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# Serbian Houses Burnt Down in Prizren and Gnjilane
# [Fwd: [KDN] IndLon, ORTHODOX CHURCH SPURNS HARMONY]
# Kosovo News July 12 1999

15 more Serbian houses burnt down in Prizren
July 13, 1999

Prizren, July 12 (Beta-AFP) - 15 houses were burnt last night in Prizren, declared on Monday the spokesman of KFOR German troops, lieutenant-general Dietmar Jezerich.
      Last week, in the former Serbian part of town, in flames burnt more that 20 houses, so that the complete number of destroyed houses is more than 35.
      "People obviously takes delight in these flames", said the spokesman. Almost in the same moment, in Prizren last night started nine fires in deserted Serbian houses, but also in the bordering Albanian houses. German army reported that the inhabitants of the quarters are preventing the firemen from putting out the fires, because some of them received threats and one was even beaten up.
      KFOR representatives spoke late last night with the local authorities about the attempt of ending the wave of incineration in the central part of the town.
      The citizens of Prizren who support the incendiaries say that they are afraid that the Serbs will return in Kosovo after the normalization of the situation in the province.
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Gnjilane, July 12 - Three Serbian houses were burnt in Gnjilane, in the Knez Lazar street, reported yesterday the radio-amateurs from the surroundings of this town.
      The same source quotes that these houses were last to be entire, and that the Albanians put fire on them during the previous day. In this street remained only one Serbian house, which is still entire.
     Radio-amateurs point out that KFOR promised to protect this house.

 
Betreff:        [KDN] IndLon, ORTHODOX CHURCH SPURNS HARMONY
 Datum:        Tue, 13 Jul 1999 11:21:11 -0400
   Von:        marko.kocic@analog.com (Marko Kocic)

The Independent of London, 7-13-99

ORTHODOX CHURCH SPURNS HARMONY

EFFORTS AT reconciliation in Kosovo suffered a blow yesterday when local leaders of the Serbian Orthodox Church withdrew their co-operation with Nato and condemned Western governments for failing to deter Albanian revenge attacks against Serbs.
     In a letter to Sergio Mieira de Mello, the acting United Nations chief in Kosovo, Bishop Artemije of Prizren, the province's senior Orthodox cleric, announced his refusal to take part in a high-level council intended to bring together leaders of the various communities. "The church expresses its greatest concern about systematic terror against our community," said the letter, seen by The Independent. "The direct perpetrators of these crimes are Kosovo Albanian extremists who want to achieve an ethnically cleansed Kosovo and Metohija despite the presence of K-For and Unmik [the UN Mission in Kosovo]."
     Some 70,000 ethnic Serbs are believed to have fled Kosovo since the withdrawal of Serbian police and army units last month, and all over the territory tension continues between Serbian and Albanian communities. Albanian leaders say attacks on Serbs are not co- ordinated and are the backlash against years of repression, culminating in the ethnic cleansing and massacres carried out by Serb army, police and paramilitaries during the Nato bombing.
     But the Orthodox Church, which is calling for the removal of President Slobodan Milosevic of Yugoslav, says they are orchestrated by leaders of the Kosovo Liberation Army, and that Nato is standing by.

 
Betreff:         Information Service of the SOC, Statement, July 12 1999
Datum:         Tue, 13 Jul 1999 15:14:36 +0200
    Von:         Trifko <trifko@EUnet.yu>

Information Service of the Serbian Orthodox Church
PRAVOSLAVLJE PRESS STATEMENT

Belgrade, July 12, 1999

The difficult circumstances affecting the lives of the Serbs do not change. Priest Brane Kojic has visited village Lipljan today, and said that 4 more Serbian houses have been burned there. Priest Milovan Kojic has visited the arrested Serb Slobodan Joksimovic, who has been put to prison on the basis of one Albanian's claim that he had committed murder – which is a pure fabrication. The priest has said that 9 more imprisoned Serbs are in the same prison with Joksimovic.

