My letter to the US Embassy in Athens
by Theodoros Karakostas
Founder, Bysantine Cultural Project
The following letter of protest is intended to express complete opposition
to the administration's
announcement that military assistance will be provided to the regime that
presently occupies the
Serbian province of Kosovo. This is a policy that is morally and
politically repugnant, as the Al
Qaeda connected KLA government is responsible for the violation of the
human rights and religious
freedom of Serbs living in Kosovo.
I write as a Greek Orthodox believer and American citizen that abhors the
unrelenting bullying of
Serbia. While I fully understand that the staff is quite busy, I would be
most appreciative if someone
at the Embassy could explain to me why Serb suffering in Kosovo for the
past nine years has been
entirely unopposed by our government, NATO, United Nations, and European
Union while any time
any Serbs are complicit in some sort of stupid behavior as in the attack on
the Embassies there seems
to be unanimous condemnation of all Serbs collectively?
I would like to know why there have been no arrests since the Orthodox
Monks Father Chariton Lukic
and Stefan Purim were decapitated by the Muslims in 1999, and why the KLA
leadership has not been
held responsible for the March 2004 pogroms in Kosovo that resulted in four
days of terror against innocent
Serb civilians? I would like to know why the destruction of beautiful
Serbian Churches and Monasteries that
survived the Ottoman centuries of occupation, the Nazis, and decades of
Communism have not survived
under the occupation of NATO, the United Nations, and the European Union?
I would like to express my grief at the horrendous suffering that Serbs are
enduring in Kosovo. As an
Orthodox Christian, my suffering brothers of Kosovo are in my thoughts and
prayers during this lenten
season that is being observed by Eastern Orthodox Churches. I am
particularly distressed over the
destruction of all the Churches, with the Sacred Chalices, Icons,
Crucifixes, and Gospels.
As a Greek Orthodox, the events in Kosovo bring to mind the status of the
Greek Churches of occupied
Cyprus which have been systematically destroyed under the Turkish
occupation. I would like to ask why
it is that Orthodox Christians are exempt from the protection of
international law, and why the vile
desecration of Orthodox houses of worship from Kosovo to Cyprus are
tolerated? The United States
has gone out of its way to placate Muslim sensibilities, why are the
religious sensibilities of Orthodox
Christians treated with such indifference?
Kosovo is Serbia! This is a historic fact, as is the reality that Serbia
was a staunch American ally in two
World Wars! The Croats, Bosnian Muslims, and Muslims of Kosovo were
collaborators of the Nazis that
aided and abetted the Holocaust. It is oxy moronic for the administration to
support military aid to the
KLA regime while claiming to be waging a "War on terror". The KLA has been
hosting Al Qaeda, a fact
that has been documented by terrorism expert Yossef Bodansky, and by
numerous journalists and
Balkan experts.
Theodoros Karakostas
