Page 865 - Kosovo Metohija Heritage

vo and Metohija. The negotiations are taking place in the castle of Rambouillet known for being the place where a certain French king, Charles X, signed his abdication.
The platform approach of the Serbian Orthodox Church delegation is outlined by the Statement issued at our bish- ops’ Conference on January 23/February 5, 19996 in the spir- it of panhuman love of justice and our Kosovo votiveness:
a) To support and wish success to every honest effort, both in our country and the international community for the earliest possible overcoming of ethnic conflicts in Kosovo and Metohija as an inalienable part of the Republic of Serbia and the Federal Republic of Yugoslavia, and to support the Rambouillet negotiations hoping that God’s and human justice will be administered there for all, with no difference
b) To ask for the same right for all to life, the sun, bread, property, language, faith, customs, universal and creative freedom and development, in Kosovo and Metohija, adher- ing to the principle of Christ “whatsoever you wouldn’t want that men do to you, do not do to them either” and expecting it to be respected by everyone.
c) To ask for the respect of not just present day but also the centuries-old rights of all those who live in Kosovo and Metohija, with the special emphasis on the fact that Koso- vo and Metohija is “the centuries old living center of the Serbian state and Church, the source of Serbian spirituali- ty, culture, state-building and ecclesiastical-national self- knowledge. What jerusalem is for the jewish people, Lon- don for the english, Notre Dame for the French, Moscow for the Russians, that is what Peć and Prizren represent for the Serbs...”
in the Church of the Holy apostles in the Patriarchate near Peć, in Pećko Ždrelo area, the patriarch of Serbia is solemnly enthroned even today on a humble stone throne, under the auspices of Christ the bless giver from the fresco known as “The ancient of Days” and the icon-painted equal-to-the-apostles St. Sava of Serbia, the first Serbian archbishop who is depicted standing with a big cross in his hand Likewise, the relics of the Serbian King Stefan De- čanski reign miraculously even today in the Monastery of Visoki Dečani
d) To emphasize the fact that it was in Kosovo that the entire Serbian nation came into being, was and remained what it is among the other honorable nations on earth and thatwithoutKosovoand“thelandofSerbianmetochions,” smaller “branch offices” and properties of that time our larger and more numerous monasteries called Metohija, the Serbian people are turning into a faceless biological mass with no past and real future That is why their justice and rights in Kosovo and Metohija are more complex and deep- er than the rights guaranteed by constitution in today’s time and space
6 The author uses the dates according to the Orthodox Church (julian) Calendar alongside the civil (Gregorian) calendar—transl note.
The Chronicles of the Renewed Crucifixion of Kosovo
To ask the world’s strongmen—what earthly power and force would give itself the right to take the memory, state, spiritual being away from the Serbian people and to endan- ger their destiny and the place under the sun? and to tell them that taking Kosovo and Metohija away from the Ser- bian people does not mean just depriving them of living space It also means removing them from the book of old earthly people in which they have been inscribed by their historical presence and God’s providence This would surely happen upon separation of Kosovo and Metohija from the Serbian state and if the Patriarchate of Peć, Gračanica and Visoki Dečani, the center of their Church, was handed to the au- thority and management of another nation
e) To remind everyone that it was under such injustice and oppression that the Serbian people and their Church lived during the Ottoman occupation for five hundred years (until 1912), which left deep wounds in their spiritual and biological organism, especially referring to their numerical presence in Kosovo and Metohija The Nazi-fascist occupa- tion of Kosovo and Metohija during World War II deepened these wounds During this occupation 200 000 Serbs were expelled from Kosovo The immigration of Albanians into the Serbian homes and the invasive violence disrupted the ethnic population The post-war communist government legalized this violence by forbidding the expelled Serbs to return to their homes... Having been fortified by occupa- tion, the Albanian separatism has continued its public and covert actions throughout the post-war times to the present Thus, during this period of time, the new tens of thousands of Serbs were squeezed out of Kosovo and Metohija It is a public secret but also an astonishing fact that it was only during the past twenty years that more than 800 settlements have been ethnically “cleansed” without a single Serbian fam- ily left in them
f ) To tell that while the hierarchs of the Serbian Church
welcome everything that is good and well-intentioned re- garding the London Contact Group conclusions, they at the same time feel it is their moral duty to express deepest wor- ry about the fact that the Contact Group conclusions, for their main part, represent an ultimatum to Serbia and Yu- goslavia, almost identical with the ultimatum of the Axis Powers from 1914 Among the sacrosanct principles of the January 29, 1999 conclusions on which the discussion in Ram- bouillet should be taking place, there are some that funda- mentally separate Kosovo from Serbia, depriving her of her centuries-old heart and brain These principles, in which Serbia is practically not mentioned, inevitably lead to the conclusion that it is not about a truly democratic, just and humane proposal for the solution of the Kosovo problem, but rather the partisan dictates of the powerful countries of the world... Such principles, if finally accepted, would on the international level automatically lead to a predominance of a superpower in the world and its military executor
Kosovo is not just the soul and destiny of the Serbian people, but it is also the name for the most important con-
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