This morning in the St. George's Cathedral in Prizren, young priest Aleksandar Naspalic, who lives within the Diocese of Prizren, has served the Holy Liturgy. Three faithful Serbs from Prizren, who mustered up their courage to come, thereat risking their lives, have attended the Liturgy. In Prizren seminary, priest Nikola Bozanic has been watching over a hundred gathered Serbs. Even to the Cathedral can Father Nikola come only with the escort of KFOR soldiers. As Father Nikola has said, in Prizren, excluding the seminary, still live about 280 Serbian families, each numbering 2 members at most – old man and woman who could not start on a long voyage to the north.

The Serbs in Pristina still feel intense fear, since the Albanians barge into their apartments and occupy them every day. The day before yesterday, a Serb Caslav Tomic from Pristina tried to leave the town. But, after he had loaded the truck with the selected things, the Albanians, who were waiting patiently until Caslav ended his enterprise, attacked Caslav just as he was about to leave, and drove him and the truck in an unknown direction.

Priest Radomir Panic has said that the Serbs in Pristina got afraid even more when they found out that the Albanians had tried to kidnap him too, thereat taking his car. People think that the attack on a priest will most probably be recorded somewhere in the world news, but the news on death or kidnapping of a common Serb will surely be discarded as unimportant. Due to all that, majority of the Serbs who have still stayed in Pristina is inclined to sell the belonging property in order to have the means for living, after their moving out. Priest Panic has stated that is the main reason why the Serbs still live there; they have been waiting for the proper handling of their property, since they, apart from those belongings, have nothing else.

Priest Panic has noted bitterly: "The people from the western countries blame the Serbs for the persecution of the Albanians. We do not approve that persecution, but even if it had happened, it had happened during the war, during the defending of the Serbian country from the enemy, but the persecution of the Serbs has been happening not in the war, but in "peace", since NATO forces have come to establish peace, as they claim. And also, while defending their homeland, the Serbs fought only the armed Albanian forces, and now, the Albanians, manifestly helped by the international forces, have been destroying Serbian villages systematically and successively, and have been expelling the Serbs from the towns".

We always obtain news about new murders committed over the Serbs. On July 6, Zivojin Nedeljkovic from Pristina was found dead in his apartment, where the corpse was lying for 3-4 days. Three days ago, KFOR soldiers found Velimir Ivic's corpse in the street litter container. Ivic has not been buried yet, the corpse is still in some department in the hospital. Milorad Andjelkovic from Pristina was murdered in his apartment three days ago. The neighbours of Stanko Saranovic have reported to the priest from Pristina that Stanko has been lying dead in his apartment. The news has not been confirmed yet. On July 6, the Albanians barged into the apartment of Veselin Radulovic, canteen manager in the factory of shock absorbers in Pristina. Since Radulovic succeeded in defending himself from the attackers, they filed an accusation to KFOR charging him with the possession of weapon, which he did use in the previously mentioned situation. KFOR soldiers arrested Radulovic, but when they were putting handcuffs on his hands, Radulovic died of fear and pain.

The nuns from Gorioc monastery, near Istok, have informed us that an old Serbian woman whose scull was smashed has been found in Istok; the nuns have taken her in the monastery.

About 15 Serbian houses have been burning in the vicinity of Prizren today.

Priest Miroslav Popadic from Pristina has said sadly tonight: "Almost all my neighbours have gone". It is presumed that about 2.000 Serbs still live in Pristina. There were 20.000 Serbs in this town before the latest events. The remaining Serbs in Pristina, as priest Radivoje Panic has said, are afraid to come out of their apartments. He has even said that he knows at least five Serbian families, who have not gone out of their houses once, since the Albanians started their rampaging, namely - those Serbs have not left their houses for more than 20 days. They have been living on their old food supplies.

Many apartments belonging to the Serbian Orthodox priests in Kosovo and Metohia: in Urosevac, Musutiste, Klina, Curakovac, Vucitrn and other places, have been plundered.

Rt. Rev. Atanasije (Rakita),
the Bishop of Hvosno

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