[ALBSA-Info] Albanian Kosovars and Serbian Monasteries

[Iris Pilika]

From:  Wolfgang Plarre <wplarre at b...>
Date:  Thu Feb 22, 2001 2:31pm
Subject:  NEWS: Zociste monastery story



subject: Zociste monastery story
date:    Wed, 21 Feb 2001 19:30:11 -0500 (EST)
from:    Andras Riedlmayer <riedlmay at f...>

The Belgrade daily Politika is not usually a good source for news about
Kosovo, but this Wednesday's issue contains encouraging news from the
village of Zociste/Zoqishte, in the Dukagjin Plain of western Kosovo,
where the local Albanian community has reportedly set up a committee to
rebuild the Serbian Orthodox monastery of St. Cosmas and Damian, which
was destroyed in an Albanian revenge attack in the days following the
end of the war in June 1999.
    As the article points out, before the war the monastery at Zociste,
a mixed village (80 percent Albanian, 20 percent Serb) near the town of
Orahovac/Rahovec, had been traditionally protected by the local Albanian
community and had been used as a place for prayer and healing by local
people, both Christian Serbs and Muslim Albanians.
    The mosque in Zociste, place of worship for the Albanian majority
population of the village, had been burned down on July 17, 1998 by
Serbian policemen and by a group of local Serbs led by Andjelko
Kolasinac, the chairman of the municipal assembly of the nearby town of
Orahovac.
    On July 21, 1998, the ancient monastery was occupied by KLA
guerrillas, who held Zociste for the following month without harming the
historic buildings.  An An AFP reporter visited the monastery at the
beginning of August 1998 to see how it had fared at the hands of the
Albanian rebels.

         Serbs in the region claimed the rebels' red and white flag
     was flying from the belltower. But this was not the case.
     On the contrary, the walls, the floors, monks' cells, the
     tiny chapel, everything was exactly as the monks left it.
     Apart of course from the occupants.
         "The orders from our superiors are strict," the local KLA chief
     confirmed.  "We guard the monastery so that no one can get in.
     A soldier is stationed at both the front and back doors, and
     we make daily checks to ensure that nothing has gone missing.
     Judge for yourself."
         Inside the shadowy courtyard, the washing still hung in the
     breeze. In the dormitory, the beds were made and the clothes
     stored neatly away on the shelves. The VW Beetle hadn't moved.
     Only the sound of bees on the hunt for nectar near their beehive
     broke the silence.
         Inside the church, there was no trace of disruption, let alone
     the war.  The many icons, candles, offerings, crosses and the
     altar had not been touched.
     [...]
         "We want our holy places respected, so we respect those
     belonging to the Serbs," declared the KLA guerrilla, whose
     cutlass and handlebar moustache enhanced his martial air.
     "But go and see the mosques. They're being systematically
     destroyed."
         His officer cut him short. "The Serb vanguard is only 600
metres
     away,  the attack could come at any moment, and we might have to
     retreat. If they shell us, everything will be destroyed."
         "We hope that they will return to live among us," he said "but
     that just isn't possible at the moment."

(for the full AFP report, see:
http://listserv.acsu.buffalo.edu/cgi-bin/wa?A2=ind9808&L=justwatch-l&P=R28584&D=\
1&H=0&O=D&T=1

On August 20, 1998, the KLA withdrew from the village and Serbian police
forces reentered Zociste; a message from Fr. Sava confirmed that "There
is no damage in the monastery and the church was not desecrated, thank
God." However a number of local Serbs from the Orahovac area had been
abducted by the KLA.  While some were released by the KLA to the Red
Cross, others were never accounted for.
    On March 11, 1999, KLA forces reportedly fired a mortar and a
machinegun  at the village.  An OSCE observer team visited Zociste on
March 13-14 and found that both the KLA forces in the area and Serb
forces operating from the village had committed violations of the
cease-fire agreement.
    During the March 24-June 9, 1999 air war, a major checkpoint used
by Serbian troops and paramilitaries was located just outside Zociste;
a local unit of Arkan's Tigers militia, led by Zoran Stanisic, was
based in the area.  All of the local Albanian population was expelled,
their houses burned, and there were reports of mass killings and other
atrocities committed against them by Serbian forces.
    After the end of the war, as Serbian forces withdrew and KFOR
peacekeeping troops moved into the area, a mass grave/exposed bodies
site containing 117 bodies was reported for Zociste. On June 17 and 21,
1999, a mass grave site was identified by KFOR forces consisting of 55
bodies, 30 meters behind a rubbbish dump in Zociste.
    During the same week in June, 55 houses owned by Serbs in Zociste
were burned down and the monastery buildings of St. Cosmas and Damjan
were  destroyed by Albanians returning from exile.  Some 200 Serb
residents of the village had fled to the Serb enclave in nearby
Orahovac/Rahovec immediately after the armistice (Natasa Kandic,
"Post-War Orahovac", Humanitarian Law Center special report #14, August
10, 1999).
    Eighteen months have passed since the end of the war.  While some of
the wartime damage to homes and businesses has been repaired, there has
been little encouraging news about progress in repairing Kosovo's
shattered intercommunal relations.  If the report in Politika turns out
to be true, it would be a significant positive development.

