456 6213
email: comments@whitehouse.gov
vice_president@whitehouse.gov
Secretary Condoleeza Rice
202-647 5291
Her Personal Secretary
202 647 9572
State Department Regional Director of Europe/Eurasia Don Roseblum
202 647 5222
The American Council for Kosovo is an activity of Squire Sanders Public Advocacy, LLC, and Global Strategic Communications Group, which are registered under the Foreign Agents Registration Act as agents for the Serbian National Council of Kosovo and Metohija, under the spiritual guidance of His Grace, Bishop ARTEMIJE of Ras and Prizren. Additional information with respect to this matter is on file with the Foreign Agents Registration Unit of the Department of Justice in Washington DC.

Promoting the Birth of a Supremacist State

2008-02-01T06:36:00.000-08:00

By Julia Gorin
FrontPageMagazine.com 1/31/2008
Marking International Holocaust Remembrance Day on Sunday, the UN put on display an exhibit paying tribute to the Righteous of Albania who risked all to save Jewish lives during the Holocaust. The exhibit arrived at the UN from Yad Vashem, where it was on display for two months. While the Righteous of any nation indeed should be acknowledged and commemorated, the problem with the exhibit is its underlying agenda. Jews, along with the Albanian Righteous of WWII, are being used by the Albanians of today to advance a racially supremacist end game in the Balkans, where world wars start-and cost principally Jewish and Serbian lives.
The timing on this exhibit is very specific. An independent Kosovo is within Albanian grasp, and the Albanians learned early on-starting with the Bosnian and Croatian wars followed by the Kosovo war-that selling the Jews on your version of an ethnic rivalry can open doors. Indeed, 70 million Croatian, Bosnian and Albanian dollars spent on PR firms targeting major Jewish organizations managed to bring Jewish support on the side of an openly Nazi-nostalgist Croatia of the 1990s whose president (Franjo Tudjman) had written a Holocaust-denying book implicating the Jews themselves in Holocaust deaths. The PR also succeeded in bringing Jewish support to the side of a Muslim Bosnia whose president (Alija Izetbegovic) had written the Islamic Declaration (affirming the incompatibility of a Muslim state and Western values). And it brought Jewish support on board a Hezbollah-assisted, bin Laden-financed and -trained Kosovo Liberation Army-against the Serbs, who were killed together with Jews in concentration camps.
Behind the Jews, the Serbs were also targeted people for elimination during WWII, and while Jews and Serbs died together in Axis power Croatia's Jasenovac camp complex, Albanians and Bosnians formed their own volunteer SS units.
Albanians are in the midst of completing their land grab from Serbia, a country whose people ousted Slobodan Milosevic almost a decade ago in favor of Westward-looking leaders. The acquisition of Kosovo was the goal from the start, when the Kosovo Liberation Army first began killing Serbs, along with Albanians and gypsies (Roma) who worked even as postmen for the Yugoslav government or simply had inter-ethnic friendships or marriages with Serbs. As if getting the Jews to betray their historical ally and co-victim weren't perverse enough, today's Kosovo is an ethnically purified state, cleansed of almost all of its minorities: Serbs, Roma, Gorani (mountain Muslims), Bosnian Muslims, Croats-and Jews.
Before Yad Vashem agreed to feature the exhibit and became an unwitting enabler of the ill-begotten new "Kosova," it should have asked why even the last 15 Jews in Kosovo's capital had to clear out, with just the clothes on their backs, when the KLA stormed their homes in 1999. At the time, the president of Pristina's tiny Jewish community, Cedomir Prlincevic, spoke of two dozen armed men breaking into his family's apartment: "My mother, who is 80 years old, suffered a heart attack because it reminded her of 1943 when Hitler's SS units broke into her apartment in the same way."
