Church: EU has alternative, Serbs Should Persevere

B92
2/12/2011

BELGRADE — The Serbian Orthodox Church (SPC) has issued a statement sending a message to both the Serbian authorities in Belgrade, and the Serbs in Kosovo.

The SPC statement on Friday advised the authorities that Serbia’s membership in the EU “does have alternative”, and called on Serbs manning the barricades in northern Kosovo to persevere.

They were also urged “not to make decisions without taking into account the legal and democratically elected central government in Belgrade”.

The Church is demanding from the president and the government “not to abandon the people of Old Serbia for the sake of a chimera called the country’s status of candidate for EU membership”:

“For a responsible political authority and political elite of Serbia, Serbia and the Serb people as a whole have no alternative. Everything else, including the idealized and mythologized European Union, does.”

“The government should not be making decisions or changing its political tactics ‘on the fly’ without taking into account the vital needs and the positionheld by the Serbs in northern Kosovo, for whom this issue is not one of partisan and political calculations, but literally, an issue of ‘to be or not to be’,” the Holy Synod of the SPC said in its statement.

Addressing the EU membership bid as “a good desire and idea, justified by geopolitical, economic and civilizational reasons”, the statement adds that if giving up Kosovo and Metohija – either directly or in a “creeping” manner – represents the price-tag for that membership – “then the bid needs to be abandoned openly and honorably, and other options explored for a future in a multipolar world, that is already the reality”.

“Whether such perspective (of abandoning the EU bid) would deal more or less damage to the ruling coalition or the opposition in the forthcoming election is absolutely unimportant and pointless, when taking into account the self-knowledge and dignity of our entire nation.”

It is important, the statement continued, but not enough for state officials to repeat that they would never recognize Kosovo as independent, and added that Serbia needs to be actively present in Kosovo and Metohija wherever possible and as much as possible.

“To the Serbs in northern Kosovo, our message is: persevere as you have done before – they know best how they feel, not only spending these cold winter days and nights at the barricades, but also in their homes and elsewhere – but we also tell them to be wise, inspired by Christianity and the legacy of our honorable ancestors. They must not allow anyone to provoke them, they must not accept violence as a method of action. Their protests are not a display of defiance, arrogance or a fad, but a display of precisely their determination not to accept the diktat of force and a violent imposition of the status,” said the statement.

The Church further noted that the protests must not turn into a rejection of negotiations, dialogue and efforts to reestablish the previous condition using peaceful means, adding that the deterioration came due to unilateral actions undertaken by ethnic Albanians, and those of KFOR, which was not in line with the mandate the forces received from the United Nations.

The Holy Synod also addressed KFOR soldiers, urging them to act in the spirit of status-neutrality, “and exclusively in the service of preserving peace, instead of being NATO’s striking fist, or that of powerful western states that had recognized the phantom state of Kosovo”.

“We are appealing on KFOR to desist from violently removing the barricades in the area of administrative line crossings, and especially from use of force against the Serb civilians,” the statement said, also providing a list of all Serbs injured at the barricades during KFOR interventions.

Such behavior on the part of international forces “only feeds the maximalism and insatiable appetites of Arbanasi (Albanian) extremists, and can serve as an excuse to extreme individuals or some irresponsible group on the Serb side to use arms”.

The Synod added that human deaths on either side, regardless of who provoked them, would be a sin, crime, tragedy and shame for everyone, and would result in defeat and collapse of the dialogue and peaceful efforts – the only real alternative to the current situation and the strategy thus far to solve the crisis.

“With all this in mind, we are calling on all true humanists and true believers – not only Christians, but also those in the Islamic world – to advocate peace and justice for all without exception, freedom and dignity for everyone everywhere. If it is true and if it perseveres, such effort will benefit all, and especially in equal measure it will be precious for both Serbs and Arbanasi (Albanians) in Kosovo and Metohija,” the SPC statement concluded.

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