[ALBSA-Info] Artemije in US

[Agron Alibali]

                        Pittsburgh Post-Gazette


February 23, 2000, Wednesday
WORLD, Pg. A-4



SERBIAN BISHOP CONDEMNS NATO TROOPS IN KOSOVO

ANN RODGERS-MELNICK, POST-GAZETTE STAFF WRITER

 The Serbian Orthodox bishop of Kosovo told the
Orthodox faithful in Aliquippa
last night that the NATO peace-keeping mission has
been a disaster for Kosovo's 
Serbian minority, as NATO troops turn a blind eye to
violence against Serbs.

   "There is no doubt that  Albanian  terrorists used
the coming of NATO forces 
as a unique point in history to come in and cleanse
Kosovo of the Serbians who
live there," Bishop Artemije of Raska and Prizren told
hundreds of people in the
hall of St. Elijah Serbian Orthodox Church.

   "These people who were able to withstand 500 years
of Turkish occupation have
not been able to withstand five months of peaceful
NATO occupation."

   Artemije's words carry enormous weight because of
his track record of
defending the rights of Kosovo's ethnic  Albanian 
Muslims against Serbian
nationalist aggression. Since 800,000 ethnic 
Albanians  returned from exile, he
said, 250,000 Serbs have been forced from their homes
along with 50,000 Gypsies,
Croats, Turks and Slavic Muslims. More than 500 Serbs
have been killed and at
least that many are missing.

   At the same time, he said,  Albanians  have burned
and destroyed 90 Serbian
Orthodox churches and monasteries. He showed a
videotape of the monasteries,
many of which date from the Middle Ages and could
rival any of Europe's great
cathedrals for their beauty.

   Artemije is on a monthlong tour of the United
States to protest what he calls
onesided enforcement of the peace accords. But he is
also highly critical of the
Serbian regime of President Slobodan Milosevic.

   "It is absolutely necessary that the Serbian people
go down the road of
democracy, spiritual renewal and repentance," he said.

   Artemije, 65, is one of the few heroes to emerge
from the savage ethnic
warfare in Kosovo.

   An advocate of democratic reform, he has long
castigated the Serbian
government of Milosevic for nationalist aggression.
Before and during the
conflict of 1999, he denounced atrocities against
ethnic  Albanians.  At the
same time, he warned President Clinton that bombing
Yugoslavia would only harm
more innocent civilians. At the height of the ethnic
violence by Serbs against
 Albanians,  his monks entered burning towns to rescue
Muslims and take them to 
Serbian monasteries for protection.

   When Secretary of State Madeleine Albright visited
Kosovo last summer, NATO
troops were barely able to restrain a mob of Serbian
nationalists from beating
Artemije and sacking the monastery where he lives.

   Since the peace accords were signed in June,
Artemije has decried the violent
vengeance that  Albanians  took against Serbs. The
violence is not the work of
ordinary  Albanians,  he maintains, but of extremists
from the Kosovo Liberation
Army as well as  Albanian  mobsters, many of whom were
not originally from
Kosovo but slipped in with the returning refugees. The
criminals on both sides, 
he maintains, are neither Christian nor Muslim, but
the atheist orphans of
Marxism who sometimes use religion to achieve
political ends.

   Artemije was originally part of the transitional
government in Kosovo, but he
resigned to protest the failure of both the government
and NATO troops to
intervene when  Albanians  attacked Serbs and other
minorities.

   Though world events have thrown him into politics,
Artemije is a monk by
training, temperament and profession. A disciple of a
famous holy man during
Yugoslavia's communist era, he was ordained in 1964
and did post-graduate
studies in Greece. In 1978, he received permission to
revive a deserted
monastery.

   He was elected bishop of Raska and Prizren - which
includes Kosovo - in 1991,
as communism was giving way to nationalism. He led a
monastic revival that
drew hundreds of new, young monks to Kosovo's
long-neglected medieval
monasteries. In 1992, some of his monks baptized 2,000
converts on a single day.

   Last night, many people in the church hall wept as
he showed videos of
burning towns and churches lying in rubble.

   The Serbs who have not fled are confined to their
homes for fear of their
lives, Artemije said. Most humanitarian organizations
in Kosovo work only with
the  Albanians,  he said. A collection was taken up
for relief work among
Kosovar Serbs.
 
Artemije called for the Serbian people to repent sins
committed under communism 
and to admit that all of the misery in their land was
caused by Milosevic's
regime.

   For more information on Bishop Artemije, the
Diocese of Raska and Prizren and
its monasteries, see http://www.decani.yunet.com
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