_WORLD WATCH______________________________
___________________YUGOSLAVIA____________________
Grenades hit Orthodox church
Serbian faithful see a deliberate campaign
The only functioning Serbian Orthodox church in the Kosovar capital Pristina was attacked with a hand grenade in the evening of December 22.
Unknown attackers threw the grenade at the Church of St. Nicholas from a passing vehicle. No one was injured, but windows were broken, a dividing wall between the church and the old graveyard was damaged, and the outside wall of the church suffered minor damage. The 170-year-old icon screen, one of the most valuable in the whole Serbian Church, was not damaged. This was the first reported attack on an Orthodox church in Kosovo since September of last year.
St. Nicholas’ Church, built in 1830, serves the several hundred remaining Serbs in Pristina. It is the only active Orthodox church, aside from one that is still under construction. It is guarded by British troops serving with the NATO-led peacekeeping force KFOR. Police from the United Nations Mission in Kosovo (UNMIK) have investigated the December incident, interviewing people in the neighborhood, but no one has been arrested or charged so far.
Srdjan Jakovljevic, head of the Orthodox diocesan office in Belgrade, believes the incident follows the pattern of earlier attacks on Orthodox churches in Kosovo. “First they intimidate, then they come to loot and steal, then comes desecration of the holy sites and finally destruction, usually by dynamite.” He regards the attack as “a clear sign” to the remaining Serbs in Pristina, who have to travel to services in the church on Sundays and religious holidays in buses guarded by KFOR soldiers.”
Serbian Orthodox churches and graveyards in Kosovo have suffered waves of attacks since international peacekeeping forces entered the province in 1999 and about 90 have been damaged or completely destroyed. However, the number of serious attacks has fallen sharply in recent months. In the last reported attack, on September 1, the Church of St. Nicholas at the Orthodox cemetery in the village of Musnikovo, Sredacka Zupa, 10 miles south of Prizren, was damaged and desecrated. No one has ever been convicted for any of these attacks.
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