Serbian Church Claims Victim Status Patriarch's claim that Church is under attack in Vojvodina met with scepticism.
By Miroslav Zadrepko in Novi Sad (20-Jan-06) Serbia's powerful Orthodox Church hierarchy has caused a stir in Serbia's northern Vojvodina province by complaining of harassment and demanding official action to prevent attacks on churches, facilities, clergy and believers. In an open letter, Patriarch Pavle urged the head of Vojvodina's Executive Council, Bojan Pajtic, to take strong measures and publicly state that hate speech against the Church was unacceptable. The letter singled out the former speaker of the provincial parliament, Nenad Canak, a man known for his anti-nationalist views, for direct criticism. The letter caused surprise in Vojvodina, given the Church's often preferential treatment in Serbia. The letter singled out two examples of attacks on the Orthodox Church last year - a failed attempt to steal some sheet metal and three icons from the roof of the church in the village of Grabovo, near Beocin, and a fire in the Rakovac monastery in the Fruska Gora area. However, as police caught the thieves from Grabovo and established that the cause of the fire in Rakovac was a construction workers' blunder, the value of these examples appeared to have been undermined. The patriarchal letter said hate speech against the Church was being spread "from highest places and through some media outlets" and that "champions of hate speech" and consequently "the instigators of these misdeeds" were to be found among Vojvodina's top officials "among whom the former speaker of the Vojvodina parliament, Nenad Canak, certainly stands out". This letter astonished Canak, who remarked on how unusual it was for the head of the Church to single out names in this fashion. In his reply, Pajtic said he could not permit "a correspondence with His Holiness publicly through the media", adding that he had sent a letter to the Patriarch, which he might publish if he wanted. Far from being mistreated or sidelined, the Serbian Orthodox Church, SPC, is widely seen as the country's most influential religious organisation by far. It often supported Serbian combatants in the conflicts that raged over the former Yugoslavia in the Nineties, while some clergy became notorious for involvement with extremist paramilitaries. One case that hit the headlines involved a priest who was filmed blessing the paramilitary formation known as the Scorpions, some of whose members are currently on trial for the mass murder of Bosniaks in Srebrenica, eastern Bosnia. Other priests were photographed wielding firearms. A sociologist of religion, Mirko Djordjevic, dismissed the Church's motives in claiming to be the victim of threats and verbal violence. "The SPC is not exposed to hate speech, unless this term encompasses occasional statements critical of the Church," he said. "And it is not threatened by the state or in any other way in society at large, he added. Incidents took place, as they did to other confessions. Djordjevic said the Church had already secured itself an important position in public and political life, which was close to becoming a dominant one. He believed the motives behind the Church's letter were political, as was suggested by the fact that the police had, in fact, solved both of the incidents mentioned in the letter. According to Dragoljub B. Djordjevic, the Church had gained its now high-profile role in Serbian national life during the wars in Bosnia-Herzegovina, Croatia and Kosovo in the Nineties "as the national arbiter whose decisions were embraced by a large part of the population". Unaccustomed to any criticism at all, it seemed astounded by the recent expression of "adversarial views" concerning its role, he went on. "Just as we [in civil society] must get used to such public statements of the SPC and other religious communities, the SPC should accustom itself to criticism," Djordjevic continued. Vladimir Ilic, of the Centre for Civil Society Development, CRCD, based in Zrenjanin, also disputed the Church's complaints. Nothing is wrong in communication between the Church and the state, but in specific case this is no ground to complain, said Ilic. He blamed the Serbian minister of religion, Milan Radulovic, for incorrectly alleging in a recent statement to the newspaper Gradjanski List that the Serbian Orthodox Church "is the most frequently attacked religious organisation, verbally and physically, and not only in Vojvodina". Ilic said such talk could not be taken seriously, given the far higher number of attacks, proportionally, on evangelical church property. "The facilities and members of Protestant religious communities are threatened above all and there are official records at the ministries of interior and human and minority rights to prove it," Ilic told Balkan Insight. "In Ruma alone the Adventist church was attacked five times in six months and I can give you more examples," Ilic added. The CRCD has sharply criticised the Serbian government's decision to introduce special postage stamps featuring the construction of the Saint Sava cathedral in Belgrade, adding that such favouritism was a sign that "Serbia is becoming a state of one confession only". "At the time when the Bajrakli mosque [attacked by hooligans in Belgrade in retaliation for violence against Kosovo Serbs in March 2004] has not yet been fully reconstructed, and the same goes for the mosque in Nis, the government proves with its decree that it only cares about one religious community," the CRCD's recent statement said. "Judging by the reports of the ministries of interior and human and minority rights, as well as by those published by international organisations, there are no threats to the SPC in Vojvodina or Serbia," it concluded. In this case the Church got support of the hard-line nationalist Serbian Radical Party, which now dominates local government in the capital, Novi Sad, and the local television station, TV Apolo. Last week, the station's news editor, Zeljko Rakicevic, burned a copy of the anti-clerical magazine Bezboznik, meaning Atheist, while on air, accusing it of disseminating hate speech against the Church. The station's editor-in-chief, Sasa Adamovic, defended his colleague's bizarre action, saying it was "an independent editor's comment on the hate speech and intolerance targeting the SPC but also other Christian religions". Although Bezboznik is a provocative publication, with a strident line on what it calls clerico-fascism, the public burning of the magazine has drawn protests from journalists. Expressing its dismay, the Independent Journalists Association of Vojvodina, NDNV, called on the authorities to finally adopt a bill on religious freedom that would ban not only all forms of religious discrimination and domination, but also draw "a clear dividing line between the 'secular' and 'spiritual' authorities, and prevent the creation of a fundamentalist state in the Balkans". The Church, however is persistent in its claim that it faces attacks and hate speech in Vojvodina. Dusan Stokanovic, secretary of the Saint Episcopal Synod, told Balkan Insight that damage to Vojvodina churches are reality. Some circles use hate speech to frequently attack the Church for alleged links with radical groups, but this is something which has no basis in reality, insisted Stokanovic. Miroslav Zadrepko is a correspondent with B92 and regular Balkan Insight contributor. Balkan Insight is BIRNs internet publication. This article was financed by Freedom House's Democratic Transition and Reintegration in Serbia programme. http://www.birn.eu.com/insight_17_5_eng.php Serbian News Network - SNN [email protected] http://www.antic.org/
