Page 800 - Kosovo Metohija Heritage

Protopresbyter-stavrophor Savo B. jović
Safe return home: Kosovo Serbs after mass protest, 1986
“During demonstrations by albanian separatists in Pri- ština on October 31, 1989, a group of them passing next to the Orthodox church on Valjevska Street used rocks to beat on the iron gate of the church courtyard, threw rocks on the roof of the church and broke two windows on the new parish home.
The police was informed of this and two officials came and carried out an on the scene investigation.
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an act with the same content has been forwarded to the Commissions for Relations with Religious Communi- ties of the Province in Priština and of the Republic of Serbia in Belgrade.”
in this regard the Holy Synod of Bishops in a meeting made the following decision under No 3027/zap. 1407 from November 23, 1989:
“We have received this information and expect results of the intervention of His Grace Bishop Pavle of Raška and Prizren with the Commissions for Relations with Religious Communities of the executive Council of the assembly of SR Serbia and the executive Council of the assembly of SaP Kosovo and Metohija with respect to the most recent attacks on the Serbian Orthodox church in Priština.”132
The Year 1990
His Grace Bishop Pavle of Raška and Prizren in act No 323 from june 19, 1990 forwarded a report that the night of june 18 that year an unknown person broke into the church- yard of St. Nicholas Church in Novi Pazar and began to ring the church bells. When called by the priest, the police detained the unknown disturber of the peace.
Upon discussion the Holy Synod of Bishops decided the following:
132 AHSB, Syn No 3027/zap. 1407, Nov. 23, 1989. 798
“it is with regret that we have been informed by the re- port of His Grace Bishop Pavle of Raška and Prizren that on the night of june 18, 1990, an unknown person broke into the churchyard of St. Nicholas in Novi Pazar and disturbed the priests by a long ringing of the bells. The priests call the police, which detained the unknown perpetrator.”133
The Year 1991
after the election of Bishop Pavle of Raška and Prizren as Serbian Patriarch, Bishop artemije came to the Diocese and unfortunately encountered the same problems. Of course, they were not new to him because even before his election he had lived in Kosovo and Metohija and experi- enced for himself everything that was endured by other priests, monks, nuns and the faithful in the Province. Thus immediately upon his enthronement in act No 305 from October 23, 1991, he submitted a report from the adminis- tration of the parish of Priština, No 148/91, to the Holy Syn- od of Bishops regarding the break in into the church of St. Nicholas in Priština the night of October 13–14, 1991.
The Holy Synod of Bishops acknowledged the informa- tion “with regret.”134
The Year 1997
Bishop artemije then informed the Holy Synod of Bishops in act No 24 from March 7, 1997, regarding the unfortunate events that occurred in Prizren and Priština on March 5, 1997:
“after morning services in the church of St. George in Prizren, when the seminarians had just returned to the building of the Seminary at about 7:20 a.m. an explosive device (6 kg of the explosive Trotil) was found by chance which had been planted by an unknown criminal hand on the pedestal of the monument to emperor Dušan on the side toward the church altar, which is barely ten meters from the monument. On both sides of the street at inter- vals of about ten meters were numerous shops and bars owned by albanians. Wednesday was a market day in Priz- ren and there are always a lot of people near the fountain.
The explosive was discovered by a nine year-old little girl, ana, the daughter of sexton Dragomir Ostojić, who was going with her mother to the health center. The child noticed something wrapped on the monument so, think- ing that someone had forgotten a shoebox, she ran to get it. When she unwrapped the paper, she saw something like a calculator on top and some thin wires (red and blue). Want- ing to “take the calculator,” she pulled on the two thin wires, tearing them out of the explosive and thus, without any idea of what she was doing, practically dismantled the hell- ish device (and the even more hellish intent of whoever
133 AHSB, Zapisnik iz 1990. Syn No 1615/zap 1108/90. 134 AHSB, Syn No 2713/zap 1743, Oct. 29, 1991.