Posted on 06/11/2004 10:33:27 AM PDT by Destro
Restore Orthodox churches for Kosovo peace - expert
11 Jun 2004 15:37:35 GMT
By Tom Heneghan, Religion Editor
PARIS, June 11 (Reuters) - European states must help rescue dozens of Orthodox churches and monasteries destroyed in Kosovo to show they are serious about fostering better ties between Serbs and Albanians there, a European expert said on Friday.
A large part of the Serbian Orthodox heritage in Kosovo, the province Serbs consider the hallowed birthplace of their nation, was destroyed or damaged by majority Albanian rioters last March in what a NATO official called "almost ethnic cleansing."
Emergency repairs like building roofs or clearing rubble must be finished before winter so the restoration does not slip far down the U.N.-administered province's priority list, said Mikhael de Thyse from the Strasbourg-based Council of Europe.
"There's no way we can say this won't happen again," he told Reuters in Paris. "The international community has to give them a strong signal that they cannot do that."
Restoring old churches might seem a luxury in a powder-keg province still torn by hate after the Serbian Army withdrew in June 1999 following a Serbian campaign of terror against Kosovo Albanians that NATO needed 78 days of bombing to stop.
For Thyse, Kosovo's religious heritage played a key role in the struggle to restore the multinational society that Kosovo enjoyed before Yugoslavia fell apart in 1991.
"The discussions on Kosovo's future status are starting," he said. Albanians make up 90 percent of the two million Kosovars.
"To keep the Serbs from claiming this area as part of their national heritage, some Albanians are attacking their churches."
To maintain its claim on parts of the province, the Serbian Orthodox Church has defiantly stayed on, with priests and monks hunkering down in the remaining icon-filled churches and frescoed monasteries under peacekeepers' protection.
Local patriarch Bishop Artemije has repeatedly criticised peacekeepers in the province -- officially part of Serbia although Belgrade does not control it -- for protecting the clergy but not the churches at the holy Serbian sites.
The 18,000 NATO-led peacekeepers say they protect people first and must sometimes evacuate them from sites under attack.
BALKAN JEWEL SHATTERED
The damage has been extensive. The main Orthodox churches in the capital Pristina and Kosovo's second city, Prizren, were burned down in what the Serbs called a pogrom in March.
Five more churches, the 14th century Holy Archangels Monastary and a seminary were also destroyed in Prizren, a medieval jewel of Serbian and Ottoman architecture once so charming it was proposed for the UNESCO World Heritage list.
Thyse said local Kosovo authorities, shocked by the violence of the March riots, have agreed to spend about 3.5 million euros ($4.2 million) for bare initial repairs to 35 badly damaged buildings.
The province asked the Council of Europe and the European Commission for help to survey the damage. They had to call in two Greek Orthodox experts when the Serbian church refused to let Albanian workers enter their premises.
Thyse, a cultural heritage official at the Council of Europe, said Kosovo would probably have to turn to the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organisation (UNESCO) to find funds for more extensive restorations.
"They'll find a way to restore the 35 buildings destroyed in March," he said. "But I don't know what they can do about the 150 others that have been destroyed in the past five years."
bump
And further evidence that RBJ was and is wrong. (Squawk! The Serbs deserve it because of Srebrenica! Squawk!)
The Jews, in general, also to a great extent look to every thing in terms of is it good for Israel or the Jews? Why it is very difficult for the West, in general, to adapt the same prism of thinking of us Christians against all non-Christians. I don't mean to start a war against the non-Christians, or even treat the Non-Christians unfairly, I simply mean if a non-Christian group or countries systematically abuse Christians FOR THEIR RELIGION, we should all side with the Christians without being defensible about it. In this case of Kosovo, the Moslems are supporters of the terrorists that killed 3000 Americans; how difficult is it to support the other side of our enemies?
Bumping for a later read. Destro, please put me on your balkans list. Thanks.
Nothing but despair. They want to put roofs on the "old" churches. It will take a century to restore these treasures and the authorities are suggesting that this should be done by the Kosovo Albanians using their own budget. Their budget consists of millions in aid money and whatever crime proceeds they have socked away. What a great future these churches and monasteries have -- not to mention the clergy and the people, Serbian, Roma and other nonAlbanians.
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