Russian Patriarch appeals on Council of Europe, Unesco to protect Serbs
Ahead of the fifth anniversary of the March 17 anti-Serb pogrom in Kosovo, Patriarch Kirill of Moscow and All Russia addressed a letter to Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe (PACE) President Luis Maria de Puig and UNESCO Secretary-General Koichiro Matsuura in which he called for support to the victims, establishment of justice and giving hope to the people of Serbia's land of Kosovo, Russia's media reported.
(KosovoCompromise Staff) Monday, March 16, 2009
"I address you and PACE calling on you to raise your voice in support of the unfortunate victims of the crimes, to do everything possible to establish justice and introduce hope in the hearts of people in Serbia's land of Kosovo," Patriarch Kirill said in his letter to De Puig.
Recalling that it will be five years tomorrow, March 17, from the tragic events in Kosovo, when Albanian extremists started pogroms of Serbs, leading to a mass violation of human rights, hundreds of victims, a wave of refugees and destruction of tens of churches and monasteries in the province, Kirill said that the wounds inflicted during those "barbarian events in the heart of modern Europe" had not healed yet.
"The Serbs still do not have the right to return to their land and their homes. Religious monuments of global importance are still in ruins," underscored Patriarch Kirill.
He also listed the monuments under UNESCO protection - the Church of Holy Virgin of Ljevisa, the Monastery of All Archangels and the 14th c. Monastery of Kozmo and Damjan in Zociste, 11th c. Monastery Devic, 15th c. Church of Great Martyr Georgije, 19th c. Church of Nikola in Bijelo Polje, Church of St. Nikola in Pristina, the Bishop's Residence in Prizren and the Seminary of St. Kiril and Metodij.
