Oraovica (Municipality of Preševo, Southern Serbia): Albanian Terrorists Vandalize, Desecrate Church of St. George Dating Back t

Even though, in this year's Nativity Encyclical, the Serbian Orthodox Church had called upon all people to live in peace and to avoid conflict, this hasn't been sufficient for the Albanian terrorists in Southern Serbia. On the contrary, they committed a serious crime against the Serbian people and their spiritual and cultural heritage by desecrating the Church of St. George in Oraovica, on the most joyful Christian holiday - the Birth of Christ, just like innumerous times before. They forced the metal blinds and violated the church by entering it through one of the windows, after they had extirpated the church's cross, which had been embodied into the concrete of the roof, since no other roof covering could resist the Albanian vandals. What made them do this just on Christmas Day? It was their way of demonstrating their rude violence against the church dating back to the 14th century, for in the village of Oraovci (which once had a Serb majority) there is not a single Serb left since 1966. The Serbs have been expelled by Albanian extremists, who then desecrated and destroyed all Serbian graves in Oraovica, leaving not a single tombstone or monument in its place or intact.

For the record, Oraovica is a village located in the Municipality of Preševo, in Southern Serbia, where local authority is detained by the Albanians, who ascertain that their human rights and liberities were being threatened. This doesn't correspond to the truth - all rights and liberties of the Orthodox Serbs in Presevo are being menaced, for how can they live a normal life when their places of worship and tombstones are being violated and destroyed?

It must be recalled that similar events also involved the Church of Saint Prophet Elias (Municipality of Vranje), which was repeatetly desecrated by Albanian terrorists between 1981 and 2000, when its altar was even mined in order to introduce cattle into the church!

Furthermore, on several occasions, usually on its Patron Saint's Day, Albanian terrorists have desecrated the Church of Saints Constantin and Helen, in Veliko Trnovo, while the Church of St. Paraskeve and its courtyard in Lučani have been transformed into a dump. (Municipality of Bujanovac)

This is the last chance for the competent state institutions to bring to a halt such barbarity and to provide full protection to the Serbian Orthodox Church and its worshippers in the Municipalities of Preševo and Bujanovac. It is also the last chance for both the domestic as well as the international public to understand the essence of the problem in Southern Serbia, that it is not the Albanians who are under threat in this region, but the orthodox Serbs, and that this has not started only recently, but way back in 1945.

Source: Diocese of Vranje