[ALBSA-Info] {QIKSH «ALBEUROPA»} NEWS: Press release on new ICG report "Religion in Kosovo" (31 January 2001)

[Wolfgang Plarre]

Betreff:  [balkanhr] Press release on new ICG report "Religion in
Kosovo"
Datum: Thu, 01 Feb 2001 21:57:48 +0200
Von: "Sascha Pichler" <office at greekhelsinki.gr> (by way of Greek
Helsinki Monitor <office at greekhelsinki.gr>)
Rückantwort: balkanhr-owner at yahoogroups.com

press release 

RELIGION IN KOSOVO: BRIDGING THE DIVIDE 

Brussels, 31 January 2001: In the sharply divided communities of Kosovo,
dialogue between religious leaders offers a way to reconciliation, but
it needs the support and funding of the international community. 
    Religion in Kosovo, a new report by the International Crisis Group,
finds that contrary to common belief, religion has not been a direct
cause of conflict in Kosovo. Islam played little part in the eight-year
campaign of non-violent resistance to Serb rule by the ethnic Albanian
community, and the Serb Orthodox Church, while supporting President
Slobodan Milosevics nationalism at first, soon became critical of his
violent tactics. While the report acknowledges the bitter social and
political divisions in Kosovo, it says dialogue between some of Kosovos
religious leaders has continued, and may provide limited possibilities
for bridging that divide. ICG calls on the United Nations Mission in
Kosovo (UNMIK) to establish and fund a permanent Kosovo Interfaith
Council. 
    Of course the ruins of mosques, churches and monasteries still stand
as reminders of the violence that erupted in Kosovo in the late 1990s.
UNMIK should adequately fund the protection and reconstruction of
religious monuments of all faiths on an equal basis. 
    UNMIK is also urged to ensure public schooling in Kosovo remains
secular. A handbook for children on comparative religion in both
Albanian and Serbian would help foster greater understanding and
tolerance between the ethnic communities. 
    Religion in Kosovo is part of ICGs continuing analysis of Balkans
issues, and is based on in-depth field research in Kosovo. It was
prepared by analysts in Pristina and Brussels. 

For information:
Katy Cronin at ICG Brussels, tel +32 2 502 90 38. kcronin at crisisweb.org 

The report is available on ICGs internet website www.crisisweb.org
size=3> 
_ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _
http://www.crisisweb.org/projects/showreport.cfm?reportid=226

Religion in Kosovo

Download the report as a PDF file in A4 format
http://www.crisisweb.org/projects/balkans/kosovo/reports/A400226_31012001.pdf

EXECUTIVE SUMMARY 

This report seeks to describe the current position of the three major
religious communities in Kosovo. In part, it aims to clarify
misconceptions about the involvement of religion in the Kosovo conflict.
It also proposes some areas where religion might serve as a means to
encourage reconciliation among the peoples of Kosovo. 
    Three religions - Islam, Orthodoxy, and Catholicism, have long
coexisted in Kosovo. A large majority of Kosovo Albanians consider
themselves, at least nominally, to be Muslim. A minority, about 60,000,
are Catholic. Most Kosovo Serbs, even those who are not active religious
believers, consider Orthodoxy to be an important component of their
national identity. Nevertheless, despite this essential division of
religious activities along ethnic lines, it cannot be said that religion
per se was an important contributing factor in the conflict between
Serbs and Albanians. 
    Kosovo Albanians do not define their national identity through
religion, but through language and have a relatively relaxed approach
towards the observance of the forms of the Islamic religion. Neither
Islamic leaders nor Islamic theology played a significant role in either
the eight-year campaign of non-violent resistance to the Serb occupation
regime or the armed resistance of 1998-99. Islamic political and social
fundamentalism, as that term is understood with respect to the Middle
East, has very little resonance in Kosovo. 
    The image of Kosovo Serbs and their monasteries, usually portrayed
as suffering harassment and persecution by the Albanian majority
population, formed a part of the nationalist propaganda that Milosevic
and his supporters used to manipulate popular emotions. The Serbian
Orthodox Church, however, was always divided over Milosevic. It
initially supported him in large part to end what it saw as the
victimisation of the Serb nation under Communism and to reverse the
decline of the Serb presence in Kosovo. But Milosevic's Communist career
made the Church uneasy, as did his use of violence. By the early 1990s,
Patriarch Pavle was publicly criticising Milosevic although some other
members of the Orthodox hierarchy continued to support him. After the
1999 war, Bishop Artemije, the head of the Orthodox Church in Kosovo,
assumed the leadership of those Serbs willing to work with the
International community there. 
    During the war, Serb forces destroyed numerous Islamic facilities,
including virtually all Islamic libraries and archives. After the war,
Albanians replied by destroying scores of Orthodox churches. These acts
of reciprocal vandalism seemed motivated on both sides more by the
desire to eradicate the evidence of the other's presence in Kosovo than
by religious fanaticism. 
    The Serbian and Albanian religious communities have been more
willing to talk to each other than other sectors of Kosovo society. As
early as March 1999, before the NATO-led intervention, representatives
appointed by the leaders of the three main religious communities in
Kosovo (Islamic, Orthodox and Roman Catholic) held a joint meeting in
Pristina that was convened by the World Conference on Religion and Peace
(WCRP) to facilitate dialogue. The representatives expressed opposition
to the misuse of religion for political reasons on all sides and called
on all parties not to use religious symbols to promote violence or
intolerance. They also expressed their determination to maintain direct
contacts between the religious communities and to build channels of
communication. An informal level of dialogue has continued on a regular
basis between some members of the three main religious communities.
These interfaith meetings still contain some risks for the participants,
but they can be useful for facilitating a better climate of tolerance
and understanding between the ethnic communities and might appropriately
be the focus of greater international community support. 

RECOMMENDATIONS 

    1. UNMIK should immediately put a Kosovo Interfaith Council on a
permanent footing. 
    2. The UNMIK Department for Culture should establish a program for
protection, reconstruction and rehabilitation of all Kosovo religious
monuments, of all faiths, on an equal basis, and with adequate funding. 
    3. UNMIK should immediately issue a regulation facilitating
registration of religious communities as legal entities in order to
resolve the communities' problems in recovering and maintaining
property, financing reconstruction, and conducting relief efforts. 
    4. UNMIK should prepare a comparative handbook on religions for
children's use, in Albanian and Serbian. 
    5. Public schooling for all communities in Kosovo should remain
completely secular. 

Pristina/Brussels, 31 January 2001 

Download the report as a PDF file in A4 format
http://www.crisisweb.org/projects/balkans/kosovo/reports/A400226_31012001.pdf


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