Serbian Orthodox Church

Information Service of
the Serbian Orthodox Church
January 9, 2005

THE HOLY SYNOD OF BISHOPS FOR WITHDRAWING THE LAW SUIT
FILED AGAINST FOUR EUROPEAN NATIONS

The Holy Synod of Bishops of the Serbian Orthodox Church has proposed to His Grace Bishop Dr. Artemije of Raska-Prizren to withdraw the law suit, which the Diocese of Raska-Prizren has submitted against Germany, France, Italy and Great Britain in the European Court of Human Rights in Strasbourg for legal protection and fair reparation for damages done to Orthodox churches and other properties of the Serbian Orthodox Church in Kosovo and Metohija by Albanian extremists and terrorists from 1999 to the present.

At the same time, the Holy Synod of Bishops anticipates and requests that the International Community will assume all measures to insure:

- The complete protection of the Serbian people and minority communities in Kosovo and Metohija;
- The repatriation of expellees; and
- The restoration of more than one hundred churches and thousands of homes destroyed from the time that Kosovo and Metohija, following the NATO-pact bombing of 1999, came under the protectorate of the United Nations.

The Holy Synod of Bishops constitutes that KFOR and UNMIK have not completely justified the trust which has been shown them nor have they even come near fulfilling their assumed obligations, rather they have suffered failure in protecting peoples, their properties, shrines and elementary human rights in Kosovo and Metohija.

For this reason, the Holy Synod of Bishops has understood the law suit filed by His Grace Bishop Artemije of Raska-Prizren against the noted nations, as a justified protest against all that which was committed during the past five years and continues to be committed against the Serbian Orthodox Church, the Serbian people, their properties and cultural treasures in Kosovo and Metohija.

The Holy Synod of Bishops once again expresses the readiness of the Serbian Orthodox Church in advancing its cooperation with the International Community, while inviting it to more responsibly approach the fulfilling of its assumed obligations, in order to prevent new violence which threatens Kosovo and Metohija.

[Serbian Translation Services]