American soldiers patrol near the Orthodox church in Gnjilane, Kosovo, Saturday, Feb. 16, 2008.
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Posted on Mon Feb 18 2008
Russian Church calls on Albanians to understand negative consequences of Kosovo independence...Moscow Patriarchate representative in Brussels wishes courage, patience to Kosovan Serbs...Serbia pledges long-haul fight over Kosovo... Serbian Orthodox Church compares Kosovo separation with 'occupation' ... Head of Georgian Orthodox Church Slams Russia’s Rhetoric
Moscow, February 18, Interfax - The Russian Orthodox Church has called on Albanians in Kosovo to understand disastrous consequences of the unilateral recognition of the region's independence."We would like the Albanian side, which admitted this, to understand that this path is disastrous and to seek reconciliation with Serbians," priest Georgy Ryabykh, a representative of the Moscow Patriarchate Department for External Church Relations, told Interfax-Religion.
Any decision concerning several parties cannot be made unilaterally, as it could lead to the escalation of the conflict, he said. "That is why in case of the escalation of the situation in Kosovo, the responsibility will lie with the Albanian side that dared for this unilateral step," the priest said.
Patriarch Alexy II of Moscow and all Russia has many times stated that the Kosovo status issue should not be solved disregarding the opinion f the Serbian people.
Moscow Patriarchate representative in Brussels wishes courage, patience to Kosovan Serbs
Moscow, February 18, Interfax - Bishop of Vienna and Austria Hilarion, who represents the Russian Church at European international organizations, has said he hopes the Orthodox residents of Kosovo "to face continuing sufferings with courage and patience."
"I would like to hope that those priceless monuments of ancient Christian architecture that are still standing on the land of Kosovo will survive and be preserved for future generations," he told Interfax-Religion on Monday.
"The destruction of an over-1000-year Christian civilization is happening in Kosovo right before our eyes with support of the United States and their allies," he said.
"Old churches, priceless monuments of Christian culture, are vanishing from the surface of the globe. Tens of thousands of Serbs have left their homeland, which now seems to have finally got into the hands of new masters. And for them monuments of the Christian civilization are just a nuisance reminding of the past," the bishop said.
The declaration of the independence of Kosovo "is another element in the chain of global geopolitical changes which started in the 1990s with the collapse of the Soviet Union and subsequently of socialist Yugoslavia," he said.
Serbia pledges long-haul fight over Kosovo
Feb 17, 2008 2:21pm EST
By Ellie Tzortzi
BELGRADE (Reuters) - Serbia's leaders pledged peaceful resistance after Kosovo's declaration of independence on Sunday, but angry protesters turned to violence in Belgrade and a Serbian stronghold in Kosovo.
Some 2,000 people gathered at the U.S. embassy to vent their anger at American backing for the breakaway province.
"Kosovo is the heart of Serbia," many chanted as they ripped up paving stones and prised concrete and tiles from nearby buildings to throw at riot police along with bottles and flares. Several police and rioters were bloody and injured.
In the Kosovo Serb stronghold of Mitrovica, hand grenades were thrown at EU and U.N. buildings. One exploded causing no major damage.
Local news agencies also reported protests in Novi Sad in northern Serbia and in Banja Luka, capital of the Bosnian Serb Republic whose leaders look to Kosovo for a precedent they could use to try and secede from Bosnia.
In Serbia, political leaders were united in their anger at Kosovo's declaration but gave out very different signals on how the move would affect Belgrade's ties with the West.
Nationalist Prime Minister Vojislav Kostunica, who led a diplomatic battle to retain the region, attacked the United States and European Union for supporting the secession of a province Serbs see as their religious and historic heartland.
In a televised address to the nation minutes after Kosovo formally severed ties after nine years under U.N. control, he accused the United States of being "ready to violate the international order for its own military interests".
"As long as the Serb people exist, Kosovo will be Serbia," Kostunica said.
"The declaration by the false state under the tutelage of the United States and EU is the final act of the policy of force which started with the insane bombing of Serbia and continued with the arrival of NATO troops in Kosovo.".