Indeed, in the destruction and desecration of Orthodox churches, monasteries and cemeteries that has continued apace since NATO gifted Kosovo to the Albanians, the Jewish cemetery that adjoins the Serbian one in the village of Velika Hoca has also been vandalized, according to the book Hiding Genocide in Kosovo.
That the Holocaust would be used to further a supremacist agenda defies all decency. Nor do the inversions end there. The exhibit repeats the catchy statistic which this renewed Jewish-focused Albanian campaign has been circulating for almost three years: Albania was the only European country to end up with more Jews after the war than it had at the beginning. Never mind that this was also the case with Spain, Sweden and Finland-all of which had vastly more Jews than Albania's 200-but note that the Albanian spin is careful to not mention Kosovo, whose independence Albanians are eager to secure, where Albanians helped round up 600 Jews, most of whom died at Bergen-Belsen. In other words, more Jews were rounded up in Kosovo than ever existed in Albania before the war.
There were Righteous among all the nations of Europe; more Germans saved Jews than did Albanians. At the other end of the spectrum, more Serbs saved Jews than did Albanians. But it apparently never occurred to Serbian saviors to come forward for credit or to flaunt their Jew-saves in the event that an expansionist rival would use its own Jew-saves as a weapon against them.
And so Jewish good will has been co-opted by a nationalist movement which in WWII formed the fascist Balli Kombetar organization-still active in Kosovo today. Similarly, the arm patch of the Albanian Nazi SS Division Skanderbeg, which shows the national flag of Albania, is worn today by the Kosovo Protection Corps. Jewish gratitude, at this sensitive time, to the Albanian Righteous is being used to help create a new state whose founders were partly trained by the son of the Nazi Luftwaffe general in charge of Hitler's 1941 bombing of Belgrade; a land where a "Hitler Diner" operates without much controversy; a land which is run by "former" KLA whose leadership and membership, as NY Times writer Chris Hedges wrote for Foreign Affairs Magazine in 1999:
splits down a bizarre ideological divide, with hints of fascism on one side and whiffs of communism on the other. The former faction is led by the sons and grandsons of rightist Albanian fighters - either the heirs of those who fought in the World War II fascist militias and the Skanderbeg volunteer SS division raised by the Nazis, or the descendants of the rightist Albanian kacak rebels who rose up against the Serbs 80 years ago. Although never much of a fighting force, the Skanderbeg division took part in the shameful roundup and deportation of the province's few hundred Jews during the Holocaust.
In the early 90s, Albanians helped to revive the Bosnian version of the SS Skanderbeg division, the SS Handzar:
Up to 6000 strong, the Handzar division glories in a fascist culture. They see themselves as the heirs of the SS Handzar division, formed by Bosnian Muslims in 1943 to fight for the Nazis. Their spiritual model was Mohammed Amin al-Hussein, the Grand Mufti of Jerusalem who sided with Hitler. According to U.N. officers, surprisingly few of those in charge of the Handzars in Fojnica seem to speak good Serbo-Croatian. "Many of them are Albanian, whether from Kosovo.or from Albania itself," [reveals a UN officer].
The name of the exhibit is BESA: A Code of Honor-Muslim Albanians who Rescued Jews during the Holocaust. The Yad Vashem page for the exhibit describes Besa thus: "The remarkable assistance afforded to the Jews was grounded in Besa, a code of honor, which still today serves as the highest ethical code in the country. Besa means literally 'to keep the promise.' One who acts according to Besa is someone who keeps his word, someone to whom one can trust one's life and the lives of one's family. Apparently, this code sprouted from the Muslim faith as interpreted by the Albanians."
