Information Service of BISHOP ARTEMIJE STRONGLY CONDEMNED TERRORIST
ATTACKS Gracanica July 31, 2002, 20:50 Bishop Artemije strongly condemned today's Albanian terrorist attack in Klokot and expressed his profound consternation due to the confirmed news that the Albanians had planned a devastating terrorist attack on the Holy Archangels monastery last week. "Serbs will never be peaceful and able to move freely in Kosovo and Metochia as long as Albanian terrorists move around without any restrictions and blow up Serbian houses and shrines, now - three years after the war. It is high time for the international community to face the reality and confront Albanian extremism with concrete military and political actions. Terrorism must be stopped, perpetrators brought to justice and all the citizens be thus allowed to move freely and exercise all other basic human rights", Bishop Artemije said, giving the statement to the Information Service of the Diocese of Raska and Prizren this evening. ALBANIAN TERRORISTS PLANNED TO DETONATE 9KG OF
EXPLOSIVES WELL-INFORMED SOURCE CLOSE TO KFOR AND UNMIK INFORMED Gracanica July 31, 2002 Well-informed anonymous source close to highest KFOR and UNMIK authorities informed the Orthodox Diocese of Raska/Prizren that KFOR soldiers had found 9 (nine) kg of explosives behind a large rock on the slope of a hill above the Monastery of the Holy Archangels, close to the medieval tower of Visegrad. The military experts apparently believe that the explosives were activated by a mobile phone. Surprisingly, not all the explosives were detonated, otherwise the rock could have rolled into the monastery grounds and cause casualties among the congregation, Bishop and clergy who were praying only 100 meters away. This information from the official international circles confirmed the fears and suspicions that a very serious terrorist attack was planned during the celebration. Informal reports obtained in the last few days from the local representatives of the German KFOR stated that the explosive had already been found (minimum 4kg, while only a few hundreds of grams actually exploded). It is very difficult to understand that KFOR has not searched the grounds around the Monastery before the celebration in which 1000 Serbs were supposed to participate. It is equally surprising that KFOR authorities have not yet issued an official statement and that the incident was not even mentioned in regular public KFOR press releases. Unfortunately, this appears to be a typical example of avoiding one's responsibilities so as to conceal the real situation in the region. |
