http://www.slobodan-milosevic.org/news/sf0807.htm
Serbian monastery in Kosovo stands on right to raise state flag in 'own
country'
BBC Monitoring Europe (Political) - July 19, 2007 Thursday
Text of report by Serbian newspaper Danas on 18 July
[Report by J. Tasic: "Flag Stays Until Further Notice"]
Zociste, Prizren, Beograd - Just two days after the celebration of the
monastery's patron saints' day, when the rebuilt Church of Sts Kozma and
Damjan was consecrated and the saints' relics returned home after an absence
of eight years, the brotherhood of the medieval Zociste Monastery again has
problems with the local Albanian community.
At the request of the Albanians, Kfor [Kosovo Force] and UNMIK [UN Interim
Administration Mission in Kosovo] are asking the monks to remove the Serbian
flag from the bell tower with the explanation that "it is irritating the
Albanian extremists." The monks do not have the blessing of their diocesan,
Bishop Artemije of Raska and Prizren, to remove the flag; Kfor members,
although they claim, quoting reliable sources, that the monastery and the
Serbs in nearby Orahovac and Velika Hoca are at risk because of the flag,
are nevertheless reluctant to remove the flag themselves because, according
to speculation, they do not want to be caught on camera doing so.
"We will not remove the flag, because we have every right to display the
state flag in our own country. If the Albanians are allowed to put up the
flag of another country on every shack and nobody is stopping them and
nobody is irritated, then we, too, have the right to put up our flag in our
country. Kosovo-Metohija is in Serbia. We will not give in to blackmail. If
there are threats, Kfor and UNMIK are there to protect those at risk and
pacify those that commit crimes," Bishop Artemije told Danas.
Sources close to the international mission in Kosovo-Metohija speculate that
Kfor has been given an ultimatum of 48 hours, which reportedly started
running on Monday [16 July] afternoon, to remove the Serbian flag from the
monastery bell tower. At the Kfor base, which guards the monastery, they
have raised the level of alert and the guards around the monastery have been
strengthened although, according to information given to Danas, the
situation in the village is peaceful. Kfor Major Rene [as transliterated]
said that "there are no problems about the flag at Zociste," but he
nevertheless refused to discuss the matter by mobile phone to our newspaper.
Danas has learned unofficially that the Serbian flag will stay on the bell
tower until further notice.
After the deployment of the UN mission in Kosovo-Metohija, Zociste Monastery
(dating back to the 12th century) was first plundered and then dynamited in
September 1999; it was set on fire several times subsequently. On 14 July
2002, when the Eparchy of Raska and Prizren launched a drive at the
monastery for "Restoring by Prayer Our Desecrated Holy Places," Serbs that
attended the liturgy at the devastated monastery barely escaped with their
lives from the attacking Albanians, although the German Kfor battalion was
securing the monastery. Liturgy has been celebrated on the monastery's
patron saints' day in the years that followed and, in late 2004, after three
years of negotiations with Kfor and the local authorities, three monks,
headed by Protosyngellos [Episcopal Vicar] Petar, returned to the monastery
and began the restoration of Zociste.
[Box] Roof and Bells
Before the flag problem, the monks had a problem with the local community
because of what the local Albanians perceived as too swift a restoration of
the monastery living quarters, as a result of which, in the middle of winter
two years ago, the monks had to dismantle a newly built roof; they also had
problems with the use of the church bells. Protosyngellos Petar, the prior
of Zociste Monastery, explains for Danas that Kfor had first forbidden the
monks to ring the church bells in order that their "daily use should not
aggravate interethnic relations in the village." Last summer and only after
the municipal authorities had given their consent and undertaken to prepare
the local population beforehand, Kfor allowed the monastery to ring the
bells twice a day - morning and evening.
"We used to raise the flag also in the past and this time, it was put on the
bell tower on the eve of the celebration. In view of the problems that we
have had with the roof and the bells and now with the flag as well, I have
to wonder what kind of conditions we live in. They dictate our living
conditions to us," Prior Petar says.
Source: Danas, Belgrade, in Serbian 18 Jul 07
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