Page 739 - Kosovo Metohija Heritage

The Suffering and Persecution in Kosovo and Metohija from 1945 to 2005
Compiled by Fr Savo Jović
The drama and tragedy of Kosovo is not new. it has lasted for more than six centuries. The actors in this drama have been many and various.
The living and authentic testimonials of the Bishops of Raška-Prizren and Kosovo-Metohija, Vladimir, Pavle, and other witnesses, collected in this book demonstrate more clearly than the sun and reveal the true causes of all that has occurred and continues to occur in Kosovo and Meto- hija today. From these documents it is evident that today’s ethnic and every other imbalance on this fateful european territory is not the result of a natural process and healthy historical development but of permanent violence, expul- sion, grabbing and destruction of the Serbian people, its holy shrines and its property.
The basic rule of God’s justice and man’s says: There is no statute of limitations on crime. Viewed in the light of this historical truth and the tragic reality of the bombing of Serbia and her Kosovo and Metohija (1999), and certain aspirations and intentions already then present by global centers of power secretly or openly advocating giving Ko- sovo independent status are nothing but the legalization and extension of crime and violence. The only difference being that this time this is not being done in the name of jihad or fascism or Bolshevism but supposedly in the name of human rights and democracy!
The goal of the testimonials in this book is to serve as a wake up call to the violence eclipsed consciences of the powerful of this world, in the hope that they will finally judge and decide about Kosovo “according to neither fa- ther nor uncles but the True God’s justice” (epic poem). and that means: in accordance with God’s incorruptible justice and true humanity.
introduction
For the Serbs Kosovo and Metohija are far more than a mere geographical concept or a reminder of the medieval power of the Serbian state and the official seat of Serbian archbishops and patriarchs; they are a part of them, like their heart and soul, and that is what many people in the world today who are discussing the final status of this prov- ince cannot or will not understand and comprehend. For
the Serbs Kosovo and Metohija is a holy shrine where ev- eryone “who has ears...” can and should hear the voice of the Lord: “Put off your shoes from your feet, for the place on which you are standing is holy ground” (exd 3:5).
Unfortunately, some of today’s powerful world leaders do not want to hear these words; on the contrary, they sup- port who, not just in the past few years but for many de- cades, have been expelling the Serbs from their cradle and from their homes, destroying and desecrating their holy shrines.
The great and violent migrations in the 17th and 18th cen- turies are well known but these migrations and expulsions reached their culmination in the 20th and this 21st century. The effect of Serb expulsions during the period from 1945 to 2005 is greater in the total sum than all the aforemen- tioned great migrations.
On the pages that follow i have tried to demonstrate through the reports of the bishops of Kosovo and Meto- hija and other persons who visited or stayed in this prov- ince preserved in the archives of the Holy Synod of Bish- ops that the migration of the Serbs from Kosovo and Me- tohija was not a natural socio-economic process but al- ways the result of violence. This expulsion had the goal of grabbing and usurping others’ property, acquired through sacrifice and hard work.
Thus, the systematic violence of the albanians against the Serbs caused them to leave their homes almost every day in the period from 1945 to 2005. anyhow, until the 1980s this violence against the Serbs was tolerated and stoked by the Communist authorities headed by j. B. Tito, which it skillfully hid and kept secret before the world, at the same time sending into the world pictures with a glossy and em- bellished historical reality. Only after the vicious murder of Danilo Milinčić by albanians and the Holy Martyr Deacon avakum-like torture of Djordje Martinović did the regime break its silence but its speaking up did little good because it was already very late, almost too late, to change the pic- ture that had been framed for decades in the minds of the world’s powerful leaders.
Nevertheless, despite that picture i hope that all possi- bilities for initiating serious talks have not been exhausted, and that a consensual, just and reasonable solution will be
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