Serbian Church calls on Zannier to protect places of worship

Zannier informed the ranking church dignitaries about his authority as the UNMIK head and mission's efforts to resolve current problems aimed at restoring places of worship in Kosovo.

Metropolitan Amfilohije said that the implementation of the six item plan would result in the protection of the Serbian Orthodox places of worship, remaining Serbs in Kosovo and return of the IDPs to their ancestral homes.

A Serbian Orthodox Church statement said that Zannier had stressed a greater engagement of the Security Council mission aimed at improving the conditions of work on the protection and restoration of Serbian Orthodox places of worship in Kosovo, as the subject matter of the last of the six items the UN Security Council adopted at Serbia's proposal.

Metropolitan Amfilohije said that Kosovo's self-proclaimed independence was not only a cause of lasting danger to places of worship in Kosovo, but also a threat to security and long-term destabilisation of the Balkans.

It was said that the Serbian Orthodox Church had showed its good will for cooperation with international institutions aimed at protecting and restoring the destroyed and damaged places of worship in Kosovo, provided that this cooperation unfolded within UN Security Council Resolution 1244.