The emphasis on the Muslimness of Albanians is heavy, in stark contrast to the de-emphasis on this fact when Jewish and Western support was being mobilized to beat down the Serbs on behalf of Albanians. What's missing from the definition of Besa is its most frequent application-a promise to not kill a person in the midst of a blood feud such as those that have been sweeping Albania and now Kosovo and Macedonia for the past several years in a resurgence of this ancient barbarism.
The Yad Vashem page also reads:
In 1934, Herman Bernstein, the United States Ambassador to Albania, wrote: "There is no trace of any discrimination against Jews in Albania, because Albania happens to be one of the rare lands in Europe today where religious prejudice and hate do not exist, even though Albanians themselves are divided into three faiths."
One supposes it's debatable whether pulling out by hand crosses from Serbian-Orthodox churches that harbored Albanians and Serbs alike during NATO's bombing, then burning them and urinating on them is religious, or racial, hatred, but according to Andy Wilcoxson, an American expert on the Milosevic trial: "On September 9, 1901, a British diplomatic cable sent to the Marquess of Lansdowne said: "Old Serbia [Kosovo] is still a restive region because of the Albanians' lawlessness, vengeance and racial hatred."
More than a century later, it would appear that little has changed.
While it's important to celebrate past acts of selflessness and righteousness by Albanians, one cannot dismiss what these people are doing now, which flies in the face of Yad Vashem's very mission. If Serbs were the "justifiable" target of Albanian animosity in 1999, why did the Jews, Roma, Gorani, Bosnians and Croats also have to be gone in order for the new "Kosova" to take seed? Perhaps because the animosity was a means to an end from the beginning?
But this is all apparently lost on the Jews involved in, or endorsing, the exhibit, which features the work of Colorado-based photographer Norman Gershman, a 75 year-old Wall Street veteran who recently described himself to Vail Daily as equal parts Jewish and Sufi, and who says a Muslim prayer in Arabic before a flight. Gershman's ongoing mission during this jihad has been to seek out Muslims throughout the world who saved Jews during WWII.
The Jewish Muslim Gershman is aware of the present Kosovo imbroglio, his position made clear when he describes Kosovo as "struggling" to gain independence from Serbia, and repeats one of the Albanian lobby's ubiquitous buzz phrases, recently also repeated by the Albanian ambassador to Israel in the pages of Jerusalem Post: "All Albanians saved Jews"--which of course omits the realities of WWII Kosovo. Gershman reveals that Elie Wiesel-who, in a moment of historical lucidity, in hindsight reversed himself a few years ago on supporting NATO's anti-humanitarian intervention in Kosovo-is backing the efforts of the foundation Gershman works through. The "Eye Contact Foundation" is headed by another Colorado Jew, Steve Kaufman, according to the Vail Daily, which adds that this project "already has spawned a book and a DVD that tell the stories of Albanian citizens. who sheltered and aided Jews fleeing from the Nazis in Germany," as well as a documentary film by an Emmy-winning production house. So this exhibit has been just an early stage of what we're in for.
If Yad Vashem had more historical savvy, it would have agreed to host the exhibit in, say, six months-once the hotly contested land grab has been resolved, whether by peaceful or violent means. Instead, it has effectively taken a position, one that turns history on its head as the museum inadvertently advances the end result: a return to Albania's Hitler-delineated borders (which included annexing of Kosovo to Albania) and the realization of Albania's agenda of a Greater Albania "under the same [flag] now being flourished in Kosovo," as a recent letter in the Financial Times pointed out. Armed with Yad Vashem's stamp of approval, the UN now proudly duplicates the gross historical error.
Like Elie Wiesel, John Ranz is a Holocaust survivor, and he has called what the West's historically shallow Jews helped do to Serbia on behalf of Albania-which until last week didn't allow Israeli airlines to operate commercial flights from its limits-our "greatest shame."

