Information Service of After the decision of the Municipal Court at Decani to seize the land of the Visoki Decani Monastery – more precisely the land which was returned to this Monastery by a decision of the Government of the Republic of Serbia made in 1997 – the Federal Secretariat for Religious Affairs issues the following: STATEMENT TO THE PUBLIC The decision of the Municipal Court at Decani cancelling the decision of the Government of the Republic of Serbia made in 1997 by which the property nationalised in 1946 was to be returned to the Visoki Decani Monastery represents a striking example of legal violence before the very eyes of the international community which does nothing to stop decisions like this one, decisions which clearly send the message to all the displaced persons that they have no right to return, and to the remaining Serbs and Montenegrins that there is no peaceful life for them in Kosovo and Metochia wherefore they should move out, since neither personal nor property safety is guaranteed to them. This decision reminds us of the past, which we thought never to come back, when the communists confiscated property of the Church and of people without any legal basis, and later on forbade the ones who fled Kosovo and Metochia under pressure to come back. Irony is even greater since everything happens in the presence of UN Mission which advocates the establishment of legal order and the return of displaced and persecuted people from Kosovo and Metochia. We appeal to all the relevant international organisations, and especially to UNMIK, to cancel this absurd and illegal decision of the Municipal Court at Decani, which only produced additional negative tensions among national and religious communities, tensions that can destabilise the entire region, which is surely not the aim of benevolent people who want to establish peace and tolerance in Kosmet. |
