5 years - Pogrom 2004

DESTRUCTION OF THE SERBIAN ORTHODOX CHURCHES
AND MONASTERIES IN KOSOVO AND METOHIJA

5 Years ago in the night from March 17./18. extremists of albanian ethnicity set christian churches and monasteries in the Kosovo region on fire.
All these barbarous acts have occured in the presence of UN and the International Peace Forces (KFOR), not in the time of war but of peace.

What a sign do we set, if we consider it OK to burn down the symbols of Christianity? If we award this shameless behavior by recognizing an illegally proclaimed state?

Now Kosovo declared his independence a little more than one year ago. A lot of Western Countries recognized its independence setting wrong sings.
Not one problem is solved, and for the Serbs (and non-Albanian population) the situation is unsatisfactory.
Here a few pictures I got from my friends who went to church a few weeks ago at the Sveti Sava church in Mitrovica (the side of town with Albanian ethnic majority). Does it looks like something normal and decent to you?


From Northern Mitrovica (Side of the town with Serb majority) one bus was organized to go down to the Albanian part where the Church of Sveti Sava is located. it's not save for Serbs to go without shielded transportation.
The Church is destroyed and burned.

My friend who was there on January 27, 2009 writes:
"It was a nice but sad experience for me, it's the first time I go to church in such a condition and surrounded by military...I hope next year Serbians don't need special authorization or vigilance to go to pray in their churches.
Albanians who saw our bus were starring at us with attitude of the winners and kind of laughing at the situation...really sad!"





Here an extract from Peacereporter 8.3.2007 (in an Interview with Babsi Jones made a little before Kosovo's unilateral independence declaration) The original is in italian, I tried to translate it:

What in the end is your opinion about that area of Europe? Healed wounds or are the wounds still open? Is there still a risk for new riots?

Babsi Jones: Badly sealed wounds, and a lot of wounds are still open. Also a high risk of new riots. An analysis would take pages and pages. Peace in the ex-ju republics can only be a reality by solving the Kosovo question:at the moment it's a little narco-state that pretends indipendency, and it pretends it in a brutal way: just think about the pogrom of 2004. Totally ignored by Western mass media, it has legitimated ethnic cleansing of everything non-albanian. If the institutions in charge to solve the Kosovo question go on ignoring Belgrade's pleas and constructive requests and go on to consider Serbs "unreliable interlocutors" (what is done already for a long time for propaganda purpose or for convenience) the balkanic area will be once again destabilized. Maybe it's what the powerful forces wants. Nevertheless, the biggest American military base since Vietnam is located in Kosovo. A tax free zone, a dark spot that hosts traffic of weapons, drugs and humans is a good deal for everyone....except for thousands of fugitives and "desaprecidos of non conform ethnicity..of course!

(here the original in italian)
Qual è infine, la tua opinione sulla situazione attuale di quell'area d'Europa? Ferite cicatrizzate, ferite ancora aperte? Rischio di nuovi scontri?

Babsi Jones: Ferite cicatrizzate male, e parecchie ferite ancora aperte, certamente. Rischio di nuovi scontri, anche. L'analisi richiederebbe pagine e pagine; se debbo darti una risposta succinta e diretta, forse scomoda, la pace nelle nuove Repubbliche ex-jugoslave passa per la questione del Kosovo: allo stato attuale è un piccolo narcostato che pretende la secessione e la pretende in modo brutale – basti pensare al pogrom del 2004, totalmente ignorato dai mass media occidentali, che ha di fatto legittimato la pulizia etnica di tutto quello che non è albanese. Se le istituzioni incaricate di gestire il problema-Kosovo continueranno a restar sorde agli appelli di Belgrado, alle proposte costruttive di Belgrado, se continueranno a considerare i serbi "interlocutori non credibili", come da sempre fanno per propaganda e per convenienza, l'area balcanica si troverà nuovamente destabilizzata. Forse è quello che i poteri forti desiderano. In Kosovo, dopotutto, è stata innalzata la più grande base militare americana dai tempi del Vietnam… Un porto franco, una zona scura che ospiti traffico d'armi, di droga e di uomini fa comodo a tutti, tranne alle migliaia di profughi e di desaparecidos di etnia "non conforme", naturalmente…