Warning Light On Kosovo

2008-01-31T07:37:00.000-08:00

January 31, 2008 Source: Washington Times

By John Bolton, Lawrence Eagleburger and Peter Rodman -

The Bush administration has indicated its readiness to recognize a unilateral declaration of independence by ethnic Albanians in Kosovo, a province of the Republic of Serbia that since 1999 has been under United Nations administration and NATO military control.
Such a declaration may take place as early as February. American recognition would be over Serbia's objections, without a negotiated solution between Serbia and Kosovo's Albanians, and without modification by the United Nations Security Council of Resolution 1244, which reaffirms Serbian sovereignty in Kosovo while providing for the province's "substantial autonomy." U.S. recognition may be joined by that of some members of the European Union, which has been under heavy diplomatic pressure from Washington, though several EU states and a number of countries outside Europe have said they would reject such action.
Attempting to impose a settlement on Serbia would be a direct challenge to the Russian Federation, which opposes any Kosovo settlement not accepted by Belgrade.
We believe an imposed settlement of the Kosovo question and seeking to partition Serbia's sovereign territory without its consent is not in the interest of the United States. The blithe assumption of American policy - that the mere passage of nine years of relative quiet would be enough to lull Serbia and Russia into reversing their positions on a conflict that goes back centuries - has proven to be naive in the extreme.
We believe U.S. policy on Kosovo must be re-examined without delay, and we urge the Bush administration to make it clear that pending the results of such re-examination it would withhold recognition of a Kosovo independence declaration and discourage Kosovo's Albanians from taking that step.
Current U.S. policy relies on the unconvincing claim that Kosovo is "unique" and would set no precedent for other troublespots. Of course every conflict has unique characteristics. However, ethnic and religious minorities in other countries already are signaling their intention to follow a Kosovo example. This includes sizeable Albanian communities in adjoining areas of southern Serbia, Montenegro, and especially the Former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia, as well as the Serbian portion of Bosnia-Herzegovina.
Recognition of Kosovo's independence without Serbia's consent would set a precedent with far-reaching and unpredictable consequences for many other regions of the world. The Kosovo model already has been cited by supporters of the Basque separatist movement in Spain and the Turkish-controlled area of northern Cyprus. Neither the Security Council nor any other international body has the power or authority to impose a change of any country's borders.
Perhaps the most troubling aspect of the current policy is the dismissive attitude displayed toward Russia's objections. Whatever disagreements the United States may have with Moscow on other issues, and there are many, the United States should not prompt an unnecessary crisis in U.S.-Russia relations. There are urgent matters regarding which the United States must work with Russia, including Iran's nuclear intentions and North Korea's nuclear capability. Such cooperation would be undercut by American action to neutralize Moscow's legitimate concerns regarding Kosovo.
If the U.S. moves forward with recognizing Kosovo, Moscow's passivity cannot be taken for granted. It may have been one thing in 1999 for the United States and NATO to take action against Yugoslavia over the objections of a weak Russia.
Today, it would be unwise to dismiss Russia's willingness and ability to assist Serbia. On an issue of minor importance to the United States, is this a useful expenditure of significant political capital with Russia?
Our Kosovo policy is hardly less problematic for our friends and allies in Europe. While some European countries, notably members of the EU, may feel themselves obligated to join us in recognizing Kosovo's independence, a number of those countries would do so reluctantly because of Washington's inflexibility and insistence. No more than the United States, Europe would not benefit from an avoidable confrontation with Russia.
Even if Kosovo declared itself an independent state, it would be a dysfunctional one and a ward of the international community for the indefinite future. Corruption and organized crime are rampant. The economy, aside from international largesse and criminal activities, is nonviable. Law enforcement, integrity of the courts, protection of persons and property, and other prerequisites for statehood are practically nonexistent. While these failures are often blamed on Kosovo's uncertain status, a unilateral declaration of independence recognized by some countries and rejected by many others would hardly remedy that fact.
The result would be a new "frozen conflict," with Kosovo's status still unresolved. The risk of renewed violence would further impede Kosovo's development. Moreover, heightened tensions might require reinforcing the U.S. presence in Kosovo when we can least afford it due to other commitments.
Serbia has made great strides in democratic development and economic revitalization since the fall of the regime of Slobodan Milosevic. Current policy with respect to Kosovo risks complete reversal of these gains. Faced with a choice between Western partnership and defense of their sovereign territory and constitution, there is little doubt what Serbia would decide.
The current positive trend could falter in the face of political radicalization and possible internal destabilization. Serbia's relations with countries that had recognized Kosovo would be impaired. Serbia would inevitably move closer to Russia as its only protector.
We do not underestimate the difficulty and complexity of the Kosovo question nor do we suggest the status quo can endure indefinitely. As with thorny questions elsewhere, viable and enduring settlements should result from negotiation and compromise. Such an outcome has been undermined by a U.S. promise to the Kosovo Albanians that their demands will be satisfied if they remain adamant and no agreement is reached with Belgrade. Such a promise cannot be justified by the claim, often heard from proponents of independence, that the Albanians' "patience" is running out, so independence must be granted without delay. This is nothing less than appeasing a threat of violence.
A reassessment of America's Kosovo policy is long overdue. We hope a policy that would set a very dangerous international precedent can still be averted if that reassessment begins now. In the meantime, it is imperative that no unwarranted or hasty action be taken that would turn what is now a relatively small problem into a large one.
John Bolton is former permanent U.S. representative to the United Nations. Lawrence Eagleburger is former U.S. secretary of state. Peter Rodman is former assistant secretary of defense for international security affairs.