Politics, Embezzlement in Kosovo Embroil Serbian Orthodox Church

15/7/2011

Last week, the Belgrade Prosecutor’s Office sent a request for the extension of an investigation against former Kosovo bishop Artemije and three other Serbian Orthodox officials for financial embezzlement and misuse of office.

Along with Artemije, Simeon Vilovski, former abbot of the Banjska Monastery, Rade Suboticki, owner of the Rade Neimar construction company, and Jelena Subarevic, also connected to the company, are suspected of causing hundreds of thousands of euros in losses to the Serbian Orthodox Church (SPC).

Rade Neimar is a construction firm linked to the church and engaged in the reconstruction of monasteries destroyed during the March 2004 riots that swept Kosovo. Though not formally its owner, Artemije is believed to control the construction company through intermediaries.

Vilovski, one of the company’s managers, is believed to have received some €7,000 to fund his pension and €2,040 per month to rent an apartment in Thessalonika, Greece, where he was arrested in March 2010.

Suboticki was arrested in April 2010 by Serbian police on suspicion of embezzling €300,000 intended for the reconstruction of monasteries in Kosovo between 2004 and 2009.

The SPC found that the company – which also provided services to state bodies, including Telekom Srbija – conducted its church reconstruction business unlawfully.

However, it should be noted that retired bishop Artemije is also embroiled in an internal conflict with the SPC, and that there could be an element of political motivation behind the charges. Additionally, it is possible that the SPC leadership had long known but tolerated Artemije’s dubious business activities.

Artemije is considered to be a nationalist hard-liner, fiercely critical of the international community’s actions in Kosovo, which most Serbs regard as an integral part of their country and whose independence they do not recognize.

Relations between the SPC and Artemije worsened in May, when the church assembly moved to retire this most influential of bishops, especially in Kosovo.

The division within the SPC is a blow for Kosovo Serbs, as the church was for all intents and purposes the only Serbian institution operating in Kosovo.

For his part, Artemije has rejected the charges against him, claiming that the church evicted him from Kosovo because of his stance on cooperation with ethnic Albanians and the international community.

Bishop Artemije was fiercely opposed to cooperation with Kosovo authorities and the international community, particularly regarding the reconstruction of ruined monasteries and churches, saying that the sacred objects could not be rebuilt by the same forces that destroyed them.

Artemije sued several Western European countries at the Strasbourg-based European Court of Human Rights for failing to protect Serbian sacred objects during the March 2004 clashes between ethnic Albanians and Serbs, when in only two days 35 monasteries and churches were completely destroyed. Despite his efforts, church authorities withdrew the law suit.

–by Anes Alic for ISA Intel. Copyright 2011, ISA Intel. All rights reserved.

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