The original article, "Albanci obnavljaju manastir Svetih vraca" is at
http://www.politika.co.yu/2001/0221/indexdan.htm
Below is an English translation, posted on the Decani newsgroup.

Andras Riedlmayer
Harvard University

====================================================================
Politika (Belgrade)
February 21, 2001

EXTRAORDINARY DEVELOPMENT IN ZOCISTE IN ORAHOVAC
Albanians to restore the monastery of Zociste

   Four Albanian young men who participated in the destruction
   of the ancient church became psychologically ill, one of them
   died seven months later

Kosovska Mitrovica, February 20

    The Albanian population of Zociste in Orahovac municipality, reports
Archpriest Milenko Dragicevic from the neighboring village of Velika
Hoca, has founded an committee for the restoration of the monastery of
Zociste in their village. This monastery, whose Church of the Holy
Healers Cosmas and Damian is mentioned as a Christian holy site dating
back to the 8th century, was first burnt down and then blown up by the
Albanians of Zociste on June 17, 1999.
    In the fall of 1999, four Albanian young men who participated in the
destruction of this holy site became psychologically ill. One of them
died seven months later and the number of Albanian destroyers from
Zociste and neighboring Opterusa who became ill increased to 12, the
Albanians in the committee to restore the monastery recently told Father
Milenko. The locals are convinced that the Albanian people have fallen
under a curse.
    Historians claim that the Church of the Holy Healers Cosmas and
Damian was built at the beginning of the 8th century and restored
several times. The most recent renovation with a semi-round vault and a
wide narthex was built on the foundations of the old church. The donors
(13th century) were senior church officials as this monastery was the
seat of the diocese at that time.
     During the past ten centuries, this monastery has been the
sanctuary of the ill who came worship before the holy relics. After the
arrival of the Turks in the Balkans and the Islamization of the
Albanians, the locals of Zociste and all of Metohija honored the
tradition of protecting this monastery. The monastery brotherhood, in
accordance with the wishes of the Muslim faithful, permitted Albanians
who were ailing to sleep on the lounge before the chest containing the
holy relics and prayed for their recovery.
    The last time reporters of Politika visited the monastery in
September 1998 they were witness to an Albanian pilgrimage to the Church
of the Holy Healers when the prior at that time, Jovan, prayed for the
recovery of an Albanian woman.
     However, then days later, Albanian terrorists kidnapped Prior Jovan
and seven monks. They were released four days later by the kidnappers
following the intervention of OSCE and the International Red Cross. At
that time the monastery was not physically damaged; however, the church
was desecrated and all valuables were looted from the residence hall and
the church treasury.
    After release from a private jail for Serbs which the terrorists had
set up in Malisevo, the brotherhood spent the night in Gracanica and,
without a moment's hesitation, again returned to Zociste. Prior Jovan
was soon appointed as head of the monastery of Celije while Father
Romilo was appointed to the position of prior.
    After the burning down and destruction of the monastery of Zociste,
the monks were temporarily sent to Crna Reka where they and other
monasteries of the Diocese of Raska and Prizren heard word of the intent
to restore the church which made them happy and filled them with hope of
returning to the holy site which was spiritually active for 14
centuries.

M. Laketic
__________
Translated by S. Lazovic (Feb. 21, 2001)




_________________________________________________________________
Get your FREE download of MSN Explorer at http://explorer.msn.com