PRISHTINA, Jan 5 (KIC) - In a letter to the Students Union of the Prishtina University, the
Serb Patriarch Pavle expressed the concern of the Serb Orthodox Church and
condemned the Serb police brutal crack-down against Albanian students who protested
peacefully in Kosova on 30 December.
"The beating and arresting of students does not only imply the abuse of official duty, but
also the abuse of the honor of the country they live in", said the letter, referring to Serbia
as a country of the Albanian students. The Serb Patriarch said he understands the
peaceful demonstrations of Albanian students and their demands to have free access to
university buildings. However, he asked the students "how do you conceive the return in
those facilities when you do not recognize the state the university belongs to".
A state cannot be equalized with a regime but it is a multi-folded organism, with its
institutions that are much older than any policy, the Serb Patriarch said, expressing his
astonishment why the Albanians "who have been allowed to legally leave and come back
home with Serb passports do not recognize a state, which is now recognized by most part
of the world".

Dr. Fehmi Agani, vice-chairman of the Democratic League of Kosova (LDK), commenting
on the Serb Patriarch letter said he hailed the condemnation of the Serb police brutality
against the peaceful demonstrations at a time "the whole world has been denouncing the
Serb regime policy of repression and discrimination in Kosova".
Yet, Dr. Agani said he could not understand why the Serb Patriarch speaks with such a
disdain about the Albanian language and Albanians. In his letter to the Albanian students
the Serb patriarch refers to Albanians as "Siptari" a common derogatory expression used
by Serbs, in particular since 1989.
Agani said its is true Albanians are allowed to leave the country, but its is not true that they
are allowed to return so easily, referring to the Serb regime practices aiming at preventing
the return of Albanians in Kosova.
Is it perhaps possible that neither the Serb Orthodox Church nor Patriarch Pavle himself
have ever seen a single report of the Prishtina-based Council for the Defense of Human
Rights and Freedoms or reports of well-known international human rights organization on
the Serb regime repression in Kosova, Dr. Agani said, adding that he could not
understand how Serb Patriarch could speak so positively about the position of Albanian in
Kosova. The LDK vice-chairman said he agreed with the Serb Patriarch that Kosova
needs to be seriously addressed, and that the people of Kosova should be recognized
their fundamental human, national and religious rights. Still, their right to self-determination
is one of the basic rights, he underscores. The Serb Patriarch overlooked a the reality in
Kosova. At least since 1990 Kosovars live in the Republic of Kosova, which likewise is a
historical, geographical and an ethnic organism, with multi-folded institutions, he said.

PRISHTINA, Jan 6 (KIC) - "We would have been grateful if You in your letter had also
denounced not only the use of truncheons against the students, but also the systematic
inhuman persecution the Serbian state has been exercising against the Albanian people of
Kosova, through the use of medieval methods", the Independent Student Unions (UPS) of
the Prishtina University says in a response addressed to Serb Patriarch Pavle, published
in today's Albanian dailies Bujku and Koha Ditore.
The Albanian students explained in their letter that they were not seeking the return to a
'Serbian state University but to University buildings and premises - the University which
had been established in 1970 as the University of Kosova."
Following is the text of the letter addressed to Serbian Patriarch:
(begin text)
First, we clarify for the public opinion that His Holiness, Patriarch Pavle, has addressed the
Albanian Student Movement of the Prishtina University through the media. Therefore, our
response to Patriarch Pavle will also go through print media.
Secondly, his Holiness expressed his concern about the barbaric behavior of the Serbian
police towards the peaceful protestors - the Albanian students, who were asking nothing
else but return to University buildings and premises - the University which was established
in 1970 as the University of Kosova, and was therefore built in 1991 as the University of
the Republic of Kosova. Our University buildings were occupied violently in 1991 by the
Serbian regime following the occupation of Kosova in 1989, at the time when all of you
together on the "Sveti Sava" [Saint Sava] day celebrated it pompously.
We would have been grateful if You in your letter had also denounced not only the use of
truncheons against the students, but also the systematic inhuman persecution the Serbian
state has been exercising against the Albanian people of Kosova, through the use of
medieval methods. We wish to remind You that the times when the Kosova issue could be
solved through medieval methods and policy and based on medieval mythology have past
and are long overdue. These are different times we are living in now. It is the end of the
20th century and we are stepping on the 21st century, and the open questions such as the
Kosova issue may and should be solved only through new methods of democratic policy,
by recognizing the right of all the people to freely conceive to their will. This is the only way
and the best for the settlement of open issues and for a good neighborly and multilateral
relations.
Since in your letter You have risen several other questions which are not directly linked to
the protests and to our demands, we will shortly expose on some of them, and hope to
gain you understanding, Your Holiness.
Thirdly, we wish to reiterate some of the issues known to You. None of our demands says
that we want to return to Serbian state university, as You have put it. Our University has
been functioning for 28 years. Since 1991, when the University was occupied, we have
been working in extremely difficult conditions, uncommon in the history of universities. In
such conditions too, we built the University of the Republic of Kosova which has its status.
A status and all other normative acts; very modern legislative acts based on European
experience; the University has transformed entirely in concept and its structure as well as
curricula and future plans; it has gained an European identity.
Therefore, all we have been requesting is to free our occupied University buildings and
premises. We request nothing more from the current Serbian government. We demand
the cessation of abuse with our University building and premises. We are resolute about it.
Your Holiness, we believe that You may best explain the erection of the Serbian Orthodox
church building in our University campus.
Fourth, we wish to remind You of the documents You have referred to, and that we too
"are forced to respect the violence" as You have put it, be it the most savage one.
Finally, it is in the being and the nature of the world of youth, and in particular of the
students to work perpetually for the future of the University, its people and humanity, and
to believe in the future. We also are very convinced for our future.
Hoping that You too believe in our future, we Your Holiness express our thanks for the
concern You have shown for the police violence.
(end text)
The Serb Patriarch Pavle sent a letter to the Prishtina University students last weekend in
which he expressed the views of the Serbian Church regarding demands of Albanian
students for free access to the University premises they were forcefully expelled from by
the Serb regime half a dozen years ago.

TIRANE, 8 JANAR, ENTER/- The chairman of the Islamic Community MA Dr. Rexhep
Boja greeted the reaction of serbian patriarch Pavel to the serbian violence used against
the students of Prishtina, but simultaneously considered it as delayed, as parcial and
cynic.
The condemnation of the violence means used by the serbian police against the peaceful
students protests, arrives in the mouth of the patriarch Pavle as a hope upon the ocean of
the desperation for the silence along many years his excellency kept regarding all these
crimes occured in the former yugoslavian space and especially for the terror of the serbian
regime in Kosova during the last ten years, Mr. Boja stated.
The chairman of the islamic community in Kosova said the Patriarch Pavel is responsible
for the tragedy passed after the disgregation of the former Yugoslavia, especially, for what
occured in Bosnia Hercegovina.
"Mr.Pavel ask the albanian students to recognize a state, whose regime kill them,
prosecute them, imprison them, sentence them to 20 years of prison on faked accuses,
deport them from their fatherland, fire them from their jobs and takes them out their native
houses, denies them natural rights as the right of the word",- Boja protest.
How can be rightly accepted the reaction of the serbian patriarch Pavle as he agreed to
construct an orthodox church within the urbanistic space of the Prishtina University?-
Mr.Boja, Islamic Community chairman in Prishtina said, concluding that the act of the
serbian religious can be simply periphrased "Better late, than never!".