CHURCHES ATTACKED IN LATEST VIOLENCE

KOSOVO

06 April 2004

Violence being perpetrated by aggrieved Albanians is centring on Christian churches, cemeteries and monasteries.

Thirty-one people have been killed and more than 40 religious sites, mostly churches, have been destroyed in large-scale violence which erupted once again in Kosovo on 17 March. The authorities in Kosovo, largely Albanian Muslim, have taken very little action against the perpetrators of the violence.

The immediate cause of this latest violence was reported to be the drowning of two Albanian boys. However it appears that the hostility did not flare up spontaneously, and had in fact been well planned. Neither is it in fact certain that the boys were actually drowned by Serbs. The added irony is that, while these attacks could be seen as revenge attacks for the Serbian atrocities of the war (which ended in 1999), at least one diocese in Kosovo was very outspoken against former Serbian President Slobodan Milosevic’s brutal methods. Monasteries in this diocese and others were opened up to give ethnic Albanians shelter during the anti-Muslim/Albanian violence. Indeed such was the kindness shown that many Albanians started to seriously consider the claims of the Christian message. It is these very monasteries that are now being targeted for destruction. The balance of evidence strongly suggests that this latest outbreak of violence is an attempt to “ethnically” cleanse the region of its (largely Serbian) Christian heritage and people.

Sadly, in apparent retaliation, two mosques were burned last week by mobs in Belgrade, despite the pleas of Serbian church leaders. Fire-fighters and police intervened to save the mosques from complete destruction, placing them under “state protection.”

BACKGROUND TO THE CURRENT CONFLICT

Ethnic divisions have always been present in Kosovo. During the Middle Ages the largely nomadic Albanians were treated as a socially inferior class by the Serbs, for whom Kosovo was, at that time, their administrative, military and spiritual heartland. For this reason the region still holds a special place in the collective Serbian consciousness.

The battle of the “Field of Blackbirds” in 1389 changed all that. The Christian Serbs lost to the Muslim Ottoman Turks and Kosovo became an administrative region within the Ottoman Empire. Many Albanians adopted Islam and were gradually elevated above the previous Serbian elite to become the new ruling class. As ethnic Albanians attained positions of power over their previous superiors the incentive to adopt Islam no doubt increased even more.

Today virtually all Kosovar Muslims are ethnically Albanian. It is this gradual, but almost total, adoption of Islam that has so deeply entrenched the rift between the two communities. During the Ottoman period Christians in Kosovo (mostly Serbs) lived as second-class citizens (known as dhimmi), discriminated against by the ruling Muslim elite, mostly Albanian. The discrimination often took the form of severe repression, and particularly towards the end of the 19th century there were even outright massacres of Christians. Many Serbian Christians fled their homeland to the North, conversely many more Albanians moved to Kosovo from the South. Though Kosovo was being emptied of Serbs the concept of Serbian nationhood never died and was kept alive throughout the Ottoman period by the Serbian Orthodox Church.

That concept of nationhood evolved in response to the growth of nationalism in Europe. Serbian nationalism quickly took root and asserted itself. Eventually Serbs won independence in 1878 for the area to the north of Kosovo, the new country was named Serbia, even though their traditional heartland (Kosovo) remained under Ottoman control. As the Ottomans became weaker, Serbia was able to wrest control of Kosovo in the 1912-13 Balkan Wars. Once again the tables were turned and ethnic Albanians became those who were oppressed. That changed during World War I, when Albanians took advantage of Austro-Hungary’s defeat of the Serbs. There was a similar scenario during World War II, when the Germans defeated the new Yugoslavia and set up a fascist regime in Albania, to which Kosovo was added.

After 1945 Marshal Tito united Yugoslavia once more, under communism, and supported regional autonomy. Serbs were no longer allowed to settle in Kosovo. During this period the Albanian population of the region tripled to reach 90% of the population.

With the fall of communism, nationalism reasserted itself and the various regions of Yugoslavia sought independence. Milosevic too redefined the ruling ideology to a nationalist one, and one that placed great emphasis on securing Kosovo for the Serbs and preventing any moves towards independence. In 1996 the Kosovo Liberation Army began a ruthless campaign of slaughter targeting both Serb security forces and civilians. The responding atrocities that were committed by Serbian militias until 1999 are well documented.

PRAY

* Pray that God will bring a lasting peace in this area where Islam meets Europe.

* Pray for Christians in Kosovo who are feeling increasingly threatened and fearful even of their lives.

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