Page 774 - Kosovo Metohija Heritage

Protopresbyter-stavrophor Savo B. jović
a complaint about this was sent to the prosecutor’s of- fice and the police station in Bujanovac and nothing was done about it except that the police visited to determine who had done all this. However, because they could not establish who had driven the church to such a state, noth- ing more has been done since june 26, 1968.
That is why we are addressing you personally, Mr. Ger- man, so that something can be done about this matter be- cause the goal is not to build new mosques and maintain them while destroying churches that were built in 1936– 1937.
if you do not believe us, through your appointees you can verify everything written here or send someone who will verify it, or we can also send you photographs of ev- erything if necessary.”
The Holy Synod of Bishops decided that a transcript of this report be provided to the Federal and Republic Com- missions for Religious affairs in Belgrade.”79
However, we have information that Serbs who visited Kosovo and Metohija also attacked Serbs as witnessed by the report of Protopresbyter Gvozden Milošević, the elder of the church of St. Sava in Belgrade, who, through His Holiness Serbian Patriarch Pavle (aeM No 1059 from De- cember 8, 1969), the local bishop, provided the Holy Synod of Bishops [with information] about unpleasantries which the members of the Religious Philanthropic Trusteeship of the archbishopric of Belgrade-Karlovac experienced from the albanians in Peć during a pilgrimage to Serbian mon- asteries.
after discussing this report, the Holy Synod of Bishops on December 12, 1969, adopted the recommendation of His Holiness Patriarch German, and submitted a transcript of the relevant report to the Federal Commission for Reli- gious affairs, as well as to the Commission for Religious af- fairsoftheSocialistRepublicofSerbiaforitsinformation.”80
His Grace Bishop Pavle of Raška and Prizren (act No 603 from September 8, 1969) forwarded the Holy Synod of Bish- ops a copy of a petition sent to the Commission for Religious affairs of the Socialist autonomous Province of Kosovo.
The petition says the following:
We have received a report with the following content from the administration of Gorioč Monastery:
“at the beginning of 1969 the forest administration of istok municipality approved the sale of half of the monas- tery forest by the administration of the Serbian Orthodox Monastery of Gorioč under the condition that the terrain be reforested. There is a written agreement on this be- tween the aforementioned institution and our monastery. However, reforestation and rearing of young forest growth is impossible due to the fact that the residents of Donji is- tok, Graba and the entire vicinity of the monastery are ev- ery day systematically grazing their cattle and other live-
79 AHSB, Syn No 5212/zap. 866, Dec. 12, 1968.
80 AHSB, Syn No 5212/zap. 866/69.
stock (sheep, goats, etc.) on the aforementioned monastery land. all appeals and reprimands to date have not helped at all. On the contrary, the individuals whose livestock has been repeatedly caught there are threatening the sisters of Gorioč with physical violence. For example, on august 1, 1969, the livestock of Mujo Vujupaj from Donji istok was caught; instead of apologizing to the elder of the monas- tery and asking to compensate the damage that was done, he shouted and threatened, saying that his livestock would always graze on monastery land in the future and that he, Mujo Vujupaj, forbids the sisters from the monastery from chasing the livestock out ever again. Otherwise, he physi- cally threatened those of us in the monastery. in addition to all this, the spiritual father of Gorioč Monastery, who visits the surrounding villages in his capacity as parish priest, is experiencing unpleasantries, coarse language, insults and even physical attacks (with rocks) by the youth and older children of albanian nationality.
Because of this constant violence, constant personal and property insecurity and danger, we ask Your Grace as our arch pastor and father to forward our appeal to the Holy Synod of Bishops of the Serbian Orthodox Church in Belgrade, the Provincial state authorities in Priština, and that you personally do whatever you are able to ensure our freedom to live and the safety of our property, which are basic civil and Constitutional rights of the Serbian citizen in a country that claims to have law and order.
We submit the above report and once again ask for a halt to the violence that individuals are carrying out un- sanctioned against the property of this monastery as well as against the monastery staff which is trying unsuccessfully to protect the monastery property and their own lives.”
in this regard the Holy Synod of Bishops wrote to the Federal Commission for Religious affairs, as well as the Commission of the Socialist Republic of Serbia, and asked for intervention to protect the interests of Gorioč Monas- tery.81
The Year 1970
The response of the Commission of the Republic execu- tive Council of the Socialist Republic of Serbia from april 8, 1970, says the following:
“in regard to the petition of the Holy Synod of Bishops (No 253/zap. 45 from February 6, 1970) requesting our in- tervention in order to protect the property of Gorioč Mon- astery, we received a report from the Commission for Re- ligious affairs of the Socialist autonomous Province of Ko- sovo that representatives of that Commission held a meet- ing with the highest officials of istok municipality. it was agreed at the meeting to undertake necessary measures so that the events described in the petition are not repeated in the future. it was also agreed that appropriate sanctions
81 AHSB, Syn No 253/zap. 45, Feb. 6, 1970.
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