Page 782 - Kosovo Metohija Heritage

Protopresbyter-stavrophor Savo B. jović
The Holy Synod of Bishops forwarded this to the com- missions for relations with religious communities of the Federal executive Council and the executive Councils of the assembly of SR Serbia and of the SaP Kosovo and Me- tohija.94
all three commissions were requested to intervene to find the perpetrators and apply appropriate legal measures against them, and put a halt to this destruction with the note that an investigation of the same crime committed in the same holy shrine in 1973 had not been resolved to to- day (October 31, 1978).
To this the Holy Synod of Bishops received only one reply, for the first time from the Commission for Relations with Religious Communities of the executive Council of the Assembly of SAP Kosovo and Metohija (08 No 08–35/78) as follows:
“in connection with your act No 2185 zap. 635 from Oc- tober 31, 1978, regarding the petition of His Grace Bishop Pavle of Raška and Prizren No 699 from October 18, 1978, which this Commission has also received, we wish to in- form you that by our act 08 No 08–31/78 from November 1, 1978, we have intervened with both the provincial and the Municipal Secretariat for internal affairs Prizren with the request that appropriate measures be undertaken in order to find the perpetrator of the forcible entry into the church of the monastery of St. Mark in the village of Kabaša near Prizren, as well as that legal measures be undertaken against same.”
His Grace Bishop Pavle by act 772 from December 17, 1978, sent the Holy Synod of Bishops a copy of a petition sent to the Commission for Relations with Religious Com- munities of the executive Council of the assembly of SaP Kosovo and Metohija, as follows:
“at the beginning of the month of September of this year (1978) unknown persons came with a tractor and wag- on to the water mill of Devič Monastery, began to stones from the walls and load them into the wagon. it was about 7:00 p.m. abbess Paraskeva from the monastery immedi- ately informed the Police station in Srbica and two police- men came to the scene but the thieves had already run away.
in Donji Drenovac near Gnjilane, on October 30, 1978, the church was forcibly entered and 300.00 dinars and some non-monetary donations taken from it. The same thing happened in the village of Straža on December 8, 1978, which was also robbed on the money they found and [non-mon- etary] donations. Both robberies were reported to the Sec- retariat for internal affairs in Gnjilane. To this day the per- petrators have not been found. The church in the village of Dobrotin near Lipljan was also forcibly entered in Septem- ber 1978. The perpetrator broke the iron bars on the church window and thus entered inside. He took the money he found there and donations and left the same way. The com- petent priest immediately reported the break in to the po-
94 AHSB, Syn No 2185/zap. 635, Oct. 31, 1978. 780
lice Station in Lipljan. However, from there they sent him to janjevo because the village of Dobrotin belongs to that region. The policeman on duty in janjevo said that he had no one to send and told the priest the police from Lipljan should do it. in Lipljan they repeated the same thing; it was not in their region.
We appeal to the Commission for Relations with Reli- gious Communities of SaP Kosovo to take action through competent officials so that peace and security is also en- sured for us, the Orthodox. We note that the Commission has been notified numerous times regarding the damage constantly being done to the property of the monastery of Devič, and the attacks on the sisters and visitors. i have forwarded the first paragraph which talks about Devič Mon- asterytotheSOSrbica.”
For your information, the Commission for Relations with Religious Communities of the executive Council of the assembly of SR Serbia has been advised of this mat- ter.95
Bishop Pavle also informed the Holy Synod of Bishops about albanian attacks during the period from april 1977 to april 1978.
“in Vučitrn the albanian neighbors, among them some teachers, occupied the part of the church meadow nearest to their respective houses, put up fences, planted fruit trees without any of them paying a single dinar. We tried to come to a peaceful agreement with them: they agreed to pay but postpone from year to year. We addressed the president of the Municipal assembly. if that does not help, we will ad- dress the court.
in Binča Monastery, after the last war, in order to pull beams from the mountains for state buildings, a road was cut 2 meters distance from a medieval church with over 20 square meters of old frescos. Last year the village decided to solicit contributions to expand and repair the road. The monastery contributed 5,000 dinars in contributions. i al- so asked the institute for the Protection of Cultural Monu- ments and the religious commission to move the road fur- ther from the old church, which has cracked, and the north wall has had to be propped up with a support. Since the old road has been occupied by an albanian neighbor, the mon- astery offered him its land in compensation so that the road could pass along the old route somewhat further from the worn church. all in vain, the road stayed 2 meters distance from the church. i asked that the fountain, built after World War i to replace an older one, remain on the same side of the road. They used a bulldozer to push it to the opposite side. The damage done to the church by the movement of bulldozers on the road next to it and the passing of heavy trucks, because there are plans to open a quartz mine near- by to meet the needs of a glass factory, can easily be dis- cerned even by a non-expert (...).
95 AHSB, Syn No 2643/78-zap 23, Feb. 2, 1979.