Information Service of PATRIARCH PAVLE REQUIRES FROM KFOR AND
UNMIK TO PROTECT His Holiness Serbian Patriarch Pavle addressed a letter today to the Lieutenant General Marcel Velentin, Commander of KFOR and to Mr Michael Steiner, Special Envoy of the UN Secretary General for Kosovo and Metochia and asked them to undertake all the necessary measures falling within their scope of authorisations to stop the theft and taking out of icons, service books and other very valuable church/art objects from Kosovo and Metochia. Part of the letter reads: "With regret do We remind You that as of June 13, 1999 when the international forces had entered Kosovo and Metochia till the day when You undertook this responsible duty, Albanian terrorists destroyed more than 120 Orthodox churches, many of which date from the Middle Ages and belong to the world cultural heritage. Although such destructive attacks still happen, for example the St. Elijah Church in the village of Smace near Prizren was for the second time destroyed by explosive, they are somewhat rarer than in the first months of KFOR and UNMIK administration. Right now some other kind of danger is hovering over church valuables. More precisely, We were informed that valuable icons, church vessels, service books and other valuable church/art objects could recently be found on the black market of antiquities and art objects in several European countries. One German soldier has already been given a sentence in his country, although a suspended one, for taking a valuable icon and some other valuables from the Cathedral in Prizren and trying to sell them. A similar event occurred in Greece, where the police arrested smugglers who transferred from Albania into Greece service books dating from the 19th century and carvings and icons originating from the 18th century, as well as some other objects previously stolen in Kosovo and Metochia. Slovenian police arrested several Albanians who brought dozens of icons into that country with the aim to sell them. Experience shows that suchlike cases are only “the tip of the iceberg”, meaning that from the area where there are no Serbian priests or people – since there are no conditions for a normal and safe life – many more church/art objects have been taken away then what people think. Therefore, dear Sir, do We ask You to, within the term of office of KFOR and UNMIK, undertake all the necessary measures so that all the movables, together with all the immovables, of the Serbian Orthodox Church should be preserved. If they are destroyed or displaced, not only that we as a people suffer a loss, but also the entire European culture. Numerous traces of existence of the Serbian people and its martyr Church disappear from the Kosovo-Metochian land, the cradle of our people, in the presence of strong international military and police forces”. |