The United States spearheaded the 1999 NATO air war that expelled Serb forces from the province to stop the mass killing of Albanian civilians in a counter-insurgency crackdown.
Kostunica said mass protests would be called soon.
RESIDENT RULES OUT VIOLENT RESPONSE
Pro-Western President Boris Tadic, whose party is in a shaky coalition with Kostunica's, called for calm.
"Serbia will never recognize the independence of Kosovo," but "will go through this peacefully, with dignity", he said in a statement. "Serbia will persist ... and defend its interests and international law, no matter how long it takes."
Russia, Belgrade's strongest ally, called U.N. Security Council talks on Kosovo for Monday. Tadic was heading off to New York late on Sunday to attend the closed-door session which has no real chance of reversing Western backing for Kosovo.
Serbian Foreign Minister Vuk Jeremic will go to Brussels on Monday where EU foreign ministers will meet on Kosovo, which hopes most member states will swiftly recognize it.
Tadic favors separating the issue of Kosovo from Serbia's long-delayed EU membership bid. But Kostunica insists Brussels must give up support of Kosovo if it wants Serbia as a member.
The staunchly nationalist Radicals, Serbia's strongest party, called on Kostunica and Tadic to "channel the unrest and anger" of Serbs into a huge rally.
"As long as there are Serbs, we will go on fighting for Kosovo," their leader Tomislav Nikolic said.
The sharpest reaction was from the Serb Orthodox Church in Kosovo, whose leader Bishop Artemije denounced the army for doing nothing and said Serbia should buy arms from Russia to fight.
Head of Georgian Orthodox Church Slams Russia’s Rhetoric
Civil Georgia, Tbilisi
Ilia II, the Patriarch of the Georgian Orthodox Church, said Russian “threats” to recognize Abkhazia and South Ossetia after Kosovo’s independence were “unacceptable.”
In a sermon on February 17, Ilia II said: “Russia threatens to recognize the independence of Abkhazia and Tskhinvali [the capital of breakaway South Ossetia] I want to say that although Georgian public opinion very often is diverse, on this particular situation everyone, including the people, opposition and the authorities, are united and have one opinion: Georgia has been and should remain a unified state. I have told representatives of the Russian authorities several times that separatism is like a transmittable disease and everyone should remember this, including Russia. I highly respect Russian culture, science, its history and philosophy, but we should say the truth that this kind of rhetoric towards Georgia is unacceptable.”
Serbian Orthodox Church compares Kosovo separation with 'occupation'
MOSCOW. Feb 18 (Interfax) - The Synod of the Serbian Orthodox Church has urged the United Nations to prevent the international recognition of an independent Kosovo.
"The Church affirms, as many times before, that Kosovo and Metohijam must remain an inseparable part of Serbia," the Synod said in a statement on Monday.
Any other decision "would be an act of violence with far-reaching consequences for the Balkans and the whole of Europe," the statement runs."The separation of Kosovo and Metohija from Serbia is a form of
violence comparable with the periods of occupation and tyranny, which,we hope, are gone in the history of Europe and the world," the statement runs.
The hierarchs called on the UN Security Council "to take immediate steps in defense of the trampled human and religious rights and statehood of Serbia."
Head of Georgian Orthodox Church Slams Russia’s Rhetoric
Ilia II, the Patriarch of the Georgian Orthodox Church, said Russian “threats” to recognize Abkhazia and South Ossetia after Kosovo’s independence were “unacceptable.”
In a sermon on February 17, Ilia II said: “Russia threatens to recognize the independence of Abkhazia and Tskhinvali [the capital of breakaway South Ossetia] I want to say that although Georgian public opinion very often is diverse, on this particular situation everyone, including the people, opposition and the authorities, are united and have one opinion: Georgia has been and should remain a unified state. I have told representatives of the Russian authorities several times that separatism is like a transmittable disease and everyone should remember this, including Russia. I highly respect Russian culture, science, its history and philosophy, but we should say the truth that this kind of rhetoric towards Georgia is unacceptable.”
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